halloween

Hi Everyone

On our way to Bandon for the hair appointment I made 6 months ago, really my first hair cut in almost 2 years. I have cut my bangs a few times.

Not to brag or anything, but it is extremely thick, so thick it is really hard to do anything with, so am looking forward to some thinning. A life of wishing I had curly hair has left me somewhat dissappointed now that I have it.

Who would have known that the curls would not go the way you want them to go???

I guess it is one of those grass is always greener things.

Halloween came and went and for the first time in 25 years, I gave out candy.

For the previous 24 we have lived in places too remote for children to wander down our driveways.

I have to say I felt badly stuffing such junk in those tiny buckets. My only defence would be that they have years to get their cholesteral and weight issues sorted out. (unlike me)

A friend was horrified when I announced that I did not believe in Halloween. Blasphemous !!!!

My arguments are that first of all, like every other holiday people go out and buy a bunch of costumes made of non biodegradable fabrics, use once, then throw away.

The amount of plastics that go into all the yard decorations is appalling. The exposing small children to high doses of high fructose corn syrup is shameful as well. BUT the biggest think is the waste of all them pumpkins. Chopped up and left to rot. ..... and what about the children in biafra (to use one of my mothers comments when I did not eat my veggies)

Pumpkins are supposed to be one of those great for you foods, with supposed anti cancer properties.

I had lunch yesterday with a few people who are interested in my becoming a medical director for possibly a couple of nursing homes, so am hopeful that I might just have a job.

Today went to see Gastroenterologist basically in follow up of the gastroscopy I had in September. I was happy to report that changing the meds to Protonix totally cleared up my reflux symptoms ( I had been on omeprazole and ranitidine) I guess I really did not think that the meds were that different.

I also had to report that the bleeding is back as heavy as it was before, and that I was interested in perhaps having the argon laser treatments. He was much more cautious this time than previously. He said that unless I was having symptoms from the blood loss, such as tiredness or shortness of breath, that to do procedure would/ could be high risk of causing new problems.

Despite the fact that ongoing rectal bleeding is troubling, that it would be more troubling to have a complication of the procedure. I guess this is where I was at before in many ways. So will wait and see.

I am due for followup CT scan of the area behind the rectum where there is a mass, so will first of all see what this shows.

I will be seeing my gyne/oncology on thursday, I was due for my 4 monthly exam, and I have developed a vaginal discharge. Well it is more just water.

In the mornings, I have basic water draining from vagina. Not the rest of the day.

Of course as is per usual, I have gone to the books to see what this could be. Although I will first see doctor, the thing I am worried that this can be is a vesicovaginal fistula, or a urethrovaginal fistula.

What that means is an opening between two organs, in this case, the bladder and the vagina, or the urethra (the tube that goes between the bladder to the outside).

Usually these problems form after a hysterectomy when the bladder gets accidently cut, a tract forms so that the urine goes directly from the bladder through vagina. The form that goes from the urethra to the bladder, is also caused from the surgery.

In developing countries these problems are usually caused during childbirth, because csections are more rare, and women are more likely to have long contracted labours, and the pressure from the head on the urethra or the bladder causes lack of blood supply to the area trapped, and an opening forms. In developed countries the more likely cause is from hysterectomy, and usually occurs within a few days of the surgery.

Radiation to the pelvis is another cause of this problem, and can occur anywheres from a few months to many years after radiation.

The bladder sits in front of the uterus after a hysterectomy, and if the opening is from the bladder to the vagina, depending on size of fistula (or opening), the women can either experience a continuous flow of urine from the bladder to the vagina, if it is the urethra, it is more “positional”.

I guess I am wondering if perhaps the reason i am only having this in the mornings is that during the night the bladder being on top of the vagina, it tends to drain that way, but in the day more the normal way.

One of the ways they diagnose this is by injected methylene blue into the bladder and then on vag exam looking to see if there is anything blue there.

I have no idea if this is what is causing my problem, but thought it was kind of interesting, and for those who read this for the medical stuff.... there you have it.

OK so I did not finish the blog ( did not have internet coverage)

So now am back in Eugene, have had hair do and saw my gyne oncologist yesterday.

She did not think it looked like a cancer had returned, and did not think it looked like urine was leaking into the vagina.

She said that the vagina was extremely inflamed though, and that perhaps the discharge was what we call in medicine, a transudate. That is when an area is very inflamed like perhaps a burn and it "leaks" watery fluid. There is no sign of any infection.

So she suggested that I take some pyridium ( a medication used as a bladder analgesic in patients with painful bladder infections), but pyridium also turns urine bright orange.

She suggested I take pyridium, and put tampon in vagina, and once the urine turns orange, remove the tampon and see what colour the discharge is then.

Well I did this..... and had so much pain putting it in, and then had to take a pain killer to take it out , it was excruciating to get it out. However the discharge did not turn orange like the urine, so despite the pain, I WAS able to show that it was not urine, and so the discharge was definitely coming from the inflamed tissues.

She said that she did not know what was causing and did not know how to treat it...period!

Bear in mind that she has no experience with hyperbarics, in fact, there is much that is not known about hyperbarics. SOOOOO my take on this is that the entire vagina is totally scarred down from the radiation. Radiation causes damage to the tissues by interrupting the blood supply.

Hyperbarics encourage the growth of new blood vessels in areas of inadequate blood supply, so my guess is that this is all a result of hyperbarics.. The question remains is whether it is good or bad. Is it attempting to heal the vaginal walls?????

I guess I do not know. So I have to figure out what to do next, will likely just wait and see for awhile to see if perhaps it might heal on its own.

BTW I ran 2 miles last week, and it went really well, so am going to try to get that going again.

Love

Janet

jankenb @ gmail.com