Annoying Urgent Care Visit and Quick Immune System Update

In the middle of December, my immune system decided to crash. It did this once, several years ago. The major difference is that back then, we had an obvious trigger, and this time it just happened. It’s now the last half of February, and I’ve been sick more than I’ve been okay. Tho, I was just healthy for two weeks prior to my current issue.

I write a bit more about it here: Rough Start to 2018

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Stomach Issues Return

Normally after vacations, due to all the restaurant and junk food, I am horribly stopped up.

For some reason, this time, I now have diarrhea. It’s not “running to the restroom every few hours” bad, but the last three days have all had multiple loose stools. Today is the worst of it so far. But the frequency is way off. I’ve only gone about twice each the last two days, which is weird.

My stomach though feels horrid. It feels like I’ve been hit in the lower abdomen by a baseball bat and my colon has been set on fire. No idea what triggered this.

I do not have a fever.

I’m glad I see my GI on the 31st. Hopefully it doesn’t get any worse, and I really hope it doesn’t last that long…

Minimal Bodily Cooperation, But Still Cause For Gratitude

My body seemed to level back out again, weight wise. When I picked Dan up from the airport, I was still nauseous but it was dinner time and I really wanted a French dip sandwich from Mimi’s Cafe. Instead of only eating half (like usual), I ate about 3/4 of it and half of my fruit bowl. The next day I managed to eat most of my Qdoba nachos for lunch too!

The rest of the weekend I’ve been eating lighter, but I did go back up those three pounds. The nausea is a little more manageable, but still pretty bad. We’ll see what happens this week. At least the rapid weight loss seems to have stopped for now – that was unnerving.

I hope you all had a good weekend.

Heat Headaches

I have been struggling with headaches recently thanks to the heatwave that is engulfing of the central and southern United States lately. It’s been in the 90°F range (or hotter) petty much every day for weeks, and I don’t have a way to keep my house less than 80°F. When I overheat, I get headaches. When I get headaches, I can’t use the computer. 😦 I am hoping to get back to writing more soon!!!!!

Full Body Headache, Or So It Feels…

My entire body feels like it has a migraine. I’m in so much pain today. My back is STILL shot. I thought after Pilates yesterday, my back would feel better, but I can’t seem to get ahead of this. My fibro pain is almost always first prominent in my hips, so I’m pretty sure that is why I’m just stuck in this cycle. The daily migraine also hit REALLY early today, and I was struck down by about 11am, when I woke up at 10am. Ugh. I have been lying on the couch, with the room dark and the TV on VERY quiet just because my ADHD makes me really bored if I’m not doing anything at all. I finally had to call Dan at work because the waves of pain were too much, and then came to the realization I absolutely had to take Tramadol and Excedrin (an hour apart for my poor stomach). I had buttered noodles and Ensure for lunch, and my stomach is still killing me despite Zofran. No idea if it’s the medication or the migraine or the pain or a combination of everything or something completely different. I can barely think and I feel horrendous. I’m so sick of lying on the couch. I’m so sick of headaches.

pills and couch june 2016

Daily pills (AM top hand, PM bottom hand), and my usual place and position of lying on the couch.

Update About “Internal Struggle”

Previous Post: Internal Struggle

My mom decided to unfollow my blog. She wasn’t upset, but she didn’t want me to feel like I needed to hold back. While I’m kind of relieved, because now I can be completely honest without stressing about the tenuous relationship I have with my family… I’m unsure about how communication is going to work regarding my illnesses and such now. Oh well, I guess we’ll see. Maybe now we’ll actually talk.

I do have a post I’m trying to figure out how to structure. It might turn into a series of posts. Recently, I’ve been struggling at coming to terms with my Joint Hypermobility Syndrome (JHS) (potential EDS). Why have I been struggling? Because it’s a condition I was born with and that means I have had it my entire life. Why is that a struggle? Because I didn’t get diagnosed until just recently, even though I’ve had symptoms and very definitive signs my entire life. Yeah. So I’m trying to figure out how to structure the post/series properly and how to make it informative and therapeutic. It’s been a major part of my thinking lately, which is why I haven’t really been posting.

