I have quite a few medical issues, they are issues because they can be (in my opinion) resolved. I have started to understand them, but not always like what is going on. Such is life, right?
Acid Reflux ... "GERD — or gastroesophageal reflux disease — is the medical term for acid reflux. And it can cause, among other symptoms, heartburn in the chest. Occasional heartburn can happen after a large meal or with foods you are sensitive to, but GERD is diagnosed when the burning happens frequently or even continuously."
Now when this happens, I am sticking my head in a FREEZER to breathe! Not joking, it as if I am breathing fire. I take nexium two times a day (plus carafate 3x), I have adjusted my eating. In other words, I don't eat what ever I feel like it. Ever eat taco's with out the salsa? or the season? Well they aren't too good, trust me. I don't make chili as often, cause I love it yet having acid reflux you don't want to love it too much. Chicken enchilada's ... oh they are amazing, but CANNOT have (that often).
It really is depressing when you get to enjoy life but not enjoy the foods. I love spicy foods, I enjoy things like chili, nachos, taco salads, enchilada's ... and I can go on & on, but the point? These are foods that I have had to limit or cut complete out. All because I have Acid Reflux from hades. But that brings me to the medical problem ...
Depression ... Depression is a serious condition that can impact every area of your life. It can affect your social life, your family relationships, your career, and your sense of self-worth and purpose. And for women in particular, depression is common.
If you’re feeling sad, guilty, tired, and just generally “down in the dumps,” you may be suffering from major depression. But the good news is that depression is treatable, and the more you understand about depression’s particular implications for and impact on women, the more equipped you will be to tackle the condition head on.
Oh they treat this, and with me it is a requirement. I have 2 meds that I take. I have come to understand several of the issues that occur with me when I am severally depressed. One is that I shop, I don't like shopping but boy can I do it. I can walk into a store & walk out with so much that I truly don't need. This can cause more issues that I need, after all we stick to a budget, and I do well at trying to but sometimes it just doesn't work that way.
I also get really bitchy. Although I have a reason to get angry, I can make the person I am angry at feel worse than you would ever want to or mean to. When this happens, I usually stay in my room away from people, and tell them to LEAVE ME ALONE.
Now do not get me wrong, I get angry at individuals if they have wrong me. But that is normal ... but when I can make a person feel worthless, well that is just the start of that effect.
I do not like being depressed, but unfortunately I don't have much control on that part. BUT I am learning to control my two "issues" when I get really down. Which does help with spiraling down that depression hole. It's nice to say I am working harder to control the effects, because that does effect the mood I have.
After all, knowing you made a person feel worthless ... does effect you. Makes you feel worthless for doing that to them. And over spending ... that just messes you entire day up. Other than those two main issues when I am in one of those moods, I always keep comedy videos on hand ... a great laugh always helps, more than you can ever imagine.
Ulcer ... An ulcer is a sore that forms in the lining of your stomach or at the beginning of your small intestine (duodenum). Stomach ulcers are called gastric ulcers and those in your duodenum are called duodenal ulcers. A more general term is peptic ulcer which refers to ulcers of the stomach and duodenum.
Let me tell you when you wake up in the middle of the night and if feels like you stomach is being torn out ... boy that really messes your entire week up. Problem is, I wake up like that 3 or 4 times a night. I take my meds, and they are GROSS. But I take them, I don't play games. I have even told my docs that I take them daily as I was told but there are times when I get up that I take them again, so that means taking them more than the 3x a day ... but they tell me "it's ok" (not in my book it's not).
This ties in with my acid reflux believe it or not. Because when you eat food with no taste or seasoning or mushy food ... well, get my point? Right now I am on bland foods. Great (if I could eat rice & bread ... but I cannot have those) right? Oh that should be easy to do ... NOT even close. I cannot have crackers unless they are mushy (oh how gross). Water, lots of it. Here's a list of what I cannot have: Popcorn, bread, crackers, rice, oatmeal ... those are bland but not something I can have.
So right now I do a lot of trial & error. I can have bean soup (great because of the proteins I need), baked potato (no butter, no sour cream, no toppings), instant mashed potatoes (no salt, pepper or seasons, no butter or sour cream), plain yogurt (no flavors at all), cottage cheese (plain nothing added).
Right now what I want is a steak, still a little blood in the middle ... seasoned with onion, garlic, pepper and cooked with a little butter. Oh that would be the next best thing in life ... CANNOT have it right now, after all you ever try to eat a mushy steak? (makes my skin craw just thinking of how nasty it will taste). So each day I learn this food is ok, but this one is not. Opps do not use this or that because it will make the ulcer worse, and that is a painful experience.
