#BUT they DID prescribe me some steroids and antibiotics | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pbandjesse · 3 months

Text

Today was. Like 4 different days. I am excited to go to sleep.

I sort of got to sleep in. But not actually. I didn't have to be up until 8 but I would feel stress and couldn't stay asleep. I did get to see James briefly before they left. And I would get up pretty soon after that.

I felt like my face was really puffy this morning. Like my eyes and cheeks seemed puffy. I had coughed really really hard at 6am. James said I sounded like I was struggling really bad. I would do a little better once I was up and standing. And my face would stop being puffy by the middle of the day. But I was feeling kind of bad about myself to start.

I had breakfast. James left me an omelet in the microwave. I shared some of it with Sweetp. And would get myself ready to leave.

My appointment was at 9. And everyone was driving stupid. And me being nice and letting someone in front of me caused me to lose the last parking space in the lot so I had to turn around in the office ally and park on the street. Which was fine and only mildly annoying because the couple that snagged the last spot were still sitting in their car when I was done in the doctor's which means their appointment was after mine and it annoyed me. Ugh

I had a good appointment. I think my doctor thinks I'm funny. James says it's because I recount stories like a stand up special. But the thing I like about this doctor is because he doesn't dismiss me because I'm silly in my delivery.

I tried to make him understand that while I was mostly okay in this moment, I would deteriorate throughout the day and the night was the worst. And he got it. He thinks I'm still a little sick because of the rhumatologist medicine. So he wants me to try antibiotics. And taking Flonase consistently to try and help the drowning. And if nothing improves he has also prescribed me the same steroid as before and maybe if I take that throughout the day rather then just once it'll help longer. He's really nice.

I paid and made a followup appointment. And headed out.

I was so close to the museum that I decided to stop and say hello to James. When I got there I got some compliments on my outfits from Meghan and one of the newer educators and it was so nice to chat with Meghan. She would actually reach out to me later and we made plans to hang out in a few weeks. She's great.

I also just hugged in James for a minute and told them what the doctor said. It was a worthwhile stop for sure.

I left as their group was coming in and went to my job. It wasn't much longer then the drive from home. And it wasn't a bad drive. No real traffic but someone started tailgating me and flashing their high beams at me for not tailgating the person in front of me I guess. And then once they got around me I watched them swerve in and out of traffic and it was so dangerous. Stupid behavior.

I got to camp and put away low ropes first thing. Before I even got to the office. And it was much warmer today so the only thing that sucked was moving the ladder around. But I got it done and it was honestly beautiful out and I had worn enough layers to be comfy.

I went to the office next and filled them in on the appointment. And then about the workshop tomorrow. Checked in about Samson and anything they wanted me to bring. Specifically the quad poster that needs to be repainted with more current pictures but it's something at least.

I would do some work on my document and my workshop and just some other little things. I had the rest of my spaghetti from last night for lunch. It was a nice day.

In the afternoon I would take a walk to the art building. I collected the got glue guns and a few small things for tomorrow. I also grabbed my hiking slip one and some of the clothes I had up there to bring home and decide if I'm getting rid of them for real. I grabbed some clogs I had up there too and wanted to try those again. But I tried them tonight and remembered why I was getting rid of them. Ah well. Worth trying.

I went to the nature building next and got a tank to set up for Samson. He was mostly buried but I stole some of his dirt for the travel tank. And would leave him for now. I would return for him at the end of the day.

When I got back to the office I poked around the attic. Worked on writing my feild trip schedule for the next couple months. Got confused about a creative alliance workshop I had written down and sent an email to Parker and then immediately realized what it was and emailed him back to ignore my last email and he thought that was very funny. Sometimes I move to fast with sending emails!!

But it's fine

I got my calendar all set up and hung it in the window.

I would do a little designing for the wedding open house were having. And went through some photos Elizabeth uploaded to the drive. And worked on that until I needed more feedback before I could move forward and Elizabeth was on a tour so it really decided the end of my day for me.

I would chat with Heather and promised to take pictures tomorrow. And went to get Samson.

He was poking out of his shell and he's a sweet boy so it was not a big deal to transfer him. I brought the tank to my car and buckled him in in the backseat.

And then it was time to go.

I stopped at the grocery store. To get Caeser dressing for dinner. And then drove home. It was not a bad drive. Not to much traffic. I was just tired.

When I got back I took Samson in first. Then came back to the car for eveything else. I moved my car closed for the second run. And saw our neighbor Ryan and we waved. It is nice to make friends with the neighbors.

I spent the next bit of time putting my materials together for the workshop. And putting some stuff away. I'm just thrilled with the studio right now and I can't wait to a really have time to sit and make things. I have some plans!

James would come home soon. I was moving some stuff into our book cases and was so happy to see them. I started not feeling amazing and decided to stop working and went to chill on the couch.

James made me a salad and they had falafel. And we would chill for a bit before it was time to go to the theater.

James was working concessions at theater project and it was a happenstance show so I wanted to go. And it was fun! When we got there it was nice to see Chris and then happenstance had set up a puzzle of the garden of earthly delights and I worked on it with someone else.

I'm sad I didn't get their name but they we were so fun and we talked and worked on the puzzle for a good half hour. We talked about puzzles and school and cults and shows at this theater and they were just so lovely. But then I ran to the bathroom as the house opened and when I came back they were gone and I couldn't find them again. I hope we cross paths again!

The show was fun. I always love the different clown styles of happenstance. This was very different. It was medieval. Which is much later in history then they usually play but it was fun. Not my favorite show but I thought it was really wonderful. There was apart where a demon was attached to a guy and all the costumes were just so fun. I had s really good time.

I was struggling to not cough the whole time though. I had to use the inhaler twice during an 80 minute show. I hope I wasn't disturbing anyone but I know I was at least a little. Sorry everyone.

When the show was done I followed James out. I had saved them a seat at the very top of the theater and we were able to quickly pop out the back. Grabbed our coats and headed out.

We walked past the new club that opened next to/under theater project and you could literally hear the music from the club during the show so I'm sure that has become an issue for theater project. I hope they can figure something out there because it's kind of a shitty situation. Like no one is in the wrong but it's not cool for sure.

We got to the car and my mom had just called. I'm like. Okay whos dead. Also if it's my dad I'm gonna be pissed. But no one is dead. Dad is just in the hospital. He is okay. This is a good thing. It feels to heavy to talk about, but he's getting help and that is positive movement. And I just want to know my parents are okay and not just living but happy and thriving. And I'm proud of him for taking the steps to get better. Even if it's really hard.

We would get home and see that Samson was awake and eating lettuce. Sweetp was being a cutie. James gave me a hug and took my workshop stuff to the car so I wouldnt have to in the morning. And I went to take a shower.

The shower helped a little but I really want to sleep now. I am coughing still but it's not as constant and not as hardcore. Tomorrow I will be better.

Tomorrow is a busy day. I have my workshop until 1130. And I hope to have Samson back to camp by 1230. And then back home not long after 1. I would like to sleep for a little. And then I head to the musuem for the fundraiser! I'm looking forward to the night. I hope it's a lot of fun.

I hope you all have a good night too. Sleep well. Take csre of yourselves. Take care of eachother. Good night.

2 notes · View notes

babycatlix · 5 months

Text

hi friends 🩵

just checking in after the new year! and what a year it's been so far... and just so ya know this is long, and it's totally okay if you don't even read it! there will be some gif updates at the end 🩵

i cannot catch a break 😭 remember how i was sick? not the first time, the second time, with the cough. i had a severe sinus infection the first time i was sick. i didn't realize until i got sick again that it was a sinus infection and not a cold. and i also learned that you can get better for a small window and then the sinus infection can come back... guess what happened to me! but this time, i had a terrible cough. it was so bad that when i coughed, it would sometimes hurt all the way down my chest, i cried once from the pain. i also missed 2 days of work bc i was up all night coughing and i even got sick a couple times from coughing so hard. but i saw my doctor and got an antibiotic and that cleared up!

BUT, right after that cleared up (sunday evening), i woke up yesterday morning (monday) and discovered a rash on my arms. it was mostly under my armpits, but it didn't look that bad, it was just speckly (almost like a heat rash), and it didn't itch unless i poked the spots. there weren't that many and they weren't that swollen. i took a cool shower to hopefully calm it down and it seemed like it did. but come this morning, i wake up and my rash had bloomed. aka spots merged together and made bigger splotches. it was swollen and itchy. thankfully we had a snow day today, so i was able to go to the doctor and have her look at me. when she walked in she said, "i heard you have a terrible rash." and i sighed and said, "i hope you can make me better, i'm so sick of being sick." after examining me she prescribed a steroid and claritin 24-hour.

my parents, doctor, and i all think it's bc i'm allergic to CBG oil. it's the only thing that's new in my diet. i needed a new CBD oil, but the plain CBD oil i usually use was out of stock so i decided to try a 50/50 CBD/CBG oil bc it said that it was specifically for pain and swelling. however, after taking it for 72 hours... i broke out in a rash. which would make my rash a type IV aka a delayed hypersensitve reaction. in short, my body is firing off histamines in reaction to the inflammation caused by the allergen that's still running through my body, but it's too much, hence the rash.

