It's been forever since I've been on & so many of you have been extremely kind in asking after me. Unfortunately, it's anti-climactic now that everything is done.
What starting the whole thing off:
chest pain
shortness of breath
extreme fatigue
extreme moodiness
These symptoms were quite worrisome to me and to my doctor. So after...
an annoying misdiagnosis by a "fill-in" doc (mine was on vacation), I was given meds I shouldn't have been, which complicated all of the symptoms, and led to...
an ER visit, where I was so bloated the receptionist thought I was 6 months pregnant...
& a whole slew of tests because they were sure I had an infection of some sort.
But no, so my doc came back, & promptly started sending me to the specialists. I love her!
So after...
a mammogram
multiple visits to the cardiologist
a gastro scope
Drum roll please... I have acid reflux. No infection in the sac around the heart, no complications with my heart whatsoever, no breast cancer, no esophageal cancer (this last one was actually a biopsy, so that was 2 weeks of hell waiting for the results).
I have since been working on lifestyle changes to help reduce the reflux issues. Why did things get so out of control? I never knew I had reflux. I had experienced heartburn with my pregnancies, but I wasn't having heartburn symptoms. I was however having chest pains in the center of my chest, issues with losing my voice, issues with feeling as if I had something stuck in my throat or it was dry and irritated (I thought allergies), issues with feeling bloated (but not actually until the "silly" doc got a hold of me), and issues with not eating as much as I should (due to bloated feeling), and not sleeping well due to all of it. These in turn were what triggered the fatigue, moodiness, & feeling short of breath.
Evidently you can have acid reflux for years & not know it. Unfortunately it does damage during this time and continues to compound itself and its symptoms, until you medicate it enough to control it. I also found out that stress can trigger the symptoms into a flare-up, which is what happened in my case.
Around the time that all of these symptoms landed on me, my mom had returned to the hospital due to complications from her surgeries and treatments. She ended up spending the entire summer there, which was why I still wasn't around, even once I knew I wasn't going to die. (A little melodramatic humor for ya.) She eventually underwent another surgery, 9 hours, during which they said she had a 50/50 chance of surviving.
It was one of the hardest times for my family. She was wasting away before my father's eyes and there was nothing he could do to stop it. She was having problems with vision, she couldn't keep food down, and she started to hallucinate at one point. After the surgery, it was 3 weeks before they even brought her out of her drug-induced stupor enough for her to communicate with anyone. Even then she was incoherent most of the time. It took her another month to recover enough to return home, and it's been 2 months since she's been home. She is just now starting to get back her old self. She can finally do some things on her own (she was so happy when she had the strength to clip her own nails).
My siblings & I all rallied for my parents and returned home to help them out. My parents are selling their house, so we helped them get packed and into a storage unit. My brother lives near them, so they are currently residing with him and his wife. They are planning on moving South this Spring to live with me and my family. We are optimistic now, but we all (us kids, my dad, her family, his family) all thought we were facing the end. We honestly thought we were going to lose her.
So after a summer of being a recluse & focusing on my family's needs, I was finally able to (or made myself) focus on my household & my friends which had been sadly neglected during this past year. Thankfully, I have amazing friends who understood my withdrawal from the world, & a family who is most resilient (I hate to say it, but I thank the military for making this trait a necessity).
However, this was not the end of the road of struggle for me. As my household is facing many changes in the upcoming year, I've had to step up on the job front & take on a 2nd job. Between January 2013 & July 2013 my household will deal with my husband retiring from the military & trying to find another job, our oldest child will graduate from HS (we're already dealing the monetary needs for this), and my parents will move in with us. Those are just the major events. We still get the fun of dealing with the every day things as well.
So, I now have 2 PT jobs, which is what has severely limited my time in the past month. I fully intended on jumping back into the swing of things in September, but time has flown away from me (again, you'd think I'd be used to this by now).
I have been reading, of course. Some of the books requested for review and some not. I am a person who will retreat to the world of happy endings when times get hard, so I read a lot of romance during the tough times in my life. Y'all know this by now, but that is why I haven't read all the review requests. Also, it's easy to read a book, but it's harder to read it for review. You have to retain so much, and when your mind is consumed with doctors, tests, illness, survival, being supportive, etc it just doesn't retain like it should. Or at least mine doesn't.
So, at the end of this novel of an entry, I will be posting reviews again. I don't know how quickly I'll get them done or how often you can expect a post, but I will be using as much of my spare time as I can muster up to get this done for you.
