Down for The count

Up and Ready for Round Two

Caught the flu either on the flight to Michigan or at my uncle's funeral.  Have had a week that is just sorta hazy right now.  Respiratory virus I am sure.  My sister who had this a few weeks ago was told it was a cold, not a flu, so the flu shot doesn't cover it.  Bummer.

I hate that I was stuck traveling, spewing virus everywhere I went.  I would have been sick at home or at work, so the sick part doesn't matter, but I hate possibly exposing people to this.  I ran high fevers Friday night after getting home, and all day Saturday, so sick I didn't want to move.  Today I am still very sick, but the fever is down some and I can breathe a little better.  I sincerely hope I have not given this to anyone else.  I tried to be SO careful, kept cleaning my hands with sanitizer, covering my mouth but I must have been a large bag of escaping viruses on Friday coming back on the plane.  Just hoping the lower respiratory part doesn't get worse that is where it seems to be stuck now.  Plenty dehydrated, trying to stock up on fluids having a hard time getting them down.

Had some unnecessary drama I won't go into here when I got home from the funeral.  That on top of traveling, on top of being sick, on top of being on my feet, on top of not being able to breathe, on top of having to drive drive drive makes me feel like I have been run over by a steamroller.  The IM phenergan did keep me from throwing up all through the central United States on a plane, but giving yourself those shots sure hurts!  I am getting tired of being everyone's solution to every crisis, but maybe that's because I'm SO DARNED SICK!  I guess I'm just whiney today. sigh.

At least I am at the spot in the cartoon where (after being run over by the steamroller) you come out pressed flat and pop back to three dimensions!!!  Woo Hoo!

IV Practice Pincushion

No Fluids For Me

Have been feeling ill all week.  Just thought it might be the new medication (cyclosporine) or quitting an old medication (plaquenil) or maybe fatigue (because I have been working some longer hours).  Started being nauseous on Wednesday, very nauseous on Thursday (to the point of quitting eating), and thowing up at work Friday and leaving early.  I tried to make it out of town but got sick again a couple of times, and decided I'd better go to urgent care.


I was able to be seen at urgent care right away, and they decided I truly am dehydrated, with orthostatic hypotension and elevated heart rate.  I told them I think I have a UTI but I can't tell because the radiation therapy messed up my nerves so the pain shows up in the wrong places or doesn't show up at all.  I also said it could be pancreatitis but it didn't feel painful enough.  The doctor ordered an IV and zofran in the IV for hydration and nausea control and some blood tests.  Then the circus started.

I am not easy anymore to "stick" for blood or IV's - and I am worse when I am dehydrated.  I know I need IV hydration BUT it is an ordeal to get a vein just to take blood for a blood test, and when they try to thread an IV it is impossible! 

The first nurse tried my right hand - I told her go for it.  She failed after partially threading an IV and blowing the vein (she was a beginner at putting in IV's so incorrectly blamed herself) and called in a second nurse.  That nurse looked over my arms.  I tell them the last time they used a pediatric IV set to start an IV.  I am ignored.  The nurse pokes my left arm and digs, no go on that vein.  Tries another vein on the left arm - gets blood enough for the blood tests (barely) and then tries to thread an IV.  Blown vein again.  Sigh.  Tries a third vein on the right arm this time, it disappears as she approaches it with a needle.  A fourth try in my right wrist that is extremely ouchy but dry hole.  Calls the parenteral nurse with the ultrasound machine.  I tell them - ultrasound techs couldn't do it last time, it was a pediatric IV set that did the trick. 

A third nurse who comes in and looks at my arms decides to get one of the pediatric nurses in to see if she can get an IV started because I am a small person with small veins.  I didn't have to tell her about the pediatric IV set.  The fourth pediatric nurse comes in, looks at my arms, said she probably could get a pediatric IV set started in my left arm BUT the parenteral nurse appears with her ultrasound machine and long long needles so the pediatric nurse does a fade while the fifth nurse tries to get an IV started. 

