Is this the final answer...I hope so...

When I last left you, I had just gotten home from the hospital from having an ERCP where they had to open my pancreatic duct...yes this is not fun...it causes acute pacreatitis. Anyway, I have since been transferred to UAB and discharged. I basically spent the entire month of March and the first part of April in the hospital. So after much ado about alot of things the final diagnosis is sphincter of Odi disorder and severe gastroparesis. This is a fancy way to say my stomach ain't working. It seems that my diabetes has attacked the nerves in my stomach. It could be worse like my kidneys and legs and eyes. Anyway, the sphincter of Odi is a valve that comes off the pancreas and dumps into the stomach. So this valve is supposed to open and close. Well mine wants to stay closed. Gastroparesis is where the stomach does not empty in a timely manner and the food sits in my stomach and basically rots. Yes this is gross but that is what it is. I have belches that could clear Bryant Denny Stadium. So with the two of these combined it means that I have to be very careful with what I eat. What I need to eat for my diabetes interacts with the GI diet and vice versa. So in the mean while I have lost 34 pounds in a month. I am basically drinking my nutrition right now. I am to have an appointment with a GI doc who specializes in this problem, an endocrinologist who is familiar with my diabetes - I have antibodies for type 1 and 2 diabetes and a dietician. Doesn't this all sound like fun? Anybody want to join me? I am to go back to work on the 19th but that is still up in the air. God has finally hit me over the head and said, "Here is your sign!" I have to get well. So it may be slim pickings around here for awhile but my family needs me alive and well more than my job. Yes I said it! Thank you to all for your prayers, calls and cards. I could not have come through this without yall!

I am alive...

For the faithful few, I am alive and feeling much better. I do still have quite a recovery but being home is just WONDERFUL! I had been throwing up off and on for about 3 weeks. I finally slowed down and called my GI doctor. I was having the same symptoms I had last summer when there were gall stones in my pancreas and duodenum. As my luck would have it, Dr. Halama was on hospital rotation so he was not seeing patients in the office. But when his nurse told him I had called and what was going on he wanted me to come in on Wednesday, March 3 at 1:00. He was going to meet me in the office. Well Tuesday was a day from Hades....I could not keep anything down not even Sprite or Ginger Ale. I called back to his office and his response is to the ER and he will meet me there. So I drove 45 minutes to the hospital sick as a dog...thank God I had a good ER doc. She looked at me and said "oooh you are green". They admitted me, did an endoscopjy and then an ERCP. They found that my pancreatic duct had another stricture - so they stretched it and sent me back to my room. All was going well until the 3rd shift nurse was making her last round and found me unresponsvie . After running blood gasses and other tests they found that I was in ketoacidosis. This was not because of my sugar but but because of all the bile and acidic junk that had been in my body. As the doctor explained to me later, I was throwing up everything but I was not able to hold down anything to neutralize the acids in my stomach. So my pH was critical, as well as my magnesium, potassium and sodium were critically low. So true to form for me, what should have been a short hospital stay turned into a 10 day hospital stay. There is a period of about a week that I do not remember. I am trying to remember some things but it is coming back slowly. My vision is impaired and my balance is a little off as a result of all of this but the doctor says all this should work itself out in the next week. I want to thank everybody who has prayed for me, prayed for my momma who is recuperating from hip surgery and those who came to visit. I am very blessed to have the friends I have. I will tell you this was by far the scariest time of my life. I have always depended on my mom to be with me when I am sick. I could not be with her and she could not be with me. This was not a good feeling. But with the friends that we have everybody was taken care of. I am TRYING not to be hard headed and stay home for a while, but we will see how that works out. So again I say THANK YOU for everything...