Hello friends,
Once again, it’s been awhile since I’ve written…
As you can see from the subject heading of this blog, there have been some issues lately…I think it was the week after Easter that the first issue occurred- the chest pain. I was babysitting my little guy, we had came back from the park, and took a nap- shortly after awakening, this sharp pain came out of nowhere in my ribs. I immediately grabbed my heating pad and placed it on the spot. An hour or so later, the pains still there…I’m starting to think that I will be needing to go the the Emergency Room… I meet up with my boyfriend for dinner and we decide to get it to go- thank goodness! We take it back to the house as I needed to do my dialysis because it’ll be going on 5 hours… As I start the process, the pain intensifies like tenfold. I had to get off the toilet seat and I practically fell to the floor, doubled over in such agony. I am holding my ribs, trying to breathe and not pass out… I wasn’t sure I could yell out for help at the time…Luckily, my boyfriend’s very thoughtful and checks in on me. He finds me on the floor and asks if I’m okay. I told him no and that he needs to take me to the ER. It’s pouring down rain, so needless to say, we had to drive a little slower. Why do things take so long in the ER? There’s maybe one other person in the waiting room… After almost an hour, I finally get called back to a room. The pain for whatever reason pretty much disappeared. I told the nurse this and asked if I could go. I’m not kidding. Why should I waste money when I feel ten times better? They needed to keep me there and to check me out. So, I had to have blood drawn (you know, one of my favorite things); then I had a chest xray. Then the on duty Dr arrives, asks a few questions, then has to call my Dr… another hour goes by…and it’s somewhere around 10:30 or so at night and almost time to do my dialysis… So, the on duty Dr diagnosed me with chest pain and gave me some serious painkillers to knock me out. I still have them unopened.
The following day I have to call the clinic and my PCP to let them know I took a trip to the ER, My PCP wants to see me right away. Great, more money down the drain… I visit my PCP and based on my little symptoms, decides to go with the same diagnosis. If anything changes, then she wants to see me again. And she tells me not to lift anything for a week. For the next couple of days and nights, I experienced a couple times, some sharp pain, nothing as serious as that evening before… What caused this? Nobody knows. Figures. I could’ve pulled a muscle lifting the little boy, I may have had some fluid that got trapped in my rib area; or my catheter may have somehow found its way up there…
So several days later, pretty much a week, I just couldn’t help myself from not only seeing my PCP again, but going to the hospital again- let alone, give more money, ha! My left calf was in alot of pain and causing me to limp. What the heck?! I noticed my weight had dropped about 8 lbs from the previous week and was maintaining at this… my blood pressure was also quite low- running about 119 over 55-65. What the sam heck is going on? I called the clinic- they needed to check with my nephrologist to see if I need to go to the hospital to have my potassium checked. The reason for this is because the results are immediate- like within an hour… Sure enough, I have to go. I get there and I am greeted by a gentleman in his late 40s maybe early 50s. He introduces himself and openly shares he’s a student and he’s been there a month or so. Oh boy! I didn’t hold back either- I comment, “they let you do this alone?” Yes they do because he sees at least 20 patients a day…practice makes perfect. He was gentle and I thought he did a great job. I wished him the best and went on my way…to the Dr’s office. I wait there awhile before I’m called back… So, the Dr is pleasantly surprised to see me again so soon. She feels my leg and “finds something”. She didn’t want to take any chances, so I need to go back to the hospital for a sonogram. First, she gets my lab results- my potassium’s fine, it’s 4.0- not quite a perfect A. She wasn’t sure if I had a blood clot- if it is, I then have to be admitted immediately. I waste an hour, getting some lunch, then head back over to the hospital. It’s a brand new building and its gorgeous! Stone walls, beautiful waterfall, fireplace… and they even have reserved parking for alternative fuel vehicles. Not that I have one of those luxury vehicles…
The nurse calls me back to a room, has me put on one of those fashionable gowns that don’t close and then tells me to lay down. She introduces herself and guess what her name is? Of all things, it’s Carmon, spelled with an “o.” Her mother had to be different. After rolling around on my leg for a half hour or so, she lets me know, I don’t have a blood clot. Oh- What a relief! Its now, about 2:00pm and I am exhausted! Not to mention, I need to do my dialysis again. I spent 5 hours between the hospital and the Dr-that is crazy! Later on that day, the Dr’s office calls back to let me know I don’t have a blood clot. They did find that my magnesium was high and told me to lay off the vitamins for awhile and this should minimize the cramping. After a few days, I noticed, I could walk normal.
