A Completed Dollhouse and a Good Surgeon

Not that the two of them go together, but in my world maybe they do.  Both are good news!!  Let the happy dancing begin (if you can't find a partner use a wooden chair).  The Dixie Manor Bed and Breakfast Pierce is all done clear down to teeny hyacinth growing under the lilac bush.  Oh, and she's such a beauty too!  She's as delicate and feminine as can be and the colors are soft as a spring night in the south.

Isn't she gorgeous?  I can say that because the owner of this house has worked with me thru every little step and she's the one who selected the delightful wallpapers.  I think we made a helluva team!

There are LOTS more pictures of Dixie Manor on my website on this page.    I took so many pictures that I had to use thumbnails to get them all in one place!  Please drop in so you can see all the details of this sweetheart.  I mean, we're talking about eye candy that is almost as good as chocolate.   It's pretty any time of year but I think that finishing this one right on the cusp of spring is perfect timing.

I mentioned that there is good news about a surgeon too.  I need to backtrack so you get the full story.  It started with a real asshole of an internist a couple of weeks ago.  Jerk.  He's the one I was referred to because the other internist couldn't figure out what else to do.  Anyway, Dr Jerk copped an attitude right off the bat and acted like he thought I was just a pain in the butt and nothing was wrong with me.  I'm not going to go into all the details but he literally made me feel as if I'd been beaten up.  He wouldn't even consider looking at what's wrong with me because he got stuck on the new medical mantra:   "You're just depressed".

 I sort of lost it coz I've heard this one too many times from doctors and pointed out that I have situational depression, not clinical.  I'm depressed because I'm in chronic pain and exhaustion.  I suggested that we focus on fixing whatever is wrong with me coz if I feel better I won't have any reason to be depressed. 

Gawd, you'd think I'd called his mother a streetwalker or something!  He got all pissy about that and snapped that he isn't ruling out clinical depression.  Whatever.  I told him that's all a moot point since I can't take anti-depressants.  I have some reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally adverse reactions to both tricyclics and SNRI's.  It's much worse with the SNRI's.  In fact, I'd even typed up a list of the sleep medications that they've tried me on and the reactions I've had to each one.  (for some reason antidepressants are the new sleep meds, especially for fibromyalgia patients)  Anyway, he looked at it and I quote, "I don't understand some of these reactions to the SNRIs.  Let me give you the name of a neurologist to see about that".  But, even tho he admitted that he didn't understand it and even after our debate of about 15 minutes where I came *very* close to raising my voice about why I will NOT take any more anti-depressants, he suddenly switched tactics and said that there is a new medication for fibromyalgia that I might want to try.  I'd heard about Savella and he said I could take it with my Lyrica and Tramadol so I said I'd give it a try.  He gave me an office sample for two weeks and I stuck it in my purse.

I started taking it that night and almost immediately I was nauseous and having strong stomach pains.  By the second dose both were worse, my mouth tasted like I'd been sucking on a tin can and all the muscles in the back of my neck were rock hard.  On the morning of the third day, my stomach and esophagus felt like they were petrified, I had a raging headache and had been bedridden for two days.  My hands were shaking and my nervous system felt like it was shorting out.  I figured I'd given it my best try (Dr Jerk told me to suck it up and try to get thru the initial side effects because they would get better) but enough was enough and I tossed them in the bucket of used kitty litter.

Out of curiosity, I went to drugs.com and checked the drug interaction with the meds that I'm already on.  Yep, sure enough, not only is Savella an SNRI but there was a HUGE red exclamation mark saying that  it has serious interactions with Tramadol and can lead to siezures and coma.    When I go back for my follow up with Dr Jerk I'm going to take along a baseball bat and whack him in the kneecaps.  From now on when I say "No anti-depressants", there will be no room for argument.   And I think he's an incompetent twit on top of being a jerk for prescribing something without checking for interactions with my existing meds.

I brought up my thyroid symptoms and he immediately shut me down saying that all my thyroid blood tests are normal, therefore I cannot possibly have any symptoms of Grave's Disease.  Wanna bet???  Ask any Grave's patient and they'll tell you that those numbers don't mean doodlysquat.  The symptoms not only continue but are even more horrible when the numbers are "normal" because we aren't getting any treatment at all.  I had already pointed out that my blood pressure was 165/90 when the nurse took it and that my pulse never drops below 90bpm.  He ignored me twice and was going to continue to ignore me until my husband pushed about it.  (Dr Jerk said my heart monitor test results were all "normal" and couldn't explain how 90+ bpm is normal).   But after hubby pushed, Dr Jerk took my BP again and saw for himself how high it was.  I guess maybe he thought I was bribing the nurse to falsify it on my records before he came into the room or something.  Anyway, he finally acknowledged that there might be a slight problem with my heart rate and BP.   I asked what would be causing it and he said, "That would by your thyroid proble...........Oh wait.    No, your thyroid numbers are normal so it's not that".  Damn, almost caught him on that one.  He cleared his throat and condescendingly said that he would prescribe a med to lower both.  I said, "Beta blockers, right?".  His head snapped around and he asked, "How do you know that?  Have you been on them before?".  I sweetly replied, "No, but my first endocrinologist discussed them with me as a possibility if the Tapazole didn't work after I had my thyroid storm".    He had that one coming.

Then I brought up the nodules in my thyroid and said that I wasn't comfortable with the benign diagnosis from the biopsy since the microcalcifications are almost always found in cancerous thyroid nodules. He said and I quote, "Well, if the biopsy was benign, I'm okay with that."   I think I literally snarled at him.  He might be okay with it, but I'm the one with a time bomb in my throat!  However, he was already getting out his directory and writing down the name and number of a throat surgeon he wanted me to call.

I'm just now getting back to normal after the savella/tramadol interaction so I haven't called the surgeon's office till today.  I got an appointment for April 7th (the earliest they have).  I got a bit of a surprise when I asked the recep for directions to his office.  She said that if we use the valet parking all I have to do is turn to my left and I'll see the sign on the building for "Cancer Care Center".  Um...........okay.  She caught the surprise in my voice and asked if I had been told I was seeing an oncologist.  Not exactly but it's something of a pleasant surprise nonetheless.

And that's where we are now.  It's good news that even tho Dr Jerk is okay with my thyroid, he's still getting me in to see an oncologist specializing in cancers of the throat.  That's where I ultimately need to be. And the beta blockers are working so my blood pressure and pulse are back out of the red and close to normal again.  I'm willing to bet that once they take out my thyroid, I'm going to feel a lot better.  I know it won't help some of the other issues I have but at the very least I'll get rid of the airway obstruction and get more oxygen into my muscles which will help the fibro.  No matter what the doctors say, I also know that it's going to make all those symptoms of Graves go away.  I can live with being euthyroid a lot better than I can with untreated Graves.  Most of all it will get this nasty, toxic mess off my throat chakra and out of my body where I'm certain it has been slowly poisoning me.

I'm making a list.  If the oncologist and pathologist say the nodule is malignant I'm going to go to every single doctor who said that I couldn't possibly have thyroid issues and whack them in the kneecaps with that ball bat.  I thought I'd invite all my friends to go along and we'll make a party out of it.  Casual dress is fine for a knee-whackin' party.  I'll bake the cookies and brownies if y'all will pass the hat to throw my bail.