First, today is April 2nd, which is the 6th anniversary of the day Dad died. This bad all on it's own, but wait! there's more!

I was at the ER 2 time's on Thursday. [details to follow becuase I need to purge them] My 2nd time there left me with more questions, suggestions, ad nauseum [literally?] from the ER doc, so I was lucky to get an appointment with Dr Waite yesterday (to have been in limbo all weekend would have done zero good, and maybe drive me off the really really final deep end) so we met.

Our meeting was less than encouraging.

His suggestion is to retry one more test that is out of Whidbey General Hospital's comfort zone, and if they agree it's my last hope at a real diagnosis for what is now termed IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), but means they aren't sure what the source of pain is, so the next step is exploratory surgery.

This brings up a very dreaded word; ADHESIONS (which should be said with one's lowest and loudest voice with the volume turned up and reverb on high).

This is a "catch-22" attempt at finding the source of the problem at best. The docs seem to think that when my Gall Bladder was removed, there were tiny scars, called Adhesions, formed, which can touch and put a "kink" in the "hose" that is called my intenstines, which causes the dreaded BOWEL OBSTRUCTION.

Now, they can go back inside, and if they find Adhesions, remove them, or if they find lesions, sew 'em up, or ulcers, the same -- sew it up. But, get this, the operation itself may cause MORE Adhesions. Yessiree it can. It can even do that and not have found any other source which may be causing my initial distress.

Since my Doctor used the "s-word" for surgery, I've gone online and found to my total dismay, that there is a new TLA (three letter acronym) created for another, mysterious and chronic problem, relating to Adhesions called ARD (Adhesion Related Disorder).

What I've read is that there are many many people who have had all sorts of surgery that created complications stemming from adhesions. And many of those people have gone through surgery after surgery chasing down Adhesions, to never end the cycle of pain it incurs.

SWELL!

[ut oh, Mom calls, gotta pay attention -- will write more later]