The 2014 doctor experience

So after my doctor office visit yesterday and all of the unpleasant testing and sampling, I was feeling better the rest of the day.  My energy level had a little upward movement, there was no debilitating, marathon gas, no sweats/chills and I was able to eat more food at dinner ( boiled potatoes, rice, green beans and applesauce).  I slept pretty much straight through the night which is the first time that had happened in 4 days.

I awoke today still feeling better.  For breakfast I had two pieces of toast with a little bit of peanut butter.  I also had a very small bowl of oatmeal.  The food went down fine, I didn’t feel any problems.  But then I started hearing them… My guts started making noises like a washing machine.  Still I didn’t feel awful but it sure sounded like something awful was going on inside.

I tried to be optimistic.  Perhaps it is just because there is so little food in my digestive system that this is a side effect.  I wasn’t feeling any urges to rush to the bathroom so I just waited it out.  Around 9-9:30 I went into the bathroom to see what would happen, again it wasn’t because I HAD to go.  I was quite disappointed when the big D once again invaded my day, making this the 5th day in a row.

So, I had to decide what to do.  The doctor told me that if I still had that going on today I should come back, although I wasn’t quite sure what she would do for me.    My own personal theory was the antibiotics could actually be contributing to extending the diarrhea symptoms since it is a common side effect.  The fact she has me on two antibiotics simultaneously makes that even more probable in my mind.  Gastroenteritis is viral by definition, meaning antibiotics don’t touch it.  She prescribed them to me to “cover my bases” just in case the problem is bacterial.  I decided I should go back to the doctor as she recommended to reevaluate.

I had a wild hope that I wouldn’t have to go through the same drudgery as the day before since I was just following up from yesterday.  Well that was wishful thinking.  I waited almost TWO full hours in a freezing waiting room of people coughing and sniffling just to talk to the doctor again for 5 minutes.  Before I talked to her one of the guys came and in told me she wanted him to draw blood.  I told him I just had a ton of blood drawn already the day before, I shouldn’t need another blood draw.  He checks with her and comes back.  He says she wants to do an additional test for mono, to rule that out.

“Mono??  What does that have to do with 5 days of diarrhea?”, I asked.  He said it had to do with some of the results from yesterday’s blood work but he didn’t have details.  I thought it was pretty dumb to be sticking me again and seemed to be more about being able to check another code on the insurance claim form submission.

After the blood draw the doctor finally came in.  She explained that the blood draw yesterday showed my liver enzymes were a bit high and that mono is one possible cause of that.  Even with the explanation, I thought it was stupid to draw blood without talking to me first to get an update on how I was feeling.  I haven’t had the massive fatigue since Wednesday.

So I related how the last 24 hours went, basically all positives except what was in the bowl this morning.  I mentioned the antibiotic possible side effect of diarrhea.  She said that was possible.  She then threw out a bunch of different ideas/suggestions, clear fluids for 12 hours, eat (even) smaller portions, or cut antibiotics to one a day instead of twice a day. She then got off onto tangents about mono and even the possibility of Hepatitis A, again related to the liver enzymes. (which I think is a non-issue) She must have asked me 3-4 times if I was out of the country, camping, swimming, or anywhere else out of the ordinary whee I could have picked something up.  I told her the most crazy thing I did was have take out pizza on Saturday. (while working at the branch)

So the game plan I left there with was something I could have easily come up with myself.  It felt like the object of the office was to do as many procedures/tests they could on me to maximize revenue, regardless of the probability of need.  Even the antibiotics that were prescribed are unlikely to be necessary and possibly detrimental if it is indeed gastroenteritis.  Plus most people know taking antibiotics unnecessarily is never a good thing. To think that I spent 6 hours of my time over two days getting what felt like a shotgun approach to wellness is very aggravating to me.

So these are my current plans.  Keep eating very bland and in small amounts, cut back/stop the antibiotics, keep hydrating, and if I can get two “movements” in a row that look normal I should be in the clear.

If I go through the weekend without being able to accomplish this I will need to search out higher levels of medical care.  I am worried it could be something more serious like diverticulitis.