Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Lots of things going on today

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I’m having an interesting day … one that I think I’m more than ready to be done with.

My husband finally had a couple of days off in a row so we’re busy doing some much needed renovations on the house. Yes we’re actually doing the renovations – not just talking about getting it done sometime, someday. It’s started. The living room dining room reno will finally be finished – soon. LOL

My poor dog is totally baffled by what’s going on. She’s wondering what all this banging is and why everything smells like spruce wood and saw dust all of a sudden. Not that she minds the smell.

One thing threw me for a bit of a loop today. I finally got the call I’ve been waiting for from the Human Resources department at my workplace. I’ve been waiting to hear from them ever since I had my first appointment with them two weeks ago regarding going back to work. You know, that appointment that ended up with me being interviewed by five people for over an hour! Yikes!

Well, now they want to see me for at least half an hour. I’m not sure what it’s about this time. It could be yet another interview type meeting or maybe they’ve found a place in the hospital for me. I don’t know. All I do know is that it’s nerve wracking each time. I just want to get back to work – get my life back on track again. I’m starting to feel like a yoyo – back and forth, back and forth I go … Hmm but I bet I don’t compare to the best yo yo at yoyoplay. Uh huh.

A while back I thought it would only be a couple of weeks and I’d have my old job back. That was in January or February … here I am after convincing my doctors that I’m healthy enough to go back to work, and convincing the occupational health department at my workplace that I’m healthy enough to return and getting cleared to return to work and I’m still waiting. Hopefully it won’t be much longer.





I’ll have to live with being exhausted I guess

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Well I saw my new endocrinologist about my thyroid last Thursday. I was seeing her because two years ago I noticed that I had swelling on the lower right side of my throat, where my remaining thyroid is. I had the left portion of my thyroid removed in the early 90’s because a tumor grew in it and the cells were precancerous.

The growth on the right side is also a tumor, but the one biopsy that I had a year and a half ago had fairly normal cells in it.

So anyway … I went to see the new doctor because I haven’t had any real follow up on this tumor and it should be checked on regularly, and as I’ve mentioned in a few posts recently I’ve been extremely tired so I’ve been wondering if that’s been my thyroid acting up.

The new doctor examined me fairly thoroughly – rolling her computer over on her poc cart so she could type in her observations as she talked with me. I did have an ultrasound of my thyroid in June and when she compared the tumors growth it had only increased in size by a mm or so – nothing much at all. She examined my neck, checked my pulse and took my blood pressure (110/70 very good)). As she did that I realized that my family doctor (the newish one (pain doctor) hasn’t taken my blood pressure in five years!

Once the specialist was finished examining me she decided that I didn’t need to get another ultrasound or biopsy just yet. She thinks an ultrasound once a year is just fine and if there’s any substantial changes (or symptoms) then she’ll get a biopsy done.

As for blood work … she’s holding off on that too. I don’t know why. I told her about how I’ve been so tired, that I could even fall asleep in her office if we stopped talking for a few minutes, how I was feeling extremely cold since September and how I suddenly gained weight at the end of November and beginning of December for no apparent reason … yet she could see that I’d had my TSH done in early November and that it was within normal levels so she didn’t want to do any more tests.

If it’s not my thyroid that’s making me exhausted I don’t know what else it could be. The way things are going doctor wise though I think I’m either going to have to either just get better on my own or become so ill that they’ll finally figure out what’s going on.

Tomorrow I see my gynecologist about my endometriosis .. that should be fun too.

Finished a bunch of tests at the hospital

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It took me until today to recover from a battery of tests that I had done at the hospital on Tuesday.


Not that the medical tests that I had done were all that hard … it was just getting up super early that did me in! I think I only had three hours sleep that night and then I had to get up a lot earlier than I normally do. So I was wiped out all day and as I said it took me until today to catch up.

On Tuesday I had two ultrasounds. One pelvic – I have endometriosis so my doctor wanted to check on things, and the other was of my thyroid to check on that large tumor that I discovered last year. Oh and I was dehydrated because it was so hot here in Toronto on Monday so even though I drank 6 large glasses of water when I got up on Tuesday morning my bladder still wasn’t full enough for the pelvic ultrasound. Lovely.

