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March 11, 2005
Medical Woes
Sorry about not updating more often. Things are a little wacky around here. Claudine went into the hospital this morning to have her left adrenal gland removed. After it was over, I looked at her and said, "You seem *less* of a woman to me now". Meaning - ha ha - you are missing part of your body, there is less of you now. Which isn't really *that* funny. At all. Fortunately, she was still groggy from the anesthesia so I don't think she really heard it at all.
She had a really rare thing called a pheochromocytoma which I believe is Latin for thing on your adrenal gland that fucks you up. Possibly. Or not.
Anyhoo, Claudine had been having all sort of wacky 'episodes' where she would experience hot flashes, anxiety, rapid heart rate and the urge to kill the children and me (I might be making up the last one - it's possible she just wanted to kill me). Our regular doctor heard all these symptoms and said "I'm sure you don't have a pheochromocytoma - why don't you take this test and rule it out." Which turned out to be the best thing he could have done because if a pheochromocytoma goes untreated, it just keeps pumping chemicals into your body until your heart spazzes out and you die.
So this morning we went into the hospital really early and had them take the sucker out. Now she's in the ICU being monitored around the clock to make sure her blood pressure doesn't ramp up or drop to low. Because an adrenal gland containing a pheochromocytoma has the ultimate defense mechanism. When it senses that something is invading the body to remove it, it sends out all sorts of nasty, unregulated chemicals into the bloodstream. Kinda like a bee that knows if it stings, it will die. That gland pumps stuff out with its drying breath (if, in fact, glands could breath).
Claudine should be in the hospital until Sunday or Monday. And then she'll be out of work for 1 - 2 weeks. After that, she should be better than she's been in a long while.
Posted by aellis at March 11, 2005 04:27 PM