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 spare you the nasty details but I will say it is brutal... at times a bit violent... and it is painful.
Sometime during this period, I also developed a neurological issue with my left arm. At first it was extremely painful to move it. Then it slowly became weaker and weaker too. Eventually, I was having difficulty moving it under its own power but if I moved it with my other arm, the motion didn't hurt. As the pain slowly subsided, the weakness prevailed. I added some extra medications into my daily mix and, miraculously, I awoke one morning and the pain was completely gone... strength was back again.
Transient neurological problems accompany my illness every now and then so I'm a bit used to them but this was odd the way it just disappeared overnight. The previous day I couldn't do anything with that arm. And, this was my left arm and I'm a lefty! Eating was difficult... writing was difficult... then when I awoke the following morning... no pain... full range of motion... full strength again... very odd!
As the day progressed today, my diarrhea issue waned... irritation in my GI tract has lessened... and the nausea lightened up enough to enjoy a small dinner. I'm still feeling a bit crampy and I'm feeling some irritation in my lower GI tract... still a little bit of gurgling in my intestines... but the diarrhea is waning. This is welcomed news after needing to stay within feet of the bathroom for more than a week!
As if the diarrhea and my arm problem wasn't enough in a relatively short period of time, around lunchtime today, I felt as though I had something in my left eye (yes, left side again just like my arm... and just like my left leg which is almost always weak). My vision was blurry so I was actually having difficulty seeing well enough in the mirror to try to find something in my eye so I pulled out the eye wash... started squirting that in my eye... HOLY MOLY! Wow... that burned like I stuck a burning needle in my eye!
My vision is still quite impaired but vision problems like blurriness and partial color blindness are also recurring symptoms of my illness. The blurriness... yes, that is recurring... the pain, burning and feeling as though something is in my eye is not a recurring symptom though. I continued to flush out my left eye throughout the afternoon and this evening. To be honest, I'm not sure what to expect in the morning but I'm thinking I need to visit the doctor.
So, it has been a really miserable week of really poor health. I'm looking forward to a break from poor health for a little bit.
And, I'm really looking forward to being able to wander away from a bathroom!
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 spare you the nasty details but I will say it is brutal... at times a bit violent... and it is painful.
Sometime during this period, I also developed a neurological issue with my left arm. At first it was extremely painful to move it. Then it slowly became weaker and weaker too. Eventually, I was having difficulty moving it under its own power but if I moved it with my other arm, the motion didn't hurt. As the pain slowly subsided, the weakness prevailed. I added some extra medications into my daily mix and, miraculously, I awoke one morning and the pain was completely gone... strength was back again.
Transient neurological problems accompany my illness every now and then so I'm a bit used to them but this was odd the way it just disappeared overnight. The previous day I couldn't do anything with that arm. And, this was my left arm and I'm a lefty! Eating was difficult... writing was difficult... then when I awoke the following morning... no pain... full range of motion... full strength again... very odd!
As the day progressed today, my diarrhea issue waned... irritation in my GI tract has lessened... and the nausea lightened up enough to enjoy a small dinner. I'm still feeling a bit crampy and I'm feeling some irritation in my lower GI tract... still a little bit of gurgling in my intestines... but the diarrhea is waning. This is welcomed news after needing to stay within feet of the bathroom for more than a week!
As if the diarrhea and my arm problem wasn't enough in a relatively short period of time, around lunchtime today, I felt as though I had something in my left eye (yes, left side again just like my arm... and just like my left leg which is almost always weak). My vision was blurry so I was actually having difficulty seeing well enough in the mirror to try to find something in my eye so I pulled out the eye wash... started squirting that in my eye... HOLY MOLY! Wow... that burned like I stuck a burning needle in my eye!
My vision is still quite impaired but vision problems like blurriness and partial color blindness are also recurring symptoms of my illness. The blurriness... yes, that is recurring... the pain, burning and feeling as though something is in my eye is not a recurring symptom though. I continued to flush out my left eye throughout the afternoon and this evening. To be honest, I'm not sure what to expect in the morning but I'm thinking I need to visit the doctor.
So, it has been a really miserable week of really poor health. I'm looking forward to a break from poor health for a little bit.
And, I'm really looking forward to being able to wander away from a bathroom!
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