My Mother: Maybe She Had This Problem:Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction
For most of her life, my mother was ill. She suffered pain in her back and stomach almost everyday. She was also very nauseated much of the time. For years she had been going to the Dr. and they could not find anything wrong with her. She had to rely on pain
meds and never getting to do all the things she wanted to do.
Last night I was watching
Mystery Diagnosis on the Discovery Health Channel. It told the story of a young woman who had pain in her back and stomach all the time. She was constantly nauseated. She went to many Doctors year after year and nothing helped. They finally took out her gall bladder and appendix. She felt
ok for a while but then it started all over again. She was so sick she wanted to die. Doctor after Doctor told her nothing was wrong. They thought it was all in her head.
She had begun to throw up so much that they had to hospitalize her. The tests again showed nothing. Then they performed some sort of special MRI for the ducts from her pancreas to her duodenum. They noticed that there was something mechanically wrong with the ducts. They were twisted and obstructed. The medical tests she had had did not reveal that. It was probably congenital but did not show up until sufficient obstruction had occurred. So now they had a source for her pain. In
exploratory surgery, they cannot see those ducts. This is called Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction.
They were able to operate on her and fix the ducts and drain them. She was better from then on. It was such a simple problem but one that was almost impossible to find. Had she not had the right Dr. finally do the right test, she would still be suffering today. The doctors said this problem would not have killed her, but it caused her to have a great disability with all the pain and nausea which she would have had all her life.
My mother wondered why she always was in such pain but never enough to kill her. I don't think her doctors ever did the test above and maybe if they had, she would not have suffered all those years.
I wish you were here Mom, so I could tell you about this and you might be able to finally get some help.
It's not scary, it's just funny. All of your favorite monsters are there. Dracula, his wife, Frankenstein, Igor, wolf man and the mad scientist. There a really weird family that comes to stay there and the laughs are abundant.
I guess I take after my mom. I like to collect dolls and other cute things. I know I have no need for them, but it's fun. In the 50's there were some dolls from the Terri Lee family and every little or big girl wanted one. The main doll, Teri Lee herself, was created by a woman in Apple Valley CA. She was a sculptress and an artist. She created the dolls using a special kind of plastic. She painted their features. My cousin Phyllis had one first. She was so pretty that I wanted one too. You could buy lots of clothes for Terri Lee. My aunt Bernice, Phyllis' mother, made clothes as well and for a lot less. Teri Lee at that time was around $15 to buy which was a lot for a doll in those days. I wanted one so bad. One Christmas when I was around 9 or 10, I got one. She was dressed in a Scottish outfit and had blonde hair. She was like the one at the top. My aunt Bernice had made clothes for her. I loved her so much. I made the mistake of letting my girls play with her after I was married. She got ruined and I guess thrown out with the trash. Today she would be worth a lot on e-Bay. I looked on -eBay and found some authetic ones for sale at a large amount of money. Then I found a replica or Terri Lee on the Target web site. So I puchased two of them for $20 each. I have included photos of the replicas and photos of the vintage ones from e-Bay.
I also loved Nancy and Sluggo from the comic books. It's good thing Tina made me a pair because I couldn't find anywhere to purchse them. So call me crazy. I just love to collect dolls and other items I have purchased from places I have visited.