With this cramping I had had, I was waking up several times with charlie horses in my feet, calves, hands, and arms..I was not sleeping well at all. So why the huge weight loss and low blood pressure? Who knows… I have had some cramping on and off as I have worn some heels lately… and my right leg has given me problems as my left leg had. The other day, I was limping. Now what? I don’t know! I get my labs done this week so I’ll see what my levels are. Why is it that once i get one thing under control like my phosphorus, then something else goes haywire? You have absolutely no idea how extremely frustrating all this is!!
I continue to hang out with friends and try to live a normal life as much as possible. In fact, I went to a concert recently. Oh yes, that was quite an experience! I carry my bright pink backpack with me as I have 2 Liters of my dialysis solution. I always am prepared for a back up bag. I tell the security guy that I have a medical condition and in this bag are my supplies. I told him he could dump everything out, I didn’t care. He barely unzipped it a couple inches and took a small peek. All he found was a towel as I had my bags wrapped to stay warm. I nor my brothers and friends couldn’t believe how easy that was! I got several strange looks all throughout the night- I didn’t care. I made new friends around me as I had to stand the whole time and they kinda built like a bubble around me. I was rather nervous being surrounded by hundreds of people, and some were also probably intoxicated, especially as the night went on. Some people were aware of their surroundings and saw this bag, others didn’t. At one point, a large gal was falling into me and I immediately shoved her. She yelled at me at said, ‘hey, I’m not trying to push you..” I retorted, “lady, you don’t understand”. My new friends were there to my rescue and had their hands ready to catch me. I wasn’t sure I’d make it all the way through the concert, after all, it was 5 hours. My one brother did have a seat all by himself and I was ready to trade with him if needed. So after the concert, we waited til the place cleared out and we walk down the corridor. Apparently, there were a couple of the security guys next to me and one commented loud enough for me to hear, “some people bring an entire back pack to a concert.” I look over, smile and say yep! I told them I was on dialysis and had my solution with me. One guy immediately had compassion and apologized as she shared his dad had to go through it. They were happy to see that I was out and about, enjoying life, and had a positive attitude, also surprised at how young I was. I gave my facebook page to them, told them I blog about it all, and am very open about it too. They wished me well.
I really needed to do my dialysis as I had kind a pushed the time. I found a private bathroom and my girlfriend accompanied me. I look around, there’s beer poured on the the changing table and I’m not sure how I’m going to even do my treatment as there’s nothing to hang my bag on. My friend suggest the door hinge. So, I take my scale and hang it on the door hinge, then I add the bag of fluid. Surprisingly it holds up! A few minutes later, one of my brothers call asking where I am because security’s questioning why I am still in the building. I told him I was in the family bathroom doing my treatment and I’d be out 5-10 min. I decided to take my drained fluid with me to show the security folks. I get to the door and hold my “bag of urine” and said, see, this is what I was doing. I then lift my shirt to show my catheter. My brothers and friends smirk and couldn’t believe me. Heck, I don’t give a crap!
My second adventure was just this past weekend- I was out with 3 girlfriends, going to a fashion show. It starts later than they said, so I decide to take advantage and do my dialysis. I take my friend with me ( same gal that accompanied me to the concert the week before) and I go out to the car. Its her car and the seats recline all the way back. A new experience- I hang my solution from the dry cleaning hook and lay down. Things went well and pretty fast. We walk back into the venue and enjoy the show!
The next day, I am with my boyfriend and his boys- one of the boys has a soccer game and after that, my boyfriend had softball games. I bring my backpack again with a couple bags of solution just in case. After the softball game, we stop at the grocery store. The youngest boy stays in the car with me eager to watch me do my dialysis in the car as he thinks its cool. I was too tired to walk around. After about 20 minutes, I decide I cant wait any longer and do my dialysis. I wasn’t sure how this would work as I’m sitting in the passenger seat and need to hang the solution from the dry cleaning hook behind me. Would the bag be high enough over my head to work? There’s only one way to find out… It does work! I am relieve and the boy is also happy. He’s so cute and so inquisitive about it all… He had a tiger bandana that he had me tie around his face as his mask to cover his mouth and nose.
As I close, I want to let you know, I am doing okay overall. Still having some trouble sleeping all through the night and minimal cramping. Hopefully this will go away soon…
I also wanted to share that I had the pleasure of seeing all of my brothers and their families for a few days around Easter- it was really great! I do have pictures that I need to post.
Well, I am babysitting and I need to get the little guy to bed… until next time…
