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Showing posts with the label gallbladder

Inflammation and Debilitating Pain

This past week has been an unbearable week of inflammation and debilitating pain. Needless to say, getting anything accomplished this week was virtually impossible.   Standing hurt, sitting hurt, laying hurt and sleeping long enough to keep my health stable was very difficult because the pain kept me awake. Understandably, my mood was negatively impacted. My ability to stay focused on anything for longer than a few short minutes was impossible. What an absolutely frustrating and excruciatingly painful week.  My entire spine was so inflamed it seemed like it was swollen and on fire... constantly... steadily... it burned consistently like the sun.  Each of the areas of my spine that have been injured during my career hurt so badly that it felt as though I had a large swollen red bump the size of a handball at each point of injury.  For those who aren't aware, after two line-of-duty spinal injuries I am left with two herniated disks, four bulging disks, six compressed disks, two a

Secondary Health Problems

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As if living with an incurable, life-threatening rare illness is not enough, those of us with Systemic Mastocytosis must also endure a constant barrage of secondary illnesses.  These secondary illnesses alone are enough to scare the daylights out of any healthy person.  Combine these secondary problems with our primary illness and it seems as though we are being bombarded heavily from all sides.  "Duck and cover" does not work here.  We must face this barrage boldly, come to terms with it, accept it, and then, while still struggling with our primary illness compounded by secondary problems, we must quickly and effectively address the problems encountered by the barrage of secondary illnesses. For me, the barrage of secondary problems has always included neurological symptoms likened to those experienced by multiple sclerosis patients.  I suffer from debilitating bone and joint pain as a resultant effect of my primary illness.  I have transient vision issues.  I have transie