ER again!

This time it's due to abdominal pain. My white blood cell count is up too. Not good. They did an ultrasound and I am currently trying to choke down barium contrast for a CT scan. Loads of fun.

An update

On May 16, I was rushed to the ER because I was having problems breathing and I had a Multiday migraine that wouldn't go away. After a discussion with the Nurse on call with my insurance, I was told to get my butt down to the ER ASAP, so we called an ambulance to get me down there because Teh_Bagder had to get the kids over to my parents and then he had to go to work.
This is only the third time we had to dial 911. The first time was back in 1999, Munchkin was just over a year old. She had vomited and some had gotten stuck in her esophagus, blocking off her airway (she vomited again to dislodge the blockage just before the ambulance got there, but that was one of the most scariest times in my life!). The second time in 2000, when our new house had developed a gas leak. This time the paramedics picked me up and took me down to the ER. On the way they gave me an nebulizer treatment and oxygen because my blood-oxygen ratio was about 90%.
At the hospital, they put me on O2, gave me a painkiller for the migraine and basically just monitored my heart rate and respiration for about six hours just to make sure that it was working. Everytime I took off the O2 nose thing, my O2 levels would drop within 2-3 minutes. It was not fun.
The ER doctor told me that time that when I was asthma and no longer bronchitis. My GP said more likely asthma, but it was when I saw him previously that he wasn't going to officially give me that diagnosis until we could do the actual asthma test. And he said that we couldn't do that asthma test till I was off all my inhailers for at least two weeks. He was treating me for asthma, so had me on a long time bronchodilator, as well as a combivent inhaler to help.
The Er doctor prescribed a nebulizer for me as well as the two medicines that are in the combivent inhaler which is what I was using with the long-term bronchodilator, to see if that would help with the wheezing and my problems breathing.
That was mid May. It is now the end of June. I am still coughing and wheezing, but not as bad as it was.
One of the major drawbacks of the nebulizer is the hum of the compressed and the vibrations it sends up the air hose really doesn't help my headaches. If I have a full blown migraine, I cannot use it, as it will make the pain in my head much worse. At those times, I just have to use the combivent inhailer I have and hope its enough.
Yesterday, I called the place that provided the nebulizer unit to refill the mouth pieces that I am to change to a mask from the mouthpiece that I was given. They told me that my doctor needed to prescribe it. UG! I did call my GP's office and gave them the info. I have to remember to call the medical equipment co tomorrow to see if they got the info they needed.

History of how I met my husband.

