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Yesterday's Adventure

What a day.

Bright and early yesterday morning, I had an upper GI done to test for gluten intolerance/look around at my GI system. I've been having a lot of issues with my stomach in the last year or so, so the GI doctor wanted to look around as well as test me for celiac. The procedure was done at an outpatient facility, and I was by far the youngest person there! (by several decades, I might add). The procedure took all of 15 minutes. However, the sedation they gave me knocked me out cold. I was plain exhausted! I think they might have given me too much sedation for my weight. They said I should be up within five or ten minutes, but I would've stayed in bed for an hour had they not forced me awake after thirty minutes. I seriously just wanted to sleep!! If you've ever had anesthesia, you know the feeling that I'm talking about. For the procedure, I was on my side, so in order to wake up, they made me roll onto my back. When I did this, I was SO dizzy. I felt like the world was spinning. Let me tell you, I was not too happy that they made me get up and leave the "comfort" of the bed.

After the GI test, I went to my diabetes doctor. (Obviously, I wasn't driving. My mom drove me, considering I'm not allowed to "drive, drink alcohol, or make important legal decisions for 24 hours".) Every time I go, I feel like a bug under a magnifying glass. The diabetes office just seems so fascinated with me, yet they have no idea how to help my varying blood sugars. I'm having a continuous glucose monitor test done next week to try and track my sugars. Hopefully this will be able to help, although I'm not holding my breath!

The final appointment of the day was with the ENT doctor. As a CF patient, the sinuses are often affected because of the thicker mucous. I've had several sinus surgeries over the years. Thankfully, my ENT said my sinuses looked great yesterday! Unfortunately, however, my hearing test was not as encouraging. Because of a variety of medicines I've been on for my lung infections, my hearing has been at risk. In my physics class this semester (sound and acoustics), I noticed that I couldn't hear as well as the rest of my class. Therefore, I knew I needed to get my hearing checked again. After getting it tested yesterday, the audiologist said that I have mild hearing loss in frequencies above 6000 Hertz. For a frame of reference, normal speaking is between 250-8000 Hertz. Although this slight hearing loss does not affect my daily conversations, it is upsetting. Yet ANOTHER price to pay for having CF. I have taken such good care of my hearing, but even with extra precautions, I still have this hearing loss. And what's worse is that there's nothing I can do about it. It's just a fact to keep in the back of my mind. I have the hearing of a 40-50 year old, which isn't bad except for the fact that I'm 19! I don't want to have to deal with hearing loss. I don't want to not hear my friends at a football game or struggle to hear when other sounds are present. Most of all, I don't want to know what it's like for my hearing to get worse. Hearing loss occurs over time, just as the body gets older. So, what's my hearing going to be like in another ten, even twenty years? I don't know. That kind of upsets me. Obviously, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm trying to release my worries and my fears because I know that they will do nothing for me. I'm not going to lie, though, it is hard.

So, that was my day yesterday. It was a doctor-filled day, and I'm glad that it's over with. I'll get the results back from the upper GI next week, and I'll go from there. I'll do the continuous glucose monitor and either get answers from that or keep adjusting my sugars on my own. And I'll learn to adjust to protect my hearing even more than I'm doing now and try not to fret too much about the hearing loss I have already experienced.

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