GO WITH YOUR GUT

I have had many experiences with Doctors . This particular one makes me strongly instill to my Children and Grandchildren- if you don't feel good about it, keep pushing.  GO WITH YOUR GUT.

In October, I started breaking out with a rash. It itched terribly and kept getting worse. I went to my primary care Doctor who said it was eczema and gave me a cream. It did not help; it was getting worse by the day. It felt like I was waking up at 3am in a bed of fire ants. I couldn't sleep and I felt awful during the day. I went back to see him and ended up seeing a PA. Later, I got an appointment with a dermatologist, who just looked at my back and said eczema and prescribed another steroid cream. She also ordered a chemical peal for my face. The rash kept getting worse and you cannot imagine the pain I was in. I went to the USMD EC in Cleburne- twice. The doctor there ordered a prescription for the itch. I took 1 pill and slept 2 days. Went back to the dermatologist in Ft Worth,  same answers. NOT ACCEPTABLE.

It was now March. I had an appointment with another dermatologist in Ft Worth. I was playing bridge and a friend heard me say the doctor's name and she said, "Don't go to him. I went to him and really didn't like him." She gave me the name of the one she found and really liked- Dr. Harrell in Ft. Worth. Robert went with me. She took a couple biopsies and ordered blood work. The results come back that I was allegoric to my blood pressure medicine. I went back to see her last week and she said it takes 3 months to get that out of my system. I'm in the third month now.  Things are much better.  I'm not totally cured, and I still get itches until I get it doctored in the mornings.

In my opinion it looks like ordering blood work would be a pretty simple thing to do. I did go to my primary care doctor on Friday and I feel like I impressed on him that my GUT kept telling me to find another doctor. I do like Dr. H, but I feel that he didn't do a good job. NOT ACCEPTABLE.

As far as the chemical peal goes, I got word this week that I have to have two facial surgeries, with two different Doctors- one is a surgeon and the other will be Dr. Harrell, the dermatologist. I'm not sure what I will be facing in the future, but the rash is just about cured and I will follow up on this at a later date.

It is now July 19.  I had the surgery on my left cheek in June and it went well.  It has pretty well healed up and did not make a bad scare.  The dermatologist burned the ones off my back.  I did not feel that the spots on my face were healing, so I asked Robert to call and see if she would order more blood work.   She said NO.  That was the end of June.  She said she wanted to see me, so he made me an appointment July 7.   She took 5 more biopsy's and burned one off  right cheek by my eye.  She said that she had no clue as to what was causing me to still be breaking out in itchy rash (a new pimply type that felt like a bee sting)   At this point, I made the statement that I was writing a Blog, called GO WITH YOUR GUT.   She looked kinda funny and said "what does that mean?"  I explained that when you don't feel like everything is right, stay on top of it.    She said "is that how you feel now and I said YES.  She said she would call Dr H  and ask him to do a follow-up/with blood work.  She called Robert friday, July 15th and said Dr H said he would do that.   She had no results on the biopsy's and we haven't heard from Dr H. 

I am spending more time in the pool when I take my morning swim, that is the only time I don't itch.  Guess we will see what next week brings. 

Today is August 9th.  Life has not gotten any better.  I went back to see D the third week of July.  We had a long visit and he went over all the tests he would order, some of which started that day.  Blood work, Kidney, Monogram all came back ok.  He had also said he would make appointment with an Allergist (which didn't happen until I had Robert call about).  In the meantime I went back to dermatologist.  She removed some cancers on my arm, face and leg.   She burned some of these and used a liquid chemical, inserted with a needle (she said "this is going to hurt" and she was right).  She told me that she nor  Dr H had any idea what has caused my situation. She said they had a long talk and basically said everything that I had said to Dr H, and then said "I hope you like me" .

Back to the Allergist,  When Robert was trying to make an appointment for me--they had all information for the Dr wrong.  He finally was able to get me an appointment on August 27, and I can't get back in with dermatologist until Sept. 1st.

So I still can't wait to get into the pool every morning and scratch my way through the rest of the day.

 Today is November 23.  I still have the itch.  I have thought many times that I could close this particular story, but No, it is still ongoing.  I have had many Dr appointments.  My visit with the dermatologist in November was very short.  She said that she felt sure that my blood pressure medicine should be changed to another family and I should quit taking Nexium.  I quit taking that the next morning.  We were finally able to get a telephone DR Visit with cardiologist and he changed prescription Nov. 12, 2020.  I am told that sometimes it can take 2-3 months to get the old meds out of you system, so that is why I am still itching.  I'm not sure that I will ever get to close this story, so I am going ahead and publish this and still insist that you should  ' GO WITH YOUR GUT'   

 

 

 

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What happened in Longview, TX.

I don't remember the dates, but it really doesn't matter. My sister, Winona, and brother-in-law, OB, moved around quite a bit due to his jobs. They eventually settled in Longview.

My first encounter with their doctor was when OB was in the hospital. OB had really bad arthritis, and was going to be put into a rehab facility the next day. I went in to see him, at dinner time, and the meal they had in front of him was awful. About that time the doctor came in, and I said, "I am going to be gone for 30 minutes and when I come back there had better be a steak dinner for OB to eat."  And there was.