Everyone knows what www.harmony.com and www.match.com are. But what happened on the Internet BEFORE those subscription base "dating" sites came about? Let me tell you our story.
As a teen, I was a member of Boy Scouts of America in their explorer program. After my first post closed, I joined the CompuServe Post. This was late 1994-early 1995 when the Internet was something only geeks and nerds really used and most websites were really only accessible by AOL keyword. If you were on line, you usually knew what you were doing, because it wasn't very user friendly and most chat boards were bulletin board type things (you post a message and then you get responses via email) or email.
CompuServe had live chat rooms, where you could enter and type (to talk) to other people. It was fully text based - no video or voice was used but it was live.
Being a member of the CompuServe post gave me a free CompuServe account, and I quickly found myself enjoying the chat rooms in CompuServe. There, I could be myself, and not be shunned or ridiculed. They poked fun at me, but they did that to everyone AND there was nothing evil or cruel in their teasing, just fun.
I found a place in on specific room called "The Village Elders". Many of the regulars were in their late 30's or older, but they welcomed me with open arms, even knowing I was only 16. There was 2-3 other kids my age in that room as well, and one specifically "Zombae" (real name David) and I hit it off well.
Fast forward to April 1997. I was completing my Freshman year of college. Fall term I basically flunked due to me being burned out, stressed out and room mate issues. So I was using CompuServe as an escape (when I became 18, I volunteered to be a chat room moderator called [Helper] mainly so I could keep a free CompuServe account. David kept urging me to get help because I was spiraling down further and further. One of my HS Friends was in some trouble too, so even with all my emotional issues, I was trying to help her out, too. My dad and I were basically at each other's throats since I was living at home, going to a local community college and working. To help me keep my sanity, I applied and was accepted to BGSU, which is about 90-110 min from where my parents lived.
It was May 1997 (I believe!) that I met ^oO^wolfie in The Village Elders. I think I was trying to sign off to start on some C programming homework. He saw that and opened up a private chat between us and asked what I was studying. I told him Comp Sci. He then said (and this is a quote!!) "MARRY ME!" I laughed it off, thinking it a joke. But that laughter was something I desperately needed at the time.
We chatted for 3 hours longer that day. He asked me to marry him I believe another half of dozen times in that first conversation alone.
He and I started exchange emails on a daily basis. Teh_Bagder sent me happy happy Wolfie messages almost every morning. Since he lived near Glagow, and I in Ohio, he was always up before me.
Around my birthday that year (July), there was a very rainy day. I was riding my bike to class, (breaks were wet) and a car stopped through a stop sign. The car hit my bike. I hit the ground hard on my hands and knees - luckily not my head. I limped my way to my class and told the prof what happened. Then I found a pay phone to call home. My middle brother answered, and I told him what happened. I made my way slowly back to my dorm. I called home again and had a bad argument with my dad. He was pissed that I didn't get their license number and never asked how I was doing. (I ended up with a soft tissue injury to one of my hips that forced me to be on crutches for 2 weeks, and it still hurts on occasion)
At that point, I lost all motivation for school. I was put on Prozac to see if it would help my volitial mood swings. The person who lived across the hall (also under 21) has a boyfriend who wasn't and he was easy to convince to buy us vodka and wine-coolers, and we spend most weekends getting smashed.
Then, mid August, Teh_Bagder just disappeared. No emails, not online to chat, nothing. He had my dorm phone number, but I didn't have his. (UK charges even local phone calls per minute I found out later). Two weeks of silence, he calls. Turns out that his phone was turned off because he couldn't pay the bill. He was calling from a payphone to tell me as soon as he got paid, he would pay the phone bill. He was very sorry for all the worry he caused me. I got his number at that time so I could call him if I needed to.
In September, David convinced me that I needed a getaway. At the time, David and I had been talking for over 2 1/2 yrs. he suggested that I fly to Glasgow to meet Teh_Bagder over winter break. If we didn't hit it off, I could spend the remainder of the trip in Edenbough with David, sightseeing.

So, I got plane tickets and a passport. Then, I asked my Wolfie what the weather was like there around new years. One must understand, he is very witty, and always has a comeback This left him speechless. (In the last 14 years, I have only caught him off guard like this a handful of times!)
Needless to say, I landed in Glasgow after 16hrs of flights on December 27, 1997. Upon entry, they gave me a 6 month visitors visa. We married May 20, 1998, and gave birth to Munchkin in the same hospital he was born in on October 1, 1998.
We applied for a spousal visa to the USA shortly there after. We landed in Cleveland in Jan, 1999. Since coming, we have had 2 more children.
Teh_Bagder applied and received his US Citizenship in Dec 2011. It has been a long road, with many detours, potholes and other hazards. I thank all my lucky stars that I have him. I thank every deity that allowed us to cross paths as we did, because, I know, if it hadn't been for him, his love and support, I would just be some headstone that people would visit.

*sigh*

It seems most of my posts are very depressing. Yes, it is mainly because I am using this to vent my feelings and frustrations. I am hoping if I vent them that they will not fester and then, MAYBE help me feel better.
My counselor has told me on several occasions that I remind her of a circus act. You know the one that puts plates on sticks and spins them? I am balancing so many different things and have to keep everything going just right or everything will come down around my ears in shambles.
The kids - their schooling, keeping the house clean, making sure they eat healthily. My health - my medicines are taken on time, refilled and organized so I don't forget to take one. (and they are numerous! If I miss a dose by an hour on certain meds, it can trigger migraines or other bad side effects about as serous and painful as migraines!)
My stress levels are too high (one of my major migraine triggers). And I really can't do much exercise until my lungs clear out, but I am willing to bet that as soon as I get started, it will help some! With Teh_Bagder out of the house so much until the 2nd week of June, it doesn't help. But, after that, he gets his BSc (thus finishing the need to do school and work at the same time!). Summer, he will just work at his current job, but mid August he starts Grad School AND a GTA position so his only job will be school until he gets his PhD. We are ALL excited about this, because it means he should have most-if not all- weekends free and should have more dinners at home.
A month into my gluten intolerance diagnose, I am not seeing much positive difference yet in my migraines or my other emotional difficulties yet. My guts (IBS, GERD) are feeling better after the 5 weeks it has been since I went gluten free. Yes, there has been 3 or 4 occasions I have accidentally eaten wheat and it HURT for a day or two.
We did talk to our kids pediatrician about my gluten intolerance diagnosis, and that we wanted to test all three kids, because they all have symptoms that *could* indicate gluten intolerance. We finally got them to Children's Hospital yesterday to have their blood drawn. Poor, brave Mr. Monkey had to be stuck 3 times, and we are all hoping that it was enough blood to run the tests. Munchkin and Buddy got their stick and it was enough to fill all three vials. We should know next week if they have it.
One of my elder brothers is going to have the test done on himself, too, because he has some issues that are funky that could be related to gluten intolerance, too. He said we should call our other brother and suggest he get it done as well if my kids or he comes back positive.

