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Showing posts with the label dizziness

Some Notes About Recent Health

O ther than writing about my badly sprained ankle, I haven't written much about my health lately so I figured I should attempt to write some stuff down.   Overall, my typical mast cell disease stuff has been 'typical'.  That means occasional anaphylaxic symptoms, breathing difficulties, dizziness, lightheadedness, and a lot of joint and bone pain.  Plus, regular gastro-intestinal problems, nausea, and too much time spent in a bathroom.   What has been worse for the past year...  far worse...  is the brain fog.  This may have been compounded by fighting off COVID-19 a year ago.  I have had brain fog throughout all my mast cell disease but it has been far, far worse in recent months.  I become non-functional for anything other than simply surviving from day to day.   While fighting off the virus last year, I also had consistent problems with vision and hearing.  My eyes were swollen and it seemed like I had a torn retina but that was probably due to the swelling in my eyes. 

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

Convalescence

As expected, I am still struggling with my health after our long journey to and from San Antonio. What we didn't expect is for Sheila to be joining me this week! Sheila is home sick with a lousy cold... mostly sore throat, runny nose, stuffy head... and, some fatigue as well.  I'm still struggling with overwhelming fatigue, debilitating deep bone pain, and bouts with instantaneous dizziness so bad it knocks me over even when I am seated! This dizziness is actually a bit violent... Even when this dizziness hits me while seated, in an instant, I am trying to catch myself from hitting the floor. When I am standing, I stumble like my world has been instantly tilted to a 45 degree angle trying to grab ahold of something to keep me from losing to gravity.... gravity applying force in a very different direction from which my brain thinks.  What is really odd is that I am constantly falling to my right. In the past, I always fell to the left when these bouts would hit me. This

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 Warning From Our Resident Cat

My health has been pretty lousy this past week with various issues overlapping each day. Overall, I've been feeling worn out, weak, and just generally lousy. I've had problems intermittently with breathing, dizziness, stomach/gastro-intestinal, nausea, vision, bone pain, joint pain, spleen pain, cognitive function, bordering on anaphylaxis, and probably a few other things I have forgotten about right now. It has just been a rather lousy week. I laid down this afternoon for my daily two to four hour nap. Adam had his wisdom teeth pulled yesterday so we were all already camped out on the couch all day so I just napped on the couch while Sheila and Adam continued to watch television. Our neighbor's two cats spend much of their time every day at our place and today was no different. Before I fell asleep, I saw one of the cats pass back and forth outside. Since seeing the cats coming and going is something I see everyday, I didn't think much of it.  When I awoke from m

What a Lousy Week of Health

This entire week has been one health problem after another. I honestly was fighting back tears as my health crashed into anaphylaxis last night. The tears weren't because of pain nor simply because I was feeling miserable. The tears were because I have been so unproductive this week and I now had to accept the fact that the next few days would be, at best, a recovery period of more nonproductivity. This weighs so heavily on me, I suppose, because I want to do so many things around the house but can't... because each day I lose due to this debilitating illness, is one less day I will have in my life. Now, once again, I didn't just lose another day, I just lost a full work-week and this downtime of nothingness promises to be longer. We were doing some light shopping in Williston and South Burlington last night... the first store we visited was all it took. As we were walking into Bed, Bath & Beyond (we hadn't even entered the store yet), I was experiencing breathing

A Few Steps Backward Far Too Often

Struggling with Systemic Mastocytosis, in any of its forms, makes the ability to be productive both difficult and frustrating. The desire to be productive is there... The desire to accomplish just one small thing on our continually growing to-do list is there... And, the frustration of how this insidious illness hinders all we try to do is always there. Those of us with this illness are familiar with the occasional "good" day. We call these occasional days a "good" day but, for us, "good" is a relative term. For us, good simply means this moment is better than the previous. In reality and more accurately speaking, all days with this illness are a struggle, at best. Some moments are just better than others and it is these better moments which we refer to as "good". Sometimes, however, a week such as this past week just slowly spirals downward. It can start with one noticeable symptom... in my case this week, I noticed a problem with my vision.