Years later, after OB had died, Winona kept falling and her neighbor across the street would call me and say that the ambulance had taken her to the hospital. It always took me about 3 hours and 45 minutes to get from my house to Longview, and by the time I got there, they would have taken her home again. This happened many times. One Sunday morning I received another call that they had taken her to the hospital. I asked the neighbor to please sit with her and do not let them take her home before I got there, so she did. When the doctor walked in (same one that was with OB) his eyes got real big when he recognized me. I said, "She is not leaving this hospital until you find out what is wrong."  They proceeded to do some tests and they finally found out she had a cancer growth inside her spinal chord. A specialist was called in to perform surgery on her. He said she would have died soon if it wasn't taken out.  

SO, GO WITH YOUR GUT

Life on Bellevue and MOVE TO KILGORE

We all loved our new home.  I made drapes for the windows, we put the yard in and settled down to ENJOY.

Linda found two new friends.  Gay Bailey and Tommy Pernell.  They were a happy threesome and played and played and played.

It became time for Butch to have his tonsils removed.  Also is was deemed that Floyd needed his removed.  Dr John Rice was to do the surgery.  He did Butch first and things went well.  Then there was Floyd.  I had Butch at home and went to get Floyd and the Dr. said that he couldn't get the bleeding to stop.  I had found a sitter, Laurene Vandergrift, and she came to stay with Butch and Linda and I went to sit at hospital with Floyd.   He was out there a week before they finally go the bleeding stopped.

Floyd and I started a tradition of live Easter Bunnies at Easter time.  The first year on Bellevue, Floyd fixed a "cage type thing" in the back yard and we put 2 bunnies in it Sat. nite.   The next morning, excited Butch and Linda got up and ran outside to see the Bunnies.   They were in the cage, DEAD.   NOT A GOOD THING.  Seems the neighbor had a dog that killed them.

Life continued at an even pace.  I was invited to join a bridge club.  Two tables.  They served desert on china, crystal and silver.  I had crystal (Wedding gifts), but no china or silver.  NOT A GOOD THING.  Floyd insisted that I get some, so I did.   Still use it.  The first night for my turn, the sewer stops up.  NOT A GOOD THING  But I got through the evening and members of that club became life long friends.  I am the only one out of the group that is still living.

Sometime in 1958 Floyd came home and said that 2 City Councilmen from Kilgore were coming over to meet with him.  They came to the house and at the end of the visit they said they wanted Floyd to come to Kilgore as City Manager.  NOT A GOOD THING  Floyd accepted and he was to start new job first of Jan 1959.

We put the house on the market, Butch took the mumps and I was left to deal with LIFE ON BELLEVUE.  Floyd found a 2 bedroom house for us to rent.  Activity on selling the house was not happening.  Butch got over the mumps and Linda didn't take them, so movers came and we moved to Kilgore.

The house we rented was pretty bad, on a busy street and no children around.  We stayed there about a month and found a new house on Dogwood Trail.  It  had 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen and small den.  The needihood was full of kids.  A GOOD THING  The kids played from daylight til dark.

Life for Floyd and me became something to behold.   We were invited out to dinner the first 30 days we lived in Kilgore.  Everyone wanted to get to know Floyd.  We made some lifelong friends there and a lot of special things happened.

The Mayor of Kilgore was a member of the family that owned the land where the original oil wells were drilled.  (very wealthy).  There came a time for a meeting in Galveston that Floyd and I would attend/ with the Mayor and his wife.  They were really nice and I enjoyed being around them (which didn't happen much), but on this trip, the Mayor decided we should go fishing.  (Not on a normal rental boat)  He chartered a hugh vessel, and we were out in the Inter coastal channel and the motor stopped.  The Captain was working  on it, but couldn't get it to start.  We looked up and there was a HUGH freighter bearing down on us.  Very Frighting.  Somehow the freighter missed us and we got back to port after dark.

Floyd was a member of Rotary Club in Kilgore as was Van Cliburn's father.  We went out to eat every Sunday after church.  One Sunday, Van Cliburn, his Mother and Father were there.  They came over to our table to say "hello".  Van was at home because his finger was infected and his arm was in a cast. He complemented that Butch and Linda were beautiful children and he would like to make a painting of them, but couldn't due to infected finger.  MELT MY HEART 

We settled into our new home and life.  We were able to buy a cabin on Lake Cherokee about 15 miles out of Kilgore.   I loved it and so did the kids, not sure about Floyd.  We bought a boat, I loved to water ski, had Linda riding surf board by age 4, Butch loved to fish.  Floyd said best day of man's life is when he get rid of boat.  I loved to fish and met a new friend, that loved to fish.  Butch and Linda rode school bus, picked them up in front of our house.  After they left for school, I would go pick my friend up and we would go fish until time to get back home after school.  

Linda took  dancing from Gussie Nell Davis, Leader of the Kilgore Ranger ets She did learn to skip in that year, but wasn't interested in taking any more dance.

We stayed in Kilgore 5 years, Really had a wonderful time,  Then one day, Gene Roberts, owner of Rangaire   Corp, called Floyd and asked him to come back to Cleburne and work for him.  Floyd said about 5 years in one city, as City Manager, it was probably time for a move.  

Here again, the house market was not good.  We put our house one the market and rented a house on Bellevue.

When we were closing the Lake property up (to put on market), Floyd was trying to find me and I was sitting on the diving board crying.  (I REALLY LOVED THAT LAKE HOUSE)  

So now it is a move back to Cleburne.