Falling

2012 Not Starting Well

I haven't been posting - too sick or too hurt or too stressed or working too many hours that I shouldn't.  Members of my extended family have been ill, or have found out bad health news, or are just stressed too.  Hoping that their conditions will work out for the best, if mine worsens so be it.

I went to the A-Team (my headache specialist and the headache clinic) this month and they were as kind as always and had some more options for me to try. Every time I go in, my doctor takes the time to review my case and research to see if any new studies have been published before my appointment.  You would think all doctors do this, but in my recent experience I have found it a rarity, so I am pleased that Dr. Hannibal Smith and his team do this consistently.  He also wrote a letter for me to have with me when I do have to go to emergency rooms that gives some basic guidelines to the ER docs on how to treat my hemicrania continua during an extreme pain flair.  He also gave me some literature on HC to go with the letter.  I am hoping this will help both me and the ER docs.  There are so few hemicrania continua patients that the ER docs and nurses treat it as a migraine because that is the headache condition they see most often.

I fell really really hard last Friday down some stairs while I was mopping the floor.  Missed work, and my sister was kind enough to take me to the ER to be checked out.  My lower lip and chin are still numb from the fall - how I hit this I don't know but I broke several of my front teeth and knocked part of a filling and crumbled the side of a tooth in the back.  The docs thought I might have a mild concussion also - I threw up several times during the night while I waited to see if I should go to the ER.  I knocked ribs out of place and was able to crank those puppies back where they should be while I was still numb from hitting the floor.  I have a problem with my ribs going out dating back about 20 years to a fall on the ice.  I think once you injure yourself bad enough the old injury keeps popping up when you try new acrobatic tricks when falling.  I must be made of rubber and bounced pretty well since no bones were broken.

The pain from the fall has been really bad.  I don't seem to be bruised badly - there are a couple of spots that show bruises - but the pain seems to be coming from the pelvic region and my right hip and leg.  My incontinence issues have gotten worse yet again, perhaps from bruising the nerves?  I am going to have to start using protection at night if it doesn't clear up soon, as it is happening in my sleep since my fall.  My teeth hurt but I have a dentist appointment Friday to see what is going on there.  Maybe my major medical will cover part of the repairs - that would be a big WooHoo!!!

I see my PCP this morning to see what if anything can be done with the increased pain and incontinence.  Maybe it will calm down after a week or so.  I seem to only have the sensation of pain, and am not aware that I am having incontinent episodes.  I will just have to move forward and hope that this latest set back goes away after my body gets over the shock of the flying leap and the splatted landing.  Note to self - do not fall with a three gallon bucket full of dirty mop water again!!!  Not only did it through me off balance I had to lay there in that mess and then clean it up and finish mopping.  My feet are so numb I am not sure what made me fall - I suspect mop water sloshed out and I stepped in it.

I plan to go into work today after going to the PCP.   Not sure how I will be doing, but I need to make the effort, because it is not work's fault I am a clumsy oaf!  I also have an appointment Thursday with my urologist to see if I need to continue the intermittent catheterization.  I had a very bad UTI since starting the self-cathing but  this could have been from fecal incontinence or not being careful enough with the catheters.  Makes me cringe to think about it.

I am somewhat drugged - the pain has been horrid in my back and in my abdomen.  For some reason my liver and kidney hurts on the right side and my spleen on the left are terribly sore.  Just what I need, another part/piece deciding it doesn't like me and leading a revolt of the innards!!!  Maybe you can bruise your insides as well as the outside - maybe that's why the ER docs gave me literature on deep contusions??

I hope this post makes sense, as my mind hurts.  I'm going to have to retire from the circus and stop the acrobatic stunts while mopping.  This is the second time I have fallen at the same spot on the same stairs while mopping.  Maybe the root cause is mopping the floor.  Sounds good - I can quit mopping and won't every fall again!  When I win the lottery I can hire maid service to come in and mop and fall for me.  sigh.

Bilious Emesis

Erpiness Abounds

Managed to avoid going to the ER for The Headache, despite its continued obstinance and persistance the last few days. However, yesterday I started throwing up and couldn't stop. Ended up in the ER dehydrated and with The Belly having fits. Had to wait hours to be seen as the swine flu epidemic is ongoing here and the waiting room was full of sick children. One of the nurses told me there were only a few ER rooms that were being reserved for non-flu patients, so waiting was necessary. I don't think I will catch H1N1 since I am pretty sure I had it in May.

I couldn't tell what was going on with The Belly. Could it be the pancreas? Could it be another UTI? Could it be something else entirely? I had taken 2 doses of phenergan to try to stop the nausea and vomiting, but it didn't help. The projectile vomiting also made The Belly start humping and jumping with pain. I also had mid and low back pain.

