Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Ulcers! Awesome.

I still need to undergo more tests to discover to what extent my anguish is mental vs. immunological or gastrointestinal (to say nothing of existential), but I am back to eating some things. Just crying all over a doctor and having a massive breakdown over the whole situation did wonders. It's amazing how much I wanted an authority figure to tell me that X was wrong and Y was definitely right and give me some rules to follow unthinkingly.

In other news, I was surprised by a couple writing-sample requests for some VAP-y things, and I sent them my articles. ... Meh. You'd be amazed how meaningless all that stuff seems to you when you are obsessed with being unable to breathe.

And just to continue my position as the poster child for why you should not go to graduate school, let me remind all those prospective grad students that we've been here, metaphorically, before.

9 comments:

Susan said...

Sorry you haven't been well -- one of your posts is not showing up, but that sounds terrible. I think they have given up thinking that ulcers relate to stress, but -- well, I would not be so sure!

On the other hand, nice that someone wants you writing samples.

Lucky Jane said...

It can be such a comfort not to have to think! I'm glad you seem to be doing better, on at least two fronts. Congratulations on the sample requests. My fingers and toes are crossed for you. Mind you, the latter isn't easy in the pointy-toed boots.

medieval woman said...

Well, I'm glad docs are good for something! :) But seriously, if it's gastrointestinal, that's the easiest thing to fix! And congrats on the writing sample requests...fingers majorly crossed!

Flavia said...

Oh no! I'm so sorry, Sis.

But yes: I agree that having someone tell you what the problem is alleviates it to a surprising degree (says the person who spent most of Saturday in hysterics over strange abdominal pain the likes of which she'd never experienced).

Glad things appear to be on the upswing...

Bardiac said...

Sorry to hear the health problems are being... err... problems. But I hope the other sorts of doctors can help! (I always feel like being an English phud is particularly useless about health issues.)

Fingers crossed for the possible jobs!

Phul Devi said...

More tea and sympathy from over here... and best wishes for the VAP stuff to work out, too! Hope your prognosis improves!

Prof. Poirot said...

Good luck with the ulcers/health problems.

Grad school is no good for one's health. I discovered last year that I have ulcerative colitis, an (unpleasant and occasionally messy) intestinal ailment that is--of course--exacerbated by STRESS!

I'm in the wrong line of work.

Seriously, good luck and get better soon.

Dr. Koshary said...

WTF happened to you, Sis? Did these ulcers land you in the hospital? I've been worried ever since some other commenters pointed out that your last post could not be loaded.

Echoing the other comments, I am also relieved (insofar as I have any info at all) to hear that you have a definite thing to deal with, rather than amorphous suffering. Unthinking rules can sometimes be needful comforts.

And, for when you care again, congrats on the requests for samples!

Anonymous said...

So sorry to hear about this! The body is always the receptacle for stress ... but this is pretty dramatic. Hope that Doc comes through with some good advice/treatment.