Blood test results and more

[Marguerite]

I've been on these diet pills and strict diet for five months now. One more month to go and then I see the gastroenterologist again.

Before we went away for a week, husband & I saw our pain specialist. I told him about my increase in pain and he ordered more blood tests, throwing in fasting glucose and liver function as well.

Today I saw my GP and got results. Liver is better than it was, but still fairly bad. Bilirubin is up but still normal. Cholesterol and triglycerides are great (some good news) and everything else is normal or close to it. Glucose is normal.

GP ordered more blood tests. She checked reflexes (OK) and pin-prick sensitivity (not OK - some loss of sensation with tingling in fingers). She also checked blood pressure - it's been going up, which would mean I have to stop the diet pills.
The gastroenterologist apparently told my GP to increase my diet pill dosage if my weight plateaued. Well, it has now plateaued. But since I see the gastro bloke next month, she wants to wait to see what he wants to do (and also watch my blood pressure).

Pain is definitely up. Arms, legs, shoulders. And while we were away and using different accommodation with different furniture I discovered just how dependent I am on my own bed (a soft-sided waterbed, because of the long-term problems of pressure pain) and the way I do things, including sit. With the weight I've lost I now had much less padding, and pressure really hurts. My rear end can hurt a lot at some angles because when difficult child 3 was born my pelvis got remodelled and my tailbone is probably out of place. It feels like I'm sitting on a small block of wood.

I hate to whinge, but sometimes (like today) it can get all a bit too much. I took extra pain killers (I have the pain specialist's permission to do this when needed as long as I report it at the next appointment).

On the one hand I'd really like to lose more weight, but to do this I will need a bigger dose of diet pills. This could be a problem with blood pressure. On the other hand, I'm losing my padding and finding things in general more painful. I do look a lot better although my double chin has now morphed into a turkey neck.

I'm also struggling with needing to find more clothes that fit. I have only two pairs of underpants that fit. Two bras (because I bought them before we went away). I bought a couple of jumpers at op-shops while away as well as a new bathrobe (op-shop again) for difficult child 3, but he won't wear it and it fits me, so I've been happily wearing it.
easy child now is bigger than I am. She lent me a pair of jeans, just a bit too tight for her but really lovely, embroidered with lots of butterfly bling which I love. They're a great shape, too. So with the other pair of rough jeans I bought to work in, I'm doing OK in the jeans department. At least that is good.

mother in law keeps nagging me about my diet and how extreme she feels it is. The thing is, it's the lesser of two evils when you consider how bad my health was to warrant this. It's difficult to keep dieting when she tries to undermine me.

This evening while shopping we were in the freezer aisle when a couple of young women opened up a freezer cabinet wide so they could unload multiple packets. It was already a cold night and these girls didn't seem to mind; they giggled about all the cold air they were spilling in an already cold store, but mother in law & I both commented to each other that we felt our pain levels ratchetting up a few more notches, just from the drop in temperature.

I might be looking better, looking younger, wearing my daughter's "hand-me-ups" but crikey, I feel old!

Marg

 

[dreamer]

hang in there..do what ya gotta for health.
I,too have noticed increase in pain, and yes, my tailbone has not been happy with my weight loss at all. It feels so close to surface just so barely under skin, it bothers me often. Yes, I have a full float waterbed, shudder to think of not haveing it. I wish I could say I feel better since my weight loss, but I don't, and I look kinda weird, in my opinion..lollypop shaped- and clothing is a bigger problem now than ever before. And I have been finding it odd, yes, my liver labs are better, my glucose is better, but my blood pressure went up, too, and I am not on diet pills. I find it all sort of frustrating and confuseing. And I really did expect to FEEL better. :-( I just keep consoling myself with the better healthier liver situation and the blood sugar being better.
I can say I am not cold, LOL- it is so hot and humid here, LOL---plus I began hotflashes a couple months ago and they are kicking up into full swing now, and I am looking forward to our winter, now, even if it does go down below zero, LOL. Altho- I suppose then I will complain about the rheumatic reactions to such cold. Ah well, I suppose the cold weather will not help the hotflashes anyway, they feel like internal incinerator.

I just came from courthouse where my belt triggered metal detector to go off, guard told me to take it off, UG! LOL------thats a tricky issue, becuz my clothes are just SO big now, they fall right off far too easily. and for some reasonn the RA is creeping back, so manipulating my clothes to remove my belt was NOT easy. ANd I SO did not want to get arrested at court house becuz my clothes fell off!

