Rough night...
Well, today will be a down day. My health crashed last night. It came on rather suddenly too. Thankfully we were home at the time.
All of a sudden I had gastro-intestinal pain, nausea, dizziness, weakness, difficulty breathing... I spent a long time in the bathroom holding down vomit while it was coming out the other end, over and over. I was fighting loss of consciousness until my heart responded causing an excessively high heart-rate to make up for a severe drop in blood pressure. I knew then that it would be a long night and that today would not be much better. I certainly do not feel I can wander any further than a matter of feet from the bathroom.
The biggest problem with this situation last night was that I made a beeline to the bathroom without grabbing my medications, including my epi-pen. I had already changed into my bedtime clothes so my emergency meds were next to the bed in my pants pockets. I will need to do something about fixing that for the future. So I was stuck in the bathroom without my emergency medications (which I needed) and without my anti-nausea medications (which I also needed).
After my body stabilized enough that I could leave the bathroom, I felt like I was run over by a truck. EVERYTHING hurt. My spine felt like it was on fire. My bones hurt deeply. My joints hurt. I was weak. I still felt like I would lose consciousness yet I was in too much pain (including gastro-intestinal pain) to fall asleep. Nor did I want to sleep for fear of not being able to make it to the bathroom in time again. But the pain, especially the spinal pain.... there is no way to effectively describe that to others.
The dizziness and feeling like I am going to lose consciousness is due to an extreme drop in blood pressure. That is a common and ongoing part of this illness. The 'episodes' start very suddenly with a severe and sudden drop in blood pressure. To avoid losing consciousness, I am supposed to use my epi-pen.
It was well past midnight before I was able to lay down in bed. After a few additional visits to the bathroom, extra emergency medications, anti-nausea medications, and my usual nighttime medications, I was exhausted. Of course, one of the emergency medications makes me very drowsy and groggy so this adds to feeling rather exhausted. Anyway, it was well past midnight when I finally made it to bed.
I know from past experience with this (it happens at least once a week) that I am useless the following day. Between the lingering health problems/symtoms and the side-effects of the medications, I know I will sleep away most of the day today. My day will consist of bathroom, light food, bathroom, couch, bathroom, light lunch even though I have no energy to cook, bathroom, bed for a long afternoon nap, bathroom, then I will just sit around in a daze this evening... with intermittent trips to the bathroom. If I am lucky, the nausea will not be so bad that it causes the desire to vomit.
On the positive side... I don't seem to have any cognitive issues this morning. That is great and it is unusual! I have no problems getting my legs to cooperate with my brain. So this is great too. It seems that this degranulation of mast cells only really affected my gastro-intestinal track and, in turn, respiratory vascular systems.
I just realized what probably triggered this episode... The difficulty breathing started while eating dinner. The ktchen/living room area of the house was hot during dinner. I remember feeling flushed because of the heat and I was having more and more difficulty breathing. Heat is a major trigger for this illness. I know our kitchen was probably hovering around 80 degrees last night. For me, that is exceptionally hot and too hot. Until my body acclimates to a warmer season, I have great difficulties in any environment above 75 degrees.
I had to cancel attending a meeting this morning. There is no way I could have wandered from the house early this morning. This is perhaps the most frustrating thing about the illness... the unpredicability and the feeling of letting down others by needing to cancel previously arranged meetings and appointments at the last minute. That always makes me feel unprofessional and unreliable. I know I shouldn't feel that way because the illness is out of my control, but the fact is, I do... even after having this illness all these years.
Although I am feeling rather lousy today, I am hoping to get a little more work done on my art and photography website do not seem to involve my cognitive abilities today. I will try to work on it between bathroom visits and naps! Hey, I need to accomplish at least one thing each day!
All of a sudden I had gastro-intestinal pain, nausea, dizziness, weakness, difficulty breathing... I spent a long time in the bathroom holding down vomit while it was coming out the other end, over and over. I was fighting loss of consciousness until my heart responded causing an excessively high heart-rate to make up for a severe drop in blood pressure. I knew then that it would be a long night and that today would not be much better. I certainly do not feel I can wander any further than a matter of feet from the bathroom.
The biggest problem with this situation last night was that I made a beeline to the bathroom without grabbing my medications, including my epi-pen. I had already changed into my bedtime clothes so my emergency meds were next to the bed in my pants pockets. I will need to do something about fixing that for the future. So I was stuck in the bathroom without my emergency medications (which I needed) and without my anti-nausea medications (which I also needed).
After my body stabilized enough that I could leave the bathroom, I felt like I was run over by a truck. EVERYTHING hurt. My spine felt like it was on fire. My bones hurt deeply. My joints hurt. I was weak. I still felt like I would lose consciousness yet I was in too much pain (including gastro-intestinal pain) to fall asleep. Nor did I want to sleep for fear of not being able to make it to the bathroom in time again. But the pain, especially the spinal pain.... there is no way to effectively describe that to others.
The dizziness and feeling like I am going to lose consciousness is due to an extreme drop in blood pressure. That is a common and ongoing part of this illness. The 'episodes' start very suddenly with a severe and sudden drop in blood pressure. To avoid losing consciousness, I am supposed to use my epi-pen.
It was well past midnight before I was able to lay down in bed. After a few additional visits to the bathroom, extra emergency medications, anti-nausea medications, and my usual nighttime medications, I was exhausted. Of course, one of the emergency medications makes me very drowsy and groggy so this adds to feeling rather exhausted. Anyway, it was well past midnight when I finally made it to bed.
I know from past experience with this (it happens at least once a week) that I am useless the following day. Between the lingering health problems/symtoms and the side-effects of the medications, I know I will sleep away most of the day today. My day will consist of bathroom, light food, bathroom, couch, bathroom, light lunch even though I have no energy to cook, bathroom, bed for a long afternoon nap, bathroom, then I will just sit around in a daze this evening... with intermittent trips to the bathroom. If I am lucky, the nausea will not be so bad that it causes the desire to vomit.
On the positive side... I don't seem to have any cognitive issues this morning. That is great and it is unusual! I have no problems getting my legs to cooperate with my brain. So this is great too. It seems that this degranulation of mast cells only really affected my gastro-intestinal track and, in turn, respiratory vascular systems.
I just realized what probably triggered this episode... The difficulty breathing started while eating dinner. The ktchen/living room area of the house was hot during dinner. I remember feeling flushed because of the heat and I was having more and more difficulty breathing. Heat is a major trigger for this illness. I know our kitchen was probably hovering around 80 degrees last night. For me, that is exceptionally hot and too hot. Until my body acclimates to a warmer season, I have great difficulties in any environment above 75 degrees.
I had to cancel attending a meeting this morning. There is no way I could have wandered from the house early this morning. This is perhaps the most frustrating thing about the illness... the unpredicability and the feeling of letting down others by needing to cancel previously arranged meetings and appointments at the last minute. That always makes me feel unprofessional and unreliable. I know I shouldn't feel that way because the illness is out of my control, but the fact is, I do... even after having this illness all these years.
Although I am feeling rather lousy today, I am hoping to get a little more work done on my art and photography website do not seem to involve my cognitive abilities today. I will try to work on it between bathroom visits and naps! Hey, I need to accomplish at least one thing each day!
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