The fifth nurse tries three times on my left arm and twice on my right arm to get a vein to start an IV- some very deep.  As soon as she would get close to a vein it would disappear.  She got one partially started and tried to "float" it in and blew that vein.  Very interesting - she showed me the difference between veins and arteries on the ultrasound.  Very painful - at this point it is 10 unsuccessfull tries to get an IV in and over an hour of being messed with.  I told the ultrasound nurse I could have had antinausea medication and sucked down 3 liters of water by then, even if I barfed some of it back up!   She gets the hint and goes off to tell the doctor they can't get an IV started. 

I was shaking and my teeth were chattering - I think it was just too much digging around for me.  I can handle about 7 sticks and after that I get really shakey.  It is worse when I am dehydrated to begin with. Big Sigh.

The doctor comes in and says well you won't be able to get any IV fluids today even though you are dehydrated, unless I wanted them to go for the neck veins which he could order. Nope I said - had that tried before as bad as the other veins.  THEN he says - next time you are dehydrated go to the ER don't come to urgent care - they are better equipped to handle someone like you.  He said I appeared to have a UTI and he would prescribe Zofran and an antibiotic.  Boy they were really glad to see me out after that!

I now feel like I flunked Urgent Care.  Kicked out of class for being unruly. I'm in the "somebody like you" remedial course.  Poor nurses all felt bad because of my bad veins.  I felt bad because they had to try to poke my bad veins.  Not sure why my veins are bad and getting worse.  What is more, I started hiving in the arms they kept constricting with tourniquets and poking, and then my face started breaking out in long hives. My face is still swollen and I still have hives on my cheeks, but at least the Zofran has enabled me to keep liquids down and take my antibiotics.  I am more Rene Zellweger tonight than Angelie Jolie because I have puffy cheeks instead of puffy lips.

I am some better today (after a day of antibiotics) but the nausea is still pretty bad.  The Headache was not so good yesterday or today, but I think the dehydration is part of the problem.  Hoping tomorrow will be better!

Saw the A-team this week for a three month checkup on The Headache.  No new recommendations (yeah!) but Dr. Hannibal Smith suggested I see Dr. Jock Biodude again for further biofeedback training.  Told to practice my biofeedback on planes, because I reported issues flying.  I am not a nervous flyer - I spend most of my flight time sleeping.  I think the problem has more to do with carting luggage, getting through security (have to have a manual pat down because of the stimulator), and hurrying to catch a flight, and perhaps a pressurized cabin than any anxiety I might have.  I am sure Dr. Jock Biodude would say otherwise - I must have a deep seated desire to be ill and puke in a stinky airplane bathroom and biofeedback will stop it.

I guess Dr. Jock Biodude needs to make a living somehow but I am not sure if I will make an appointment with him or not.  I missed the last one because I forgot when traveling for work.  I think it was a subconscious desire not to have to sit and hear sports analogies for an hour.  I will have to check my insurance policy - I am not sure if it covers biofeedback, so its a convenient excuse for avoiding further sports talk annoyance.  Three strikes - yyyyooooouu're OUT!

Too Much Hydration

How Much is Too Much?

To reduce The Belly pain from the pancreatitis, I was told to cut back on what I was eating. I wasn't eating very much, so cutting that out left me with liquids and some supplement like Ensure. I had been told that the pancreatitis might have been exacerbated by deydration and that I was to drink more liquids, so I thought - no food, but I can keep the liquids up!

The radiation damage to my intestines gives me problems with food digestion, motility, and excessive water loss through bowel movements. I have run into the problem today that I feared - too many liquids = excessive loss of liquid in the stools. I spent almost all morning at work in the bathroom, with at least 10 trips between 8 AM and 10:30 AM. I quit drinking any liquids at 10 AM, and have gone at least 10 more times since then. I left work and came home because everytime I sit down and I have to get up and go again, and you can't work like that, and you can't monopolize a public restroom like that. Thank heavens there are quite a few places I could pull off and go on the 45 minute ride home.

