mega X meds

Oh my goodness!  I came back from the recheck at my doc with a buttload of new or changed prescriptions and OTC meds.

Normally, I wouldn’t be very pleased about being prescribed a ton of meds for something, but I’m going on 3 (that’s THREE) months with this hacking, coughing, can’t-get-a-breath crud.

The allergist, as I’ve said, tells me it’s all allergies and asthma, but daggone!

How come I can’t tell or don’t notice when something sets me off?  If it’s “seasonal” allergies, how come I have sinus problems (just milder) all year round?

Understand, I take allergy medication year-round.  If I don’t, my sinuses become enraged snot factories wherein the snot is more like glue.  (sorry, you know I’m gonna be perfectly frank with you here!)  

I have a wad of said glue that will sit just behind my tonsils, being moved neither up nor down, no matter how hard or how many times I swallow.  It cannot be gargled out, nor dissolved with fizzy beverages.  Sometimes it’s hard to eat because I can’t swallow my food easily.  It’s an absolute pain in my neck, literally and figuratively!

I discovered about ten years ago that drinking milk made the glue factory worse.  And even that was gradual.  First it was just a slight increase in mucus, but eventually, it was like the milk turned to gelatin by the time it reached my tonsils.  Just YUCK, okay?  So, I stopped drinking milk completely.

That helped a lot, but in the past couple years now, I have been noticing other dairy products doing the same thing.  So I gave up my beloved sour cream completely.  That was ROUGH!  I used sour cream ALL the time!

Processed cheeses didn’t seem to bother me and cream cheese wasn’t too hard on me.  I don’t know why, but so far, so good with those.  I don’t know WHAT I’ll do if I have to give up those too, so I’m praying it doesn’t happen!

So I’ve been taking a 24-hour anti-histamine for years. I started on plain ol’ Sudafed eons ago, but after I got married, I started using Claratin (rinatadine), then the -D formula, then when that stopped working, I used Zyrtec (cetirizine) and soon that stopped working, and now I take Allergra (fexofenadine). This week, the doc switched me from that to Xyzal (levocetirizine dihydrochloride).

I’d never even heard of it before, so it’s new to me. I hope it will work though.

For the past year or so, I’ve been taking Singulair (montelukast) to help with the asthma.

When I saw an ear, nose & throat doctor a couple years ago, she told me to use a netti pot to help keep my ears from getting repeated infections. She said it’d keep my eustachian tubes open and the fluid from collecting in there.

Okay, so if you don’t know about netti pots, you can just click & learn about these little oddities. This was one of the most ‘tasteful’ images I found. Ha ha ha! Except for the fact that she’s way too upright, this is how you do it. You dissolve fine salt in warm purified water then pour it into one nostril so that it runs out the other. Yes, it feels as awkward as it looks, but the effects are worth it.

Well, Doc has been insisting that I get a nasal saline mist instead. I figured it was just like those bottles you squeeze to splatter saline solution up your nose, which is really gross. This is more like an aerosol so it is a little better, but I couldn’t figure out how that was supposed to be better than the netti. She explained that with the spray, I could use it anywhere and even if I wanted to use it “20 times a day” that was okay. She said to use it any time I was around something that triggered the coughing, like cigarette smoke or heavy perfume. She said that washed out the irritants to slow the histamine release.

I hadn’t even thought about that. I will still use the netti when I’m really congested or getting cold. It does a much more ‘heavy duty’ job of rinsing stuff out of there. But she suggested I keep several cans of the saline: in the car, my purse, by the bed, in the shower… so that way I can use it as often as needed.

Something else I was prescribed by another doctor years ago is Flonase (fluticasone propionate),

but it tasted nasty when it would run down the back of my throat and I didn’t notice that it helped much. Could be because I didn’t use it consistently since it was so nasty. Then that doc showed me to spray it pointed toward my ears, and that helped, plus not using two sprays in each nostril at once. But I would still forget to use it more often than not because I didn’t understand what it was for.

My current doc explained that it was a steroid and would decrease inflammation in my nasal passages. So now, I am making a concerted effort to use that stuff.

Okay, on to the rest of the stuff she has me using…
Of all things, she wants me on Sudafed D (pseudoephedrine) for awhile. So…

And then Mucinex (dextromethorphan guaifenesin), which I hadn’t used before.

She has me taking 1200 mg right now and says I need a maintenance dose after I get better. Says it’s to “thin that snot”. Bahaha..and yes, she uses those exact words. I just love how down-to-earth and plain spoken she is.

The allergist has had me on this Qvar inhaler (beclomethasone dipropionate HFA) for asthma maintenance for about 3 weeks now.

I will not complain about it because the first stuff they gave me tasted waaaay nasty and my insurance wouldn’t cover it, so now I have the Qvar, which doesn’t taste bad at all compared to the Aerospan. *blech*

The allergist also has me using my nebulizer

with an albuterol/atrovent (ipratropium) mix.

I was using it twice a day while the coughing was so bad, but now I’m just doing it as needed.

I also got my first-ever B12 shot. I hope it helps up my energy as much as people say it does!

So I know this has been terribly boring, but I’m hoping if I put this out here, dated and with all the generic names and such, maybe I can remember what I’ve taken and what works in the future. If you don’t take a lot of meds, you have no idea how easy it is to forget the names of medicines and doctors and the dates you used and saw them… By this point in my life, I scarcely remember those kinds of things unless I see or use them for years at a time.

