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Showing posts with the label nausea

Nausea and Everything That Goes With It

F or most of this calendar year, my primary health problem has been related to breathing.  For better or worse, that seems to be changing a bit lately. Throughout this calendar year, it seemed like my mast cells were not all that active in most of my organs (which had been typical for a couple of decades) but were now active/over-active in my lungs.   In some ways, it seemed like I traded nausea, gastro-intestinal problems, abdominal pain and even kidney and liver pain for the consistent breathing difficulties I had been experiencing this year.   This change was not necessarily a good change nor a bad change.  It was just something different.   Healthy people tend to take breathing for granted but, as one might expect, even the slightest breathing difficulties affect everything .  My breathing problems this year have landed me in the hospital and I've had O2 levels in the low 80s far too often (below 95 is a problem).   All those other problems that I explained above (organ involv

Another Bout of Miserable Health

I missed a dose of medications at dinnertime last night and, before bedtime, my health was crashing.  By 10pm, I was sick and in the bathroom.  I finally made it to bed by 4am after taking some extra medications and emergency medications.  I still couldn't sleep until around 5:30am because of nausea and I was still feeling as though I might need to get the bathroom quickly. This hot, humid weather is not helping my health at all.  My health does not do well in consistent temperatures above about 79° or so and we have been well above that lately.  I'm finding that humidity about 60% or more along with temperatures in the 70s also negatively impacts my health and breathing.  The humidity hasn't been as bad as it typically is in coastal areas but it has been high enough to trigger some significant health issues for me.  I'm actually a bit surprised by how only mild humidity negatively affects my health. Anyway, my health is struggling in this climate...  a frustrating unse

Yet Another Trip To The Hospital... This Time By Ambulance

Sheila nudged me awake in the middle of the night last night...  I thought she was waking me because I was having another violent nightmare again (which, unfortunately, happens too often)... and I immediately said to myself, "...wait a second... I wasn't having a nightmare."   I was thinking, "This must be serious..." All she said was, "I need you to... " and I jumped up out of bed to see what was wrong.   She was about to vomit... she couldn't move... she couldn't focus her eyes as they darted violently back and forth... she wanted me to get a bucket. I ran for the bucket and a plastic bag while all sorts of first aid techniques were running through my head... and, as I wondered why this was happening.  She kept saying, "I can't move... I can't move... I think I'm going to be sick..." and she looked terrible. She was stiff yet she seemed to be only as flat as the contour of the bed and pillow as though she were

The See-Saw Hit Bottom During The Night

My health often resembles a see-saw... my health swings upward and I experience relatively good days... then swings down and I experience rather miserable days... back up... back down... sometimes it balances in the middle for a relatively short period if I managed my health effectively and luck was on my side but, more often than not, it seems to move up and down like a pendulum moves side to side. Yesterday afternoon the see-saw started moving downward... after a little bit of dinner (I didn't eat much because I was feeling poorly), I had hoped that my health had leveled out in this short period before bedtime though... no such luck... Apparently, this see-saw continued on its downward swing through the night.  I was quite sick and in the bathroom for far too much of the night when I preferred to be and needed to be sleeping. Actually, I was overwhelmingly exhausted and struggling to keep my eyes open even while I was sick as a dog.  I really hate these nights. It takes a

What A Week

The past week has been quite a week. My week was so lousy that I would have sworn that just this past week was really three weeks long! First, the grandkids started puking last Sunday... unfortunately, I had been with them on Saturday so I was probably exposed to the same bug.  By Monday, the stomach virus had hit me as well. Fortunately for the grandkids, they shook off the bug within 24 hours. Unfortunately for me, bugs like this tend to linger and negatively impact my Systemic Mastocytosis with problems that linger even longer. This bug was no exception. Some of the days over the past week were absolutely miserable... from morning to bedtime... but some of the days varied between waves of nausea and feeling like the bug was finally moving behind me. Then another wave would hit and I knew that I was only experiencing some wishful thinking.  Some days, my fatigue was actually brutal... I'd get up and immediately take my morning dose of medications... then, after my medicat

A Really Miserable Week

In my previous blog entry, I mentioned that I've been experiencing more than a week of quite miserable health. Since I sort of use my blog as a journal for some of the more significant health issues, I suppose I should write about this here. At first, I thought maybe I was experiencing food poisoning... but, sometime in the middle of this holiday weekend, Sheila began to get, stomach cramps and diarrhea too. Now I'm thinking I've been trying to shake a virus... and history has proven that due to my health issues, I sometimes need a few months to shake something like this... or, sometimes I can shake it in a week or two. Time will tell. I was in and out of the bathroom for more than a week... about eight solid days of sickening diarrhea. This isn't "typical" diarrhea of a relatively healthy person who ate something nasty. This was more like the typical diarrhea of people struggling with Systemic Mastocytosis and/or various carcinoid tumors. I'm going to

