1. I may have Hepatitis. In fact, due to the massive amounts of bilirubin in my urine sample, she seems to KNOW that I have Hepatitis, we just don’t know which one yet. The fact that I was in Florida a few weeks ago eating raw oysters seems to me a pretty good indication that it’s Hepatitis A (Hepatitis A is the one that isn’t chronic, and thus the one I’m hoping for), but we won’t know for sure until the blood results get back. What made me go to the doctor’s office? The fact that the whites of my eyes have turned yellow. In fact, they looked yellow before I left for Maine one night, but then the next morning they didn’t look yellow, so it was a matter of waiting and seeing. When I was in Maine, Debbie noticed my eyes looked yellow, but suggested that it could be due to dye in the vitamin supplements I take (hey, the multivitamin is orange flavored; kinda makes sense, right?). Last night I looked at my eyes and they were very clearly yellow, so I decided to make an appointment this morning, and Fred hounded me into actually making the appointment.
She kept asking me if I was itchy, and I had to tell her that I was itchy, but since I have eczema I wasn’t any itchier than usual, at least as far as I knew.
For you newer readers, you might not know that Fred had Hep A a few years ago, and at the time he craved very, very, very bland foods. In fact, I think he ate a lot of cream of mushroom soup with saltines. What am I craving like mad right now? Vegetables. Raw vegetables, with ranch dressing to dip them in. Which is going to be a big part of my lunch this afternoon, I’ll tell you that.
Here’s a pic of the yellow Fred, compared to the non-yellow me. Perhaps we need to take another comparison picture, though I’ll say that I don’t think my skin is yellow. I did notice that I look like I have a nice tan on my shoulders the other day, but thought that was probably because of the lovely dusky pink shirt I was wearing. I’ll take a pic of the two of us and y’all can decide, though.
For now I need to rest (I’ve been feeling fine until yesterday, when I was so wiped out that I ended up napping for a good part of the afternoon), drink plenty of liquids, and avoid Tylenol. I should hear Friday or Monday what kind of Hepatitis it is, and y’all know I’ll let you know when I know.
I don’t know – they don’t look that yellow to me at the moment.
2. I have arthritis in my back. I complained about the fact that my back hurts around my shoulder blades, and she suggested that I go for physical therapy (she said that due to the rapid weight loss, my body might be off-balance. Considering the fact that many times while I was in Maine I’d just be standing in one place, and then suddenly half fall over, I think she might be right.). She just wanted to do an x-ray to rule out arthritis (they did the x-ray there at the office and it came back that I DO have arthritis – between the vertebrae, she said). As soon as she said “Rule out arthritis”, I knew what the result was going to be.
3. I have a patch of ringworm on my left arm, no doubt caught from those ringwormy tiger cubs (yes, we treated ourselves with hand sanitizer both before and after our visits with the cubs) OR from one of the cats at the pet store. Who the hell knows? Anyway, while I was in Maine a raised spot on my left arm itched like hell, so I scratched it like mad, and then it turned into the usual round scabby spot. So far I only see the one spot, but who the hell knows what’ll happen in the end?
4. My thyroid appears to be enlarged and I need to have an ultrasound next Tuesday. She doesn’t think it’s anything problematic, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
After spending almost two hours at the doctor’s office (thankyajeezus that I took a book with me) I did come away with a bit of good news, though – they’ll be removing that annoying skin tag from the back of my neck on August 9th.
7/26/06