TLDR: i have a rash from an allergic reaction. but i'm not sick anymore! at least in the sense of my sinus infection...

i will start posting sets again soon, maybe tomorrow. i'm still trying to work on sets after work so i can get caught up. and i still need to figure out a good point to stop for skz talker, but i have so many eps cut. but i also want to get started on the music videos i'm behind on too.

anyway, here's hoping your new year is going much better than mine is! please stay safe out there, make good choices, and stay hydrated my friends! 🩵

#🐱 rambles

4 notes · View notes

mozart-the-meerkitten · 1 year

Text

Current “fun” thing:

So apparently I am extremely allergic to one (1) antibiotic. I did not know this. I had a sinus infection and guess what antibiotic I was prescribed? That’s right, the one I’m allergic to.

Evidently I’ve had this antibiotic once before when I was six and my body wisely ejected it from my system then and my mom made sure I never got it again. I got it this time and it didn’t seem to have any adverse effects and we assumed I’d just grown out of my issues with it.

NOPE.

I went to urgent care this morning because I woke up with a blotchy red itchy rash on my hands, arms, legs and feet. Got some steroids and was told it’d clear up eventually but it would take a while because this antibiotic “stays in your body a long time”.

What they didn’t tell me is that the rash freaking MOVES AROUND. Its faded off my arms/hands/legs mostly but now it’s on my sides, armpits and there’s little dots of it on my face and it’s on my ear?! I am so incredibly disturbed. I’ve been allergic to things my entire life and never had anything like this happen to me (except the bizarre yearly rash I get in the spring/summer that causes raised dots on my skin and itches and, yeah, feels a lot like this, but even the allergists don’t know what that is so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). I have taken normal allergy meds and benadryl along with the steroids so I’m doing pretty much everything I can. My doctor knows but he wasn’t in the office today (of course).

Anyway, have some pictures of the weird crap my body’s doing right now:

don’t ever take medication you’re allergic to kids, and if you ever have this happen go get it checked out immediately.

#rash #physical health #allergic reaction #why does this crap keep happening to me #it felt like it was headed for my face next but I think maybe the benadryl stopped it #I HOPE that's what happened #except my friggin ear #ONE EAR ITCHES A LOT

4 notes · View notes

lowwasteorbustanut · 4 days

Text

So uhhhhhhh

Today has been a DAY! (Thursday to be exact)

Started when I woke up with a stronger than normal headache.

(I’m disabled and I experience a headache everyday. Every. Day.)

4 am Went to work

6 am became a migraine.

(Worked for 5 hours so I could leave early but not have it counted against me since I worked more than half my day.)

9am Get home.

Rest on the couch.

11:30 am Suddenly my right nostrils gets HELLA congested. Like fully blocked cannot breathe.

Boil water and breath in steam to try and break it up.

Feel my nose drain.

(Eyeball things under the cut)

Then my right eye itches. I close my eye lid and rub it with my knuckle.

Eye still kind of itchy. Leave it alone for about 15 mins.

11:45 am I go to the bathroom because my eye really hurts and my vision is funky?

See this:

Am HORRIFIED!

FYI those are NOT tears in my eye. It’s a weird gooey gelatinous film.

Drive myself to urgent care (7mins away)

12pm get to urgent care and get checked in. As I am literally taking a seat in the waiting room I am IMMEDIATELY called back.

(Uh oh that’s not good)

Answer intake questions. Do a vision test. My right eye vision is blurry and hard to see.

12:30 pm doctor comes in. Grabs my face (gently) says oh no this is an extreme allergic reaction.

What? I have no extreme allergies!

She says I do now. That the gooey stuff is actually the WHITES OF MY EYES FILLING WITH LIQUID! That my eye is no longer an orb and is now a gooey mess.

This is what she saw:

Notice how my pupil is off center/no longer a circle? Because the shape of my eye was no longer stable. And note the swelling. And the hives around both eyes. At this point my left eye was starting the same process.

Immediately get prescribed oral steroids and antibiotic eye drops (just in case it was some kind of infection).

Get an urgent referral to an optometrist. Am told I need to see someone TODAY and it is in fact an emergency.

(My coping mechanism is humor.)

Make the joke “but it’s not like I’m gonna lose my eye right?!” Giggle.

Doctor makes direct and prolonged eye contact. “I don’t know. That’s why you need to see the optometrist.”

Now I’m super freaked out.

12:45 pm Get my drugs. Call my friend to drive me to the eye appointment I made. Only opening was a town away-about 30 min drive.

Now I’m feeling a lot of pressure/pain in my right eye. Can’t keep it open.

Left eye vision is starting to get blurry.

2:30pm get to appointment. Intake.

3pm see doctor. Am told it’s a horrific allergic reaction not an infection. Get prescribed steroid eye drops on top of oral steroid and antibiotic drops.

Am told to use both eye drops. Because while it’s highly likely just an allergic reaction, the antibiotics won’t hurt just in case.

Get STRICT instruction to not touch my face/eyes for 48 hours. If my eye doesn’t start to improve by Friday afternoon, get another appointment that day. Get told I’ll be fit-in no matter what. If it starts to improve but is not almost 100% by Monday get another appointment that day. If all looks/feels good go to follow up on Wednesday.

Get a doctors note for work on Friday, because there is no way I can go in.

I have since done another full round of each eye drop. Eye now looks like this:

Looks much better! Hives are going away. Eye is more stable/less gelatinous. Vision is improving. But it still feels swollen and difficult to open.

Now it’s crusty, but I can’t touch it. And no hot water. Cold/cool water only.

Both eyes are still red but improving.

——

Anyway I did not know that you can have such a severe allergic reaction that literal parts of your eyes fill with fluid and ruin your vision. And the shape of your eye. It’s been a shitty day, but at least I still have my eyes.

And my migraine.

#spoonie #allergy #allergic reaction #hives #how do I tag this?#the whites of my eyes filled with fluid #does anyone have experience with this?#because I am shook #and still kind of scared #and I have no idea what I’m allergic to #nothing in my daily routine has changed #eye stuff tw #eye things #eye ball tw #oh look it me #disability #migraine #allergic conjunctivitis #chemosis conjunctiva

0 notes

annimovsisyan · 10 months

Text

Time for a personal rant and reminder about why, as good as private healthcare looks right now (compared to the state the NHS is in at the moment), we need good quality healthcare (less than good is insufficient) to be free for all.

The emergency doctor I saw yesterday at my local GP (who was a dr I'd never met before) prescribed antibiotics for my ear, but my ear was blocked so he couldn’t tell if the problem was just the wax, or also an infection, or something else.

But I don't have any other symptoms or signs of ear infection like I normally get and I'm not gonna use antibiotics unnecessarily because 1. antibiotic resistance and 2. I often get a stupid fungal infection afterwards (cos it kills the good bacteria that help keep your immune system in shape as well as the bad bacteria… I really hope big pharma is at least working on ways to develop antibiotics that can be more targeted?!)

privileged enough to have a sister who gets work perks like free private gp appointments, I had a TWENTY MINUTE phone call with one of them today and it was so much more thorough and useful than the 5 minute appointment I had yesterday (the only useful thing about that was getting my ear looked at).

After explaining everything from how my symptoms have developed since last week, what I think triggered it, my ear health history, etc - we came to a very different conclusion (where he basically agreed with me that I don't think this is likely to be an infection). He thinks that as well as the earwax I may have a blocked eustachian tube, which could definitely have been triggered by the sore throat I had for a couple of days last week (which I think wasn’t due to any infection but from temperature fluctuations i experienced the day before).

So one doctor’s quick conclusion was antibiotics. The other doctor’s conclusion was: use the steroid nasal spray i already have leftover from when covid gave me post-nasal drip and take some antihistamines. and he explained WHY (reduce inflammation to help unblock the eustachian tube), and he went into the detail of HOW to use them all - which included some nasal spray tips i’d never been made aware of previously even though i’ve been prescribed nasal sprays before.

I’m so glad I’m knowledgeable enough to be able to suspect some things in the right direction, but also grateful that I'm privileged enough to get a second opinion that corroborated this and taught me even more. But healthcare is a human right, so everyone should be able to get healthcare (not being diagnosed/treated sufficiently is not healthcare - that’s negligence) without having to pay or have any privileges.

If I took those antibiotics when I had no bacterial infection to treat, it would’ve not only been a waste of medicine, it would create complications for my immune system that would take even longer and more effort to treat - and the original problem with my ears would still need treating as well.

I’m old enough to remember when NHS GP appointments were long enough to explain yourself in full detail, heck even back when I was 5 years old they did home visits if you requested it!

Problems are often complex when you have health conditions and when you are aware about certain kinds of things pertaining to your health, so you want to give your doctor as much relevant information as possible so they can make the most informed choices about what will be the best treatment for you. Short appointments are insufficient and can therefore be damaging. The NHS needs FUNDING, RESOURCING, and much more effective forms of MANAGEMENT than it currently does. The last thing the NHS needs is cuts and privatisation, both of which have led to mismanagement, inefficiencies, consequences for patients, and therefore worse health overall for the population.