I am hoping the jittery-ness will decrease soon. Not including the nebulizer treatments, these meds make me SO jittery it’s not even funny. I need to check my blood pressure, now that it’s crossed my mind. That’s something else the doctor gave me…catapres (clonidine), a blood pressure medicine to take if mine ever gets above 160/90 since many of the meds she’s got me on right now can cause the blood pressure to rise.

Oh, I hope I don’t have to take it! *reaching for the bp cuff*

Stay healthy, y’all!

sick again, naturally

Sorry. That old song “Alone Again Naturally” came to mind when I started writing. Maybe that’s not the name of it, but the chorus says that. And that’s how I feel.

You know those memory apps that show what you posted or took photos of however many years ago? I have been seeing them for a good week talking about being really sick. Like, year after year, I am sick this time of year.

Why does it always seem like I’m surprised by it? I just don’t get that. Apparently I’m a lot more forgetful than I realize. Heh.

So yep, I’m sick again. I’ve been doing the hacking sporadic coughing fits thing for over a month. I got this new doctor as I mentioned and she’s really intent on getting me into better health. Bless her heart, I don’t think she knows what’s she’s getting herself into, but more power to her, I say! At least she is willing to try. She’s got me set up to see an allergist in a few days and that meant going off my allergy meds.

I don’t think that’s where my problem started at all. It sure didn’t help things though. And that’s kinda weird too because obviously the meds weren’t doing all they should have, so why am I so much worse now?

Who knows? I seldom stick to the medical books.

I was supposed to go to the dentist this morning to get one of the three trouble-makers fixed, but I was coughing so bad there was no way. I didn’t sleep much and I have a pounding headache that’s constant now instead of just when I cough. Feels like my skull’s gonna pop open.

I really can’t imagine that I’ll hear anything much different from this doctor. I mean, I’ve been to an allergist before a few years ago. They confirmed I have asthma and was allergic to some random things that I don’t really have that much contact with and put me on allergy shots.

I finished out those and saw no change in symptoms. I am just really hoping this guy doesn’t suggest that again. For one, I detest driving to get those stupid shots, then sitting in the sick room (waiting room) until the time’s up.

For two, I am REALLY not interested in doing it when they don’t “fix” me, ya know?

My concern today is that I’m setting up a chest infection. If that’s the case, I don’t think I can wait for another three days. I’ve called my new doc, first thing this morning actually. I haven’t heard anything yet. Strike one, I guess.

*sigh* I had high hopes for this one. I’m not counting her out yet, but she really needs to get in touch with me.

UPDATE: I finally heard from the doctor’s office. As I feared, there’s really nothing to be done since nothing is yellow or green, thus probably no infection. I was advised to just hang in with the saline and use steam and then call if anything DOES turn color. I’m just trying to be thankful that there IS no infection, but when I get to that allergist dude better break out the steroids once those tests are over. Chick is dyin’ here!

step into my shoes …

I often struggle to explain my “medical stuff” to people. Not that I go around dumping the whole morbid story on everyone I meet. But for those I am around often, they kinda need to know I have diabetes. For others, it just comes up in conversation.

I don’t mind telling people and I appreciate folks who want to know and will allow me to educate them about diabetes. But it can be really hard to explain. It’s one of those things you can’t actually understand unless you’ve dealt with it. Sometimes it just takes having someone who knows explain it to them. Other people just won’t ever understand because they don’t have the ability to sympathize or put themselves in someone else’s shoes.

There are also the times you have to go to a new doctor. Then dumping the whole mess is pretty crucial, but there’s no real rhyme or reason to it so it comes out a big, jumbled pile of bits and pieces of my medical history. I start telling them one thing that relates to the reason I have come to them in the first place (ie: a sinus infection, etc) then they’ll ask another question or it will lead to needing to explain background. It’s just hard to relate 40-plus years of medical history in a few minutes, no matter how much training the “doctor” has, it just doesn’t happen quickly or easily.

Let me stick an aside in here for anyone who happens to read this and has an inkling of what this is like, if you have a good way of doing this, could you please share? I’ve thought of trying to list everything on paper, but it’s not easy, especially at this point when I can’t even remember many of the doctors’ names or what they tested or diagnosed. I can’t remember what year things happened in unless it was major like the 2 weeks in the hospital with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome in 1994. That I can remember since I spent another 2 years recovering from it. But the many, MANY times I’ve been to an allergist or ENT for ear and sinus infections and the various tests they ran and treatments they prescribed? Um, no. Sorry. My mind can’t hang onto that much stuff!

So yeah, in case I’ve never said before, I hate going to new doctors. I feel like I need a moving van to haul all my medical ‘baggage’ into the exam room. I have felt like the doctor was thinking, “What the heck? How many different diseases or medical procedures can one person have?” or “She has GOT to be making this up.” or “This lady and her ton of medical problems are more than I want to deal with.” Now, perhaps NO doctor has ever had those thoughts about me, however, if I were a betting person, I’d bet you that some of them did.

Does that make me paranoid? Maybe, but here’s the thing that you won’t be able to understand if you don’t have a chronic auto-immune disease…going to a doctor, and I’m talking a general practitioner not a specialist, with more than a couple different complaints or health issues is like being an alien. Many doctors don’t want to deal with you. You are too complicated. Others immediately decide that you are somehow non-compliant, in other words, you’re not doing all you can to take care of yourself. You aren’t “trying hard enough”.

