Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Ahhhhhhh are the plants gonna disappear??? I have sent a bunch but I have been collecting the ones I want. I figured we’d be able to keep our garden of flowers!!
I was hoping the same thing, but no. :(( Now I’m kicking myself for not getting a screen-grab of my garden!
The weight loss could easily be because your body is fighting this thing–treating it like an infection, which I wouldn’t be surprised if it were–and that battle takes energy. Keep eating, and maybe it would help to choose energy-dense foods, or even one of those protein shake things that the athletes who are trying to build muscle mass use. My sister was bedridden for 3 months following a broken leg, and her doctor finally put her on protein shakes because she lost so much weight. I wouldn’t pick any product without running it by the doc first, though; there are too many products on the market and I don’t know which ones are best for you.
I am so sorry that you’re going through that pain. 🙁 Two possibilities come to mind: one, nerves are misfiring. Two, this is an infection, it’s living someplace sneaky like the pleural space or the lining of some blood vessels, and your body is throwing inflammatory hand grenades at it in an effort to shake it loose. I’m glad they’re sending you in for another MRI. It’s a good way of looking for little knots of infected tissue.
I’m with tdm: Lyme is still on the list even though the test was negative. The reason for this is the organism is very sneaky, and the usual screening test for it involves looking for antibody against Lyme. But antibody levels wax and wane, and whether you find them or not depends on what stage of the cycle they’re in when blood is drawn.
Also, there are some other diseases that behave like Lyme in terms of being hard to detect, and their tendency to hide in unusual places. Please ask your doctor if they have run a full rickettsial panel, and ask if they’ve considered all of the zoonotic diseases. I am thinking about diseases that can come from animals, which sometimes get forgotten in human medicine: Q fever (in its chronic form it can cause a wide range of problems), cat scratch disease (usually self-limiting, but it’s another sneaky devil), Ehrlichia chaffeensis (causes Human Monocytic Ehrlichiosis), Ehrlichia ewingii (causes Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis), and Anaplasma phagocytophilum (causes Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis). I’m sure there are more, but those are the ones I can come up with right now. But because they aren’t very common, sometimes doctors forget about them. I figure it can’t hurt to bring it up with your doctor.
In the meantime, please, hang in there. Your body is fighting for you. It wants you to be well again, and it’s doing everything it can. Big hugs!
Although I don’t have any personal experience here, an idea that occurred to me was using a small video camera–like the video app on a smartphone–set up to relay to a monitor placed where you could comfortably look at it. It would take some getting used to, but if the camera was attached to something so it didn’t move, and was focused on what you held in your hands, then it could relay a nice clean image to the monitor.
Of course a mirror could do this a lot more cheaply! But the angle of the mirror might prove difficult to work with, or difficult to set up so that it wasn’t in danger of falling over. The camera’s more flexible: you could set the camera in different places if you needed to look at the PYO from a higher or lower angle. You might even be able to zoom in on an area.
Best of luck to you!
Throwing another thought out there: have you ever been to the desert? Anyplace that creosote bush grows? California–and other parts of the country–has Valley Fever (coccidioidomycosis) which is a fungal disease that normally attacks the lungs, but I’ve seen it go after the nervous system too. There are other fungal diseases too that can turn up where they’re not expected. The Midwest has some that aren’t found out here, which means that the docs don’t always think to look for them. Blood titers can be run to check for pretty much all of these.
I’m so glad to hear that things are better now than they were! The back half of 2013 was not a nice time for you. Thank heavens for good people like Mary and Mike!
I’m no medical doctor, but I will say this: tests are not the Source of All Knowledge. Seriously. A negative test is not necessarily a negative answer. In the first place, if one doesn’t ask the right question, one doesn’t get the answer one needs. So while I’m glad they’ve tested for everything they can think of, it’s the more “out there” stuff that I wonder about. Have you ever lived in the desert, or visited the desert? How about the Central Valley of California? If the answer to either is yes, have they tested for Valley Fever (coccidioidomycosis)? Although it’s famously a disease of the lungs, I know for a fact that it can get into the spinal cord. Freaking weird place for it to go, and nobody can say why it did that . . . but that’s the POINT. Yes, when you hear hoofbeats, look first for horses not zebras. But when it ain’t a horse, gosh darn it, I want them looking for the ruddy zebra.
TDM is correct: many tests for things like Lyme depend on the presence of telltales in the blood that may come and go. I’ve seen that happen. It’s absolute folly for a doctor to assume that because the test was run once, and was negative, that it will always be negative. Disease fights a constant battle with the immune system. Sometimes the disease is winning, and sometimes it’s losing, but the point is, it’s a system in flux. I’m not saying go have all those tests done again! But rather, figuring this out is going to take some heavy sleuthing. History is essential. Where have you travelled, when did the signs start, what brings them on, all that kind of thing. These provide clues as to which tests might be worth a re-run.
