Carla's Medical Profile

[peanut]

Let's see, life was grand until December 11, 2002. I went home sick from work (hubby & I own our own business & work together). The next thing I really remember is waking up in ICU with a ventilator tube down my throat - not a pleasant experience at all !

I'll back up a little - for several years I had not been to the doctor for anything - female check-up - nothing. I had progressively gotten shorter of breath, more and more tired, skinny as a rail, I could go on and on...

Come to find out in the hospital, my H&H was 6 & 20, I was basically walking dead ! They told my hubby that I had bone marrow failure. They told my hubby if he hadn't gotten me there when he did, that I would have been dead a few hours later - also told him twice while I was in the hospital that it didn't look like I was gonna make it. Anyway, I had a blood transfusion of 5 units, and gobs of tests run to find the cause of the anemia. My immune system had gotten so bad that I had bacterial pneumonia in both lungs.

After all the testing, it turned out to be Pernicious anemia & iron deficiency anemia. I thought that everything was gonna be okay after that. Then, my doc chewed me out royally for not having a pap for 10 years - which I admit, I deserved ! Anyway, at my first follow up after getting out of the hospital, I had my long over due pap. To make that long story short, it was abnormal, ended up having a biopsy and then a LEEP, after the LEEP, had another abnormal pap, had another biopsy - that one was okay - and my last follow up pap was normal - so that is under control for at least a year !

Then, about 3 months later I started having the dreaded diarrhea - to make that long story short, had the colonoscopy - which showed LC, also had an adenomatous polyp removed at that time - will have colonoscopies every three years for that. Then had the upper scope which dx'd celiac and also had a polyp removed then.

I am still having ongoing problems with iron deficiency anemia, and the pernicious anemia is treated with b-12 shots monthly. I am gluten free for over a year now, and getting a little better, except for the anemia.

I think that is it - may add more later !

Love,
Carla