For instance, this new doc I went to see this week… well, she’s an ARNP but I really liked her. My mom and my youngest son had recommended her to me because she was so thorough and took her time with them. She did the same with me, but because I was there for a persistent cough, she started with that then started looking through the lab work I had in August. She was telling me everything looked good and asking me if I was on any meds for cholesterol since those labs were good, etc.. then she flipped a page and asked me if I was taking Metformin. Of course, I was puzzled about why she’d ask me if I was taking an oral medication for Type 2 diabetes when I’m on insulin and have Type 1 diabetes. I said no, thinking in the back of my mind that maybe there’s some other use for Metformin that she was going to suggest. Then she mentioned that I should be on it to help with my sugars. That’s when it dawned on me that she didn’t realize so I said, “That’s why I take insulin.”

She flipped another couple pages and then began to profusely apologize. She is a really great, down-to-earth person who has a thick “southern” accent and talks really fast because, or so it seemed to me, her mind is going so fast her mouth can’t quite keep up. *smile* She made a “total fail” comment and just kept apologizing til I said, “Don’t worry about it. I come with a lot of baggage to go through.” and she said, “Well I sure appreciate all the grace you are giving me.”

However, when she then backed up to my lab work and began to retract all the “good job” comments she’d made to me just seconds ago, I felt myself getting really frustrated. And don’t get me wrong, I STILL really like this lady. I think she’s on the right track, is very thorough and wants to help me feel better and be healthier. But this is one of those things that has always just ticked me off so bad. Where she’d thought I had good lab results because they were all within normal range like for cholesterol and blood pressure and such…those were “normal people” parameters. Not diabetic ones. No, a diabetic has to have even lower levels, even better “scores” on these tests.

Yes, I have to test my blood sugar multiple times a day. I have to take shots and count every carbohydrate that I put in my mouth and dose medication for them. I can deal with that. But tell me that I have to have a cholesterol level that is 10-30 points lower than everyone else? That runs all over me and frustrates me more than the unfairness of my daily must-do’s to live.

Is that weird? Am I the only T1D who gets madder than a wet hen about this kind of thing? I dunno, but I left there feeling so conflicted.

This doc is sending me to an allergist she trusts to reevaluate my allergies and asthma issues. She suggested I see my chiropractor to help with the tightness (that she noticed while feeling my lymph nodes, by the way) in my neck and shoulders. She also suggested a $60/hour massage therapist…not gonna be affording that any time soon. When she looked at my feet, which many doctors don’t even do, she got pretty disturbed and told me I needed to wear tennis shoes and not my comfy Chacos and that I needed to go to a podiatrist and “get that skin off there”. I didn’t tell her that what she was seeing was much better than normal! My feet are always really dry with thick callouses and crevasses/folds. And I also didn’t tell her I’ve worn nothing but my Chacos all summer long and I’m not sure what I’ll wear when it gets too cold for them because they are THE MOST comfy shoes I’ve had in years! I’ve worn them hiking through the woods and in the river while kayaking. They are my favorites and I’m not giving them up for some less-than-comfy tennis shoes. So there.

Actually, her response to my diabetes was pretty much the usual for a GP who doesn’t deal solely with diabetics. The idea that all my labs and sugars should be perfect and that I should always maintain a perfect A1c is unrealistic at best and I’ll let her in on that when I go back in two weeks. Is it possible to attain perfect numbers? Yes, it is. Is it feasible to maintain them always? Nope.

Okay, so this has been a long rambly post about how I feel living my life with type 1 diabetes and all its lovely friends…Graves Disease, Neuropathy, Kidney Damage, Early Cataracts, Retina Degeneration. Those are the just a few of the ones who have already showed up to the party.

I don’t want pity. But understanding? That I will take with gusto and gratitude.

Thanks.

He answers the pleas

I’m unsure how to tell you about this, but since I’ve shared about this here, I have to update you.

First of all, both Hubby and I really just love the pelvic health therapist. She’s an awesome lady who is passionate about what she does. She really wants people, both women and men, to understand how their bodies work. She is a Christian, which makes sharing our story with her even easier and she’s an Emmausite. She has this high-tech way to measure how strong (or weak, as the case was in the beginning) my pelvic floor muscles are and how well I am able to contract and relax. All those things are important to healthy muscle function and she’s given me several exercises that I’ve been doing at home.

She has taught Hubby how to help with stretching and even showed him some massage techniques to help me relax all the tension I hold in my neck and shoulders. Before you get all jealous about that, realize that him knowing the techniques and having had the time to actually DO any of them are two different things. Between him working late several days and then working on his talk for this weekend’s Emmaus walk (more on that later), we just have not had the time. And honestly, I won’t ask him to do it because it makes me feel guilty. So I may never get one of those massages, but at least he knows what he’s supposed to do, right? HA-HA-HA!

Other things she’s had me doing is using pure vitamin E, which is supposed to strengthen and “heal” the skin in my outer hoo-ha. Sorry, I’m not as good at using the proper names for those things. (and would like to avoid being pulled up on Yahoo, ya know?!?  Sheesh!)  Anyhow, it made a huge difference in the sensitivity down there. I mean, like amazing improvement. I could hardly stand for her to do the initial exam when she used a cotton swab and had me give her a number for the level of pain I felt. Then she had me using a sustained moisture gel stuff to see if perhaps dryness was causing some of my pain.

It’s an over-the-counter stuff called Replens and after using it for a couple of weeks and then feeling a burning pain “way up high” and not so much in the walls of the … heh heh… hoo-ha, she decided I probably needed to check with the gynec0l0gist to make sure there was no infection or other thing going on.

So I’ve done that and the GYN says no infection, but everything looked thin and fragile so she gave me some estrogen cream that I use vaginally a couple times a week. It was like no big deal and she said that I should notice a difference in about a week and could probably do just once a month after the first couple weeks using it 2-3 times weekly.

