I'm sorry to everyone that has been enjoying my post. The last few days have been a little unnerving! Unfortunately due to my conditions some days are better than others. With the RA I can have days where my body hurts and I can't move. Some days it may just be that one of my body parts isn't doing it's job. Some days it could be more than one. Some days I just need to take a break and rest. I strive to not have to take any of those down days unless absolutely necessary because my brain tells me that I shouldn't allow myself to be down. My brain says get up and do something. Some days my body says stay in bed you need it, but I push myself and still go to work. On Monday I had a different experience. I have been having a sharp pain in my stomach (right below my rib cage) that radiates to my back. It is excruciating at times but my brain has always said suck it up, it's probably something you ate. Due to having gastric bypass, sometimes food or drinks can cause weird symptoms. If I drink soda or anything carbonated I will feel the pain of that. I experienced that last year, where I thought I had kidney stones. It is a similar pain and similar spot as if you were passing a kidney stone. I do have kidney stones living in there, but haven't had one pass that I'm aware of in a long time. Same as eating broccoli, cauliflower or beans, the gas can cause significant amount of pain to the point you feel as if you're passing a kidney stone. Needless to say I avoid those foods as much as possible. So, back to my pain.... because I have chronic pain, I do take a small cocktail of pain medications steroids and RA medications to help me function. If not, the only place I would be everyday is in bed. I have been putting off this pain for over a month thinking that it again was something I was eating. I thought maybe my hulless popcorn or maybe my piece of chocolate a day. Maybe my unsweetened tea was dehydrating me. Maybe my belly was hurting because my water was extremely cold and spasming to get the water down to body temperature, because that does happen. I completely dislike drinking room temperature drinks, but you will do anything to stop the pain. None of my trial and error worked, unfortunately. The weird part, was that the pain hit me between the hours of 3pm and 7pm. It was as if my daily pain meds were wearing down and the extreme pain struck. In conclusion, it could be that my medications are masking how severe this pain really is. The only thing that helped was sitting in my happy place, my hot tub. Yes, I have a hot tub, and it has been an extreme help for my RA for the last 12 years. I am usually in it atleast twice a day, sometimes more if my body is fighting me with pain and stiffness. On Saturday and Sunday the pain was excruciating. On Monday after work, my husband and I decided to make a trip to Home Depot for some fence supplies (we are building a fence for our dogs) and the pain was getting more severe. By the end of the Home Depot walk through, I asked my husband to please take me to the Emergency Room. I asked my husband to just go home and be with the dogs and I will handle this. No reason both of us sit and wait, and he has to be up at 3am to go to work. When I arrived, there had to be around 25 sick people ahead of me. I knew I was in for a long haul. Luckily I had taken a pain med when I arrived so the wait was bearable. It was a four and a half hour wait to see the doctor. Once I was in the room they had told me my blood work was great, my EKG was wonderful, and my x-ray didn't show anything abnormal. My blood pressure was elevated, which was out of the norm for me, but could be from the extreme pain. They said they were giving me some morphine for the pain and I was scheduled for a CT scan in two hours. I had to drink this Iodine water stuff during the two hour wait and relax. The test was pretty simple, they hook you up to a machine to pump contrast in your arm. They warn you that you will taste something metallic in the back of your throat, your body warms up as it runs through your veins and it feels as if you will pee your pants with a warm sensation. After seven hours in the ER nothing could be greater than peeing yourself. They tell you it will be an hour before the results are in, after all what's another hour to wait if you're getting the results you need. One thing God blessed me with is patience. Luckily the doctor was back in about 15 minutes to tell me they didn't find anything wrong with the CT. They were giving me something for heartburn or an ulcer and I was headed home. I was flabbergasted!! How on earth can I have acid reflux or an ulcer in my stomach when it wasn't attached. Nothing goes into my stomach to cause this. The doctor was a really nice guy, he sat down with me and explained that your body produces acid in your stomach no matter if it's attached or not. Anything can cause the acid since your body produces it as if it was still attached. Thanks body for always giving me a hard time. If something odd could occur my body says "check". My mom and step dad had stopped in the ER waiting room around eight to sit with me and I asked them to go home too and just wait to pick me up. Around 1am I was ready to go home so my mom came to get me. Thanks to the morphine and acid reflux medicines I was pretty comfortable. I woke up on Tuesday and immediately called my gastric bypass (RNY) doctor. Luckily they had an opening at 2pm and I was on my way for his opinion of what is going on in my body. When he arrived in the room he was very impressed with me keeping the weight off. I have maintained my weight loss for four years. He said all my blood work was phenomenal and he isn't actually sure where the problem was, but he was going to figure it out for me. I just love him as a doctor. He is very caring, has a wonderful bedside manner and a comedian at heart. I would recommend him for RNY surgery everytime. Needless to say, he told me that I was to schedule a endoscopy with him as soon as possible. Once he looked down my throat and made sure all the RNY surgery stuff was still where it needed to be and in good condition, we would move on to the last thing it could be. That endoscopy is scheduled for this Friday. I was hoping and praying on my way to this appointment that they could get me in on Friday and my prayers were answered. If everything is positive, our next step is checking my gallbladder. The symptoms are there and it is very common that RNY patients have to have their gallbladder removed. Please pray that the answers are there on Friday and that the pain is over soon. I will keep you updated on where this path leads. Just another daily dose of T!