Under the Weather

my crohn's has raised its ugly head again. i have been home the last few days struggling for normalcy. i have had a nausea, severe headache and a slight fever. i have never had this wonderful trifecta. i have a doctors appointment.we will see if they can let me know what is going on. i highly doubt it. also, i have an appointment with my new neurologist tomorrow. i hope he can tell me what is going on with the tingling.we shall see.

Sorry for the Delay

i want to apologize for neglecting my blog. i do not know what to tell people. i plan to update teh blog every time i meet with a phsician. i am sure that will be every few months or so. if something else happens around my health, i plan to post it. i have to admit that i am feeling much better. i still have the tingling, but i feel about 89% myself. i plan to play basketball next week. that will be intersting. we shall see

i finally have an appointment to see Dr. Perry. i will see him on July 31st. he is teh head of the neurology department at the university of minnesota. he specializes in ms and neuropathy (sp). now i am working on getting all of my MRI photos to give to him. at least i have my entire file from Dr. Dahlquist.

i am also attempting to schedule my MRI follow up. that has been quite intersting. they were supposed to have that scheduled a long time ago. i called and they said someone would call me back, but they have not. i need to call them again today to see when it will be. crazy!

Stuck @ the Doctors

Last week was a week full of doctor's appointments. i finally met with the cardiologist. i also had an appointment with my neurologist. i am growing tired of visiting them.

the cardiologist told me nothing i did not already know. i new i had a slow heart rate, which he confirmed. it was interesting seeing the rhythm of my heart beat and when it spiked and dropped. it did drop a few times or skipped a beat once or twice during the night. it was cool seeing how it would go up if i exerted myself.

Friday, i spent almost the entire afternoon in the doctor's office. he was running 2 hours late! At least i ran into an old family friend and was able to get caught up with her while we both waited to see him. once i got into the back room, he made me wait for an additional hour. i understand people running late, but his bedside manner is terrible. he is a brilliant guy and does care for me and his other patients, but he does not know how to convey information in a warm way. he stated that he is concerned that i am still having numbness. he ordered additional blood tests. when i have my next MRI, he wants them to take photos of my lumbar. he believes i may have a swollen/inflamed spinal cord. that is difficult to see on a MRI. they took an image of that before, but he said that it might not have shown up and he has seen that happen before. he is worried that it might be ms, myelitis or neuropathy. he is going to refer me to the head of neurology at the University of Minnesota to continue my care. i will see him whenever i can get an appointment. He does not want me to use the drugs that my GI doctor wanted me to take. that is a relief for i did not want to take them. i would have to have a lot of blood drawn and it might adversely affect my liver. i do not need any other problems

Many Thanks!

i want to thank all of the individuals that attended the gathering on Saturday. it was a phenomenal event, one that i will cherish for the rest of my life.

as i was driving over tot he hall on Saturday, i was thinking to myself that there would be just a handful of Kicker's. to my surprise, it was packed. the event was surreal. i had to pinch myself for i did not believe it to be real. one never knows how much one is loved until you get sick. i truly felt the love. what was the most amazing aspect of the event was the generosity of individuals that i did not know until Saturday. when i have doubts about the world, i will look back to Saturday night and i know that there is hope left for this world. Thank you to all that planned the event, attended and dontated items and time. i am a lucky man

More Appointments

i trust that you all had a wonderfully long weekend. it went by too quickly for my liking.

last week was quite interesting. returning to work was more challenging than i thought. my head begins to hurt after lunch. i am able to cope with it.

i was able to speak with my GI doctor. i have an appointment with him next Tuesday. he has some options for me. i have no idea what that means, but i will find out. i plan to speak with my neurologist this week. at this rate i should have all of my medical stuff in order. i just need to get my body in order. :)

Stupid Heart Monitor

yesterday i was fitted with the stupid heart monitor. it truly gets in the way. luckily the nodes are fixed fairly strongly to my chest. the monitor has gone flying when i take off my shirts. at least i only have 5 more hours to wear it. i cannot wait to take a shower. i cannot get the monitor wet. i am dying to bathe. spraying cologne on and taking sponge baths is for the birds. i am dying to take a long hot shower. if you see me today, beware of my funk. :)

i received my blood test results. everything was negative. i do have slightly elevated LDL. i better exercise more. it is tough when you have limited energy and cannot play the ports that give you pleasure. oh well. i better bike more. i do not know what to think since all of the tests came back negative. now what? i cannot wait to see my neurologist to see how he will determine what the cause of my tingling is. the tingling does not occur often. i still want to know what is going on.

Back to Work

today was my first day back in seven weeks. time has flown by and much has changed since my last moments in the office. it was wonderful to get back to see my staff. i did not enjoy coming back to over a thousand emails and countless phone messages. i will not get into the crises that need to be addressed. i spent much of my time speaking with my colleagues and hearing what is and has been going on. i missed a lot. the staff did a wonderful job addressing situations that arose while i was out. i am lucky to have them. being in a work environment was a lot more taxing then i remember. it ended up giving me a headache. that being said, it was good to be back

i also had a doctors appointment. i had a TB test and they had to see if i had a reaction to it. obviously, i did not. that was a wasted test and wasted my time. tomorrow i go in to be fitted with another holter heart monitor. i hope it is only for a 24 hour period and not longer. we shall see. i still do not know why they insist that i do this again. i have a slow heart rate. get over it. oh well. what is another co-pay