Friday September 14, 2007 5:07 PM

Wednesday I was scheduled for my upper endoscopy, colonoscopy, and manometry study at Thomas Jefferson. Part of the reason I’m doing this is because I’ve had digestive system problems for years and never really got a definitive diagnosis, and partly because I’ve been feeling really lousy since I got the c-diff. Every morning I wake up and I’m queasy until I get myself going, and I’m sick of it. It’s really starting to wear me down. When I got my records from my last gastroenterologist for Dr. Zozuch to look over she saw that I never really had proper biopsies done, so that was the plan for Wednesday. Turns out I have Esophageal candidiasis, which is a fungal infection in the esophagus. Sounds lovely, right? I’ve had a chronic problem with that for years now, though…it’s the thing that killed my vocal chords.… and I’ve taken anti-fungal drugs and the damn thing just keeps coming back, so long term I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it. I still have to wait a week for the biopsy results to come back because Kozuch wants to look at the cells from my stomach, small intestine, large intestine, etc., plus I still have to go for a bacterial overgrowth test in October. But in the meantime I’m taking my diflucan, and I think it’s helping because I’m starting to feel a little better, but I’m having weird stabbing pains from where she took the biopsy samples. Whatever.

As for Jim, we’ve had a little milestone, but he doesn’t see it with the same fanfare as I do. Back when he was in the hospital he kept saying that when he could eat again, the first thing he wanted was Kentucky Fried Chicken. Last night we picked up Kentucky Fried Chicken, and not only did he get the chicken down, he even managed to get a biscuit down. I reminded him of what he had said when he was at Lahey, but he still wasn’t satisfied. He tells me, “I want to be able to eat fried chicken without having to swallow down every bite with a glass of milk.” Geez….details, details. I still think it’s a milestone no matter what he says.

Sunday September 9, 2007 10:09 PM

Jim's got a lot of jaw pain from Speigel manipulating his mouth, so he and I are both living on Motrin...him for his jaw and me for my tooth abscess. But since Speigel put the collagen on him his voice sounds WEIRD. You can hear two frequencies resonating at once...a baritone and a tenor. It's like his voice has been pumped through a chorus effect. The last time he had the collagen done he didn't have that going on. I guess it's going to have to "break in". No difference in the eating yet, though. But he did manage to put on two pounds. Got to look on the bright side...his old suit will fit him for this years' Christmas party.