Archive | May 2012

30 Days of Truth- Day 1

May30

30 Days of Truth- Day 1- What do you hate about yourself?

What I HATE about myself?? Hate is such a harsh word! But if I had to come up with something, I’d say I hate how I cannot quit while I’m ahead. I should know by now that I have a limit on how much I can do. For example, 3 days of waking up early and doing fun stuff non-stop until late at night. The drinking with family and friends probably didn’t help either. But I have noticed a pattern in my behavior. That pattern is, if I do lots of stuff, for an extended period of time, I will pay for it via my Lupus. First, my grandmother came in early May. We had tons of fun, planted lots of flowers and vegetables, and had fun for days and days. Well, a few days after she left, I was hospitalized (of which I wrote about in the previous blog).  I got out of the hospital and within a week my cousin and her husband came to visit. We wanted to give them the ‘Colorado experience,’ so went out to eat at a restaurant in the mountains, we took them to Red Rocks amphitheatre, and went to the casino….all in the first night! I also took them up to Estes Park, and Rocky Mountain National Park, Old Chicago to have drinks with friends, hot tubbing, and a BBQ. Well, by the day they left (Monday), I could barely get out of bed because everything hurt so bad. My wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles were all swollen and extremely painful. My dad had to help me walk downstairs because it felt like I was walking on two broken ankles. Now, I do have to admit that I had a bit to drink the night before, which probably compounded with the fatigue and lupus symptoms. By Tuesday I could walk alright, but I stayed in bed the entire day due to extraordinarily painful stomach cramping and spasms. Which is the same thing that put me in the hospital a little more than a week ago. The only reason I didn’t go back to the hospital is because I just had a full workup and knew I would be ok. So I loaded up on the stomach cramping medicine (doxycycline) which helped minimally at best. It wasn’t until I took two of my morphine pills that I was able to function a little, and went downstairs to make some food to eat.

I was wondering, if anyone who has lupus has this type of stomach issue. It doesn’t have to be accompanied by an ‘upset stomach,’ but can be. The way I’d describe it is like gas pain x 50….or more. And it’s throughout my intestines. A friend and I call it the demons in my stomach, because sometimes you can see it spasming all over. The doctor in the hospital thought it is most likely inflammation in the lining of my intestines, kind of like pleurisy of the lungs…which IS a common lupus symptom.

Anyways, I went to my new primary care physician today and I absolutely love her. Even though I was 25 minutes late (oops!) she sat with me for the better part of an hour, listened to all of my crazy history, and actually seemed to comprehend it and take it all in. She changed around my sleeping medicines because I was concerned 3 different medicines were too many. So now I am going to try 2mg of Klonopin every night instead of Ambien, Klonopin, AND Trazadone. She also refilled my morphine— thank goodness! (I need it worse than ever with this new stomach issue I’m having). She gave me the 30mg extended release for daily use and 30 pills that are 15mg of instant release for breakthrough pain. She also changed my stomach spasm medication to something way more intense, called DONNATAL. Hopefully it will work better, but I don’t pick it up from the pharmachy until tomorrow. So I’ll have to let you know on that one.

My first physical therapy appointment (evaluation) is tomorrow, and hopefully doing physical therapy again will help relieve some of my hip and knee pain. I’m excited to go to the physical therapy appointment, because they will be able to tell me what kind of workouts other than just yoga that I can do at the gym.  Because I am ready to work out and get into super good shape! I have a new goal: to climb all 52 of the 14′ers in Colorado. [for those of you that don't know, that's all the 14,000+ foot mountains in the state]

Back to the subject of what I hate about myself… I hate how I just can’t quit while I’m ahead. As I was saying above, I have definitely noticed a pattern. I will just go, go, go, and I keep going, until I’m falling asleep at the dinner table- literally. Then I’m in bed for days because I just had to have fun with everyone else. I need to learn my limit, which I am quickly doing.  Although, health wise is not the only think I don’t quit while I’m ahead with. I typically talk myself into a hole and wish my foot into my mouth!!! lol.  Hate is a strong word, but I guess being too determined is an alright thing to have to hate about myself.

