Photos from Rayne's House

I stayed at Rayne's house for about three days and two nights because I had a couple appointments in Omaha.

Click on the picture to see more pictures and videos from my visit. There isn't much and it isn't all that exciting, but I thought I'd put them up anyway.

Sleepy In the Doctor's Office

The quiet humming of this room makes the tranquil world seem unreal. The sickly tranquility of waiting in a doctor’s office. I want to leave because there is so much left to do, experience and share today. I wouldn’t mind a nap in the car, either.
After a quiet but busy stay at the Mazur family’s home I’ve accumulated many gifts of the crocheted variety and the pet variety. Coming home with us are the two hairless dumbo girls, Pumpkin and Bunny Foo Foo, and Mr. Darcy the beta fish.
I will miss being at Rayne’s house, but I’m excited to get home and incorporate all my new things into my life.
This is an awfully long wait to see the psychiatrist. They already had to postpone my appointment by an hour and here I am, still waiting. The doctor is twenty-five minutes late at this time. My eyes are closing.

I kept falling asleep, but the doctor finally came. Now I’m waiting for Ginny to come get me. There are dozens of ladybugs on the building. Strange.

More ER Fun

Hello all,

Today started out okay. I thought myself well enough to brave our normal Sunday morning routine of going to Barnes and Noble. After awhile, though, I started to have pain which quickly turned into a horrible episode. We left right away and my sister dropped my mom and I off at the ER. I was spared a CT scan because I've had so many and the doctor didn't want to up my cancer risk by exposing me to more radiation. I got an X-ray instead and this time I was full of gas! Lovely. The doctor said my X-ray looked just like the ones they see for really colic-y babies. So, after two doses of morphine and a heafy dose of anti-nausea med I was ready to go home. I'm to take Gas-X and do the catnip tea thing.

And that was my day.

Becca

Boring, Poetic, Rambling

Last night was horrid. I suppose I ate too much before bed. And then there’s the matter of my bowels being still clogged up. Anyway, I was in half wakefulness fighting awful nausea until forty-past-two in the morning when I declared it too much and woke my mother. God bless her, she went straight to the pharmacy to pick up my Zofran.
Unfortunately, the Zofran did little for me. I was also most annoyingly restless. After taking some pain medication and my anti-anxiety pill I paced from the front door to the breakfast nook. Soon I was able to truly relax in my recliner and get a few hours precious sleep before I had to wake and make myself ready to see the doctor.
Not long before falling asleep I felt the peculiar feeling of my blood vessels either narrowing or expanding. It does not hurt, it is just strange and almost seems to make one go limp for a time. The thing was explained almost immediately--it started to rain.
The weather is fairly good today: a slight autumn chill with sunshine.
I feel not able to write about the outings of my short day for I feel I must take a nap presently

I again, as yesterday, slept away the dinner hours. I did in fact sleep for almost five hours this time. And again I was disturbed by my mother who spent some length of time on my computer.
I was eventually forced to leave my recliner and ready myself for bed while mom tended to the rats. And so here I am now at the midnight hour. I’ve read through at least three prefaces and the first two chapters of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.
I did nothing today that I should have done except appear at the doctor’s and do one load of laundry.
Mom and I went to Barnes and Noble after my appointment. I had a bottle of cherry and pomegranate juice, most of my berry pastry and most of my half of a pesto, cheese and tomato sandwich (I removed all but one of the tomatoes).
Mom had to leave to meet Ginny at a doctor’s appointment so Gramma came and got me and we stopped at Ideal. She helped me select a strip steak and some veal cutlets. I am perhaps the most ignorant of all people on the subject of meat. I managed to cook my strip steak myself and to my satisfaction. Gramma has promised to teach me to prepare the cutlets tomorrow. I was also glad to treat myself my favorite kind of goat cheese and a loaf of beer wheat bread from the Grain Bin while we were at the store. Oh, and I mustn’t forget the clotted cream!
The doctor says I still have much stool in me, so my poor weight is even poorer than I thought. I now weigh around 116 pounds.
I hope that this night affords me more sleep and tomorrow more wakefulness. And now I lay my head once more to the pillow, weigh down my limbs with quilts and pray that God dusts my eyes with stars and crowns my head with moonbeams until such a time as I am rested and ready to walk forthwith again.

Health Updates

I've still been suffering from horrible pain, intestinal difficulties and throwing up. We called my doctor's office this morning and they advised us to go to the ER for more tests. So I suppose that is where we'll be going as soon as my mom gets home from work. I seem to just be getting worse with whatever is going on and I hope they can find a solution.