Thank you again for all of your concern & consideration over the last few months. It was deeply touching to hear from everyone who took the time to reach out.
What starting the whole thing off:
chest pain
shortness of breath
extreme fatigue
extreme moodiness
These symptoms were quite worrisome to me and to my doctor. So after...
an annoying misdiagnosis by a "fill-in" doc (mine was on vacation), I was given meds I shouldn't have been, which complicated all of the symptoms, and led to...
an ER visit, where I was so bloated the receptionist thought I was 6 months pregnant...
& a whole slew of tests because they were sure I had an infection of some sort.
But no, so my doc came back, & promptly started sending me to the specialists. I love her!
So after...
a mammogram
multiple visits to the cardiologist
a gastro scope
Drum roll please... I have acid reflux. No infection in the sac around the heart, no complications with my heart whatsoever, no breast cancer, no esophageal cancer (this last one was actually a biopsy, so that was 2 weeks of hell waiting for the results).
I have since been working on lifestyle changes to help reduce the reflux issues. Why did things get so out of control? I never knew I had reflux. I had experienced heartburn with my pregnancies, but I wasn't having heartburn symptoms. I was however having chest pains in the center of my chest, issues with losing my voice, issues with feeling as if I had something stuck in my throat or it was dry and irritated (I thought allergies), issues with feeling bloated (but not actually until the "silly" doc got a hold of me), and issues with not eating as much as I should (due to bloated feeling), and not sleeping well due to all of it. These in turn were what triggered the fatigue, moodiness, & feeling short of breath.
Evidently you can have acid reflux for years & not know it. Unfortunately it does damage during this time and continues to compound itself and its symptoms, until you medicate it enough to control it. I also found out that stress can trigger the symptoms into a flare-up, which is what happened in my case.
Around the time that all of these symptoms landed on me, my mom had returned to the hospital due to complications from her surgeries and treatments. She ended up spending the entire summer there, which was why I still wasn't around, even once I knew I wasn't going to die. (A little melodramatic humor for ya.) She eventually underwent another surgery, 9 hours, during which they said she had a 50/50 chance of surviving.
It was one of the hardest times for my family. She was wasting away before my father's eyes and there was nothing he could do to stop it. She was having problems with vision, she couldn't keep food down, and she started to hallucinate at one point. After the surgery, it was 3 weeks before they even brought her out of her drug-induced stupor enough for her to communicate with anyone. Even then she was incoherent most of the time. It took her another month to recover enough to return home, and it's been 2 months since she's been home. She is just now starting to get back her old self. She can finally do some things on her own (she was so happy when she had the strength to clip her own nails).
My siblings & I all rallied for my parents and returned home to help them out. My parents are selling their house, so we helped them get packed and into a storage unit. My brother lives near them, so they are currently residing with him and his wife. They are planning on moving South this Spring to live with me and my family. We are optimistic now, but we all (us kids, my dad, her family, his family) all thought we were facing the end. We honestly thought we were going to lose her.
So after a summer of being a recluse & focusing on my family's needs, I was finally able to (or made myself) focus on my household & my friends which had been sadly neglected during this past year. Thankfully, I have amazing friends who understood my withdrawal from the world, & a family who is most resilient (I hate to say it, but I thank the military for making this trait a necessity).
However, this was not the end of the road of struggle for me. As my household is facing many changes in the upcoming year, I've had to step up on the job front & take on a 2nd job. Between January 2013 & July 2013 my household will deal with my husband retiring from the military & trying to find another job, our oldest child will graduate from HS (we're already dealing the monetary needs for this), and my parents will move in with us. Those are just the major events. We still get the fun of dealing with the every day things as well.
So, I now have 2 PT jobs, which is what has severely limited my time in the past month. I fully intended on jumping back into the swing of things in September, but time has flown away from me (again, you'd think I'd be used to this by now).
I have been reading, of course. Some of the books requested for review and some not. I am a person who will retreat to the world of happy endings when times get hard, so I read a lot of romance during the tough times in my life. Y'all know this by now, but that is why I haven't read all the review requests. Also, it's easy to read a book, but it's harder to read it for review. You have to retain so much, and when your mind is consumed with doctors, tests, illness, survival, being supportive, etc it just doesn't retain like it should. Or at least mine doesn't.
So, at the end of this novel of an entry, I will be posting reviews again. I don't know how quickly I'll get them done or how often you can expect a post, but I will be using as much of my spare time as I can muster up to get this done for you.
Thank you again for all of your concern & consideration over the last few months. It was deeply touching to hear from everyone who took the time to reach out.
