It's Doctor Appointment Day

Here is the health update I sent out:


Hello all,
Well, I had all my doctor appointments today so I'll give you the update.
First, I had a CT scan. After that was done Mom and I ate a little breakfast in the cafeteria (I had to be fasting for the scan) before heading up to see Dr. Rademacher, my infectious disease doctor. He informed us that the abscess had hardly shrunk at all, which was disappointing since I'd just endured one month of constant antibiotics through my PICC line. His suggestion was to try stopping the antibiotics and waiting a couple weeks before doing another CT scan. Granted, if I got sick from the infection in the abscess, we'd move the CT scan up to a closer date. He said if the abscess didn't grow at all during that time then we could probably just leave it alone. If it got bigger or I got sick we'd have to probably do the surgery to remove it. In case you've forgotten this surgery would have to happen in Omaha under the watchful eyes of my liver doctors and I would have to have plenty of clotting factors ahead of time since my blood doesn't clot very well right now because of my liver disease. We went with Dr. Rademacher's decision and made an appointment for two weeks in the future.
I've been having more pain in my lower abdomen and more cramping in my stomach (bad enough that it reaches to my back). This is the pain that, if it gets bad enough, sends me to the ER. These are what I call my "episodes". Originally this pain was diagnosed as being from the ovarian cysts and the endometriosis. My episodes post-surgery for the cysts aren't as bad, but I've still had a couple that have sent me to the ER. The CT scan today showed I have more cysts on my ovaries, though they aren't infected. Perhaps this is the cause of some of my pain? We'll talk to my gynecologist on the 8th about the new cysts (which may be harmless and just there because of ovulation) and about maybe finally starting the shots that will shut down my ovaries (the drug fools my body into thinking it has menopause!).
Next I saw my primary care physician, Dr. Pierce, about the horrible restless leg syndrome I've been experiencing. It's gotten very severe and something more drastic needed to be done. Dr. Pierce gave me a sample of a drug called Requip that is made specifically for restless leg. I take it once a day. Since I'm on so many medications, it's hard to tell when there will be an interaction so basically we have our fingers crossed here that I won't have a reaction to this drug. I'll try it for 2 weeks (stopping if I notice any bad reactions) and then see Dr. Pierce again to tell him how it went and procure a prescription if it seems to be working.
I'll let you all know how things go. Hopefully we're on the road to some more information here!
Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts and kind emails. They make me so happy. I'm lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful people.

Love,
Becca

P.S. Since I'm no longer recieving the IV antibiotics my PICC line was pulled today. Bye bye PICC line! I'll miss the convienence of not having lots of pokes, but I won't miss carrying around a pump all the time, having the tubing catch on things and having to keep the line dry while bathing.