I need everyone in government and corporate who is working on sabotaging and privatising the NHS to be stopped. Speaking of which, these guys are trying to do just that: https://everydoctor.org.uk/

#everydoctor #nhs #save the nhs #healthcare #human rights

1 note · View note

xseildnasterces · 2 years

Text

wake me up (when this nightmare's over).

I ate solid food yesterday for the first time in almost a week. I am currently feeling incredibly sad and depressed. In August last year, I went into an IBD flare which just never seemed to get any better. Here we are, 9 months later and it has just gone from bad to worse. The last three weeks have been the worst flare I have ever had, and this week things just took a completely horrible turn. I have been unable to eat at all, and even drinking a sip of water was impossible as I couldn’t keep it down. My body feels weak, I am overly fatigued, I am losing weight and no medication seems to be working. I miss being at work and I am so over being on my own when these flares occur.

I spoke to one of the IBD nurses this week and they sent me for tests. I went for those tests yesterday and I am now awaiting the results – hopefully, one should come in today, and the other by the end of the week. I am being tested for two things; the state of inflammation in my GI tract, and a bacterial infection that is very common in people with IBD. Out of the two, I honestly don’t know which I would prefer – perhaps the bacteria infection as it could be addressed with antibiotics, and after that, I should go back into recovery and then remission (we hope). However, it is much more likely that it will be inflammation and I will therefore need to make some scary choices.

My current IBD prescribed medication consists of oral standard medication three times a day, oral steroids once a day, rectal steroids once a day, and rectal standard medication once a day. Despite this being a lot, they are all easy to take and are all chemical medications (from my understanding). However, once IBD gets to a point where this type of medication is not working, you must move on to a medication called biologics – which scares the hell out of me. We spoke about my options this morning during my follow-up appointment. There are several biologics for IBD, all of which are administered one of two ways (or both). We discussed my options and what would likely be the best for me considering my frequent travelling and toing and froing from the UK. All of them sound horrendous. Biologics are administered either by an infusion in the hospital every four weeks, or every eight weeks at home by a self-administered injection (after 1 IV in the hospital before the treatment starts). I am honestly beyond terrified. All of this makes me feel like I am dying. I know that is not the case, but I didn’t know that people with IBD had treatment like this on such a frequent basis. I fear needles and the thought of injecting myself scares me to death, but at the same time, that is a much more convenient method than having to go to the hospital every month when I am travelling often and not always based in DC. I feel so sad and depressed. I just want to be well and part of me wonders if I will ever be well ever again.

Time like this I think back to being diagnosed and people were surprised that I did not go into super panic mode. I didn’t cry at the diagnosis, I just thought it was nothing, not a big deal yet now I realise that I don’t think I ever really took my diagnosis as seriously as I should.

[Blog title: Wake Me Up (When This Nightmare's Over) - Simple Plan].

6 notes · View notes

unwelcomebraininvaders · 3 years

Text

Background info

Unwelcome invaders of my brain

i decided to share this story for anyone who is interested for two reasons:

1. I believe in the power of prayer and/or intentional thoughts to heal. I could use all the prayers/intentions you can send my way starting Oct. 12.

2. It seems therapeutic at this point to write about this.

So here we go:

The first symptoms:

Back at the end of 2020 I had what I presumed was an upper respiratory infection and plugged right ear. Someone I work with had the same symptoms so I thought nothing of it. After this went on for a month or so I made an appointment with the ENT. They treated me with steroids and my symptoms did not go away. I went back and they tested my hearing. The Dr. ordered an MRI without telling me what he was suspicious of. I assumed some blockage in my ear.

The first MRI:

I go for this MRI. The next day I get an email the the results are posted in MyChart. I look at the results and they talk about two different kinds of tumors. I call my ENT and tell the front desk--"hey I'm kind of freaking out--my MRI report is posted to MyChart and it's talking about me having two different kinds of brain tumors--I don't have an appointment to see the ENT for another week. Can you get me in sooner?" The receptionist--"hmm...let me look....No sorry can't see you for a week" In my mind " @$!&*" Okay...it's up to me to look this up on Dr. Google and see what I'm dealing with. I google--Ok well at least they appear to both be benign--that's a relief. Can I just tell you the panic of not even knowing if they were cancerous or benign and having no Dr. appt for a whole week!

The ENT Visit a week later

Him: "It turns out you have an Acoustic Neuroma which is a benign brain tumor...blah blah blah "

Me in my mind: "No shit -- you are now proceeding to tell me everything I just spent the last week researching online" "Do you actually think I didn't look at the MRI report the day it was posted to MyChart"

Now what

So I spend the next several weeks researching whether to have radiation to try to kill the tumor or surgery to remove the tumor. I talk with two doctors who do radiation and three doctors who do surgery. The two who do radiation think I'm a good candidate for radiation. Two of the surgeons think I should do surgery. The third surgeon thinks I can go either way. Great! A tie!! So helpful....not! People in my personal life advocate for radiation since it's less invasive--so that becomes the tie breaker.

Radiation

I take the week off work and have radiation. It's every day for 5 days. I feel tired during that week and the following week...but then it's pretty much back to normal. Other than the hearing loss...I feel like my normal self again! Yay! This was too easy. (yes it was too easy)

3 months later

Wow I have an earache on my radiated side and feel like maybe I have a sinus infection. Go to the PA at the ENT's office....she gives me a CT scan and prescribes an antibiotic for my "infection" and steroid for my "swelling" A few days later...the pain is now stabbing in my ear and radiating down to my jaw and the right side of my neck. Hmmm...that doesn't seem normal. ENT's office is closed...talk to the ENT on call...he looks at my CT scan..."you don't have an infection" (great! so I've been taking antibiotics for nothing) Just continue taking the steroid. Fine....so now I'm also on 3000mg per day of over the counter pain meds just to keep myself somewhat out of pain. 3 weeks later I talk to the Radation oncology PA. She puts my on a different steroid. Take that for a week....no change. Finally after a month of lots of pain meds and steroids...the pain magically goes away to replaced by....facial paralysis.

Facial paralysis

Alright this kind of sucks. My right eye won't blink and the right side of my mouth doesn't do what it should. But at least the pain is gone!! So make appointments with my care team to discuss paralysis...they do another MRI. "ooh look at the the center of the tumor died like it was supposed to" uhh that's great I guess but there are some quality of life issues with a partially paralyzed face. "well we have never had a patient with your kind of tumor have facial paralysis after radiation" "we'd like you to have Avastin infusions". I think to myself--well you guys seem pretty smart...let's try it.

Avastin Infusion

It took 6 nurses to find a blood vessel to get my bloodwork done and start the IV. SIX!! Do blood vessels hide if you're scared They must. The next day oh my the pain on the side of my face again! After two weeks of respite from the pain I was oh so sad for it to be back again. I call the care team...their response "hmm...that's odd this infusion shouldn't cause pain". Umm well it did.

Exploring my next steps

Once a tumor has been radiated it is more challenging to remove. So I call up one of the top surgeons of these kinds of tumors and ask for him to let me know what my next step should be. His patient care coordinator says he actually wants to speak with me...so we have a phone call. I'm expecting him to say..."if after x number of months you aren't getting better then you should consider surgery". What he says instead is "you should get this tumor removed as soon as possible" OK then. I said, can it wait a month -- He said, sooner is better.

Timing is not the best

I guess the only way timing for something like this could be better is if you have surgery when there is no hurry. But with this timeline my challenges are:

1. I have an office remodel starting 5 days before I leave to fly down for surgery.

2. I am in the midst of hiring a new doctor. When do I onboard her

This unwanted tenant will be evicted Oct. 12

This is top priority

2 notes · View notes

fightagainstcovid · 3 years

Text

Fight Against Covid

Before we talk about Fight Against Flu it is important to understand communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCD - also referred to as chronic disease). Communicable diseases are those that are caused by germs and they spread from one person to another. Non-communicable diseases on the other hand do not spread from one person to another, they last longer and progress slowly. Most common NCD are Heart Disease, Diabetes, Respiratory disorders like Asthma and COPD, Cancer, Arthritis, GI disorders etc. Challenges of managing communicable vs. non communicable diseases are vastly different and they are managed through different strategies. The strategies used to fight communicable disease are – develop immunity against the pathogen using a vaccine, breaking the chain of infection, treat the infected person using approved therapies.

It has been observed that the immune responses to the virus develop severe patches in the lungs. Hence, in order to manage these patches, the standard treatment followed at present is use of anticoagulants. If that does not work, then start with steroids on day 5 – 6 after the onset of Covid.

Before I go further into the reasons for lung infection and its subsequent treatment, I would like to share my own story. I have suffered from GERD for a very long time. GERD is accompanied by comorbid conditions like Asthma, and/or COPD. My lungs became very weak with severe phlegm and cough all the time. Additionally, I used to get fever every three months. Whether this was some bacterial infection or viral/flu is difficult for me to say because I had all symptoms viral fever but my doctors always prescribed antibiotics and I got better with that. Meanwhile, I started experiments with Yoga and diet management to deal with my GERD and lungs related problems. During this time I realized that my symptoms, particularly coughing, would aggravate whenever I had intestinal spasms. Over the next few years I focused on this aspect which I am going to explain now.

In my view intestinal spasms have an important role to play in most lungs related problems. And if we can manage intestinal spasms we can reduce the impact on lungs.