 

[Marguerite]

I had to chuckle about the belt - I have a rope one that I wear with one pair of trousers.

Despite all the hassles, I'm glad to have lost the weight. And my liver enzymes are much better - GGT is down in the 400s now, instead of the high 800s. Normal is about 40, so it's still ten times the normal level (not good).

husband saw his GP today at work, who I used to see years ago when I worked there too. She said something about having my leptin levels checked. I've been reading up on leptin as a result. It's a newly discovered hormone secreted by fat cells. Low leptin levels can lead to over-eating. And leptin levels can really plummet when you lose a lot of weight. There is some thought that a diet higher in leptin can help you lose weight, but other researchers say that the jury is still out.

It can be a bit complicated, I need to find out more.

I've got to get some blood tests done tomorrow, I'll probably see my GP in a week or so about them and I'll ask her about leptin then.

As for the sore tailbone - depending on the test results, she's talking about sending me for a bone scan. A strict diet can also leach calcium from your bones and this could be arthritic as well. Considering the beating my tailbone took, I wouldn't be surprised! She did advise me to go back to using my ring cushion (the one I used for months after difficult child 3's birth). I'm going to do that. I made my own by getting a flat foam cushion with a zip-up cover, removing the cover, cutting a circle out of the centre of the cushion then putting the cover back on. That way it just looks like a normal cushion. We kept the disc we cut from the cushion to put back in when I felt I no longer needed the hol-ey cushion. All I need to do now is unzip it again and remove the hole from my doughnut. Let's hope it helps!

Marg

 

[LittleDudesMom]

Marg,

sorry that you are experiencing such an increase in pain while celebrating the success in the drop in weight. I hope you get some more answers from the latest rounds of tests and the next scheduled appointments.

I had a little vision of post-easy child birth with donut ring. I tore badly (third degree) and sat on that donut for about two weeks!!

Keep us posted.

Sharon

 

[Marguerite]

Two weeks on the donut ring? I wish... I had more than that (oh, crikey, I sound like that old Monty Python Yorkshire winter sketch, "You were lucky, we had to live in a shoebox and walk ten miles to school barefoot in the snow...").

I mentioned on another thread - my GP wanted to see past X-rays, MRIs etc so I dug out three today. That's all I've had done this century. One MRI of brain and spinal chord, one X-ray and one bone scan. And I read the reports - Any arthritis should be minimal, barely observable. It shouldn't be causing this much pain.

So it sounds like I may have bone pain back again. Or maybe it never went away, just my padding did.


I had blood tests today, plus more X-rays have been ordered. I will go see my GP after the X-rays, see what she wants to do with me. I feel a referral to a rheumatologist coming on...

It's times like this I'm very glad for our socialised health system. Otherwise this could be prohibitively expensive. As it is, so far the investigations have cost me nothing. Although I did get a bill from the last lot of pathology, about $40 I think it was. Some places just won't bulk-bill...

Our national medical system is called Medicare. Please be aware, it bears almost no resemblance to anything else you may know, also called Medicare. For future reference I think I should designate it "Australian Medicare". It's a publicly funded government-based all-inclusive health care system. Nobody can be excluded unless they are covered in some other way (as in Workers' Comp). It's the "nobody is excluded" that people like me really, desperately need.

At least in trying to find out what is wrong, and to get better, I don't have to worry about mortgaging the house.

Marg

 

[amazeofgrace]

so sorry to hear things have been frustrating, sound like you're very committed to what you're doing, which is great!! Have you tried acupuncture?

 

[Marguerite]

I've had acupuncture a few times over the years. It has never done anything more than ease the pain a little in the short term.

I used to get reflexology and that did help, but the lady who used to do it for me died a few years ago and although I know what to do I haven't got the strength in my hands to do it.

I had the X-rays today. They weren't bulk-billed, I'll have to take the receipt to the Aussie Medicare office and I'll get about half of it back. The rest becomes next year's tax deduction. The report is very descriptive about the degree of spinal deterioration (it varies between "mild" and "significant") but I'm not enough of a doctor to know whether it is sufficient to explain the symptoms. I need the experts to tell me what's next. I'll probably organise to see the doctor next week some time.

One thing it makes clear, though. If you're dieting as drastically as I have been, you need to keep taking your calcium!

Marg