The ER doc was very kind and gave me an IV and also a big IV injection of zofran and fentanyl. The pain was bad enought the fentanyl didn't really help it much, but it did let me drift off to sleep while I got hydrated. The nurse came back and told me that I had a bad UTI, and he gave me a script to have filled. I have lots of allergies that were documented and never thought to check the script - it was for Septra a brand name I did not recognize. I got home between 1 and 2 in the morning. When I got up in the morning I looked up Septra and found it contained sulfa, a no-no drug for me. That's why I double check everything...

I then called my urologist to see if they could prescribe a better medication. All I got was voice mail, so I called my personal physician and at least got to talk to a nurse. They didn't know what the doc would do as far as prescribing a better antibiotic. I stopped by the ER on my way to work to let them know that a mistake had been made, and got a script for macrobid to replace the one for Septra. I then went to work.

The urologists office called and said I didn't have a UTI per their opinion because I had no nitrites in my urine so not to take any antibiotics until they cultured the sample. I didn't bother to explain to them that I generally have enterococcus infections, a gram positive bacteria that doesn't create nitrites. I have been down this route with doctors before.

When I got home, ready to drop off the macrobid for filling, the pharmacy said my PCP had called in an antibiotic, so I paid for it and am taking it. The nausea is going down some this evening but the pain at the level of my kidneys is still pretty bad - it could be a UTI or it could be pancreatitis. Who knows? I will pull my records tomorrow to see what the test results were.

I have an appointment October 12th for my endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). I had called Dr. Gnome's office to find out the number to call the Joplin GI doc who was going to schedule the EUS since it had been a week. The receptionist somehow transferred me to another location where they have an office, that person there figured out no-one has sent my info to the Joplin doc (which is what I suspected) and promised that it will be sent today, then the receptionist called me at work while I am still on the line with her office and left me voice mail saying she's sorry I had felt the need to hang up!! I think the receptionist needs to figure out how to use their phone system...she was friendly enough, just a little ditsy on handling the transfer.

Tonight I am up into the wee hours of the morning, still quite nauseous and with considerable pain in The Belly that I am pretty sure is the pancreas. It's doing its dance of pain like it does when it wants to complain, I will take some medication pretty soon and try to sleep. I am so afraid of getting a physical dependence to pain killers that I resist taking anything and wait too long sometimes.

The right sided head pain is pretty bad this evening. It's been going off and on all day. It's not pleasant but it's livable. It is a boring pain through my right temple back to my right occipital region. Heaven preserve me from having the hemicrania continua turn into entire cranium continua!

Another Doctor Visit

Tired of Waiting and Waiting Rooms

Have another doctor visit tomorrow. This time to see the urologist. Had a voice mail message at home from my PCP, so no telling what that is. I'm trying to get all my health problems resolved because at work we are heading into a system implementation with a three month schedule which includes a two month training and go-live marathon. I haven't been able to work a full week yet, since everytime I turn around something else hits me healthwise, so I'm worried about my stamina. Can't have that interfering with an implementation, the client depends on our help too much at this stage.

I did manage to whip up a Gantt chart so I could visualize what needs to take place and when. Most of the dates are tentative but a few are set in stone. I worked for a while as a project manager and so I'm particular about how I need to see multi-deadline/multi-tiered schedules with dependencies.

Truth be told, if I had someone to take my place at work, the way I'm feeling now I would resign and let them take over. The people I work for are marvelous, and I hate not being able to give 110% to my job. I'm so tired right now I don't feel like I can drag one foot in front of the other, let alone be perky and alert in a training environment. I generally get a surge of adrenal on game day, so am hoping it kicks in. The clients are super nice and very quick learners, but I feel like I'm dragging a barge over a sandbar just to move and I don't want to short change the clients on their training. I also need to revamp my training materials, which requires a little brain power - maybe I can crank up the amps on the stimulator and get it buzzing.

My PCP said that the fatigue is probably from the pancreatitis. It sure can be an energy zapper, plus the starvation rations don't help. I am losing weight, hope I just don't put it right back on when I am feeling better. Dr. Gnomes office called me today because they needed a release of information form filled out before the hospital would release my records. I saw one problem with their release request - they did not specify what type of records they wanted to see - they wanted everything for the last 10 months. Because so much screwy medical stuff happens to me, that may be several hundred pages of records. Hope they have a fast fax machine with lots of paper!

The nausea the last couple of nights has had me up all night throwing up. It plays heck with my blood sugar levels (they tend to drop when this happens) plus my throat gets raw. Not sure if its the anitibiotic or the pancreas or the kidney infection or The Headache or just The Belly wanting attention. I think that is why I'm so whiney tonight. Or maybe it's the lousy weather today - my yard is flooded, my road is flooded, my septic tank is probably flooded, I'll be lucky if there isn't water under the house by the time it quits raining. Maybe I'll row to work tomorrow instead of drive! Thank heavens I live in the sinkhole ridden Ozarks - the water doesn't stay too long.