May the 4th be with you

Today is Star Wars day. In celebration, teh_Bagder took Munchkin and Buddy to a friend's house to run a RPG session of Star Wars, leaving me here with Mr. Monkey.
The weather cooperated, by showing us that it is a master of the Dark Side (we have cookies!) making the power flicker and reeking havoc with Mr. Monkey's happiness. Neither of us are fond of electrical storms, and the more active they are, the more it upsets him.
Luckily, the power didn't stay off for more than 5 seconds.
But it did screw up the tv. We have BASIC-basic cable (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, FOX, TBS and some of those pointless shopping networks) and we used to get [fuzzily] USA and Nick, now-about 2 hours after the worst of the storm, we don't have any kind of signal from those two channels. :/ can't really complain about it as we weren't supposed to be getting those channels anyway, but we did watch them. I don't think it's worth the $25 call out fee plus the $15 a month per box (times 2 for both tvs) plus the $10 a month to upgrade us to just Basic cable.
Oh well.

Bronchitis <i>STILL</i>

Two weeks ago I went to see my GP about my chest and getting tested for asthma. In March we were talking and he thinks it's a good idea that after my chest clears out that I get tested for asthma. Since my mother has adult on set asthma due to allergies, it is not a stretch that I could be at risk of getting it myself. I first had bronchitis in September,I suffered through October and November with it and I kind of felt better in December and most of January.
The last weekend of January I started feeling really bad again so I went back to my GP and he said that my lungs were congested again. In December of my lungs had sounded clear so I thought I was good to go. So February I was back on inhalers full-time, and I was put on antibiotics just to make sure that it wasn't a bacterial infection since it was a reoccurrence of bronchitis within six months and I have been running mid grade temperatures every time I came in to see him.
I believe it was mid-March when the congestion in my lungs actually had moved down to my lower chest which is when he put me on a salfa antibiotic (which put me in the ER with a severe reaction to it, that wasn't fun)
At the beginning of April I got diagnosed with a gluten intolerance and so I went to see him to talk about that and have him listen to my lungs cause I was starting to feel better. He told me that I needed to be off of all of my inhalers for about two weeks before we could do a asthma test or the asthma test would not be accurate. So I started to walk myself off of the bronchial dilator and the albuterol inhaler slowly. I had been down to about half dose on the bronchial dilator which was one puffs twice a day instead of two puffs twice a day when all of a sudden, two days ago I couldn't breath. It was the elephant on the chest feeling so I immediately took my albuterol inhaler and my next dose of the bronchodilator I want backup to two puffs. I went back to my GP doc yesterday because of it. He says that my long's sound really really raspy and my wheezing has increased again. He wants me to increase my goes back to full strength on my bronchodilator and keep my albuterol inhaler handy. He says not to worry about the asthma test until later in the summer, hoping that the congestion in my lungs will have cleared out by then.
So now my bronchitis is almost up to nine months and counting. I am really getting very frustrated with the pain in my chest because it hurts to breath. And the problems breathing isn't helping my migraines much either.

An update.

