July 29, 2008

DR H, EARTHWORMS & A RAY OF HOPE

I had my first phone consultation with DR H this morning. It's been a long while since I sat by the phone waiting with baited breath for some guy to call. Ha ha.


My appointment was scheduled for 9:30am. Fearing I might somehow inadvertently miss his call, I was holding vigil by the phone already at 9:20am.
Time slowly ticked by as I sat there, impatiently waiting ...9:25, 9:26,9:29...oh no, I have to go to the bathroom...do I dare leave my post to go?


Needless to say, the phone accompanied me to the potty.


As quickly as possible I returned to a more phone friendly environment,and impatiently waited whilst I drummed my fingers on the table....

...waiting, waiting, waiting….still waiting...

... finally the call came…1hr and 6 mins late.


For the most part, this last month has been an uphill battle and I've developed several complications. Namely gall stones and vasculitis. The gall stones mean I need to stop the IV Rocephin immediately. I will be started on IV Primaxin asap. Hopefully, the switch in meds will slow down the number of gall bladder attacks I am having. DR H says that barring a miracle I will need to have surgery to remove the gall bladder - the goal for the interim is to get my body stabilized and healthy enough to deal with a surgery.


The vasculitis is causing a lot of problems...it is painful for me and complicates my treatment, so DR H wants to treat it with both pharmaceuticals and an alternative protocol.

Apparently the alternative protocol includes some sort of earthworm derivative.

"Earthworms? Are you serious?" I practically screamed into the phone.

"Yup. Of course to save on cost you could just eat them live, however you’d have to eat a lot to get the same effect." DR H wickedly chuckled into the phone.

I can just imagine him evilly grinning from his slouched position in his wing back chair.

Nice going!

First he makes me wait all morning for his phone call and now he's torturing me with earthworm supplements? I am slightly perturbed, however the remainder of our conversation was so flattering and encouraging that I've decided to let it go.


First, he told me he is amazed at my strength and how tough I must be to endure the insanity of this lengthy herx. That was very flattering and nice to hear.

Most importantly, he told me that despite it all, he is not at all worried about me making a full recovery!!!

I really, really needed to hear that.


The last 2 months have been absolutely brutal, beyond horrible...I have been so sick and weak in mind, body and spirit that I have spent many moments begging God to just let me die...then when all these secondary complications started happening, I really began to lose hope that this nightmare would ever end.

Today, DR H gifted me with a ray of hope.



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