Hell Week of Health

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A week ago, I had written about having screwed up my prescription refills. One of my medications... one which is a mast cell stabilizer and an H1 blocker...  and one which is not yet FDA-approved... had fallen through the cracks of my record-keeping and memory which means I forgot to order a refill before I had run out of this medication.  For most prescriptions, people can just run to the local pharmacy to pick up a last minute prescription. I actually do this with any acute problems I am having. I bite the bullet (taking a serious hit in cost) and I buy the prescription locally so that I can start on the medication immediately.  Unfortunately, most of my medications are absurdly expensive and going to our local retail pharmacy is not financially possible for me. For instance, one of my medications, by itself, costs upwards of $40,000 annually. If I bought this medication locally rather than through my insurance plan's mail order program there would be two problems... 1. The c

Uggg

I had thought it was a pretty lousy night last night with all that nausea... tonight has been far worse being sick as a dog in the bathroom. I had some sudden anaphylactic-type symptoms as well as nausea and stomach cramps... then all the even worse miserable symptoms hit and I spent far too much time and energy being sick. I've now taken my nighttime medications, extra medications and emergency medications... and, right now, I feel rather poorly which is a significant improvement from my time in the bathroom... but, I feel as though I'll probably be back in the bathroom before long... I'd just like to sleep peacefully.... UPDATE:  It is the following morning and my biggest issue this morning is that I am worn out, generally feeling lousy and I am groggy from the emergency medications. Oh... and these emergency medications make me very hungry!  

Another Brutal Night of Poor Health

Last night was... brutal.  The lousy health started to hit me while I was cooking dinner... country fried steak, pan roasted potatoes, country gravy and a big pan of fried okra. With four burners on the stove going at once, it was far too hot for me.  Heat is a major trigger for me. Warmer environments for anything longer than a few minutes will trigger my Systemic Mastocytosis episodes. These episodes can simply be painfully debilitating with only a few symptoms and/or they can include life threatening symptoms such as anaphylaxis. After cooking dinner, I couldn't even eat... I was nauseated beyond belief... and, generally, felt quite lousy. I knew my body was crashing but, apparently, I was not thinking clearly which is another symptom... diminished cognitive reasoning. I should have taken some emergency medications at this point but didn't think of it at the time. By the time we finished dinner, my nausea was still constant but I was experiencing worsening waves of n

A Dizzying Day of Nausea

Today was one of those rather lousy days. It wasn't "miserable" nor "grueling" but it was quite lousy. Systemic Mastocytosis causes all sort of transient symptoms, problems, difficulties and obstacles. One day can be vastly different from another. One moment can be vastly different from the next! Today, however, was fairly consistent... quite lousy. This all started late last night with some flushing. Sheila had noticed a splotchy, deep red rash on my face and neck. I felt "okay" at the time so I just let this first sign of impending trouble just slip by with no countermeasures. By the time I laid down in bed last night, I was experiencing palpitations and mild tachycardia (120-130 bpm). This is a sign that my blood pressure was dropping too low... my body would respond naturally by jumping into overdrive to counter the loss in blood pressure (which is a very good thing)... then my blood pressure would drop again... body would respond.... etc. Co

A Lingering 'Cold'... Quite an Understatement

For most people, a cold is an annoyance... an inconvenience... a nagging little problem of needing tissues nearby and having some over-the-counter cold medications. For those struggling with other illnesses, like my own illness, a cold can be brutal. My illness, Systemic Mastocytosis, causes overactive mast cells, all day, every day... an abundance of mast cells... and, since mast cells are at the center of immunology, this means I have an over-active immune system.  Because of these overactive mast cells attacking all sorts of things within my body which it should not, I often have symptoms of a typical cold even on a good day. I have too much histamine in my body. I have too much of every mediator produced by mast cells which causes all sorts of problems including some life threatening problems.  Now... add a virus or a cold to this already unhealthy body...  During a typical cold, my mast cells get even more over-active... moving into hyper-activity. This causes some absolut

I KNEW to Stick Close to Home Today

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I wrote earlier this morning that I was thinking I would need to keep from wandering from the house. I just wasn't feeling "right" at the time. I was exhausted from lack of sleep. I was in pain from the effects of Systemic Mastocytosis and extensive spinal injuries. Common sense was telling me I needed to stick close to home. Well, when Sheila arrived home from work she reminded me that I needed to drop my car off at the mechanic's garage this evening. Unfortunately, my health had already begun to crash. Rather than getting a much needed nap this afternoon, I spent much of the afternoon in and out of the bathroom. Ooooo... fun time, let me tell you! Now I definitely needed to wander from the house to drop off the car. Regardless of my health, I really needed to drop my car off for this appointment. I haven't driven my car at all in about two months because it needs some work and even before that I had only driven less than 3000 miles in the past year. The car

A Miserable Day... or, Few Days...