That’s like, WOW!! Who knew and why didn’t those people tell me already? Like 20-some years ago?!?! Anyhow, I used the cream and a couple days later, the Hubbs and I were reading in the book the therapist recommended. It’s for married couples and is a Christian book about s#x! It’s called A Celebration of S#x. Cool, huh? It’s very educational as far as explaining those things that most of us don’t know about how our bodies work. So we read a bunch in that before going to bed. We laughed SO much because since I had a headache, Hubby did the reading out loud for us. He’s a little dyslexic and will mix up his words sometimes, so when he substituted the word “sectional” for “sexual”, I about lost it. I laughed so hard that I started the asthma going and I wheezed the rest of the time. Seriously, we had so much fun reading this book about how our genitals are made!! BAHAHA!

Later we woke up and began snugg1ing and ki$sing some and well…one thing led to another and we put some of the stuff from our book into practice. We had no agendas, either of us, but we were just enjoying being together. It was nice and something we had not done in AGES. As things went along, without being explicit, we got to a point of attempting to actually m@ke love and most people won’t understand this, but we were able to do so without any pain. That is a miracle. I haven’t been able to have actual interc*urse (I’m trying not to get picked up in some lurid Google searches!) without some significant pain in probably 15-18 years. I’m sure that seems unbelievable to most people, but that’s been my life and the ugly secret we have lived with our entire marriage. If all these years the trouble has been from low estrogen, it really is pathetic that doctors don’t ask more pertinent questions about these things and that we don’t know enough to talk to doctors about this problem.

However, I will remind you now that we did go to several doctors over the years trying to figure out why I had pain with s#x and were either told it was in my head, that I had a deformity or just looked at like we were crazy. So we DID seek help years ago, then just gave up and assumed we would just have to live with it.

Anyhow, hopefully that wasn’t too risqué for anyone, but I said I was going to be open and honest about what we were dealing with, so I wanted to also share the update, the happy update!

Now I’ll tell you that all the next day, I would intermittently be in awe that “it” had happened the night before, almost wondering if it really even happened at all, [think “Is this real life?”  LOL!] and then worrying that it was a fluke. When I shared those thoughts with my sweet Hubby, he said, “Well, if it was fluke, we will wait for the next one.”

We are praying it was not a fluke, but the beginning of a new chapter in our marriage. As the GYN said to us in the beginning of this journey, with all the time we’ve invested in this marriage, we owe it to ourselves to pursue a healthy, full intimate relationship together! I thank God that He’s working things out in this area!

Hebrews 13:4 – “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled…..”
.

that was close…

A couple days ago, in the evening, I recall my right eye feeling like there was something in it. I lightly rubbed it and the irritation stopped. It wasn’t anything alarming or horribly painful. I didn’t think anything more of it.

The next morning, I woke up and it was still feeling irritated only now it was slightly sore too. It felt very similar to when I had dealt with when I’d had recurrent corneal erosion syndrome a couple different times almost 20 years ago. That thought troubled me!

But I had a meeting to go to at 10 that morning, then a hair appointment at 11, so I headed off to town.

The ceremony for our county seat to get the title of “TrailTown” was happening and since our friends are involved in that and the tourism board, we went to help out. More to just help there be a good crowd, since the governor’s wife was supposed to be there and it was a big ol’ deal.

My eye felt a little better after we left there. It crossed my mind to just deal with the eye, thinking it had to be a flare up of the Recurrent Corneal Erosion Syndrome. I had to leave early and get to my hair appointment and while on the way, my eye became very irritate again, and when I touched it, it felt bruised and swollen.

I immediately called my eye doctor and they were able to get me in that afternoon, a few hours after lunch.

I met Hubby and my eldest son in town for lunch and after that, the eye was hurting really bad, so I went home and got an ice pack on it and laid down for a while.

I took the pack with me to the appointment because it was just hurting SO bad and the cool helped, and it kept me from wanting to rub it so much.

I saw the other doctor in the practice who I’d never seen before. I like her. She started examining me, beginning with my left eye, all the while, I’m explaining about my history with RES and so she puts some numbing drops in almost immediately, realizing how bad it was hurting.

She looked at it again, then put some dye in while I told her about the Stevens-Johnson Syndrome that left scars inside my eyelids, which in turn, rub the fire outta any sort of irritant in my eye.

During all this, I can see she’s getting concerned. She asked what caused the SJS, making sure which antibiotics I was able to take now. Somewhere in that time, I said, “Oh, and in case you didn’t see in my records, I’m a Type 1 diabetic, too.” Her eyes got big as saucers. Poor lady. I tend to have that effect on doctors sometimes.

She looked in my eye again after the dye and informed me that I had an ulcer on it. What in the…? I asked what caused it and did they normally come up overnight like that?

She told me it was from a bacterial infection that was normally from being in a lake or pond. I told her that I’d been dumped out in a nearby river about a month ago, but she said, no, it’d have to have been in the past couple days.

I haven’t even been near a pond or lake or even a pool in that time. So we have no clue how I could have gotten this infection. But I have this “nick” in my iris, just to the outside of my pupil about the size of two or three pinheads. She said she was surprised to find it that big in such a short time after she asked again how long it had been bothering me. Apparently, that was huge for overnight.

Of course it was. That’s how I roll. *pththt*

So she sent me home with a script for some strong antibiotic drops to use every two hours, instructions to alternate ibuprofen and acetaminophen every three hours for pain. She said the ice pack was fine, but no pressure. She said the best things I could do was sleep or watch TV.