If you're male, and/or don't like to hear about feminine issues, then don't continue to read this. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
This will be WTMI..
All of you know I have what the medical industry calls 'chronic migraine' (15 or more migraines a month) I tend just to try to keep track of the days I don't have one, much easier to do. Many sufferers only have one or two types of triggers for theirs, I, OTOH, have triggers in all categories (environmental -odors, bright lights, loud sounds, too hot/humid, emotional, stress, sleep or lack there of, hormonal, and food I believe are the major categories). One category is hormonal fluxes (ie
monthlies). So, my OB, and Neuro thought to minimize the number of
fluxuations with BC (VERY difficult because I am very senisitive to
artificial hormones. Vomiting up a bc pill would not help me in any way) and ended up with the NovaRing.
It worked fairly well for 9 months, but see, almost every morning I would get up to use the toilet and would have to reinsert the ring. I was putting it in correctly (my OB checked), it just was being ornery! After much discussion, hubby and I decided to try the Mirena IUD again. Last time I had one in (2002), my next PAP came back abnormal and eventually lead to a LEEP (2004), then 2 Laproscopies because my cervix sealed shut (2005). Which made us have an emergency C-Section (2008) for our third child. AND when my OB went to insert the IUD he had to manually dilate my Cervix. Needless to say, THAT was an experience I would care not to experience again.
With the Nova Ring, I was leaving it in for 4 weeks, then just changing it the same day (as per instructions from my OB). Since the Mirena IUD has a similar amount of the hormones, it should still react like I was wearing the Nova Ring. The procedure to put the IUD in happened in Jan. February, I was ok and March was so so. I spotted some, but nothing like what I was having before: 5 days of constant migraines so bad that rolling my head on the pillow was painful and cramps like someone was stabbing me and twisting the knife around.
Did you notice I didn't say April above?Right now I have cramping so bad I feel like I am going to vomit. And I have had a migraine that just won't go away for 3 days now.

I did get the results back from the blood screen for gluten intolerance. One of the two came back positive, so since April 3rd (Monkey's Birthday!) I have tried my damnedest to eat gluten free. It's been about 3 weeks, and I have noticed some difference in my guts, but that is all. My Neuro said it could take 3-6 months to notice a difference.
Also, my GP AND our pediatrician think its a smart move to get the kids tested too. Now, the trick is, how to do it so Buddy doesn't freak out?

Being a pin cushion

I got to go to my neurologist past week. She's concerned that I'm using a lot of pain pills, as am I. I mentioned that over the last couple months it seems my headaches have gotten a lot worse with the bronchitis, and it doesn't feel like my daily medications are helping much anymore. After some more discussions she decided that it might be prudent for me to get tested for a gluten intolerance and then for celiac disease, if I had a family history of Celiac's disease. Which, unfortunately, I do. My mother's father's brother was diagnosed with it about five years ago.
Sasha gave me a prescription to go to the lab that's on the first floor of her building to get the blood drawn to test for the gluten intolerance and then if that comes back positive, they'll test for celiac disease. As there is no point to test for celiac disease unless there is a gluten intolerance.
So, being a good girl that I am, on go downstairs immediately to get the blood drawn. The vampire/lab tech stuck me with three needles and got absolutely no blood whatsoever. Not even a drop of blood was on the cotton ball used to cover the puncture point when she pulled the needle out! No big deal, I needed to go see my GP anyway to have him listen to my chest to see how my bronchitis was progressing, so I'd just have his nurses do the draw of blood when I saw him the next day. I was so happy when they got blood out of me! I am a notoriously hard person to get blood out of, because I have small veins and they tend to roll around.
The next day, which happened to be a Friday, I got a call from my neurologist office. It turns out the nurses at my GPs office put the blood into the wrong specimen vial and the blood was not viable for this test. I almost burst into tears at this point. I would have to go back and get more needles stuck in the me!
Tuesday was the next available day I was able to get to the lab again. Misty I made sure I trying plenty of liquids before going to the lab to make sure I was well hydrated. But, yet again, she stuck me three times and absolutely nothing came out. After I got home I called mineralogist office again and told them what happened and asked if there was some place else I could go to try to see if they could get blood out of me. They told me just to go down to one of the hospitals downtown to their outpatient lab and hand them the prescription. There they should be able to stick me and get blood and put it into the correct vials.
I was able to go the next day which was Wednesday. Again, I made sure I was well hydrated to make it easier to get a vein. The vampire/lab tech there got the three vials she needed to fill and was able to stick me to get blood! I was so relieved when I stop applied starting to fill the vial, let me tell you! The first biofilms just fine the second file was almost full when the blood started to slow down. She had to massage the same to get the rest of the second vial filled. The third vial, even with her massaging the vein, she was only able to fill about halfway. So what she did was she told me to wait in the waiting room and she ran to the lab to double check with them to make sure there was enough blood in the third vial before I left. And thankfully there was enough!
But, in about a weeks time I got stuck eight times! I hate needles.