Let me introduce one more topic here – the Bristol Stool Scale.

The Bristol stool scale is a diagnostic medical tool designed to classify the form of human faeces into seven categories. It was developed at the Bristol Royal Infirmary as a clinical assessment tool in 1997. The scale is defined as follows.

Type 1: Separate hard lumps, like nuts (difficult to pass and can be black)

Type 2: Sausage-shaped, but lumpy

Type 3: Sausage shaped with cracks (can be black)

Type 4: Sausage shaped, smooth and soft (average stool)

Type 5: Soft blobs with clear cut edges

Type 6: Fluffy pieces with ragged edges, a mushy stool (diarrhoea)

Type 7: Watery, no solid pieces, entirely liquid (diarrhoea)

Type 1 and 2 indicate constipation,

Type 3 and 4 ideal stool condition

Type 5 indicating lack of dietary fiber

Type 6 and 7 indicate diarrhoea

What I observed is that intestinal spasms have a strong correlation to the Bristol stool scale and that if we can maintain a patient, suffering from lung infection, at the type 3 and 4 on the BSS it would ease out their symptoms including fever. Following chart explains the relationship between BSS and fever.

In case of COVID 19 or any viral infection if a person is kept on a diet that would help a patient’s stool formation to be at Type 3 or 4 then time to recovery would be faster and require less hospital resources.

I recommend a high fruit diet which will help in bringing the fever back to normal with 24 – 36 hours. Once fever is under control Covid infection will go away in 1 to 2 week time.

Here are some key features of the high fruit diet:

Start the day with a fruit. No coffee/tea etc.

Give a gap between fruit and breakfast

Give atleast 4 hour gap between breakfast and lunch. During this time, have only fruits. No snacks/tea/coffee etc.

Follow each meal with a fruit within 20 – 30 min

Again give a 4 hour gap between lunch and dinner

Finish dinner before 6 PM

End the day with a fruit or salad after dinner

I am sharing my personal encounter with Covid 19. So far I have been able to help 8 patients recover from Covid – 6 in first wave and 2 in second wave.

My In-laws

In August 2020, my in-laws tested positive for Covid 19. Both in their mid 70s, one of them being a cancer patient too, were quite scared of getting admitted to the hospital. Both had been running fever for past few days and were feeling weak. However, their condition was not serious. So, we opted for home isolation and I decided to stay with them. From the start of the pandemic I have felt that high fruit diet is a best solution to cure a Covid 19 infection. I put them on high fruit diet which brought their fever down within 24 hours. They did not develop fever after that and fully recovered in 5 days. I, having stayed in close contact with them, throughout this period, have not had any infection either.

My Wife and Daughter

In November 7, 2020 my wife also got Covid infection. She tested with CT value of 16. A day later my daughter also complained of severe headache and high fever. Both got isolated at home in one room. Again, we treated them with high fruit diet treatment. Both recovered from fever and headache in 36 hours. We got second RTPCR test done after 14 days. My wife still tested positive even though she had fully recovered and had no symptoms. Best part of this plan is that it does not leave the person with weakness or any after-effects.

My Neighbor

In Feb 2021 my neighbor knocked on my door. She said that her daughter in-law who lives in Dubai has tested positive for Covid. She was running fever of about 100 C for three days and on the fourth day her fever shot up to 102 C. My neighbor wanted to know how did we manage Covid when my wife had it. I asked her to share the contact of her daughter in-law and I will discuss with her. Again, I suggested her the same high fruit diet and within 24 hrs her fever had come to normal. She still had diarrhea for another day but she fully recovered in 3 days.

My Friend post Covid

A friend of mine suffered from Covid and got admitted to the hospital. I got to know of his condition after 7-8 days of his treatment at the hospital. He had mostly recovered by then but he was feeling very week. I suggested him the same high fruit diet. His doctors did not allow him fruits while his stay in the hospital. However, after his discharge he followed my diet plan. He said that he greatly benefited following the diet plan and returned to normal life very quickly.

A friend observed Covid symptoms. He contacted me and started following the diet plan as I recommended. It took a week for him to fully recover. He did not get into any complications except fever for 4 days. This was in the second wave of the Covid

A neighbor tested positive for covid he recovered within one day by taking high fruit diet for his dinner.

Munish Aggarwal

About the Author

I have been leading IT solutions for Healthcare for about 25 years. During this time I have managed multiple different type of projects including clinical trials for pharmaceutical drugs, Healthcare analytics to support population health and wellness. I have also done a certification in Population Health Nutrition from Indian Institute of Population Health.

1 note · View note

omegawizardposting · 4 years

Text

For those just tuning in, here’s a breakdown of the past month or so leading up to Walter’s passing. I feel like I left out a lot of details, and some of you might think, “Wow, that was sudden!” when really, it wasn’t sudden at all.

It started with a tooth.

When he stopped eating and started grinding his teeth, we knew he must have either an awful lot of plaque build-up, or a bad tooth. Since it was a minor, but expensive, procedure, we took him to the low-cost vet down the street, who gave him a good cleaning and extracted the bad tooth we’d all expected was hiding somewhere in the back of his mouth.

However, he soon stopped eating again. Back to the low-cost vet he went, where he was diagnosed with a painful condition known as tooth resorption; basically, it’s when a cat’s immune system attacks the enamel of their teeth and essentially destroys them. The doctor put him on steroids for a month, but warned he may need a full mouth extraction.

For about a week, he did well, but on New Year’s Eve, he stopped eating yet again. The low-cost vet listened to his lungs this time, and claimed that he may have aspiration pneumonia caused by my improper administration of the steroids; he gave Walter a shot of steroids and another of a two-week antibiotic.

I was devastated. I blamed myself.

Yet still, he did not improve. The low-cost vet suggested an x-ray, and so we took Walter to our full service vet, who diagnosed him with regular pneumonia, not aspiration pneumonia. It was most likely caused by the anesthesia; this can happen when people are anesthetized as well. She prescribed him an appetite stimulant to make sure he ate while he healed.

Then she prescribed another antibiotic.

Then we went back for his follow-up x-ray yesterday.

The pneumonia had spread. She told us it could be a genetic heart disease, and ran a test; fortunately, it was not. I cried in relief. I sobbed right there in the room. She prescribed us a different antibiotic and a steroid, to be taken for two weeks. It may have been resistant to antibiotics, she said, and told us that if this didn’t work, a culture would be necessary.

A very expensive culture.

A $1,200 culture.

I didn’t know how I was going to tell my mother. Now I wish I’d had to. I wish I’d had to face the music, because it would mean I hadn’t found the lemon-sized lump in Walter’s leg. It would mean I hadn’t had to rush him back to the vet. It would mean I hadn’t had to sit there as the vet told me it was cancer, a very aggressive form that had already metastasized to his lungs.

It was supposed to be a bad tooth, and it ended up being cancer.

Walter was my soul mate. No matter how stressed or frustrated I’ve been this past month or so, I was always desperate to help him in any way I could. I administered his medicines diligently. I syringe-fed him when he wouldn’t eat. I followed him as he had me, for so many years, so that when he lost his energy, I could carry him back to a comfortable place.

I have never loved a cat as much as I loved him--and I will never love so strongly again. Losing him, especially after trying so hard to save him, has utterly devastated me. There are so many things I miss about him already, his constant presence most of all.

After all of that, all of his fighting, all of his determination, I knew it was time to let him rest. He was tired, and a cat his age should never, ever feel that way. He deserved to go peacefully, and so he did, wrapped up in a blanket, in my arms, staring into my eyes.

I know a lot of you loved him through me, so I wanted to give you the full story. Please know that he felt no pain and no fear; I was there with him to the last moment.

16 notes · View notes

ravensmuse · 5 years

Text

Okay so I promised y’all a medical update--

I had a whole lot of bullshit going on and I felt awful for a few weeks. I was exhausted, my stomach felt raw all the time and I was nauseated. I was also starving, constantly, but I lost some weight unintentionally and I was concerned that it was something serious. It’s not like I don’t have enough to deal with already. So now I have a few more diagnoses and a few treatments that are helping a lot.

Iron Deficiency Anemia- I lose a lot of blood for various reasons and I started taking a supplement. This one is great: Blood Builder

Insulin Resistance: GUYS! I’ve probably had PCOS for forever but other than birth control, none of my doctors did anything. After checking my A1C and seeing that it was normal but with some bonkers recent blood sugar numbers (unpredictably low, slightly too high, etc.) my Primary Care doc said the discoloration on my neck is TEXTBOOK PCOS so she out me on metformin. I saw the Diabetes Dietician to see if she had any suggestions about lowering my carb intake with fiber intolerance and it was a fucking disaster. They knew nothing about managing Crohn’s disease and they basically shrugged off any questions I had. Anyway, we’re doing the metformin thing and seeing how that goes.

Sinus Bullshit- This is the best part. I’ve had chronic sinus infections for years, despite multiple sinus surgeries. I’ve taken so many antibiotics. My ENT prescribed a steroid sinus rinse, it’s like a saline packet you put in one of these sinus rinse bottles but with an added powdered steroid. GUY! I can breathe! Zero sinus drainage. I hate using it, and it’s fucking awful, but it works! No more sinus pain, no more sinus headaches, no more of those weird sniffles. Preventing the infection is SO important so that I don’t have to take antibiotics that could cause CDiff. If you’re having constant sinus problems, get yourself some sinus rinse. And if you have problems with your immune system talk to an ENT about a budesonide rinse.