I about died laughing. The two things I am best at?!?! *laughing* Apparently, those are the two things that keep the eye most still. She said no reading or computer (oops…I am doing this in short spells just a few hours before I go back for a recheck)

It’s not nearly as irritated nor as sore, so I am hoping and confident that she’s going to tell me it’s very improved.

Exodus 15:26 – “…I am the Lord, your healer.”

UPDATE:  Indeed, God is a mighty healer.  The doctor was literally AMAZED at how well the eye was doing.  She looked at it with that awful magnifier thing that shines a bright light in your eye, said it look awesome and then started talking about putting numbing drops in so “we can pop that thing outta there”…  *blink, blink*  “Pop what thing out?”, I asked.  “The contact,” she said.

“Um…you didn’t put a contact in it,” I informed her.

Then she was REALLY amazed saying she just KNEW she’d forgotten that she hadn’t put one in because of how well it was doing.  Couldn’t believe it had healed that much without one.  The reason she’d decided to opt for no contact the day before was for fear of trapping any bacteria in there and making it worse.  She just assumed, when she saw how much it had healed, that she must have put one in.

*shaking my head*  That’s a little concerning, but understandable too.  She said the top layer had already formed over the hole and was reattaching.  She stained it again and said there was no loose edges at all.  She told me the day before, the edges just “lit up” the were so loose.  I told her that there had been a LOT of prayer over that thing and she said, “That’s the only explanation for it being this much better today.”

So today, a week later (it’s now Wednesday, July 15) it still occasionally feels as if there’s something in there, and I’m not sure if that’s something that should concern me or not.  She told me I didn’t have to come back unless it got worse, and it hasn’t.  The redness is completely gone and the bruised soreness is gone as well.  I’m still using the drops 4x a day as she prescribed.  But that occasional feeling of something in there concerns me.

Honestly,  if it still feels this way tomorrow, I may make an appointment with my ophthalmologist who originally dealt with the erosion stuff all those years ago.  The doc I saw for this stuff charged me $45 each for both visits, plus what I spent on the drops…that’s almost $150!!  I have only ever paid $30 to visit the ophthalmologist and I’d feel better if someone checked it again.  Hopefully, he’ll just be able to confirm that it’s healing well.  Maybe the irritation I’m feeling is just part of the healing process??

I dunno, but I don’t think I’ll be able to feel okay about it without having it checked again.  We shall see…

God’s GOOD!!!  I give Him all the glory for how well this has turned out thus far!  Woo!

spoke too soon…

Ugh.  I just got back from my regular doctor’s office.  I checked my blood pressure this morning and it was 197/101.

Yeah, NOT optimal for health.  Gah.  I was supposed to be at my therapist’s office at 2 pm, but I called to cancel after the doctor’s office told me to get in there by 11:30 am.  I felt bad about that because I canceled last time and I probably really needed to see her this week, but ANYhow…

By the time they got me in and took vitals, my BP was down to 168/79, but still too high.  I talked a long time to the doctor with her trying to understand the history of how I came to have this cough, of how I’d been taken off the ACE-inhibitor completely for about 2 weeks, then put on Amlodipine by my endo and then proceeded to have that dry, slight, hacking, persistent cough like I had before, so I went off it about a week and a half ago and now, here I am with high BP despite having done 8 miles on the trainer for the past four days.

She asked a lot of questions.  Oh, Hubby was there, too…he insisted on driving me after I told him how high it was, so she began to look up the side effects of Amlodipine and tell me that cough isn’t one of them.  Of course, I knew that already, but I also knew that it can cause wheezing and chest tightness, so I assumed that would cause the coughing to return.  That’s why I went off the med in the first place.

She came to the conclusion that I had not been off the ACE med long enough before starting the Amlodipine and I was having a lot of allergy symptoms.  She asked if I was taking my Allegra and Singulair every day, and I do, religiously!  Then she asked about the Flonase, which I tend to forget often.  After I use the neti pot, I have to wait awhile for the “running” to stop, and I’ll forget to use the Flonase.  She stressed that it was really important for me to use that stuff daily, so I gotta do better about that.  She also wants me to start taking a steroid inhaler and to use my albuterol inhaler before I get on the bike.  She thinks the cough is caused by all the irritation I have from the drainage and allergies.

I’m thankful that I didn’t have to go to the hospital because when I saw how high it was at home, I felt sure that’s where I was headed.  The doctor was impressed that I’d lost about 9 pounds since the last time I’d seen her about 3 weeks ago.  I told her that I’d really been trying and she told me to keep it up, that the weight loss would directly affect my blood pressure in a good way.  So…*sigh* I have to get back to the bike.

I have discovered why I have such a love/hate relationship with the bike and trainer…or any kind of hard exercise.  It’s the sweating.  Not that I just hate to sweat, which I do, but most of the time, sweating like that comes when I am having a low blood sugar and totally out of control.  I think that’s why I just really hate getting on the bike.  Once I’m on and I can see how I’m doing with the computer, I can get past it, but that first layer of sweat just makes me feel SO awful.  I seriously think it’s because of 40 some years of that sweatiness being a signal that I’m getting low.

That’s good to know, but knowing doesn’t make it go away.  Ha.  If only…

Hebrews 12:1 – “…and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us:…”

crash-boom

So Hubby took a bike ride this (Sunday) afternoon.  He went with his troupe of 100-Milers….

…and hit a dog….

….and crashed.

Bad.