I am half hoping that this comes back positive for the gluten intolerance. Because if it is that that could solve a lot more than just my migraines. But the other half of me is hoping that it's not that because going gluten-free is very challenging.

I was told it would take about a week to get the results back and since the blood was finally taken this past Wednesday, we should get the results back hopefully this coming Tuesday, which just happens to be The Monkey's birthday I believe. (since I gave the blood at the place where they do the tests, it doesn't need to be transported to the lab, which means it should take a day less)

I hate being sick.

In September, my neurologist put me on prednisone to help with some rebound migraines I was having. Because of that and possibly service on the air conditioning unit in our apartment, I got bronchitis which lasted through the rest of September, all of October and part of November.

In December and January, I was coughing some but not very much and the mild winter also helped. But the last week of January I ended up coming down with bronchitis again! Now we are about halfway through March and I still have bronchitis. Last week I had an allergic reaction to the sulfa antibiotic my doctor put me on to make sure it wouldn't become pneumonia (I believe that was my fifth round of antibiotics. But since I had been going into the doctor almost weekly and having a fever they wanted to make sure it wasn't a bacterial infection). That reaction started last Thursday afternoon.
It's been seven days since I had the reaction and I still feel like I have poison ivy over most of my body. As well as my hands are too swollen to wear my wedding ring. I am on yet another taper dose of prednisone. If I remember correctly, this is my fourth since that one I started in September. I am also on two different inhalers to help clear up my chest, too.

After this chest cold from hell clears up, my doctor and my husband want me to get tested for adult onset asthma to make sure that my lung functions are okay after suffering this on and off for the last six months.

On top of having trouble breathing the past couple days I've had some world doozies of the migraine that just won't go away. And the kids aren't helping much I screeching and fighting and doing whatever they can to annoy me and make this migraine even worse.

Side note I used the speech to text function on my phone to write this entry. So if there are any homonyms or other little grammatical errors it's because Siri didn't correctly translate my words into text. But Siri usually does a fairly good job with this kind of thing.

Better late than never! My Saturday Evening Hoodie knit.

Last year, around this time, Lion Brand had a knit along for their Saturday Evening Hoodie.  The yarn I picked was the Bluebell color of their Wool-Ease Chunky yarn. I didn't think it would take me that long to knit because it was a chunky yarn.  Boy, was I wrong.   I got 2 new needles - US 13 36 inch cable needles and US 11 30 inch cable needles, both made of wood.  Mainly because its easier to travel, I usually get cable needles since both needles are attached to one another. You can knit flat or on the round with cable needles.
I knitted both sides of the front and the back using the round needles as flat needles.  I think I finished those three pieces in September.  That is when I got hit with bronchitis for the first time.
Mid-November is when I got started on the sleeves.  I wasn't looking forward to knitting 2 sleeves on flat needles (I am not fond of knitting flat, I prefer knitting on the round)  so I spent the first few days trying to convert the sleeves from knitting each one separately to knitting both on the round using the method of 2 socks one needle (magic loop is another term).
The way they wrote the instructions, they have you start at the cuff using Knit 2/Purl 2 ribbing for the first 3 inches.  They wanted you to cast on 30 stitches. If I did that, I would have had 4 Knit stitches in a row, so I had to choose do I add 2 stitches or take 2 stitches. I chose to add 2 stitches so I would have 32 inches (since the ribbing pattern is 4 stitches, I wanted to have the cuff be divisible by 4 so it would be a clear pattern with not obvious seam.) I have to admit, the ribbing kntting on the size 11 needles was challenging for the first 5-8 rows.  What made it easier was I got another set of 11s and so I would knit back and forth between the 2 cable needles. It took me most of December to finish the cuff, but it was hectic and I was still recovering from bronchitis.