Sleep Apnea- I’m wearing the mask, the CPAP is good, the mask keep sliding up my nose, but because of the sinus rinse I can breathe out of my nose all night long! I’ve never been able to do that before!

CRAMPS- I had a uterine ablation last month and I’ve barely had any cramps since. No breakthrough bleeding, nothing. The cramps were pretty much gone two days after surgery. Since the metformin will help with the PCOS this should get MUCH better.

#sick life #ibd #iron deficiency #anemia #sleep apnea #cpap #pcos #insulin resistance #chronic sinus infections #uterine ablation

6 notes · View notes

thegoldenlily3 · 5 years

Text

Part 1of 2

Trigger warning! Graphic photos in this post.

4-6-17 In the very first photo, I have a horrible tooth ache and had no idea the pain and agony it was going to bring. It ultimately changed my life and for a very long time it was changed for the worse. In the photos following, you’ll see me change and look like death and then recover. You’ll see me living life to the fullest but behind closed doors or under my shirt rather, you’ll see how much I’ve had to overcome. This is my story.

On October 30th 2013, I had a colonoscopy and was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis(UC) which is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease(IBD) and an autoimmune disease. I was prescribed Canasa suppositories and my symptoms when away for about a year or so and then came back. I had to get a new Gastroenterologist doctor because my previous one had retired. He wasn’t much help anyway. My new GI doctor was amazing and caring and she saved my life. She prescribed me Lialda(NSAID) and Uceris(steroid).

At the end of March 2017, I had horrible tooth pain and called my dentist and they prescribed me Tramadol and Augmentin. The Tramadol made me sick so I called and had them switch the med and they gave me Clindamycin and that made me sick too. They gave me Hydrocodone and that also made me sick so they just had me taking Ibuprofen and Augmentin. I started to have a bad reaction to the Augmentin and got sores all in my throat and mouth and was throwing up and had severe diarrhea. I finished the antibiotic but went to the er because of the pain in my mouth and the vomiting. Mary’s magic mouthwash was prescribed to me to help with the sores and also nausea meds. The only time I was able to get any sleep was when this mouthwash numbed my mouth and throat. For weeks, I was unable to eat or drink anything nor was I able to take my UC meds and my heart rate was high. I went to the er multiple times during this whole ordeal because I couldn’t stop throwing up and all they would do is give me fluids and nausea meds then send me home. I went to an er and waited for 3 hours all the while throwing up with no end in sight and ended up leaving to go to a different hospital. On April 15th, I was pacing the house back and forth because I was miserable and didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to go to the er yet again for them to just send me right back home. I remember I was pacing by the front door and my husband Issaac went to check the mail. I watched him and then started to say his name over and over because I felt like something was really wrong. Next thing I remember is Issaac kneeling over me and having shoes stabbing me in the back. I had passed out and my eyes were open the whole time but I was unresponsive. Issaac had ran in and thought I was dead. He called 911 and they wouldn’t answer. He used my finger to unlock my phone and dialed 911 and had both phones ringing and finally got an answer. (Fun fact for iPhones: if you press the big button on the side it will call 911 and they can track your location. Dialing 911 will not allow them to track your location.) The ambulance took me to the er and they did 2 EKG’s, CT scan(only after Issaac asked them to because I hit my head when I fell.), chest X-ray, and blood work. I was also tested for CDiff many times but it was always negative. Again, I was given fluids and sent home. They said it was normal for a lot of people to live with an elevated heart rate so they weren’t concerned. A couple days later I went to my primary care doctors office. My doctor was on maternity leave so I saw a different doctor. He did blood work and then wanted me to take depression meds. That was a hard NO! He said I wasn’t getting better because I was depressed about being sick. Yes, I was absolutely miserable and sad about it. BUT, there was something more going on. I wasn’t getting better and I knew it wasn’t my fault. I had to keep advocating for myself because I wasn’t getting help from any of these doctors I’ve seen. I think I went to the er again at some point and was sent home. Then they called me and said my potassium levels were too low and they didn’t think I’d be able to get down the prescribed potassium drink. So we went back to the er. Again. The er wouldn’t take the word of the doctor from another hospital so they did blood work again. We went to a different hospital because the wait at the previous one was way too long. So I received potassium through an iv and that is not comfortable. It burned as it went through my arm. I was also given Magnesium. I was sent home the next day.

Even though the sores were finally gone from my mouth, I was still struggling to swallow. I had my GI doctor schedule an upper Endoscopy which I had done on April 20th. My esophagus had no damage and there wasn’t anything stuck in there. While I was under anesthesia, my GI doctor did a Flexible Sigmoidoscopy. This a colonoscopy but only through a small portion of the colon. It was then that I finally, FINALLY after a month of being so sick that I was admitted to the hospital. My doctor said I looked like I was going to die. She said my colon was so severely inflamed that she couldn’t let me go home even though a patient being admitted after a procedure being done by her makes her look bad. She saved my life and I’m eternally grateful. I had 10 er visits and a scheduled dr visit and none of these doctors thought to have my colon checked knowing that I had UC and continued to show anemia in the blood tests they all ran. It all finally made sense. I wasn’t able to take my UC meds and I was taking 800mg of Ibuprofen for the tooth ache I had. This is what caused my UC to flare up. Why couldn’t 11 doctors put that together?

While I was in the hospital, I received 3 Iron infusions to raise my hemoglobin. I also had a speech therapist come in and she helped me with my throat issue. I was still struggling to swallow and she said that I was protecting my self subconsciously. She worked with me and I was finally able to swallow normally. I was so happy to finally eat a meal without a struggle. I was released 5 days later on April 25th even though I felt I should have stayed. The very next day I woke Issaac up because I was shivering and my teeth were rattling like crazy. My heart rate was 145. Issaac called 911 and we went to the er for the 11th time within a months time. I was put in the observation unit at Methodist which was in the basement because they didn’t have any rooms in the er available. I remember telling a nurse that I needed to go to the bathroom and I wasn’t allowed to get up on my own. She said ok and that she’d be back but when she got back, it was too late...She was gone for a long time. I at least was wearing a hospital gown. I was later put into constant care in the er. My heart rate had gone up to 180 and I was shivering and rattling teeth again. It was uncontrollable and the nurses looked at me like I was faking it. They hooked a heart monitor onto me and suddenly changed their tune because my heart rate was at 200. I believe they gave me aspirin and eventually I was transferred to another room where I waited for a permanent room because I was being admitted again. On April 28, I was admitted and I had another night of the shivering episode with my heart rate at 190. I’m trying to remember what this felt like but I can’t. I was so out of it and not even aware of my surroundings. It was on this day that our grass had been cut and it turned out to be our next door neighbor. We were very thankful for that.

A few days later, my heart rate was around 100 and my hemoglobin was much better. The diarrhea had slowed down so I wasn’t losing as much blood(because of UC) but I wasn’t eating either. I had iv fluids and they wanted me to drink Gatorade but my body was retaining fluids and I was swollen. That was a very weird experience. They did an Echo Cardiogram which turned out to be normal. My ejection fraction was 65% and 55% or above is considered normal. I know this is what they said but I don’t really know what that means. On April 30th, I received a blood transfusion because the retest of my hemoglobin showed 6.6 grams per deciliter and it should be for women between 12-15.5. A blood transfusion is scary. For the first 15 minutes, the nurse has to stay and watch me as I receive the blood to make sure I don’t have any adverse reactions and reject the blood. It turned out to be fine and I received at least a pint of blood. I feel I received another pint but I can’t remember. So I’ve been in the hospital for 10 days so far and I’ve been taking a steroid called Prednisone this whole time to treat my UC. I was also on morphine for the pain. I received physical therapy to help me walk but they were 3 days late. It turned out that there wasn’t an order for pt even though the doctors mentioned it every time they visited. On May 2nd, I was in severe pain and I went about 4 hours or longer without pain meds. The doctor was supposed to call them in and ended up leaving for the day without doing it. The next day, my bloodwork still showed inflammation so my colon wasn’t responding to the Prednisone. All the Prednisone did was make my head hurt sooo bad. I was taking Tylenol for it and it did nothing. My head hurt non stop for many days. I had warned them that Prednisone wouldn’t treat me right. I had taken it before and it made me so dizzy I had to have Issaac drive me home from work. This time it was just the severe head pain.