Gastric Bypass ... Gastric bypass surgery makes the stomach smaller and allows food to bypass part of the small intestine. You will feel full more quickly than when your stomach was its original size, which reduces the amount of food you eat and thus the calories consumed. Bypassing part of the intestine also results in fewer calories being absorbed. This leads to weight loss.
When you cannot work out because your cardiologist is worried about your heart (and it's issues), your neurologist has his stressed over it, and even your primary care doc is concerned ... it really makes loosing weight next to impossible. When you eat a little here or that but not a ton, but your doing much to contract the weight. I can go on & on about that, but here is why I ended up having it done: doctors would not approve exercise, I have a PFO (will discuss later), I was at an UNHEALTHY weight, my blood sugar count was too damn close to diabetes (that is major NO GO for me), I was having pain in my joints, my migraines were so severe that I was unable to do much for days at a time ... and that list goes on (according to my docs). So after refusing to do it the 1st time (boy did I piss of a group of docs) the second team came in & it was do it or suffer even more problems (boy did they have that f* up). So I had the surgery, and I have suffered dearly since.
It took me months to over come the 1st surgery. I was sore, in pain & learning what I did & did not like. My taste buds changed, there were foods I didn't like anymore & that I do miss. There are foods that I have found I like more than I did prior, but 2 or 3 spoonfuls is all I can eat. Let me tell you when you get sick, you do everything in your power to prevent it from occurring again. You get sweaty, nausea, dizzy, shaky ... you feel as if life is just gonna end. When you vomit it is painful, and you feel even worse when it over.
You find you have to rebuild that strength you had, lifting a simple gallon of milk can be painful. You start walking, but when you can only handle walking a block to & from your home, it makes you feel horrid. (specially when you love walking) You cannot do weights because you can rip open your stomach. Lovely thought huh? So you are simply stuck with walking, which eventually you can get back to where you use to be but NOT able to lift what you did in the past. You can start with weights after a few months, but you have to be careful. Anything that "doesn't feel right" should be stopped, and check on by a doc. (lovely huh?) Then once you are starting to get to were you can lift again ... oh now it's time to remove over 5 lbs of extra skin. This puts you back to square one ... pisses you off more than anything. You spent all that time recovering only to have it take away, and you put back were you have to take it slowly. You even have to be careful when you sneeze ... how freaking lame is that?
You go though this because your doctors said it would HELP. Boy have I had some things to say about that. Instead of "helping" it pointed out that the issues they said were from my weight were actual issues. This messes your entire day up each time you hear this, after all you went though this surgery because it was to help you resolved those other problems because they were "caused by the weight" (which was pretty much bull).
In the end, I have a smaller stomach (& small butt). I eat less, but I still have medical problems that were considered "from the weight" and are now being taken serious cause I am not "over weight" ... go figure.
PFO ... A patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a defect in the septum (wall) between the two upper (atrial) chambers of the heart. Specifically, the defect is an incomplete closure of the atrial septum that results in the creation of a flap or a valve-like opening in the atrial septal wall (see illustration). A PFO is present in everyone before birth but seals shut in about 80 percent of people.
With each heart beat or when a person with this defect creates pressure inside his or her chest - such as when coughing, sneezing, or straining during a bowel movement - the flap can open, and blood can flow in either direction directly between the right and left atrium. When blood moves directly from the right atrium to the left atrium, this blood bypasses the filtering system of the lungs (the lungs actually do dissolve tiny blood clots). If debris is present in the blood, such as small blood clots, it now passes through the left atrium and can lodge in the brain, causing a stroke, or another organ, such as the heart, eyes, or kidneys.
Now if you have ever watch your heart via an ultrasound, there is nothing like watching as bubbles pass though one wall to another. It's amazing and scary. When I saw this happen with my heart, I cried. I knew what could happen later in my life, and after what I went though already it didn't make me happy. The doc was great, told the nurses to leave, and said I could have a few minutes by myself to "get myself together" but there were a few more things they had to do before they were done with the tests. I went though this, & dealt with this ... but the harsh event hasn't happened. (I watch 3 of my children become diagnosed with the same defect, I truly lost it then. I sat in the hall crying, and being held my kids)
PFO doesn't effect a lot of your life but it does put some interesting issues on it. No scuba diving ... for obvious reason, bubbles could pass though one side to the other & pretty much kill you.
Stroke ... A stroke, or cerebrovascular accident (CVA), occurs when blood supply to part of the brain is disrupted, causing brain cells to die. When blood flow to the brain is impaired, oxygen and glucose cannot be delivered to the brain. Blood flow can be compromised by a variety of mechanisms.
