OK...So This Is Long...

After the last post over 2 years ago, I bumbled along happily, injecting myself every night, feeling pretty good most of the time, a little achy once in a while, but it was never more than the average person in their mid-40s probably feels.

Then on October 17, 2005 I was slammed with some excruciating abdominal pain. It lasted about 5 hours, but no, I didn’t go to the ER. I was home alone and for whatever reason–fear, denial–I curled up in bed and wished it away. When I wasn’t dead the next day and the pain was gone, I went on with my happy life.

December 17, 2005…same thing. Home alone, the middle of the night, this abrupt pain on my upper-middle right; I sat in bed and rocked back and forth for 4 hours. When the Boy came home, I briefly considered having him take me in, but it was easing up, so I didn’t.

December 21, 2005. This time the Spouse Thingy was home, but asleep. I was in another room, awake, when the pain practically nailed me to the floor. I considered trying to gut it out (pun intended) but it was worse than ever. But I was torn; the Spouse Thingy had only gotten about 3 hours sleep the night before, when I had to wake him with a loud “Get up, we have to go to Sacramento; your Dad had a heart attack.” He was exhausted and stressed and didn’t need this, but I was pretty certain this time that I was going to die.

We left the ER at 5 a.m. “Biliary spasms,” the tired doctor on call decided, after a benign chest x-ray. “Go see your primary care provider within 72 hours, and I will put in a consult for an abdominal ultrasound. No greasy foods.”

Gall bladder. Yippee.

But the ultrasound showed a normal gall bladder. Normal everything; kidney, pancreas, liver.

Through a series of mis-steps, I didn’t see my primary physician for over a month; and two days before the appointment, I was back in the ER. This time it had woken me up; the Spouse Thingy was not home, but the Boy was. He drove me out and sat there while I writhed in pain, wondering why morphine was having no effect. As luck would have it, the same nurse was there as had been the time before, and he remembered me. He took very good care, even gave me a second dose of morphine. After 5 hours, when the pain was really no better, he realized I was giving off a series of tiny little belches.

He went to talk to the doc, and then came back with a Maalox cocktail: Maalox, lidocaine, and an anti-spasmotic.

Less than five minutes later I felt fine. “Probably an ulcer,” the doc declared. “Go see your primary care provider…” yadda yadda yadda.

Two days laterI finally saw her; it was the first time I’d ever seen my “regular” doc, and she disagreed with the diagnosis. I had no other symptoms of an ulcer, other than the Maalox cocktail had worked. So she ordered a Hida scan, which would measure the function of my gall bladder. She suspected that was it; so I went durifully and had myself injected with a radioactive tracer, and let them see how well my gall bladder was working. And I wondered when they’d be taking it out.

It was normal. So maybe–and the doc stressed maybe–it was an ulcer after all. Bt instead of testing for H. Pylorri, the most common cause of ulcers, and instead of getting an upper GI series or endoscopy, she out me on Prilosec and told me to come back if that didn’t work.

I don’t blame her, exactly…the base hopsital here is extremely short staffed and so are the levels of patience and enery.

Still…I was not happy. And I was afraid it was going to happen again, and that there might be something omnious growing in my gut where the ultrasound could not see.

I was told early on that in the suspicion of tumors or cancer, to stop taking the HGH, on the chance it would make it grow faster. So I stopped taking it. I intended to get in touch with my endocrinologist, but for whatever reason, I didn’t.

The Prilosec seemed to do the trick; I went months without anotehr attack, but there was that fear in the back of my head. So I saw a civilian doctor, who immediately sent me for an endoscopy. He also drew blood to test for H. Pylorri, and that came back negative. The gastrointerologist found several polyps in my stomach, but no signs of an ulcer. There could have been one, but healed under the use of the Prilosec. He removed 7 polyps and sent them to pathology, so I had to wait for the results.

By the time they find stomach and espohogial cancer, I was told, it’s often too late. That was a nice little tidbit to go home with. But everything looked normal…but it was probably a good thing I’d stopped taking the HGH.

During those months off the HGH my I gained weight, my appetite exploded, and my pain levels slowly crept up. My energy went down. My father in law died soon after the endoscopy; the stress of that added to the pain, and most days I felt as if every muscle in my body was on fire. The day before his funeral I got the results back: perfectly normal. Just keep taking the Prilosec.

That was in August. It took some time for the emotional pain to abate enough for my head to remind me I needed to see my endocrinologist, and get back on the HGH.

