I am a quirky person, who has bouts of quirky physical problems. I have nothing seriously wrong with me, except mentally, but I do my best. Anyhoo, over the years. here are some of my medical issues:

* When I was 18, I was thought to possibly have hepatitis because my eyes were yellowing- that turned out to be a condition called Gilbert's something or other, which meant that my liver was producing more bilirubin than needed- nothing serious, no treatment necessary.

* I was excessively itchy with my pregnancies, especially my first. Turns out the treatment was labour- yep, that made me forget about scratching! Oh my goodness, I am laughing at the joke I just made! Seriously, the remedy was to give birth as not being pregnant would fix the problem.

* I leaked amniotic fluid with 3rd child and had to be helicoptered out at midnight over the water to the Big City and had to live there for about 7 weeks. That whole experience was a God Thing as the docs expected me to go into labour at 28 weeks, and Mr J was finally induced at almost 35 weeks as my water was really low. He was a healthy baby.

* I had to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours a few months ago as I was feeling awful and my heart seemed to be pounding. Seemed like overkill, but created amusement for myself and friends. Turns out some part of my heart beats extra, but no problems there. What the doc did find through blood work was that I was very low on iron. I started taking supplements and began to feel better. (except for the first couple of days when I didn't realize that I was taking a quadruple dose) That will be funny to you if you know what iron does to you. It didn't feel so funny at the time...

* I had a tumour on the R side of my thyroid- turned out that biopsy was inconclusive as it was a certain type of tissue that they couldn't tell was malignant or not until after surgery. So, of course, I had the surgery. They had to cut me open across my neck, probably about 4-5 inches to remove 1/2 of the thyroid. The good news there was that I have been on thyroid replacement medication since I was nine, so that it didn't matter if they took part of it- it wasn't working anyways! The bad part was when they brought me some kind of tough meat to eat post surgery...afer having my NECK cut open. I couldn't get over that!

* oh, yeah, here is another one. Hope this isn't getting to be too much. After I had 2nd child, I had a hematoma on the outside "down there" as he rocketed out so incredibly fast. There was a lot of swelling and bruising, A LOT. The nurses couldn't figure out where to put the catheter- NOT GOOD. The MALE OB came in for a look and just said something like "wo-ah" when he looked at the "situation". NOT flattering.

I guess I will stop now. I could go on about the time I had to have my stomach pumped when I was 4, or how I broke my own nose with a baseball bat, but I don't want to bore you.

I do have a prayer request though... My latest quirky medical problem started last week when i noticed that I was excreting BLOOD from one of my R nipple ducts. Because I am busy and am just used to strange things, I kinda looked at the spot on my bra the first time it happened and said "weird" and then forgot about it. When it happened again, and then again, I went "oh, time to get this checked out." Apparently anytime you are discharging blood out of your nipples, it is good to go to the doctor. That is actually a really funny sounding line. Like, DUH, no kidding, it's abnormal. Anyways, they need to rule out cancer because of the bleeding and because I had an aunt die of breast cancer at a young age. The good news is that the doc thinks it is a harmeless condition called Breast Duct Papilloma. BTW, if you check that site out, ignore their treatment section where they talk about surgery and masectomies- the doc says the treatment is to leave the breast alone) She says that she has seen it before and that it happens to women with "active breasts". I am laughing again- that sounds hilarious. I guess that they have been breastfeeding for 6 out the last 11 years. Little M hasn't nursed for about 6 months so I don't know what else I have been doing... Hubby and I have been having some competitive badminton tournaments in the yard- that might have jiggled things around, but it is not like I am chesty or anything! Man, I am having a hard time being serious tonight. So, the doc took a smear of the blood, but that takes 4-6 weeks to be examined. In the meantime, I have a mammogram tomorrow morning. I have heard all the stories, so I am not exactly excited about it. My mom jokes that she is always worried the fire alarm will go off once she is clamped in and she will be left stranded. Whatever, I still measure everything against natural childbirth- nothing can be more painful than that! I would appreciate your prayers though. I have peace about it, but will be relieved to have good news.