He, as he puts it, “t-boned an Australian shepherd” and went flipping over the handlebars.
 He had taken off ahead of the other three just to help avoid a cramp he felt coming on, so he was in front of them all when it happened.  The only person to see the melee was a driver who was coming toward Hubbs when it happened.  It must have looked so awful, the guy stopped to check and see if Hubby was okay.

He ended up riding another 4 or so miles back to the truck, even though his friends offered to go get the truck for him.  He thinks he was probably slightly in shock, which is most likely, and his theory was that if he could ride back, it would keep him from getting so sore and stiff.  *rolling my eyes*

He drove himself home and hobbled into the house…he hadn’t called to let me in on it and so I was clueless.  We had arrived home from church to find a strange car in our driveway.  Turned out it was one of the boys we sort of “adopted” from our former church…he is newly married to a sweet little girl who is expecting their baby now.  (yes, the baby was on the way at the wedding, which my eldest son performed on Son’s front porch swing… that sounds like a whole ‘nother post, doesn’t it?)  Anyhow, these kids, apparently they had called Son2 wanting to get together with them, but they weren’t home, so they came to our house.

*shrugs*  I dunno why exactly.  LOL… the kids like us, I guess.  Or at least settle for us when our boys aren’t available?  Anyhow, they had stayed at the house the entire time Tommy was gone riding.  Son & DIL 2 had finally come home and just came to our house too, so we all sat around in my messy kitchen talking and hanging out.  I was so tired AND I had been planning to ride on the trainer, but that didn’t happen.  And that’s okay, it was just one of those afternoons when nothing goes as planned.

Even more so for Hubby, obviously!  The kids had all gone for ice cream, inviting me, but I had decided (since I can’t eat any dairy these days) to stay home so I’d be there when Hubby got back.

It’s a good thing!!  He wanted to immediately get in a hot bath, so I fixed that up for him.  He had some cuts/gouges on his fingers, his right elbow was scuffed up and his right hip looked really nasty with a big area of road rash and what appeared to be some bruising already darkening.

He sat in the bath for a good long time.  I texted my younger kids to tell them what had happened.  Son2 called to see if his dad wanted something from Dairy Queen and soon they were back at the house, with the younger couple in tow.  So once again, we were all in the kitchen discussing the wreck.

Son2 was a little surprised to see his dad wincing and limping.  He didn’t think he’d been hurt that bad, I guess and knew that if he was letting it show that much, it must be pretty bad.

So after the kids all left, Hubby hobbled into the living room and I got him settled in the recliner for about another hour.  When he tried to move to get up and go to the bathroom, he became worried that we might ought to go to the hospital and see exactly what damage had been done.

He was having really sharp pains deep in his groin, not so much on his hip where most of the trauma appeared to have happened.

We barely got him into the truck.  We being he and myself!  But I got him to the ER and a guy came out and helped me load him into a wheelchair.  After an x-ray and a CT scan, (in the period of about 4 hours) we were assured that there weren’t any breaks or fractures (that was the first suspicion of the doctor) but there was some deep muscle bruising and bleeding, which is why he was hurting so bad.

They gave him a bit of morphine to help with pain, since they were moving him so much to do the scans.  He wasn’t in a huge amount of pain until he moved.

So we finally got home after 2 am with instructions to not put any weight on that leg until the pain diminished, so that means crutches and the estimation is that he’ll need to be on them for about four weeks.

He has a prescription for some pain meds and took one from the hospital for the night.

Hopefully we can get some rest and tomorrow won’t be a lot more painful for him.

Ezekiel 27:34 – “Now you are wrecked by the seas, in the depths of the waters; your merchandise and all your crew in your midst have sunk with you.”

under pressure…

Well, it seems I can’t win for losing on the blood pressure front.  If you’ve been keeping up with my medical stuff, you’ll know that I was put on blood pressure medication about 15 years ago as a protective measure for my kidneys.  I did not have high blood pressure at that time and the dose of medicine they put me on was very low.

I took that (an ACE inhibitor) for about 7 years when I started having this horrific cough.  It came on slowly, but developed into this awful tickle in my chest that would either be made worse by laughing (of all things, right?!) or would just progress on its own until I was doubled-up, trying in vain to draw a breath without that squeezing in my chest making me cough violently.

Of course, at first I didn’t realize that one of my meds was causing the cough and thought I must have some kind of weird cold or bronchial thing.  Finally though, the doctors figured it out and took me off the medicine.  The cough got better almost immediately, but I was left with an asthmatic-like reaction to getting tickled (ie: laughing a lot) or getting a mild chest cold.  I would start coughing like a two-pack-a-day smoker and need an inhaler to even start to calm it down.

Now, however, the inhalers don’t seem to help at all.  I was eventually put on a different blood pressure medicine a year after the first diagnosis of the ACE-induced cough and seemed to do fine with it until recently.  With insurance being the nightmare it is, I had to change meds because they wouldn’t cover what I’d been on.  That led to being inadvertently put on a similar medicine and in a few months, the cough was back, but it started when I had an awful flu so I didn’t make the connection til a month after the flu had gone.

Talk about being ticked.  I was and am!!  My endo just took me off any bp meds altogether and told me to watch and make sure my bp didn’t get over 140/70.  Within a week, I was having 185/90 bp’s so he put me on Amlodopine.  Guess what?  That is making me cough too.

I am infuriated and just don’t know what to do.  I mean, first of all, I’m a little ticked that they put me on this crap when I didn’t even have bp issues, ya know?  Even though I realize that’s kinda the protocol, still…  It’s diminished my quality of life, ya know?  And I don’t need meds to do that.  I have a non-functioning pancreas that’s been doing that just fine for decades now.  Ugh.