Well, I also haven’t been posting much because I’ve been in a pain and Tramadol induced haze for the past several days due to my back. Stupid back.

Hopefully, things will start to come together soon.

Rest, Finally

Oh man, I can hardly believe it… Stuff is over. My body has been on high for the last several weeks and my calendar is suddenly EMPTY. Mom left this morning, and I went to Verizon this afternoon to get the stuff with my replacement phone figured out. But then all I had to do the rest of today was to get my replacement phone setup! Yay!

However, since I’ve been on high for so long, my body doesn’t want to decompress. I have crazy knots everywhere, and I have a crazy intense “forgetting everything” type of feeling. And migraines. Ugh. I had one that was pretty bad when Dan got home today, that hit quickly, and then the Excedrin either wore off after two hours or I got hit by a second one… either way, ugh. Plus, stomach issues. Hopefully, however, after a few more days of actually resting, my body will actually believe me that nothing is urgent and come out of the “emergency” stage.

Tomorrow, I’m going to read! I’m also going to get my allergy shots and drop off my old phone at the post office and have my individual appointment with Joleen. But mostly, I’m going to relax and just read 🙂 It’ll be fantastic!

read

 

MIA A Little Longer

Life is Hectic

I had my last classes yesterday! I just checked my grades though and had to email one of my teachers because she’d said that the papers should be posted by 5pm yesterday and mine still hasn’t been graded and it was turned in two hours before the deadline. However, without the paper grade, I have an A in that class! My other class is also an A. So I if I got an A on my paper, then I will have an A in both of my classes which means that I’ll be graduating on another 4.0 semester!!!!! 😀 Exciting!

You would think my life would calm down now, but not quite yet.

My graduation is on Saturday, which means my family is flying in from California. I’m excited that my family is visiting 🙂 This is the first time my Dad and sister have gotten to see my house. It also means that we have a lot to do to get it ready. We are also having a party on Saturday, so we have a lot to do to get ready for that too. I’m really sore from stuff yesterday, so I’m taking a break to write this but I really need to get back to my to-do list.

AFTER my graduation stuff, THEN I’ll have time. There are several things I want to write about… I just need the time! Until then, I hope you all are doing well. I’m alive, I promise.

I Should Have Made An Appointment…

I have to get routine bloodwork done because I haven’t had a normal physical in two years (I didn’t realize it had been that long, all those other doc appointments blended together). This also means I have to fast because I have to do a lipid panel.

LabCorp (where I get my blood drawn) is really busy from opening until 10 because of all the people fasting and because they don’t require appointments. I figured I’d sleep in today, on my day off, and go on as soon as I woke up. I walk in about 11:15 and the waiting room is full (about 20 people).

Oh dear. I’ve been sitting here for 15 minutes and I’m starting to get dizzy thanks to nothing but water. I did bring Ensure with me for immediately after, but ugh. I feel crappy. Next time, I need to make an appointment.

Chronic Illness “Uniform” Sweatshirts

I was thinking of making some generic chronic illness warrior designs, for those of you without dysautonomia or fibromyalgia. Since it just snowed another foot here (yup, I just more than a foot of snow this weekend), I decided to start out with the standard “official uniform” design on the sweatshirt! I’ve just been doing women’s clothing so far, since most of my readers are women and the majority of chronic illnesses seem to primarily impact women (sadly). Let me know if you there is an interest in male designs though and I’ll get right on it! Here are the basic sweatshirts and hoodie designs I got together you other chronic warriors 🙂

 

 

 

 

I’ve also been growing the art portion of my Zazzle shop significantly: I’ve added throw pillows, coaster, art pieces, postage stamps, and many other items. Please check out my entire shop and let me know what you think!