What about you guys? What is something you hate about yourself? Hopefully nothing! But I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Hopefully the physical therapy appointment goes well tomorrow. I’ll write about it! Until then, ttyl!

xoxo Beccaboo

I’m back!!!

May18

I’m back! …in the hospital :(

Note to self: Add iodine contrast dye to my allergy list.  Because anaphlaaxis is not fun. Let me go back a little…

So, sorry it’s been nearly a month since I’ve posted anything. I know I said I was going to write posts more regularly, however- this move back to Denver, Colorado really took a toll on me.  Right before I left Philadelphia I caught a sinus infection. By the time I got to Philadelphia with my dad, I felt so bad, it seemed like I had a sinus infection, the flu, strep throat, and a cold- all multiplied together. The next day my parents closed on their new house, and afterwards,  my mom took me straight to the ER at the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver. Turns out I had acquired sepsis (an infection in my blood) during the road trip, which kills people on a regular basis. And from the sepsis, I got ischemis colitis, where blood flow was cut off to part of my intestines. So I was admitted to the hospital (staying in the ER the entire time) for 4 days. They were pretty nice there, and had a good staff- other than the nurse that blew out my vein!

Blown out vein- looked like there was an egg in my arm!

That hospital ER is/was so hectic, neither my mom, dad, or I ever really want to go back. It was so overcrowded they had dozens of patient beds in the hallways with PERMANENT signs on the  walls labeled “Hall Bed 1″ etc. However there was good news… I got my new rheumatologist immediately, rather than having to wait 6-8 weeks for an appointment. She is very smart and works at the rheumatology clinic I referred to before I left Philly. I’ve already seen her once in between hospital visits, and I have another appointment Monday.

To make a long story short- after I left the hospital with Bactrum and Augmenten antibiotics, I felt better for a few days. THEN I got a terrible ‘upset stomach’ and had to go back to the doctor. BUT I went to the local ER this time instead. Where they said I had C. diff, (Clostridium difficile) – most likely caused by all the strong antibiotics killing off the ”good bacteria” in my stomach- and proceded to give me a third antibiotic on top of the first two. Now, a little more than two weeks after my 2nd Colorado ER visit, I was back in the hospital again. I talked to my rheumatology office Tuesday, and they said that if my stomach was still upset and painful that I needed to go back to the ER. Blah. So I get to the ER, and of course they want to do a CT Scan to rule out anything life threatening such as appendicitis. My scan ended up ok- but right after it I had a severe ‘systemic wide allergic reaction’ to the iodine contrast dye. My face turned beet red, my body broke out it welts, and my airways started closing up in my chest. Luckily this all happened in a hospital, and the ER doctor was quick to give me 50mg IV Benadryl, IV salumedrol (steroid), and an epi-pen shot. Pretty much saved my life. But they still wanted to admit me for my stomach problems, and then adding the allergic reaction to the mix, they really weren’t letting me go that night. So, while in the hospital, I had a colonoscopy and an endoscopy, which apparently both looked ok, but they did biopsies that I will hear back on in a few days. The doctor said he wanted to at least keep me for another day or two- to get to the bottom of things.  So, I got to go home yesterday… but not with a lot of answers :(

The good news to all that is- I got to wear my new hospital gowns. One is pink with white polka dots, and the other is green with pink and white diamond shapes. They are custom ordered and monogrammed from this super cute company called Dear Johnnies. If you are in the hospital much, I highly recommend them :)

So there is a quick update! Just letting you all know I am still alive and kicking :) Even if I was in the hospital AGAIN. But I’m trying to jailbreak my iphone, watch american idol, and type this blog, all while on a ton of medication (even though I have a stingy nurse tonight who doesn’t want to give me the medications the doctor ordered until I try a ‘lighter version’ of everything.  So I will try to write another blog soon, with more information, and hopefully some sort of a diagnosis!

Until then-
XoXo Becca