To the above right is a picture of the finish cuffs on the US 11 needles. I am using 2 skeins of yarn - one for each sleeve to make it a bit easier. From there, I knitted directly onto the US13, making it the first row. On the 4th row, I K1, increased a stitch (I think I did M1L) K15, M1L, K16 (to the beginning of the round on that sleeve.) and then repeated on the second sleeve on that same row. 3 normal knit rows, and then I did another increase, and the second increase was K1, M1L, K16, M1L, K17.  Each progressing increase I would move the 2nd increase 1 stitch farther along.

Above Left are my knit markers.  They snap closed so I can snap them into my knitting and easily remove them. (so I can snap them into stitches directly to help count rows!) Above Right is my sleeve, with 4 of the adding rows done, marked with my stitch markers. To the right is what my sleeves look like currently.

To the right here is the sleeve on my arm.  I have done 9 of the 10 increases.  It currently covers my arm from wrist to just past my elbow.












Here is the sleeve with a tape measure next to it. from the beginning of the cuff to the end of the sleeve is 13 inches long. :)











I am doing the sleeves this way for several reasons.  One of which is the fact I want the sleeves to be the same length without having to count and recount rows.  Another is, I hate sewing up seams, so doing this I wont have a seam for most of the sleeve.

When the second part of the sleeve directions start - where you decrease stitches and start to form the shoulder, I will do that flat.  Hopefully this will work out!

Migraines are awful

I look up this morning feeling groggy and yucky. That's to be expected with someone with bronchitis, right? I also felt the start of a migraine forming and started to think what else could go wrong?!?
Then I looked at the clock. I could see shapes - circles, lines, squares. But I could not make sense out of those shapes into any kind of numbers. Great, I thought just great. So I took my rescue medication just after I woke up, and discovered that I could also not read letters! Let me tell you that made it very fun to figure out which medicines were which.
I told Munchkin that I was going to need her help with Monkey today so I would need her to get her schoolwork done as quickly as possible.
Almost 10 hours later is when I realized I could start making sense of numbers and letters again as long as I concentrated hard. This was after taking almost a four hour nap after taking all of my rescue medications for a second time.
If you're wondering how I am writing this, my phone has a transcribe feature that I'm using that all I have to do is add punctuation. Makes a heck of a lot easier than finding the letters on little keyboard!
Right now the migraine is just sitting there throbbing and being annoying but it is not debilitating like it was this morning and this afternoon.

Kitteh torture- aka bathing

My counselor, Dr. K gave me two kittehs for therapy last May. Dora - all black except for when she's in a sunbeam, then her beautiful fur shows browns and reds. She is the smaller that the two kittehs. The second kitteh is named Hattie - black and white into a similar pattern the the cat in the hat.
Both are females and are litter sisters. They are both loving and playful kittens.
They both have longer than most kittens, and they do have difficultly keeping themselves clean. Many times things get caught in their fur after they use the litter box. Because of this, we try to bathe them to help clean off.

Tonight was bath night. At least both kittehs are talking to me again

Today&apos;s summary

So, I have the cruds that are going around. My GP, Dr. H, said yesterday that my lungs still sound gunky (I love his technical terms for things!) like they did at the end of January. He gave me a different antibiotic this time, in hopes that it will help clear it up AND prevent me from getting any further infections from having congestion in my lungs for more than 3 weeks. Say like a sinus infection, ear infection or for my congestion from getting worse and progressing into pneumonia.
And here I lay, at my parents house in their guest room with the humidifier on, heating pad on my chest, doing my best to regulate my breathing so it is slow and steady (not gasping and panicky like I feel currently). I just took one of my inhailiors to help with the irritation in my chest. Hopefully the inhaled steroid will help this nasty thing to go away.
One thing I have found out today: it is not pleasant to wheezy cough and hiccup at the same time.
I woke this morning, feeling like that woman in the COPD commercial is at the beginning - laying on the sofa with an elephant sitting on her chest. An apt description on how it currently feels for me to breath. And then about 45-60 minutes later my voice decides to go hide, so I now have a frog in my throat, too. What will next come upon me that we compare to animals?