It’s not cancer, so eF it!

This past week I've been going through a battery of tests again because I was having some serious abdominal pain – no, not stomach pain.  Yes, there is a difference.  It got so bad this weekend that I had to call the oncall Doctor at my oncologists office to get pain meds and spent a majority of the weekend and part of Monday on Vicoden. 

So we went through the blood tests – normal except I'm ridiculously anemic.

They are testing for a parasite because of something they saw in some test a few weeks ago.  They think I may have picked it up in Mexico in November.  I submitted that sample the other day – fun test. Really.

And I had a chest/abdominal/pelvic CT scan yesterday - which surprisingly enough, I got the results of yesterday – they were clean.  (Definitely glad to hear that!)  The area where the pain is - is where my kidney, liver, and all that stuff is.  Need I say more?  (in spite of a normal liver function test, I still needed the all clear from the CT.)

So I was going to go with the Kidney stone theory.  Its simple.  It's the most benign of all the other things it could be.  And I figure since it's not cancer,  eF IT!  (Ok, not really.  I still want to know what it is. )

I had a neuro follow up this morning.  (I was getting massive headaches and taking way too much ibuprofen so they put me on a medication called topamax.)  Guess what a not completely uncommon side effect is of topamax.  It can cause kidney stones.  So we're doing tests to confirm.  If it is a kidney stone, then he'll switch my meds.  If not, we'll keep looking.  But either way, it's not cancer so I get to get back to my life.