I'm feeling the beginnings of dehydration, and am now in the Catch 22 situation where I need more fluids, but if I increase the fluids, the fluid loss continues at a faster rate than I can replenish it. If I don't increase fluids, I will continue to lose fluids at this point and may continue to dehydrate anyway. What to do? I'm going to try the no-fluid route and see where I end up in a couple of hours. I know the more fluid route will end up with me on an IV in an ER and I just don't need another co-pay.

I started out the day in such great shape! I was up at 6:00 AM and ready for work at 7:00 AM, and if I hadn't run into some road construction I would have been at work before 8:00 AM. I was feeling up and good, The Belly pain was behaving because it hadn't had food to gnaw on for a couple of days. Then about 15 minutes after getting to work the waterworks started and haven't really let up yet.

The worst part is that you feel parched when you get dehydrated, yet I know that drinking more fluids doesn't work with me. I even tried Gatorade, but no help. I drank some briny water hoping salt would help restore my osmotic balance, but no help. Hoping I can dry up The Belly before I have to drive to St. Louis tomorrow, or I better figure on a six hour drive instead of a four hour drive to account for the rest stops!!!

Kidney Stones

What a Day!

Haven't been feeling too great, but thought that it was the aftermath of the flu from last week. I have been having a lot less headache pain, so I guessed I'm just feeling other pain in my body because that The Headache isn't overpowering everything. I have been working more hours this week, almost back to eight hours again - should have known I wouldn't have a 40 hour work week. I feel all whiney tonight but I think it is the pain medication.

I started having extremely painful internal spasms at work, so bad I couldn't hardly talk or walk. I tried to wait it out, saying to myself "Stupid - you worked too much on a ladder last weekend - now you are paying the price!" I wasn't thinking too well - as happens when I'm in a lot of pain - and after a coworker asked what was wrong with me, finally figured out I should go see a doctor. I drove myself to urgent care, and they did a urinalysis finding that I was passing almost more blood than urine, which is a symptom of kidney stones.

The Headache decided to get into what I call a "pain feedback loop" and started acting up too. I fiddled with the stimulator, and it seemed to drop the pain back a notch or two on The Headache.

My blood pressure was sky high, and they did a CT scan of my pelvic region and confirmed that I had kidney stones. My ureter wasn't blocked and the spasms had calmed down by then, so I was given a script for pain medication and told to go home and drink plenty of water. I also was given a strainer to strain my urine for the next two days to try to catch the stone or stones as they work their way out so they can analyze them to see what kind of stone I am making. Ewwwwww. I have a couple of stones that are still in my kidneys, but they aren't the ones causing the pain.

I am extremely nauseated, even taking phenergan is not stopping the vomiting. Their instructions said I was to go to the emergency room if I can't keep anything down. I'm going to give it a few hours and see if this will quit before morning. I have been able to sip some liquids and keep that down this evening but large quantities of water have not been possible. Pacing the floor seemed to help, and I am going to try a hot bath before I go to bed - some web sites stated that could help.

I was hoping all would be back to normal soon, but that wasn't in the cards for me today. Perhaps the remains of the stone will pass tonight and I will be back at work tomorrow. I am still feeling quite a bit of pain, and that's with vicodin and phenergan in me. Comparing kidney stones to pancreatitis, acute pancreatitis was more painful, and the stones seem easier to treat. The Belly doesn't like either condition.

Here's the problem I can see with kidney stones: I live my life on the edge of dehydration. If I increase my fluid intake I also increase the diarrhea that is caused by the damage from the radiation therapy five years ago. I then start passing more water than I take in, and that dehydrates me more quickly. So for me, more liquids equals quicker deydration (believe me, I've had to go to the ER for that a few times before I figured out what was going on). So no matter what I do, I am toast as far as liquid intake is concerned..which will mean more urinary tract infections, and more kidney stone formation.

Ah well, that's what I get for not ordering the extra absorbant digestive system option and the radiation resistant bladder when I was born...and my model year is way too old to upgrade. I'm going to have see if I have some kind of gypsy curse on my head. This illness stuff is getting really old.