My health has been pretty lousy for the past few days but, today, it declined to the lowest of lows.  I awoke exhausted this morning and that is never a good sign of a "good" day. Of course, as I've mentioned many times before, a "good" day for me with my illnesses and spinal injuries is nothing even close to a healthy person's good day. For me, a "good" day means tolerable health... just minimal to average pain... but having enough energy to accomplish something. The past few days have been less than "good". So, I awoke exhausted... that should have been a clear sign of the day that was ahead of me. I didn't see this sign, however, and just tried to muddle through my fatigue. By the time lunchtime arrived, I realized that I wasn't just exhausted... my thoughts were muddled... and my mood was less than socially acceptable. This was the second sign that my health needed attention and, again, I didn't pay much att

Angry Mast Cells and the Common Cold

An everyday, 'normal' daily life with mast cell disease in any of its forms is kind of lousy even without any complications. When you add in something as mundane and common as the common cold... the cold seriously angers my mast cells... and it is felt all through my body and deep to the core of my bones. I suddenly developed a head cold on Thursday last week. My nose was running like a waterfall for two days. Cold medications didn't help much. Adding extra Mastocytosis medications didn't seem to make a dent in the cold either. Regardless, I needed to add the extra medications anyway to keep my body as stable as possible.   After two days of a constant, neverending waterfall flowing out of my nose, the pathway moved to down the back of my throat in a post-nasal drip...  well, post-nasal flow. Now it is Monday night and I don't have much of a voice and swallowing is difficult because my throat is covered in a layer of gunk. Fun times. Needless to say, with all

What a Miserable Night

The past few days, my level of overwhelming fatigue was so...  well, overwhelming... that I couldn't help but wonder if I had enough energy left to recover. How low does one's energy level need to get that I actually wonder whether you can find the energy to recover? I don't know the precise answer to this question but I do know that it is exceptionally, frighteningly low. I sometimes forget that this overwhelming fatigue is also an active symptom of my illness and not simply a result of wearing myself down. This time, I did also wear myself down. Between the long rail trip and then some activity around the house, I definitely wore myself out. I definitely over-did it. History has proven that when I get worn out from this crazy amount of activity, it can take months to recover. This fatigue, however, can also be a symptom and a clue to impending poor health... a clue to a cascading mast cell degranulation event leading to anaphylaxis... this is what happened last night

A Continuation of Last Night's Miserable Health

Sometimes a lousy night of health like I had last night continues on into the following day. Today is one such day. It is almost 24 hours since my latest transient health problems began last night and I am feeling just as lousy... extreme nausea, gurgling intestines, stomach pain, weakness, overwhelming fatigue (I slept all afternoon), and I am just feeling miserable.  I took some extra medications last night that target the gastrointestinal tract as well as a medication to help minimize the nausea. I added more extra medications today...  some extra mast cell stabilizers, more medications to target the gastrointestinal tract, and I'm about to add more anti-nausea medications.  Systemic Mastocytosis is unpredictable but after using up precious energy as I did during our trip to San Antonio, I know I should expect some lousy health. The problem is that I just cannot predict which problems I will experience...  which symptoms... how many symptoms... the severity of symptoms... 

Poor Health Again Tonight

I am on a roll... or tumble... and the hill I am tumbling down seems to be much bigger than I had originally thought. My health began its roll down this hill a few weeks ago and it just continues to tumble downhill. I slept for about four hours this afternoon and felt pretty good when I awoke. I honestly thought it would be a night of good health and feeling well. Within a half hour things started to deteriorate and things deteriorated rather quickly. First was the nausea... In hindsight, I should have taken this as a sign of impending doom. To make a long story short, I didn't realize that my health had crashed into brief anaphylaxis until my body responded naturally. I had missed all the signs. My body responding naturally to anaphylaxis is a good thing though! It isn't something I like to or should test but it is a good thing! Sometimes, either I am not thinking clearly enough to catch these signs... or, I am feeling so well that impending doom with my health seems so

A Quick Artistic Project

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I don't really get much accomplished when my health is lousy and, for the past few weeks, my health has been pretty lousy. I don't even remember when I last immersed myself into an art project. I've been fighting off a cold for at least two weeks now. A cold isn't a big deal for most people but, for me, a cold only compounds my problems with my mast cell disease. The cold ends up knocking me for a loop and it seems to take forever to shake it. My body already has too many mast cells and too many overactive mast cells. When we add a cold to this environment, my mast cells are even more overactive wreaking havoc on all fronts. To make matters worse, I really wore myself down over the past few months. I knew this would be a recovery period for me but my mast cells are a bit angry right now as well. Angry mast cells make for prolonged cold symptoms, bone pain, joint pain, fatigue, intermittent anaphylaxis, and a bit of nausea. This makes for some very long but very bori