Where do I begin?

Where do I begin? The past few weeks have been unpleasant. The fact that I have hardly touched my compute in that time would give you an indication of how I have been feeling if you knew that I have been in love with them for over 20 years.

First, as promised in my last post, my heart stress tests went fine. For the first test, I was given an injection of a radioactive dye, told to go away and have a meal, and then scanned by a “camera” that takes a long series of photos of the heart in action. For the second test, a few days later, I was given the same injection, then placed under stress by pedaling a bicycle type of apparatus while lying on a table. Again they then took pictures of the heart in action.

Both tests were supervised by a radiologist and went off without problems. No one has as yet told me the result which has to wait for an appointment with a cardiologist which comes soon.

Two days after the first test, I ended up in emergency at thee hospital with an embarrassing problem. My bowel movement got stuck on the way out and would not come out. The stool was very hard and dry. This had happened to me once before, 3 years ago and after fighting with it for most of a day and becoming exhausted and experiencing a lot of pain, I went to the hospital where they gave me a few enemas to resolve the issue. I did not wait that long this time, and again was able to get relief. This is a common problem with diabetics and people with gastropherisis. Also, constipation is a common problem resulting from some of the drugs I take which I cannot do without. Not fun.

The same day as the second test, I had what I best can describe as an anxiety attack. I awoke at 5 am with problems breathing. I was on dialysis at the time and had to sit on the side of my bed, waiting for it to pass. It did not. The more I thought about it, the worse things got. I became flushed, then hot. My blood pressure started at 140/85 and kept climbing until it was over 185. I became so worried that Susan took me off the machine and to the hospital. By then my blood pressure was over 195. I was put on oxygen, had blood samples checked for heart enzymes, but no problem was found. A similar attack occurred a few days later.

The next day I went to the optometrist who told me that she could see some bleeding in my somewhat good eye. This is a big problem as I am blind in the other one. I have had this before and been treated with laser surgery and will have to go back for more. Problem Is – my ophthalmologist can’t see me until early October.

Then the stomach problems started. My stomach would not empty after eating; I would get a lot of gas and then nausea and vomiting starts. That has been going on for almost 2 weeks now and still has not settled down. I have lost 12 pounds and gotten used to eating liquid meals from a can.

My next issue relates to my intake of insulin. I have had to increase my morning and evening shots to 145 units each, an amount that many people familiar with diabetics find very high. My endocrinologist says she has had some patients who need that much so go ahead and take it. I know that the last time I was in the hospital, nurses refused to give me what I then was taking – 120 units – until me confirmed the chart with a doctor thinking that I would go into a coma as a result of a misprint and should only be giving me 12 units.

My medical team has tried to help. They have responded to every call I make, arranged a consult with a gastroenterologist for my stomach problems and a hospital pharmacist for better drug advice. I have been given drugs to control the anxiety attacks, drugs to force the stomach to contract after eating and force the food down, drugs to fight depression and drugs to soften my stools so they will pass easily. It is too early to tell if any of these drugs are helping, but I have hope.

Susan has been wonderful and understanding. It pains me that with her own medical problems she has to also take care of me and run the household. A few days ago we smelled an aroma of burning plastic in the house. She could not find the cause and fearing that some wiring was going to burn the house down and being unable to check things out myself, I called 911. The fire department came, checked upstairs and down, examined the walls with a thermal camera for hot spots and then told us that the smell was from a skunk in the backyard and was nothing to worry about. A bit funny now, but at the time, depressing that I could not deal with it.

Thanks for the emails encouraging me to write more often. Dialysis has been going well, just the usual alarms that seem designed to make sure I seldom get a great sleep. I post as often as I can but when I lay in bed all day, unable to help out around the house or prepare the family meals, I really don’t want to share my thoughts with anyone as they would depress you rather than encourage.