Let me tell you when that happens, you life is never the same ... no matter how much you want it to be. I say I survived one, and I did. There is no doubt about that, but when you survive you learn that there is always a cost. My cost was memory, that was my main problem (in my opinion). I don't have slack face, or loss of movement in body parts. But do not expect me to remember numbers, addresses, names, or directions because it simply won't happen. I can repeat numbers but the more numbers in that group the less I can remember them all. Drives me nuts!!!
I am suppose to know my husbands SSN for medical. Let me tell you I have driven Tricare nuts when I go to give them his & finish with mine!!! Then I have to tell them to hold on while I locate my ID. (drives them nuts) Or when a person asks the amount of the AVON order, that is always an interesting event. Usually I just show it to them, because I see the numbers in the order they are, but hey do not come out that way. It's embarrassing, and can be humiliating.
But hey I survived, and I think that I can handle those events as they occur.
Migraines ... Migraine is a medical condition. Most people who suffer from migraines get headaches that can be quite severe. A migraine headache is usually an intense, throbbing pain on one, or sometimes, both sides of the head. Most people with migraine headache feel the pain in the temples or behind one eye or ear, although any part of the head can be involved. Besides pain, migraine also can cause nausea and vomiting and sensitivity to light and sound. Some people also may see spots or flashing lights or have a temporary loss of vision.
Migraine can occur any time of the day, though it often starts in the morning. The pain can last a few hours or up to one or two days. Some people get migraines once or twice a week. Others, only once or twice a year. Most of the time, migraines are not a threat to your overall health. But migraine attacks can interfere with your day-to-day life.
Let's just say I would rather give birth than deal with a migraine. They are painful, disabling, they take away from your life ... and not matter what, there is nothing much you can do until they are over. Each migraine I have is different, there is not a set of "standard symptoms" I get with them, which drives both me & my docs nuts. The worst ones can last for days, and have had them last for weeks ... not my favorite event! With each one the docs 1st worry is "stroke" will it cause another or is this from another. Into the CAT & MRI bed I go... have to get those pics & verify that my brain is not damaged more than the last stroke. Then it is spinal tap time, case the have to check for that (or they think they do). Once that is done I will finally get something to kill the nausea (if I am having it), something for the pain & something to knock me out. Yes, we want me unconscious for this event, my body can recover better if I get the sleep. (Only prob is I don't sleep with that much pain, not matter what they give me.)
Budging Disk in Lower back AND lower neck ... A bulging disk is different from a herniated disk in that a bulging disk typically occurs gradually over time rather than suddenly. A herniated disk is often the result of an injury or trauma to the spine. In the majority of patients who experience a bulging disk, there is no pain unless the disk becomes herniated or protrudes into a nerve.
In many cases, a bulging disk may be diagnosed as a condition secondary to another problem. Because a bulging disk does not always cause pain, it may only be found during a routine or diagnostic imaging test such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Typically, a bulging disk is not a problem unless it begins to cause pain, becomes herniated or ruptures.
This is so much fun because along with all my other lovely issues, this is a pain in the butt to deal with. NOTHING they do will help, and I am not going for surgery on this matter. Nope, nada, no-freaking-way! I take the meds they provide, and suck up the pain on this on. (sounds bad, but fusing my spine is not on my list of things to do EVER)
Arthritis in Lower back & Lower neck ... Arthritis is a joint disorder featuring inflammation. A joint is an area of the body where two different bones meet. A joint functions to move the body parts connected by its bones. Arthritis literally means inflammation of one or more joints.
Arthritis is frequently accompanied by joint pain. Joint pain is referred to as arthralgia.
There are many types of arthritis (over 100 and growing). The types range from those related to wear and tear of cartilage (such as osteoarthritis) to those associated with inflammation resulting from an overactive immune system (such as rheumatoid arthritis). Together, the many types of arthritis make up the most common chronic illness in the United States.
Guess I could have combined the last two, since they are located in the same area. But my docs don't combine them, so why the hades should I?
Actually, this I am still getting use to. Still a lot to learn because I am not quite sure what is casing the pain in my back, the budging disk or the arthritis, time will tell (right?).
Well time is up for me to deal with those issues. I have read a lot & put down what I feel, or think. What I feel is SCREWED (he he he) because each of these alone is a pain, but to deal with all of them plus a few others I left out ... well it is down right interfering with life. My life, my family life ... and that is just simply annoying as hades.
Off to watch a comedy!
