Sawblade's speeches

let me elaborate on that a little more. I'm pissed off. I go into the gastroenterologist's office to try to get some kind of advice on what to do since I just seem to be going downhill. I asked him, "Is there any place I can just buy a new digestive system?" jokingly. He said, "You don't need a new esophagus you just need more drugs." I tell him that I had to switch my meds from protonix to prevacid because protonix wasn't working anymore, and that nothing was stopping the regurgitating. The domperidone which he recommended last time wasn't working in its standard dose (10 mg) so I had tried taking 20 to see if that would be any improvement. (Considering I've gone through months of waiting for a month to see a doctor just so he can say "double your meds" I figure I'd just do it in advance to spare myself that piece of advice). Just made me feel really bloated and more nauseous; only slightly helped with the reflux. And of course, the incessant belching. So he says, "So I'm telling him all this, he looks at the chart and asks me, "Have you had an endoscopy done?" I told him it was done over the summer...

So I start telling him that I'd been trying seeing a therapist and relaxation techniques weren't helping, the aerophagia's still a nightmare and the drugs weren't controlling it. Neither did the antidepressant he recommended last time. I tell him again that I'm sucking air into my stomach whenever I breathe and have no idea how to make it stop. I ask him how a "normal esophagus" is supposed to keep air out, and he gives me some shpiel about how you swallow X amount of air when you're chewing, I say that he's not listening to me, what about when you're just breathing? Obviously he didn't get what my problem was. So, trying to figure out the problem myself, I ask him if the manometry said my upper sphincter worked correctly. He takes a look and says it's fine, it's the lower half that's really screwed up. So he asks me if I had looked on the internet for how to treat aerophagia. Only for the last 6 months! Told him that all I could find was "breathe through your nose, stick a pencil between your teeth", neither works. I ask him if he ever encounters people with this problem, he says no; sees a lot of people with reflux but nothing like this. So what do I do about it, I ask. No idea! So I ask him if he knows anyone at Hopkins that might be able to help, he asks, "Why Hopkins? Why not Georgetown or Duke?" Ugh. He gives me the name of a naturopath I could try because he's out of ideas, but that was about all I got out of that visit. When I asked about scheduling another appointment he says "we'll call you." (Translation: "I can't do anything for you, go away.") Shit. Now I'm back to square one and worse then before, and out of doctors too apparently.

And people tell me that talking to medical intuitives/energy healers is a waste of time and money.

dammit.... this is the third gastroenterologist that says he's completely stumped by my condition :(

Comment if you're lucky # 5000 on the counter!

Well, I may do lousy in graphics assignments but I can do this even if by accident!