Recovery Time After A Busy Saturday

The past few days, Sunday through Tuesday, have been spent recovering from a busy day over the weekend.  Whenever I use a lot of energy, my health really suffers and it can take days or weeks to recover. This past Saturday was a very busy day for me and I used a lot of energy which was compounded by missing my much-needed daily nap. Even on a good day, I need to lay down for a few hours every afternoon. That never happened on Saturday though. So... what happens if I wear myself down? The best case scenario would be that I am simply fatigued at an overwhelming level for a few days. This fatigue makes just showering or cooking for myself impossible at times. Sometimes the fatigue gets so bad that walking to the other side of the house is a daunting task. Even reading can require more energy than I have to use! Worst case scenario would be that in addition to the overwhelming fatigue, my overall health suffers significantly resulting in breathing difficulties, dizziness, cognitive d

Ankle Update

I've had debilitating ankle pain for the past 11 days now. The first few days I could not even put any weight whatsoever on my left foot. Since then, I've been hobbling and limping around with a cane. Needless to say, very little has been accomplished around here for the past week and a half. A few days ago I wrote that I realized that I probably injured some nerves while working on the waste plumbing for a new bathroom that I am trying to install. There is no doubt that I was hard on my ankles while crouching on the floor and sitting on my feet on an uneven, unfinished wood floor. I was also crouched down in a tight crawl space for part of the plumbing project. These activities were no help to my ankles, knees, shins and lower back, that is for certain. This morning when I awoke, my ankle pain seemed to get a little bit worse again. It was raining out and the moist rain always affects my bones and joints since I've been struggling with Systemic Mastocytosis (or perhaps

Spoke Too Soon

This morning I wrote about recovering from a painful week of lousy health... I think I spoke too soon... I had slept all afternoon which is very much a typical day for me. I really need to lay down for a few hours everyday. This is pretty much a requirement for survival. When I avoid that daily nap, my health quickly deteriorates. So, I slept most of the afternoon but, when I awoke, I wasn't feeling "right".   I don't know what it was, but something just didn't feel right. I took my dinnertime dose of medications and we started on dinner.  I wasn't hungry in the least though and was feeling generally lousy. Within minutes after dinner I found myself back in the bathroom with worsening health again. I had some relatively minor dizziness, nausea, cramping, weakness, and my legs were not cooperating. This quickly deteriorated into some typical Systemic Mastocytosis lower GI problems including its unique brand of diarrhea. Oh, it has been a fun week. When

Health Lousy and Mood Foul

This past week or so has been incredibly difficult, quite lousy and, at times, downright miserable. Difficulty breathing causing huffing and puffing after simply walking from one room to the next... dizziness... cutaneous mastocytosis rash on my thighs and torso which is itchy, irritated and inflamed and clothes only irritate the problems more... overwhelming fatigue... I cannot possibly accurately express just how debilitating and overwhelming the fatigue actually has been the past few days. This morning, I was sitting in the bathroom thinking about what I could possibly accomplish today. Just the thought of standing up and walking back to my bedroom was overwhelming and seemed like 'mission impossible'. I had to wash my face... I felt all greasy and grimy... however, I knew that if I used any energy to wash my face, I probably would just need to lay down on the bathroom floor rather than my comfortable bed in the bedroom.  I knew I just would not find the energy to walk b

Post Christmas Poor Health... As Expected

I have been very fortunate this Christmas season!  We have had an exceptionally busy, hectic and exhausting December and, for the most part, my health held up surprisingly well. Now, however, we are a few days past Christmas and my health has crashed... and it has crashed spectacularly. I had a few bouts with anaphylaxis causing dizziness, palpitations, tachycardia, and breathing difficulties which all leads to exhaustion.  Whenever my heart responds to anaphylaxis, my heart-rate jumps to the 120-180 beats per minute range and it can stay there for an hour or two. Having your heart-rate at this chest pounding level is similar to running for a couple of hours... or playing a basketball game for a couple of hours... or any other strenuous activity for hours.  I am left feeling exhausted and my entire body aches for days. The degranulation of mast cells which caused this anaphylaxia also causes nerve irritation and inflammation.  Needless to say, in addition to the overwhelming fatigu