I've been sick for a few months now; it started late August. I went over a month before I called my doctor, who didn't get me in for 2 weeks.
I was physically exhausted - I was sleeping 18 hours a day, and had no energy to get up and out of the house. I'm thankful for the Vito's Pizza delivery guy and my stock pile of food from coupon-ing so my kids were fed.
Apparently I pissed a few people off because I 'disappeared'. Thanks for caring enough to ask if everything was ok. No, it's not.
I finally go to the doctor and had a bunch of tests taken. I was tested for viruses, deficiencies, even cancer. Ever day after I had the tests I was given a different diagnosis. My final diagnosis was EBV. I guess it made sense, but not really since I only had one symptom - tired. I wanted a second opinion, so I went and got it. Brand new doctor, and internal medicine specialist. She went over all of my results and told me that at one point in my life I was exposed to EBV, but I was not currently having an outbreak now.... so my other doc was a totally nutcase and didn't know what she was talking about.
Things got scary when the doctor starts asking about my dad. My dad is a colon cancer survivor, and his experience with it has been hell - but also very weird. He began feeling sick in June of 2007, and after a series of tests diagnosed with a bacterial infection - probably related to food. Over the next few months, he was in and out of doctors offices and hospitals with no answers other than "It's not serious, or we'd see it in the blood work." That was a relief. Finally in the fall he had a colonoscopy - and within a few minutes the doctor found the tumor and told us it was cancer. Dad was all ready for them to just open him up and take it all out. But, it was benign.
Over the next two weeks, he had more scopes, and they found a 14 inch long by 3 wide tumor (approx). Only about 1/10th of it was cancerous... which is why the blood tests came back normals - it was protected.
Through out my talks with the doctor, I was given detail about my dad's condition - how my dad was ignoring his stomach pains over the last 10 years and thought they were related to his poor diet - should have been addressed by a doctor, and he never brought it up. I was told that the form of cancer that my dad had was hereditary and that of me and my brothers, at least one of us would develop it - but if caught early enough, preventable and/or treatable.
Fast forward to me sitting in my new doctor's office, asking me questions I hadn't even thought of. Showing her my food journal and going over my daily routine. Next thing I know I have appointments with specialists.
Today I'm sitting in my pj's at 1pm and in so much pain I can barely stand it... I'm hoping it's nothing, that it's in my head. Or perhaps what I've been battling has been an infected appendix (which would suck, but it's an easy fix, right?). When twice in one month you hear "CANCER" you start to freak out... All I know is I'm done with being sick, and I'm going to stay as proactive as I can, even if people think I'm crazy. If my dad had just told his doctor 10 years ago he was having frequent pains, his tumor may have never grown that large, may have never become cancerous, and he'd be living a normal, healthy life.
Please, trust your gut - if you don't feel right, get it checked out. And if the answer doesn't fit, get a second opinion.
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