Off on a quick holiday

Off to Cape Town for a week tomorrow morning and except for the packing which I need to do now (I am the world's worst packer!), I cannot wait. A good break and chance to relax although do have two work meetings but guess that was my choice and they are both over meals, so should be fun.
I am fine, totally delighted that my thyroid doc declared I was "extemely well". That was about two-three weeks ago and made me feel rather bouyant as he checks me, both physically and via blood tests, for almost everything under the sun and doubt many doctors give that kind of diagnosis to any patient and he is a particularly top doctor, a world renowened diabetes expert (although I see him for thyroid).
He offered to raise my thyroid meds to push me to the top end of normal as I was moaning about having gained 4kg this year. I declined, thinking it was manipulative and unneccessary but then had second thoughts and last week got the new script which I have still to take.
My stomach, well really my digestive system ie colon and small intestine, are probably worse than I have been for a while. Saw a second gastroenterologist for a second opinion which turned out to be a waste of time - and cost a bloody fortune which means I have now spent well over R2000 on two such doctor visits this month - and then saw my usual one again on Friday who has now prescribed some herbal drops - 20 into a little bit of water before/with meals. They taste ghastly and my stomach is still helleva bloated but let's see. At least the pain has gone (got very saw which he believes was the spinach I was eating to try to lose weight). "But it as cooked spinach!" I exclaimed. "And it's allowed on Fodmaps..." but he has now declared it verboten. He also declared that I do not have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), just functional bloating.....Grrrr!
Anyway, let's see how these herbs go. Oh and he also suggested a dietician - until now I had been to the one who had helped me lose weight on tamoxifen but whose programme hadn't helped with the bloating mainly cos I don't think it is 100% linked to food plus difficult to work out which food and I think quantities play a role.....
This one he suggested has not returned my call yet. I hope to see her when I return to Joburg after my holiday.
Hope those of you reading this are ok.
Gillian

Blah blah blah

My body  is letting me down. I am grateful that I do not have a terminal disease and that the doctor today did not send me home 'cos of that, saying he would have to go back to the drawing board (metaphorically, he never actually used those words) but I do realise that there appears to be nothing that can be done to improve my stomach.
I went on Resolor, which involved getting permission from the Medicine Controls Council here in South Africa, but it didn't work. I still have a bloated stomach. I have tried everything. Not eating foods high in fodmaps and that doesn't work. I have been on endless amounts of antibiotics and that doesn't work. Today he prescribed spasmo-canulase which doesn't even need a prescription. Quite a change from the resolor and rifaximin which also isn't registered in SA but can be obtained at a pharmacy in Bryanston.
Meanwhile my stomach is mostly bloated like a balloon - like the rifaximin at first, resolor had some improvement as it stopped the bloating immediately below the boobs but that didn't last. And I have flatulence and burp and have this burning feeling in my upper chest which the GI-doc today said is regurgitation.... and ...
But it doesn't stop there. Saw The Lymph Lady today and my arm is a f.. disaster/. Up by half a cm or 1cm in all of the six places she mentions.And I didn't even realise it and we don't know why.
Did consider the meds - Resolor - but it doesn't seem to have that effect although going to google it further.
Am in despair. I don't want lymphedema. I don't want to wear a sleeve. I need to get my stomach sorted. Urgent.

PS. I don't have to wear a sleeve yet. Am seeing The Lymph Lady again next week.

Off to London for three months

I almost forgot about my blog. Really. Been so wrapped up in my little world. Hassles here, hassles there... one of those being my stomach with its crazy bloating and pain.
Saw my thyroid doctor today and he said: "Why you not eating this, not eating that, if it is not helping?" Good point. So insisted we go out for curry tonight - been living on rice and raw salmon and yet my stomach sticks out a mile.
Anyway, am throwing away the homeopathic pills I have been taking - L-Glutamine, wild origano and pancreatin  (ja I even resorted to homeopathic which I mostly find annoying)  - and am now praying the pills the doctor prescribed today will help. Look, he is not a gastroenterologist, rather a world-renowned endocronologist (really a diabetes expert) whom I adore.. but let's see.
And can you believe it: my gastro guy is overseas and due back about a week after I head off for London. So today's pills better be the miracle I need.
Kinda bowled over by it all but scheduled to go work at a leading British equivalent (sort of)/ related company to the one I now work for, in a field I am passionate about. My company is sending me for three months. So likely to be posting from London soon.
Oh and saw my oncologist last week and I am fine!!!