On May 5th 2017, I’m still in the hospital but I’m about to be released. For some reason my doctor was switched to a different doctor. This doctor decided to schedule for a colonoscopy. They gave me the bowel prep to drink with some clear Gatorade. This stuff was horrible. I’m supposed to drink it all within an hour and every minute of it sucked. I somehow managed to get it all down at the end of the hour. But then...I adjusted my body very slightly, and I threw it all up! I didn’t know it was coming and I had zero time to prepare for it. I just threw it all up all over my gown and in my gown and all over the blankets. I said to them, “I don’t understand why I have to do this. I have had severe diarrhea and I can’t even eat. There’s nothing in my stomach.” But they made me do the prep again... This time I drank it over the course of like 4 hours and managed to get it down without throwing up. I had the colonoscopy which they said went fine...I was still severely inflamed and they wanted to start me on a biological medicine called Humira and continue the steroids. During a colonoscopy, they insert a colonoscope into your bottom that transmits an image of the lining of the colon. The scope blows air to expand the colon so the doctor can see better. Well, after the procedure I was actually feeling alright but I had so much pressure in my belly and I felt like I needed to poop. I tried over and over to go on the toilet and it just wasn’t happening. But finally, it happened. And I was in bed...The nurses hadn’t been in for a long time and didn’t plan to be in for awhile. I was so embarrassed that I had Issaac clean me before they came in. Imagine a father changing a dirty diaper and gagging the whole time. This was Issaac and he kept running to the toilet afraid he was going to puke. To this day, we still laugh about it. It doesn’t matter how horrible the whole experience was, I can still laugh about it. Later that day, I was feeling a lot of pain and they had moved me to a different room with closer care. I remember this floor had some of the best nurses I’d ever had. Hospital policy was that a patient was to be bathed when changing floors. Issaac stood out in the hall as they transferred me from one bed to the other. This was an out of body experience and I can remember it so vividly. As they raised me off the bed, I started screaming in pain and continued to moan in pain after they transferred me to the new bed. I didn’t have any pain meds but I shouldn’t have been in pain. They were ordered not to give me pain meds because the doctor wanted me to be clear headed when they talked to me. I could tell the nurses felt so badly for me because of how much pain I was in. Issaac could hear me screaming down the hall. i was finally given multiple doses of morphine but it didn’t really touch the pain. I then had a CT scan done to see why I was in so much pain. The CT showed air outside of my colon which meant that the doctor had perforated my bowel during the colonoscopy. They started me on antibiotics and said a surgeon would be in to speak with me about possibly removing my entire colon. The surgeon came in and discussed my options. I either stuck with the antibiotics and steroids to see if I heal or I have the surgery. They said it was very unlikely that my colon would recover because there wasn’t any good colon left. I would have had to take a biological medicine for my UC which meant that my immune system would be even weaker and I wouldn’t be able to work in the Microbiology lab where I was currently employed. Even then, there was a slim chance of recovery. She said that even if I didn’t have a perforation, that this surgery was inevitable in my case. I cried and cried and cried. I asked her if I would still be able to have children and she said yes and that she would put extra tissue around my ovaries to protect them. A lot of people said I should get a second opinion but I wasn’t in that state of mind. All I could think about was being able to have children. I also did not want to be on medicine for the rest of my life.

On May 6th 2017, I decided to have the surgery. I had a total abdominal colectomy and an ileostomy surgery. My entire larger intestines was removed and they pulled my small intestines outside my stomach wall and created what’s called a stoma. The stoma is covered with a bag that has adhesive on it to stick to my skin. I essentially poop in a bag. I wish I remember more from this time. I can’t remember what it was like waking up to this. I do remember emptying my bag into the toilet though when I was finally able to walk. I couldn’t go alone though. I had to call the nurse every time I wanted to use the bathroom and there was an alarm on the bed if I tried to get up. One time I let it go off and went anyway because I had called them saying I need to go to the bathroom and they took too long. I don’t blame them. Each nurse had way too many patients to care for. At this point, my arms were completely black from all of the blood draws and IVs I received. Each nurse that came to draw my blood was so confident that they could get it even though I told them they wouldn’t be able to without the ultra sound machine. I had a nurse poke me 3 times and one of those times was in my thumb. Every time, they always had to call the team with the ultra sound to draw my blood. I had a Russian nurse for a few days and she was really hard to understand as her accent was strong. My issue with her was that she wouldn’t listen to me and would disagree with everything I said. I had been in the hospital for a few weeks so I knew what to do and I knew what my body could handle. I also had a male nurse who led me to ask my case manager if I could only have female nurses. I didn’t have a problem with the fact that he was a man. My problem was that he was too rough and he probably didn’t know it. I didn’t blame him for that but it was hurting me unnecessarily. He also forced me to walk to the bathroom on my own without help when I wasn’t supposed to be alone. I started taking walks with a walker through the halls after getting pt. Everyone who passed me cheered me on. It was extremely hard. They say every day you spend in bed is 3 days off of your life expectancy. I had been in bed for basically a month or so. After this surgery, I was on a morphine pump which I controlled and Oxycodone. The oxy kept me loopy. I was on 15 mg every dose. I hated taking it. I didn’t worry as much with the morphine as it didn’t really work for me. It helped give me relief for a few minutes but then faded. I pushed that pump button every time I was able to though. It was every 15 minutes. On May 12th, I finally went home.

Through the next couple of weeks, I had follow up appointments with my GI doctor and my surgeon. When I went to see my GI doctor, I told her about some pain I was having on my bottom. The pain from it made it very hard to walk or move or even sleep. She said it looked like an abscess but to confirm with my surgeon. So I went to see my surgeon and for some reason on that day I was pain free and happy so she didn’t think it was concerning. On May 26th I went to the er for the 12th time. I had a fever and was in so much pain. The er took me back immediately since I had just had surgery and they feared I was septic. It turned out to be an abscess and they took me into surgery to drain it. I was given anesthesia because of how much pain I was in. Thankfully I wasn’t septic and this turned out better than they originally thought. I guess since I was on steroids for so long, my body wasn’t able to fight off an infection so the abscess was very large and inflamed. I received another unit of blood and I still had a fever for a few days. The antibiotics were making me sick and I was really struggling to eat. Between the beginning of April and it now being the end of May, I had lost 30 pounds unintentionally. May 31 2017, I was released from the hospital for the third and final time.

Over the next few weeks, I was walking around the neighborhood and family and friends were coming to help care for me so Issaac could go back to work. I started to taper off the Oxy and that was not fun. I was taking such a high dose that I would nod off mid conversation. When I would wake, I would feel like I slept for hours when it was really only minutes and I would get upset because I was so tired and never really got rest. Even though I was high, I remember how I felt and the things I did. I remember trying to dance with Issaac in the kitchen when he was walking me through the house. I remember contacting people on fb that I hadn’t talked to in a long time. All I wanted to do was talk. I was oddly cheerful and accepted my situation. Anyone who really knows me knows that I am a half glass empty kind of person so this was unusual for me. I didn’t realize all of this until after I tapered off the oxy. My Dad was the only person who told me he was worried that when I came down, I would not feel the same. He knew that it wasn’t really me. I remember going to the ball park to watch a softball game with family and I ended up having to leave because I was in pain and I didn’t bring the Oxy with me. I started to cry because I was so embarrassed and sad that I wasn’t strong enough yet to be at one of my favorite places in the world. On June 18th, I was tapering and I had to have Issaac come home because I was feeling horrible and I couldn’t stop crying about it. I called him because I was home alone at this point because I could finally walk to the bathroom alone and make my own food. So I had to call in another order of Oxy to taper down slower because I was trying to go too fast and I was having withdrawal symptoms. I really don’t know why anyone would want to go through that. Eventually, I was completely off the Oxy and I was so happy to not have any withdrawal symptoms.

So Issaac went back to work after spending every single day with me in the hospital. I didn’t have short term disability because there was some confusion when we signed up for insurance together. I tried to appeal and it was denied Mid June, people from work hosted a bake sale at work to raise money for me. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. I never felt that I had people in my life who cared enough to do something like this. Someone also created a go fund me page as well. I was overcome with shame, shock, and most importantly gratitude for such amazing acts of kindness. Issaac handed me the money that was raised and I just lost it. I was so emotional and just couldn’t believe that this was real life. I feel like this whole ordeal is something you hear about happening but never think that it’ll happen to you. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who contributed to raising money and helping me get better and for all of the continuous prayers during this time.

July 4th 2017, I finally returned to work. You can see through all of the photos around this time and the rest of the year that I was enjoying life the best I could. In October 2017, I started to have issues with my skin under my bag. This became an issue off and on for over a year. I had been using the same brand of products since surgery for a year and then all of a sudden I couldn’t use it anymore without having an allergic reaction. My skin would start weeping and oozing and was extremely itchy. It also burned badly which over powered the itchiness. Throughout the year of 2018 I struggled with this a lot but I still went on living. The photos I provided are to show how one day I’m very low spirited and the next day I’m blissful. And I was. I was very blessed to enjoy time with family and to go on vacation with Issaac to the Niagara Falls and to go Gen Con. Gen Con was really hard. There was so much walking and I was so weak and still hadn’t built muscles back up. If I stood on my tippy toes, I would fall over from the pain in my calves. Standing outside in the food truck lines was the worst. The heat was making me sweat and interfering with the adhesive of my ostomy bag. Little did I know that this incident would make my skin worse than it ever was before. The photos are a reminder to me of what I’ve overcome. I wanted to create a timeline and show myself how strong our bodies really are. If you’ve read this far, thank you. Part 2 will be posted soon.

13 notes · View notes

yeschaoticsheepstarlightposts · 4 years

Text

THE US HEALTHCARE SYSTEM + THE TROUBLE WITH CHRONIC DISEASE

ADRIENNE NOLAN-SMITH may be a board-certified patient advocate and therefore the personal health journey that inspired her career is only too familiar…

When she was 11, Adrienne was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Her conventional doctor prescribed antibiotics and that they didn’t work, her mother was then told there have been no other options.