Once those two tests were done I had to get a mammogram. A short walk down the hall from ultrasound and I was getting changed into yet another gown. The last time I had a mammogram I was in my twenties. I had discovered a lump and was sent for tests. Naturally, since I seem to have an uncanny ability to grow tumors they did find a growth in my breast. Luckily it was benign. I had a lumpectomy and I’ve been fine since then. However since I hadn’t had this lovely test for years my doctor wanted it done. So a few squishes and squashes later and I was done.

My last test, in the xray department, was for orbits. I’m having an MRI of my head near the end of July and since I was a jeweler many years ago who used to get gold in her eyes I had to get my eyes xrayed just to make sure that I didn’t still have some gold slivers in my eyes. Uh huh.

Of course, since I work at the hospital, I new all three of the women who did my tests. It’s kind of embarrassing when you know the people who are doing these kinds of tests on you. Oh and when they found out how many tests I was having done at once they looked at me like I had malignant Mesothelioma or something. LOL

Anyway … the tests are over and I’m hoping that I don’t hear anything bad about any of the tests. Well I’m pretty sure I’ll hear something about the thyroid ultrasound. I’m supposed to be having the tumor biopsied every 6 months, but I haven’t had a biopsy for more than a year. Oops!

Exhausting day

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Well I finally got around to going the family doctor early today for a physical. I’ve been so sick the last two years that she didn’t really insist on giving me an annual physical until now. I mean, at one point I was seeing my doctor about every two weeks! Considering that I was also seeing a number of other specialists regularly at the time it seemed like I was in a doctors office at least twice a week for a while there.

Now normally when I see my family doc I time the appointment for one of the days when my husband doesn’t work until noon so that he can drive me to the docs. I do drive but I don’t drive often anymore because I’m just on too many meds and I don’t feel safe driving with all those drugs on board. Well this week he’s covering someone else’s shift while they are on holidays so I couldn’t work out a ride. So I ended up taking the Subway for the first time in about two years!

The subway is just as bad or perhaps interesting as ever. It was crowded, smelly and stuffy and it took forever to get to the doctors office! I’m used to getting there in 15 minutes but since I decided to take the subway today it took over an hour to get there. Argh. Plus they were doing construction or renovations in one of the buildings near my doctors, maybe putting in CAT6 cables from the looks of it, and I had to go around the area just to get to my docs.

Since I was out so long today the dog was full of energy so when Chris got home from work we decided to take her for a walk together and man that was a workout. She pulls on the leash so hard. She even tired herself out … she’s snoozing on the floor at my feet now.

I’m wiped out now too … maybe I’ll take a nap as well.

Trying out Depro Provera for Endometriosis

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I’ve had so much going on lately and so much to do that I don’t think I mentioned that I went to see my family doctor last week.

As many of you know I have Crohn’s Disease and it’s been so bad that I’ve been off work, on medical leave, for more than two years. Well, about two years ago I also found out that I have Endometriosis as well. This isn’t a good combination because the Endo can spread throughout the abdomen and there might be some on my bowels, thus causing even more pain for me to go through.

Chris and I have been trying to have a baby for years – I don’t think the Crohn’s is helping on that front for a variety of reasons, so as a result of our efforts to get pregnant I hadn’t pursued any of the medical options to lessen my Endometriosis other than having a laparoscopy two and a half years ago to burn away some of the endo tissue.

Well .. I’ve finally had enough pain. My endo has gotten worse and worse over the last few months. Either that or something else is going on! So I saw my family doctor a few weeks ago and she suggested I try going on Depro Provera for a while, perhaps a year. It’s a form of birth control that’s administered by injection every 10 to 14 weeks. Other than preventing pregnancy it’s also been found to be quite helpful to those that suffer from Endometriosis.

So that’s what I saw my family doc about last week. I picked up the medication at a pharmacy and then made an appointment with my doctor to get the injection.

I probably won’t know if it’s helping until my next period or possibly the one after that. Unfortunately that’s when I have the most pain and of course the medications that I take at that time usually get my Crohn’s going so the week after is horrible due to my Crohns.

My abdomen was much more sore than usual over the past week. That might be a side effect of the Depro Provera. It seems to be easing off a bit now though. I hope it is anyway! Hopefully I don’t get any other side effects from the medication like maybe a severe acne outbreak or something like that. LOL I’m already on enough meds … I don’t need to add acne treatments to the daily routine too!

Are any of you using Depro Provera as a form of birth control or to relieve symptoms of Endometriosis? Any strange side effects? If you’re using it for Endo has it helped and if so, how long did it take before you noticed a decrease in your pain or other symptoms?

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