There’s also the deal where, after having that awful rash in my armpits for 3/4 of last year finally getting to the bottom of that (took 5 doctors who couldn’t dx it to get the one who finally did:  contact dermatitis, of all things?!) and now I seem to be a lot more allergic to MANY things that didn’t bother me before.  Or at least, didn’t irritate my lungs… like fabric softeners and body sprays or heavy perfumes.  So now, not only does my skin react quite negatively to certain things, but strong chemical odors make me cough my lungs out too.

That doesn’t go well with the bp meds making them so reactive too.  UGH!

I stopped taking the Amlodopine about 3 days ago but the cough isn’t hugely improved.  I might try it again, just to see.  I really think that my lungs are just so irritated now that any little thing makes them flare up, ya know?  So I can’t tell if it is actually the medication or other things making me cough.  More than likely, I’m afraid, it is both.

I have always dealt with getting head-achy when coming in close proximity with “loud” chemical odors… someone who can’t set perfume application limits, the laundry aisle at the grocery or the aerosol aisle in the auto parts place.  But now it’s not just headaches, it’s problems breathing.

*sigh*
I sure never realized what an awful problem something like this can be.  I have no clue how to control blood pressure since I really have a pretty decent diet, ya know?  I am gong to do some research and see what I can find out, though.  I am guessing more exercise would be a good start.

Sheesh… and today is SO not a good day to start that since The Monthly arrived last night and I am cramping horribly today.

Hubby had a doctor appointment today and found out his cholesterol is way down and his blood pressure is doing good.  He is off the cholesterol meds because they just made him swell and feel bad, but he does take a couple different bp medications.  His vitamin D was low, so he’s gotta start back on that.  His smart-aleck doctor suggested maybe he ride his bike naked to help with the vitamin D deficiency, adding that it might not help with his criminal record.  *sheesh*  (this is the arrogant jerk-wad doctor that I refuse to see anymore.  he and Hubby get along fine somehow—I don’t get it, but whatever!)   Anyhow, Hubbs called to give me the update on all that and told me to be ready at 6 o’clock and we’d go out and do something.

My first stop will be to pick up some progesterone cream!!  I hope and pray it will help with the cramps again.  I’m too old to be balled up in the bed having period cramps, right?

In other news, I cancelled my appointment with the therapist today because I felt so awful.  I rescheduled it to next Wednesday.  Honestly, I didn’t feel like I had anything to really tell her this week anyhow.  Not sure if that’s a good sign or a bad one.  Does it mean I’m becoming better able to process stuff by myself or is it part of the isolation process again?  I really just don’t know.

Guess we’ll find out next week, huh?  Ha!

Proverbs 4:23 – “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

good news all around so far…

Well, our overnight in Lexington went smoothly if you don’t count the almost-three hours we spent in The Apple Store trying to back up Hubby’s phone so they could replace it.  Sheesh!

We picked up his records without any problems then  headed over there.  My sugar got low on the walk in so we stopped and bought a cup of these pretzel bites and a regular soda.  An hour later, I was at 325.  GAH!!  I corrected for that and continued to sit on that uncomfy stool while his laptop refused to cooperate for the backup since he didn’t have iCloud backups setup and they felt it would be quicker to just backup to his computer given the slow wifi.  He told me to go do something else, but I really don’t even like the mall, let alone going to look knowing full well we don’t have any money, ya know?  I am NOT really a window shopper.  Heh.

So anyhow, we did have to drive around awhile looking for a motel.  We almost booked one with Trivago and then, when Hubby asked the poor receptionist at the office where we picked up his records, she says, “Well, I will tell you where NOT to stay…” and proceeded to name that motel, saying it had been burgled several times recently!  Sheesh!!

We unloaded at a Microtel, which was clean, but tiny!  I guess the “micro” part is entirely true, eh?  I haven’t stayed in a lot of places, so I had no clue that’s what it actually meant!  LOL!  Anyhow, we then went to get a bite to eat.  Had an amazing steak and I called Mom as we headed back to the motel to see how she was doing with Max.

I was SO afraid he would be just “too much” for her, since she doesn’t have any inside animals, but apparently they had become big buddies.  We talked about him for close to ten full minutes, her telling me all this stuff he was doing.  It sounded as if she planned to just “stay up” with him in the living room, since he had kinda claimed that as his.  *shaking my head*  I felt much relieved to know she wasn’t exasperated with him.

So next morning, we got to the Endoscopy place with time to spare, they took him right on back and it was really an awesome experience.  The nurses were all amazing and I actually talked to a  young lady who had been on an Emmaus walk with our community last year, so that was cool.  I had given a talk on that one, so she remembered me.

They decided since Hubby had been a little combative the last time they did this procedure to give him some “narcotics” this time.  He was SO concerned about that that when he came back out, all he could ask was if he was good and “Did I fight ’em?”  LOL!  He asked that as one sweet, older nurse was right at his side and her face was priceless.  I laughed so hard!  He was sound asleep when they first brought him out and I really thought he’d be out for awhile.  I’d just watched a little guy across the hall snooze for a good half hour after his procedure, but Hubby was fairly awake, although very groggy, in just a couple minutes.  We were dressed and out of there in about another half hour.  They said it all went fine, he was “good” the nurses assured me and asked that I tell him, and no sign of cancer.  When his regular doctor mentioned that, Hubby had been worried about it ever since, so that was an answered prayer.  They said he did have a fibrous “constricture” that they dilated, he does have a small hiatal hernia, which Hubby had told them from the beginning (when regular doc said, no it was an ulcer) and some gastritis, which is just inflamed, irritated stomach. They took about 8 biopsies from different areas just to check for things like celiac and H Pyori, so we will hear from those in the next few days.  They said most of the damage was likely due to years of high-dose NSAIDs for years to treat his feet/leg pain.  I’m not sure what we will be able to do to treat that now.  *sigh*   They told him to eat soft foods and take it easy the rest of the day.