Two years and multiple integrative therapies later, Adrienne was Lyme-free.

Time and again, when Adrienne saw conventional doctors, her experience was the same: the basis explanation for her chronic conditions was rarely solved for — nor did many doctors consider a cure for a root cause a priority. they only treated symptoms

Adrienne has now founded WellBe, a media platform “focused on bridging the gap between our healthcare system and therefore the wellness movement to assist people to prevent and reverse chronic health issues naturally”. We love her mission and asked her to share a couple of top concerns with our current US medical system below…

If you’d told me once I was in high school that my lifelong mission would be to rework the healthcare system by starting a consumer-led revolution, I might have laughed in your face. But that's exactly what it's become. I’ve never been as determined to ascertain something throughout my life.

You probably heard about healthcare reform during a previous couple of elections, and you'll even remember buzz words being thrown around like the Affordable Care Act, insurance premiums, drug prices, etc. To anyone who has not been a chronic disease patient, a caretaker of 1 or who hasn’t worked within the healthcare system, it’s a confusing mess – one you hope to never need to affect or understand.

Based on my personal experiences as a patient, caretaker, and from the several years I spent working with hospitals, I think there are three main reasons why the healthcare system is broken — and that they might not be the explanations you’ve heard about.

I could write a book on the history of our current healthcare system and the way it's developed since the 1940s. I’ll keep it brief and say that our system is that the best within the world at treating acute, emergencies. Run over by a car? Got a stomach bug traveling in India? and how you would like the complete power of the American healthcare system to save lots of your life. And this is often how our whole system of drugs developed over the past century, to save lots of lives from things like polio, influenza, cholera, freak accidents and more. And it's done that well.

What it hasn’t done well, and didn’t take under consideration back within the day, is that without going to the basis explanation for a chronic health issue – say, eczema, constipation, or migraines – you’re just placing a band-aid on a condition that needs a way deeper look. It can mean prescribing drugs that simply mask – and don't treat – symptoms. once you do that, you'll reduce or maybe eliminate that symptom temporarily, but you're likely causing harm by not deciding why it’s happening within the first place. it's going to still worsen. If you employ steroids to suppress the system or introduce drugs or surgeries – and their side effects – you'll introduce an entire host of other health issues.

I’ve heard this described as a game of whack-a-mole: you treat one symptom, then your body pops up with another: ‘Hey, I want help in here! I attempted to inform you last week thereupon rash but you ignored it so here I'm again with this stomach pain! ‘

The U.S. healthcare system’s conventional approach to chronic health issues creates an incredible amount of waste treatment, money and time and, most significantly, doesn't’ return the body to a state where it can heal itself without some kind of crutch, sort of a drug.

You’ve probably noticed that doctors, hospitals, labs, and just about the entire system only gets paid once you get sick. If you stay healthy, they create tons of less money. The more treatments they are doing or drugs they prescribe, the more they create. People answer incentives — it’s attributed, we all do. And our healthcare system gives every incentive to stay treating symptoms rather than digging into the basis causes and enabling the body to heal itself because, simply, if they did the payments would end there. (Editor’s Note: Some natural healthcare groups have advocated for a health-based – not sickness-based – healthcare cost systems. They’re complex, but not the maximum amount as you’d think and would signify an enormous shift to the way we approach chronic care).

Most folks have some quite an insurance. you'll be conversant in the thought of in-network doctors versus out-of-network and therefore the things that are covered versus people who aren't. Insurance companies outline exactly which sorts of treatments we will get that thing, and which sorts of doctors we will see. this technique has created a situation where if you can’t disburse of pocket, you'll not have access to needed care. If you’d wish to try acupuncture to treat back pain, or a Chinese herbalist to treat a gut issue, or a replacement experimental treatment for depression and you don’t have piles of money lying around, it’s impossible.

Worst of all, it’s all supported disease-related codes, so most insurance companies won't cover things which will be more preventative (like acupuncture or chiropractic look after moderate back pain that you simply want to stop from becoming severe requiring pain medications or surgery later). Most of all, it means there's a scarcity of health freedom for people that don’t have money to spend on their health out of pocket. And, sadly, those are the people that are usually the sickest.

What does one consider Adrienne’s ideas about the US healthcare system? have you ever encountered ideas about integrative medicine or reform that you simply admire

1 note · View note

donnerpartyofone · 5 years

Text

TL;DR - i finally got an MRI for my ear, which has been fucked up and constantly clogged since september and developed tinnitus in february, and apparently, supposedly, there is nothing wrong with it. so there’s nothing to do about it. so just like with my eye and my skin and my lung and my etc, i have a problem that i can’t do anything about, that i can’t even get the satisfaction of a diagnosis for, and i’m so pissed off about how much time and energy i’ve spent trying to improve things for myself when there was absolutely no point in doing so, that i just want to set my body on fire to really show it what i think of it.

i’m so, so mad. the last couple of months have been almost nothing but wall to wall doctor’s appointments, and with zero exception, they have all been a complete waste of time. it hurts because my body tortures me, of course, but it hurts worse than that because i convinced myself that i HAD to do this, that it was Mature to face my fear of doctors and generally the Right Thing to Do, when i absolutely didn’t want to do any of this at all.

i suffer a lot from an internalized impression of myself as being lazy, defeatist, and dramatic. it comes from a lot of places. i grew up in an environment where i was the only open depression sufferer, under one parent who definitely considered depression to be an antisocial behavioral problem, to be treated like any other shallow cry for attention. i also grew up in an environment full of obvious talents, all of whom would go on to be published, or even public figures, and not to be a complete asshole, but the idea that “you can do anything you put your mind to” is kept alive by people who have the baseline talent necessary to succeed at things they put their minds to. if you subscribe to the idea that success requires nothing other than commitment, then the implication is that all failure is a matter of laziness, petulance, and defeatism--never lack, never inferiority, never ordinariness. on top of all this, my personal interests--horror, sexually graphic media, comics, underground music movements, the usual roundup of morbid or antisocial cultural items--were considered pretty much...well, not very adult. so what i’m coming to is that if i can’t prove my adulthood in any way that has to do with who i am or what i’m capable of, then the very least i can do is Be Responsible. (and of course i get made fun of all the time for being an uptight rule follower but JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, LITERALLY WHAT ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO DO)

one of the main ways you can Be Responsible, if you have the means that is, is to look after your health. the world is full of icky, boring, degrading, depersonalizing, and occasionally painful tasks that are necessary to keep the societal cogs turning. if you can’t make art or have ideas or be beautiful or become an athlete or whatever, you can still show that you’re alive and generally hygienic by going to the dmv, voting, showing up for jury selection, or going to the doctor. you can still grasp the final shred of integrity offered to you by doing things no one wants to do, but that we know are necessary for the vitality of self and society. so i’m extra good at doing stuff that people my age frequently shirk--the dentist appointments, the doing your taxes the second the forms come in, etc--because they’re sort of the only things i can do that prove that i’m not, you know, a complete piece of shit.

so this year, at the start of february, i decided i was going to get a real handle on my health. i’d been going to doctors for various things already, of course, even though it was pretty much never satisfying; the only thing i can think of that ever got fixed or explained was the pathological growth of scar tissue over my eyeballs, which required some pretty fucked up surgery. but at this time, i had a lot of problems building up. my left eye developed a small spot, and a constant glare that borders on having double vision. my right ear remained completely stuffed up since i had a cold last fall, and began to ring constantly at the end of the winter. my right lung has felt alarmingly tight and weak for...years actually. the right side of my face is constantly beet red, like i go fresh with somebody’s wife, and i can see how it’s thickening and bending my flesh all out of shape, which rosacea will do progressively and incurably throughout your entire life. i decided that instead of quaking in fear of doctors, and also in fear of wasted time, i was going to straighten my back and go nip this shit in the bud. after all, when you’re miserable but not doing anything about it, people kind of hate you, and then you have THAT problem on top of all your real problems. sometimes you gotta give the people what they want.

so how did it all go?

my skin: since no insurance company considers rosacea a medical problem, which is actually complete fucking bullshit, i decided to take matters into my own hands. i researched what rich people do for their uninsurable problem, and decided to use my recent (traumatic) inheritance to take care of myself. i tried three different preposterously expensive topical treatments that i was told are a “magic bullet” for rosacea, and all of them made my face blow up like a fucking macy’s day balloon. then, after four rounds of extremely expensive, painful and scary laser treatments, i had absolutely no results other than that my face was actually MORE reactive for about a month after the last one. i’m fucked.

my eye: according to my optometrist and ophthalmologist and corneal specialist it’s “just” regular scar tissue from my terrifying surgeries, not the pathological scar tissue that i had to have removed via terrifying surgery and localized chemotherapy. this kind of sucks because it means i can’t just get it removed again, but at least there is a slight chance that my body will reabsorb it like regular scar tissue. (oh yeah? and what’s my luck USUALLY like?) my only “treatment option” is to use eyedrops four times a day, which is actually extremely uncomfortable, and which pretty much means i’m just not allowed to wear makeup ever again.