The miseries that you are going through right now are in part due to your body’s determined fight to defend itself. Please, even though this is one of the low points–and who wouldn’t feel really down right now?–be determined that you will get better. Will power is a very valuable tool. Your dreams are not gone, and they are not forever out of reach, so long as you continue to fight for them. It’s OK to fight in smaller ways for a while . . . even if it is only to say to yourself, “I will do this someday!” Make yourself that promise. Having something to strive towards gives one strength. If the job has to go for now, then so be it. It’s OK to let it go while you focus on the fight. But promise yourself that you will return.
Speaking of zebras, I’m going to throw one more thought at you. The nerve symptoms that you are having sound like they’re affecting both the nerves of your body and the ones in your brain. This is actually rather unusual, because the brain has considerable protections against nasty stuff getting in there. So maybe we are dealing with a chronic inflammatory issue–because seems to me like it would take time for the blood-brain barrier to be affected. Auto-immune disease occurs when the body gets confused over what is “self” and what isn’t, and starts injuring itself. It can be brought on by diseases that the body isn’t sure how to fight–like tick diseases, and fungal diseases, and sometimes the completely unexpected.
I once knew a dog who was nearly paralyzed in the front half of her body. She had tremendous swelling of her eyelids, her jaw was locked nearly shut, and she couldn’t control her front limbs. All of her joints were swollen and painful. She had also seizured. After huge numbers of tests, the problem was found. It was a stump pyometra: an abscess in the uterus remnant. From that abscess, toxins and nastiness were absorbing into the bloodstream. Her body reacted violently to these things, in an auto-immune response targeting multiple tissues, and caused her bizarre variety of symptoms. Once the abscess was removed, she recovered 100%.
So what I’m saying is, nobody had a freaking clue what was wrong with that dog until they went back and started going through all of her chart step by step. They forced themselves to set aside what they thought was wrong with her–let go of all their preconceived notions–and looked again. And part of that process was taking another look at the X-rays, whereupon the radiologist said, “Why does this dog have two bladders?” Well, because one of them is an abscess. Nobody had ever heard of an abscess causing so much trouble, but it did. That’s an example of a zebra–more like a zebra in neon stripes riding a bicycle and singing “I’m Too Sexy For My Shirt”–but still, because her doctors went back and looked at her case from the very beginning, and retraced their steps, they figured it out at last.
Your courage rings clearly in your words. Hang in there. Keep your dreams close. We’re all pulling for you!
ugh the fever and red face are back, bout 100*
Fever, too? Fever may be a clue to what’s going on. Infection in certain parts of the body can cause seizures. High fever itself can trigger a seizure. A partial seizure generally doesn’t cause fever by itself, so the fact that you’ve got a fever could be a hint that infection is involved.
There may also be a link with the event that led to the concussion you mentioned: when the brain heals from a blow to the head, sometimes things get a little “tangled” and nerves can end up losing some of their insulation. A seizure is very like a short circuit, where electrical current hops from one nerve to its neighbors, just like electricity can hop from a wire where the insulation has gotten damaged, and run into something nearby. What happens during the seizure totally depends on which nerves get caught up in the reaction: a partial only affects some nerves, while a general seizure affects them all.
I think it’s a very good thing that your doctor is planning to have some scans done. That stands a good chance of being able to tell where the problem is, and maybe even what is causing it. But don’t forget to also make sure the doctor knows as much as possible about your history. Important events that might give clues to an answer would include: past injuries to the head or neck, past events of high fever, unexplained spells of illness, prior infections that got into the bloodstream (like malaria) or the spinal cord (like meningitis), or even “silver amalgam” fillings in your teeth. Also, see if your co-workers will write out statements of what they saw. It doesn’t matter if none of them are trained medics: sometimes it’s what the untrained person observes that is most important, because they’re not biased to look for anything in particular.
Sometimes the strangest things can cause a seizure. My dad had seizures which were brought on by high mercury levels in his blood. It turned out his “silver amalgam” fillings, which he had had for years with no problem, had started leaking mercury and he was absorbing it. The giveaway was when his doctor ran heavy metal testing on a blood sample, and it came back positive for mercury.
Hang in there. Make sure you’ve got someone you can call for help at any hour, and try to stay calm. I know, this stuff is really scary. Just keep your support lines open, and don’t be afraid to call for help if you start feeling worse. The doctor is going to do everything he or she can to figure this out, and get you well again. Hugs!
SPark! Welcome back! Glad to see you here again–and delighted to hear you’re doing more with your art! :bigsmile:
I’d LOVE old green Risers and old green Old Warriors, those weren’t ever done either.