At the moment I'm not in so much pain, but that's due to two doses of narcotics, one of them being the super duper one. I'm going to put a few things in order here, drink a lot of water so my veins will stick out and then I'll be ready for whatever happens.

Many of have been asking about my readiness for a transplant.I am on the list and waiting. I'm not in good shape for a transplant, but I will of course be offered any organ that is right for me. It is up to the doctors to decide if I am able to endure the surgery and recovery at whatever time that organ should become available. Also, the transplant area of the hospital at UNMC works with people who need to be in the hospital up until transplant time by doing everything they can to get them in as good of shape as possible for transplant.

Unfortunately, my placement on the transplant list has nothing to do with how much pain I'm in or how many other troubles I'm having. It relies mostly of liver function numbers from blood tests. Mine usually aren't too bad, considering, so I have not been moved any higher.

I hope that answers some of your questions. I will try to keep you all as updated as possible but you can all feel free to call me, my mother or my sister for more current details on how I'm doing. I know some of you hear about me further down the grapevine in which case feel free to call your normal informer ;-)

<3 Becca

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We did go to the ER (and I'm sorry I haven't gotten around to updating ya'll sooner) and a CT scan showed that I was full to bursting with stool. So I got a lovely hospital enema (they're crazy) and was sent on my way.

All the narcotics I've been having to take are making my constipated, thus the build up.

Even after being cleaned out I feel like crap and am still in the same amount of pain. I've been doing a lot of laxatives at home which, so far, haven't made much of a difference.

So that's where we are. We may be going to see my GI or regular family doctor for a follow-up exam.

Becca

A Health and Rat Update

Hi all,

We've had a serious sickness of some sort come into our home and take the lives of four of our rats and make the rest of them very sick. It's been a very exhausting time trying to save the remaining rats and grieving over those who are gone. Daisy, Francis, Bindi and Oreo have passed on. On Thursday I pretty much collapsed from everything that had gone on and I haven't been back to normal yet. In fact, I've been getting worse.

Last night was a close call, but I managed to get through without an ER visit.

Fast forward to earlier in the week. I did go to the pain clinic and I got two nerve blocks for the pain in my pelvic/groin area. Two shots of lidocaine and steroids were given. The lidocaine was heavenly, but once it wore off I was back to where I started and haven't felt any improvement since. I got back in about a week for more shots.

Becca

The Departed:

Daisy



















Francis











Bindi
















Oreo (on the right)

Pain, ER, You Know The Drill

Latest health update email:

Friday morning: I have a bad pain episode and after lots of narcotics I'm able to at least lie down and be peaceful.

Saturday morning: Still having lots of pain, even with all the drugs.

Saturday evening: It's getting ridiculous and I'm about to snap from the ongoing pain so we go to the ER. Oh, yeah, and I have a migraine. Two x-rays and a CT scan later all that's been discovered is that my appendix is enlarged. We're told to watch closely for appendicitis and are sent home at 2 AM. The ER drugs were great, but I needed them every hour or so to stay on top of the pain. During the rest of the night at home I am constantly woken by more pain and spend a lot of time in the bathroom taking care of some serious constipation.

Sunday: Still in pain, though a tiny bit better.

Also, during this same weekend, three of our rats passed away: Francis, Bindi and Oreo. You three will be sorely missed!

On the bright side of things, my friend Amanda came over and cleaned all my rat cages and brought new hammocks, toys and boxes for all! Also, we got some beautiful mums that smell divine and mom got me my very first African Violet! I'm very excited about this.

Becca

Finally...A Health Update

Hello all,

I'm sorry I haven't sent out a health update in so long. My excuses are the same as always.
Since I left UNMC I've still been in lots of pain and having plenty of problems along those lines. And even with my determination to gain weight I have somehow lost 6 pounds. I hate how skinny and sickly I look and there is plenty of wardrobe frustration as all of my clothes are now huge on me.
My primary care physician has given me a prescription for a slow release narcotic that I would just take twice a day. That way I can stay on top of my pain better. Nights and mornings are the hardest times for me and often that is when all of my pain meds have worn off.
My GI doctor found anal fissures, which is just grand. We're going for a cream to treat them instead of surgery since I'm not doing too well with surgeries at present.
I'll be starting to get the Depolupron shots in about a week to make my body think I have menopause. Hopefully that will help with some of my lower abdominal pain. Also, she's referred me to a pain clinic, so we'll see how that goes.
All in all, I'm haivng a hard, painful time right now, but I have been able to be more active, which is nice.

Becca