my lung: after two rounds of clear x-rays and a breathing test that only detected slight asthma, through two GPs and a pulmonologist, nobody has anything to say about why i have this chronic breathing problem. there’s some indication that it might be a “muscular-skeletal problem” that’s putting pressure on the one lung, so i guess i need to add a physical therapist or something to my endless list of specialists.

my ear: two or three trips to urgent care (i forget how many now), two GPs, an ENT, a fucking weird hearing test, and an MRI have done absolutely nothing for me. after a cold with a sinus/ear infection last fall, my right ear remained permanently slammed shut; if i pop it, it closes back up in seconds. i do not have the same problem with the other ear, it is clearly a physical problem. in february, my ear began to ring agonizingly and has not stopped for a second. in all this time, i went through round after round of antibiotics, antihistamines, anti-inflammatories, steroids, etc. nothing works. no one can see any type of problem. apparently i have the option of electing to have a tube surgically inserted into my ear, although i can’t quite figure out what the risk factor is, both for my tinnitus, and for my hearing in general.

and OF COURSE, depression: part of the stigma against depression is that it’s a choice, somehow. like fresh air and exercise and looking on the bright side are so effective that if you’re depressed, it must be because you LIKE IT THAT WAY, because otherwise you would use these simple and free cures for your so-called illness and it would be all over, right? anyway i kind of hate being depressed, and i’ve been working my fucking ass off trying to deal with it. i see a nutritional therapist (a licensed psychiatrist) who prescribed me a number of nutritional supplements that i do think help, but they are unthinkably hard on my stomach. i tried lexapro, and it made me feel so abnormal, and cut into my general quality of life so badly, that i didn’t keep it up. i tried a generic version of wellbutrin, and it made me violently sick to my stomach, and caused my ringing ear to ring deafeningly for days after a single dose. the brand name version wasn’t much better. then i tried lamictal, and felt totally great AND NORMAL for like a week, and then i got the rare and potentially deadly lamictal rash. sometimes this just indicates a basic allergy, and sometimes it indicates Stevens-Johnson Syndrome which causes something called TOXIC EPIDERMAL NECROLYSIS WHICH REQUIRES LONG TERM HOSPITALIZATION TO GROW YOUR SKIN BACK. i had to deal with this on the day of mandatory final exam presentations in a class where i was already struggling, and this was one of the darkest days i can recently remember. after this, my psychiatrist tried to prescribe me abilify, but after i started to hear about the side effects and personal testimony of certain friends, i decided i couldn’t handle it. very possibly, i just cannot be medicated for depression, unless i’m willing to sacrifice everything else around the depression too.

...this is all pretty much a retread of an experience i had for a few years, a few years ago, where i was having these abnormal paps, so they constantly had to drill painful core samples out of my cervix to keep checking up on the NOTHING that was going on in there, until one day they were just like...uh your tests are coming back fine now, and we don’t know why they didn’t before, and it just doesn’t matter, you don’t have to do this anymore PLUS you could have just been sitting on your couch jerking off this entire time and it would have done exactly as much good as this cycle of being humiliated and tortured by doctors in a while that leaves you curled up in a ball sobbing every time. i’m still pretty pissed off about it, if you can’t tell.

so like i don’t know why the fuck i’m doing all this. i don’t know why i do anything. nothing fucking comes from even my most herculean effort except a relentless sense of mystery that is starting to border on satire. i don’t know why i have so many problems. i’m 38 years old and i’m in ok shape. i don’t have generalized immune issues or anything. my doctor said i have some of the best lab work she’s ever seen. why the fuck does all this shit happen to me. i’m trying so fucking hard to enjoy my life. it’s hard to be in mental and physical pain all the time, the latter for absolutely no coherent reason. i mean i’d rather have a bunch of random problems than like, lupus or MS or something, for sure, but everything that happens to me is so meaningless and arbitrary, i’m starting to get that feeling like god hates me. it’s also hard to have the constant feeling that so many people think that failure to enjoy life is exclusively a matter of “not trying hard enough”, being a pill, looking for attention. i don’t know what to do anymore. i’m real pissed. i think what i need is a change of philosophy, which will be a long hard road. at least i know it’s the one and only area where i, and only i, have some level of control. wish me luck.

#long post

13 notes · View notes

katarinasworduniverse-blog · 5 years

Text

Sinus Surgery

I’ve decided to make some posts about my sinus surgery, so those who also require a sinus surgery may have some ideas of what to expect afterward. I felt I was not given enough information myself, and of course had no idea what to ask at the appointment prior, as it was also sprung on me and fairly rushed. I felt somewhat pressured by the doctor but that is not really relevant. I want to focus more so on my experience and what has been working so far.

More info about myself would be I have a sensitive stomach (undiagnosed) and anxiety, which are so far both relevant through my healing process. The surgery I had done was “endoscopic nasal/sinus surgery septoplasty, intranasal/endoscopic ethmoidectomy, removal of polyp, turbinectomy/antrostomy”, or more simplified as polyps, deviated septum, and lots of inflammation. It started with what seemed to be an undying sinus infection, then I traveled and probably made things worse from flying (DO NOT FLY WITH SINUS PROBLEMS), and started seeing an ENT specialist (ear, nose throat) who prescribed a steroid spray which lead to full blockage in my nose, no more smelling, no more tasting, very pressure sensitive as well as cold weather sensitive. Not a fun year.

Surgery was Monday June 3, 2019 at 12:30pm. They took me in 15 minutes late, so by 12:45 I went into the operating room which looks like the operating rooms on TV for the most part, spacious, equipment, table to lay on, mirrors above. The table I laid on also required me to put my arms out, one arm for an IV and the other had the heart monitor attached to my finger, if I recall that correctly. They knocked me out immediately really. I had the IV knock me out and they also used air. I don’t know beyond “general anesthesia” for what exactly was used but I know it was both. Now I was told I would be awoken at 3pm and released at 4pm, that was not true. My surgery wrapped up around 4pm and I didn’t wake up until 5pm and ended up being released at 6pm. I woke up shivering like crazy, don’t freak out if that happens, you’re probably just cold. I was covered in blankets and that helped. I had to pee pretty badly after surgery so try to go before you go in the operating room. The offer was I either wait or they get a bedpan... Needless to say I choose to wait. I also found that the water made my mouth dry big time sipping it while trying to wake up, but the popsicles were very helpful. I did not eat or drink much after that day, I really just wanted to sleep more of course.

The next two days were rough for eating. Now this is where my sensitive stomach comes in, eating was a challenge big time. I was not interested in eating at all the day after, but tried to force some foods in. I had to keep it very plain and simple as well, like plain bread, plain oatmeal, plain chicken. My stomach was very uneasy for the whole week really, but I did start to eat more on Thursday, and slowly more on the weekend. I gave myself small meals about 4 times a day, some snacks in between. I lost a few pounds from surgery but I did get hungry again, I just was not able to eat a lot. Fresh fruits and vegetables are also recommended. I did not touch dairy until probably Friday, as I did not want to risk setting my stomach off, however my stomach felt more acidy, and when I started dairy again that got a bit better. Gravol with ginger is what I took a lot to help my stomach and by the weekend I switched to boiling ginger in water and drinking some ginger water as that helped a lot and meant taking less pills.

I was given perks, an antibiotic, and anti-inflammatory pills to take. I stopped the perks the day after surgery and just switched to Tylenol Extra Strength. The perks were hard on the stomach and they do not last long at all so I felt they were useless. I took one at a time and it only lasted 3 hours for the pain, the Tylenol lasted at least 5 hours for me. The anti-inflammatory pills were the worst! They have a horrible bitter taste and pissed my stomach off for half the day, if you are not allergic, peanut butter will be your friend taking those! I would leave a very small amount of peanut butter on my tongue and chug those pills down then have a scoop of peanut butter ready for after. God-awful taste honestly, and that is not very nice in my opinion! I couldn’t taste for a year because of my sinuses and the first thing I get to taste are these horrible pills? Cruel! I had to take 5 of those for the first 7 days as well, then decrease later. Today is currently day 7 so I am relieved I lower the dosage tomorrow and hope my stomach is not so uneasy for the rest of the week. The antibiotic is fairly large but no taste in comparison.

Tomorrow is my follow-up with the doctor, and I have read some things online saying take your pain meds before you go, so I definitely will. It makes sense, my stints are supposed to come out tomorrow so I imagine there will be pain.

As far as the bleeding has gone, it was not bad at first. Thursday night after surgery I think I blew my nose in my sleep, I’m not sure exactly what happened but I woke up to one side bleeding quite heavily Friday. And the one side has continued to be the most problematic since. I just encountered a little nose bleed stream now from eating. You’re not going to want food that requires work and front teeth biting, you’ll want to eat foods that are easy, things you can rip apart and put in your mouth, or soups. The Friday bleeding was scary looking, but I would not say I was bleeding profusely, therefore no hospital trip. It was clotty blood, scary to see but they said go to the hospital if the nose bled profusely, and it was not running constantly so I left it.

Anyway, that is a lot about the first week. I will post more updates later!

#sinusitis #sinuses #sinussurgery #noseproblems #endoscopic #septoplasty #recovery #nasalpolyps

2 notes · View notes