Michele -- there IS something wrong with you. (That sounds bad -- but I mean that in a supportive encouraging way.) Depression cannot cause all of your problems. Yes, it can cause vague symptoms like abdominal pain, bowel problems, and headaches -- but it cannot cause your body to become so inflamed and in so much pain. Please don't taper off the steroids without the doctor's OK. It sounds like they're one of the few things that are helping you, even if they're not good to stay on long-term.
I don't have much time right now but I wanted to suggest that maybe you should ask the GI doc for a capsule endoscopy. A capsule endoscopy can see places that the normal endoscopy/colonoscopy combo can miss. I had one done before -- you do have to do a bowel prep the day before, but it wasn't quite as awful. I think you even get to eat breakfast on the day of the bowel prep. The next day they hook you up to the portable camera stuff and then you swallow this giant horsepill that has the camera in it. I took the day off work and just laid around, but the nurse told me that some people actually do go to work with this stuff on. I was too vain to do that, but I know that it's tough for you to miss work, so that might be another good point for you. The one problem is that my GI said that sometimes insurance companies don't want to pay for it. I didn't have any problems with my insurance. At the time I had Blue Cross Blue Shield. You could at least call your insurance company today and ask if they cover it, and if they do, ask your GI about doing this instead of the colonoscopy. It is totally painless, so no sedation required.
Listen to your own impulses -- if you honestly don't think you're depressed, you probably aren't. I was sick for 18 months and everyone kept telling me that I had IBS and was depressed and if I just took anti-depressants I'd be fine. Well, I KNEW I wasn't depressed, and I knew something was wrong. I was right.
Do you have a hiatal hernia, then? I had a hernia too but it was in the groin area. I got it fixed but I'm pretty sure I never actually had any problems with it -- I never had any pain in that area until I got it fixed, and now it's uncomfortable all of the time. Do you remember anlikerm (sp?)? She had a hiatal hernia. I think the main problem it caused with her is that she was really nauseated and had troubles eating. She was a D but I don't think that the D was caused by the hernia.
I saw your other post and I'm sorry your husband felt badly enough that he felt he had to go on ADs. I know you see a therapist, could both of you go together to therapy? I hear you about money being tight. We have a giant medical debt because of me and I'm beginning to sell all of my worldly possessions on eBay to help pay for it. Aggghhhh.
-------------------- jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
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Re: Fridays Endoscope Update
Do you remember anlikerm (sp?)? She had a hiatal hernia. I think the main problem it caused with her is that she was really nauseated and had troubles eating. She was a D but I don't think that the D was caused by the hernia.