Yeeeeeesssssssss! Want Old Warrior in the Old Green!
BUT I want him to have those pretty orange/brown highlights like this mama:
Me too! Gosh, that would be the most GORGEOUS OW ever, and there’ve been some beautiful ones over the years . . . . 🙂
These are just the cutest things! I can’t wait to see mine. What adorable little faces–they remind me of baby chickens when they get to about ten days old, and start looking up at you like, “We made a MESS of our box! Now give us some treats!” 😀
Shame on that man! Ski is right, his tactics are pure manipulation, and it must hurt the boys to be treated like that because it shows that he has no respect or thought for them. Holding the cats hostage is such a small-minded act; I doubt he cares for the cats one bit, he just wants the boys to stay.
Not to add stress to your life, but do you have any cause to think that the cats might be in danger? Because Rod’s behavior has been so petty that I wonder if he might harm the cats just to “get back at” anyone who does things he doesn’t like. What I’m getting at is, the cats mean a lot to your sons, and maybe it would be appropriate to talk to your advocate about this.
If the boys live in different places for a time, well, sometimes young people need “space” as they sort out who they are. It’s like going off to college: it’s a time for growing, but it’s not likely to change their family bond. I agree that I hate to think of either of them living within Rod’s reach, though: his behavior is poisonous in the extreme and really undeserving of having any of you around. When he stops obsessing about his own bruised ego and starts behaving like an adult, then he’ll be decent company. How long that takes is up to Rod; the answer could be “never,” so don’t worry yourself about it, and don’t for a minute take on any blame for his bad behavior.
Hang in there!
Thanks, Ski and rock-reader! Yeah, it was really lucky that the Riser’s paint bleached pretty symmetrically. He’s definitely not mint as painted, but the effect is rather pretty. I have to be really careful with him, though: there are places where the clear-coat is gone, and if you get the paint wet then it comes right off! :O He also seems to have been in a food fight at some point . . . I had to scrub what appeared to be egg yolk off of him in several places.
We went to Comic-Con in San Diego last month, and in one of the booths selling old toys I found something completely unexpected:
and
I was just thrilled about the Riser, but he has definitely been stored in a sunny spot. 🙁 It’s not super apparent from the photos above, but he’s bleached pink down his chest and the red paint has turned gold in places. If you want to see the sun damage more clearly, here’s the Photobucket link:
Still . . . the things you find at Comic-Con! :bigsmile:
TDM, sorry to have been out of the loop for a while! Seems to me Rod is being a fool, knows he’s being a fool, and is too busy worrying about his ego to care. I suspect the reason behind his sudden–and very foolish–uncooperativeness has entirely to do with the fact that he senses he is “losing control” of the boys. They are nearly legal adults, and when they reach 18, they can do as they please. He’s panicking because they want to do something that makes him feel threatened; therefore, he is sure they’ve “turned against him” and is snatching wildly for whatever control he can get over them.
I have no sympathy for Rod. In the first place, he’s the one who has declared sides here, in a petty power play. In the second place, he has no right to play dictator over the boys. In the third place, they are old enough to rightfully resent being treated by him as if they were six years old. If Rod had a grain of sense he’d sit down and talk to them like the adults they are becoming. But he’s not at home to Mr. Reasonable right now. I say let him spin off into his own orbit; maybe if he gets a good scare it’ll teach him some sense. Man can be a fool if he wants to. But he has no right to drag anyone down with him . . . not the boys, and not you either.
Hang in there! Look out for your boys, but bring in as much help as you can. You have a lot going on right now, and the more eyes on the situation the better. But don’t spare any worry for Rod. He’s not worthy of your worry, not as he is now. He’s made some bad decisions and it’s up to him to get himself out of them, especially since he’s done his best to slap away any outstretched hand from you and the boys.
Well, I’m sure glad to hear from so many people that the Windstone they flew with did not present a serious problem. We fly out tomorrow, and have hit the decision point as to whether I take them as carry-on or entrust them to my mother-in-law for wrapping and shipping. While she would do her very best, we all know how that can turn out. :~
I also will be attempting to carry on a Coiled Male, a framed picture with glass, two ceramic bowls and a large wooden fish. TSA is going to think I am completely out of my mind. Strangely enough, the picture, bowls, and wooden statue are all on the “OK” list on Southwest’s own Web site.
Thanks Kimk! That’s encouraging. It being such a large Windstone, I worry that TSA might decide they don’t like the look of me carrying such a big heavy item aboard: “That is a bludgeon, dear. The FAA has rules against allowing bludgeons as carry-on.” :~ But without a box, the thought of putting it into the mail gives me the heebie-jeebies.