That was in October. Within a month, the aches and pains were easing up, and I was finding some reserves of energy. A year out from the onset of those attacks, I was back on the juice, and feeling much better.

I’ve been back on it for 3 months now, and the only pain I’m feeling now is from having resumed working out.

But there ya go. A very long synopsis of Thumper Stopped Taking HGH.

I don’t think I’ll do that again..

link | posted by Thumper at 6:19 PM
|

---

Ok...I think it's time for me to admit this blog just isn't going anywhere. For the longest time I had nothing to blog other than "well, I still feel great, the HGH is obviously working..."

And on the FMS front, it still is.

However.

I am in pain. Lots of pain. It wrapped itself around my lower back and crept into my right hip, and didn't let go. After x-rays and an MRI and lots of bloodwork, it's been determined that I have a wonderful case of arthritis in my back and hip.

So until I get that under control, I doubt I'll be blogging about the wonders of HGH. I'm leaving the blog up and the archives available for anyone new surfing in hoping for info on FMS and HGH...it really did do wonders for me. I'm still taking it and won't quit until I'm told to (I don't know if it will accelerate the spread of arthritis; I do know that if one has an actively frowing tumor or cancer, HGH treatment is stopped because it can cause rapidly growth of abnormal cells...)

So.
See ya later.
Take care.
My other blog is still Thumper Thinks Out Loud. You're more than welcome to read me whine over there...

link | posted by Thumper at 10:28 AM
|

---

Hmmm... Just an FYI.
Spam left in the comments will be deleted...
Unless it's mine, of course.

link | posted by Thumper at 8:10 PM
|

---

Happy New Year :)

You know how everyone makes those resolutions: exercise more, lose weight, become thin and happy and beautiful and rich?

Well, I didn't make any this year (except I would like to win the lottery, which would require buying tickets, which I never seem to remember to do) but hearing everyone else talk about them has made me realize that I have--yet again--really dropped the ball when it comes to working out.

Since we moved, I haven't felt as motivated. In Ohio, I had friends to work out with. People to make sure I went to the gym and let the Skinny Little Thing torture me. People to go on long walks with.

Since we got here, I haven't put nearly the effort into it, and I think I'm getting a teensy bit more flabby than I was before.

So it's not a resolution, but dangit, I need to do more things that make me break into a sweat. I have tons of things within walking distance, and the apartment complex we moved into has a fitness center.

I should use it more often.
Yep.
I should...

link | posted by Thumper at 1:05 PM
|

---

Wow.

Worst case scenrio followed: I wound up going to a civilian pharmacy to get my HGH. Just 4 vials, a few days more than a month's worth.

The bill, before TriCare kicks in and I pay my measly $9.00 co-pay... $1100.00

Holy cow.

It's a good thing this is really working for me, or I think I'd feel guilty about it.

link | posted by Thumper at 4:28 PM
|

---

A little crimp in my HGH regimin... I saw the endocrinologist at the base hospital (very nice guy, seems on the ball and quite personable) and he has no problem renewing my HGH scrip--the problem is that the pharmacy here doesn't carry the cartridges the dose I use comes in, and the ones they do carry titrate in such a way that I wouldn't be able to get that small a dose into an insulin syringe.

He's seeing if he can get the pharmacist to order what I need, but I've only got about 8 days worth left.

So, we shall see. Worst case scenario he writes a paper scrip for me and I find a local pharmacy that accepts TriCare, and I pay the co-pay. Or I submit to TriCare's mail order pharmacy and get it in a week or two.

Recalling how uncomfortable I got for the 10 days or so I didn't take it, I'm not looking forward to a delay, but that's mostly my fault for waiting so long to get a referral to the endo clinic here.

link | posted by Thumper at 3:57 PM
|

---

Wow...I can't believe how long I let this blog just sit here, collecting dust and cobwebs and God knows what else...

Short story made long: I moved from Ohio back to California (Spouse Thingy retired from the military, w00t!) and in the transition I didn't work out for about 6 weeks (well, the transition and a bad knee...) plus there was about 10 days there when I didn't take my HGH.

The results of that combination? I started to feel achy again, and my oomph just vanished. About a week after I got back on it, my energy levels quickly crept back up, and I'm ready to hit the gym again (which, wonderfully, the apartment complex we're in has for free...)

Funny thing (not funny ha-ha, though) is that during the move I lost 5 pounds.
And I'm not gonna go look for them, either.

link | posted by Thumper at 5:07 PM
|

---