He was pretty sleepy and a little uncomfy all the way home, but once we got home, he got on the phone with this place in Seattle he’s found that builds custom bikes.  He’s bound and determined that we get me a bike that actually fits me instead of settling for the one the bike shop guy uptown wants to sell us.  I don’t see how we could ever afford it, but he’s determined.  Anyhow, after he got off the phone with them, he was super excited about it and soon started talking about meeting up with the bike club people to go on the ride that evening.

It wasn’t going to be one of those “killer” rides like he had just done Sunday (60+ miles!!) so he felt it was perfectly within his “limitations”…  Next thing I knew he was loading up the bikes and rushing me to get ready!  And so it was that we did a 19 mile ride on the same day the man had a procedure done with anesthesia!  He’s crazy, I tell you!

My crazy biker dude…

I wasn’t sure I could make it all the way after the first couple miles, but as usual, I kept telling myself just a little further til we got to the turn-around point.  Once there, he put the one computer we have on my bike and gave me the heart monitor so I could see my progress.  The computer tells you MPH, heart rate, cadence (rotations per minute) and a bunch of other stuff and it was surprisingly encouraging to have that info.  I made the return trip in much less time than going out.  He has bought anther computer with a cracked screen with the intent to fix it for me, so I’m hoping we can get that fixed soon.  I would probably do a lot better or at least be more encouraged to keep at it with that info at my disposal all the time.  Something about knowing how hard you are pushing makes you want to keep at it and keeps me from feeling like giving up.  Psychology.  Pshh!  LOL!

So that was our crazy few days.  My sugar got low early this morning, around 5 am, I woke up sweaty.  I didn’t get up and check it because I was just too stinking tired, but after a few minutes and not feeling any better, I ate a couple of lifesavers and tried to go back to sleep.  I never slept very good after that, so when Hubby got up for work, I got myself a granola bar and laid back down.  I do my hardest, best sleeping in the early morning hours, so when I get “interrupted” during that time, I am wiped out as if I didn’t sleep good all night.  So I slept til about 9:30.  I’m up now, and sitting here doing this, but not super-sore or anything, so that is also encouraging!

However, I DO need to get my butt up and work on this tax crapola.  Praying for a good refund this year… we need it terribly!

Hebrews 12:1 – “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”

medical updates…

I went Tuesday (2/24) to this new GP that I went to a couple weeks ago for this cough.  She put me on acid reducer and I thought she was crazy for asking me four different times if I had heartburn.  (the answer was no)  One time she briefly mentioned “silent heartburn”, so I looked that up once I got home, because frankly, I had decided she was a loon!!  I’ve had what I call ‘heartburn’ maybe 5 times in my life.  The burning, belching ick.  That’s what I refer to as ‘heartburn’.  But when I read the symptoms of silent heartburn (llaryngopharyngeal) or silent reflux, I was stunned.  I had all except one of them.   And it turns out that this is very well part of what was causing my cough AND a lot of my sinus problems!  Who knew?!?!?  Not me, that’s for sure.  So I began taking the acid reducer and, here’s the confusing part, at that same time, I ran out of my blood pressure medicine.  Now, I take the bp meds not because my bp is high, but as a protective measure for my kidneys (diabetics tend to get kidney damage).  At that same time was when we unexpectedly got to go out of town for that short vacation, then once we got home, the snowstorm hit, so I was without those bp meds for almost a week.  The cough improved dramatically during that time.  Then I went back on the bp meds and after about 4 days, the cough was back with a vengeance.  So when I went back to the doctor, we talked about the fact that we’d probably found a couple of problems.  I am staying on the acid reducer for now and after talking with my endocrinologist about the bp meds, I’m going off those entirely.  It seems that the meds that offer kidney protection are only the very ones that cause the cough.  So since my bp stays around 120/70 anyway, we’re just going to monitor from home and consult him back if it gets near 140/90.  I’m relieved to be rid of one medicine and not worried about the blood pressure getting to a bad point right now.  My blood pressure has never given me problems.  Lord wiling, it won’t start any time soon either!

I also saw my endo yesterday.  Yes, this week has been jam-packed with appointments!  He adjusted my basal rate a bit from 3 am to 6 am to try and get my morning sugars down.  I’m THRILLED to report that it already seems to be working.  I was 126 when I got up this morning instead of over 200 like usual.  YAY!!

Sorry to mix up these two visits so much, but also when I was at the appointment Tuesday, she asked me what else was going on, what else was bothering me, so I told her my shoulders were acting up and that my neck stays so stiff and causes headaches.

She did a pretty thorough exam of my shoulders and arms and says she thinks it’s probably bursitis and wants me to go to physical therapy for that and also for my neck.  She said the spasms in my neck are pretty severe.  She also ordered x-rays of my shoulders just to make sure there wasn’t something else going on in there.

I have yet to get that done, but I need to soon.  My neck is what bothers me most.  The shoulders hurt mostly when I move, but my neck hurts all the time and I can’t find a position that makes it feel any better.

Hopefully soon I will start to feel better!

Isaiah 58:8 — “Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.”