Good news... sort of

It turns out that I was right, the pain I've been feeling was (read: is probably) an ovarian cyst.

I woke up at dawn this morning in the most excruciating pain I've ever felt. I thought maybe it was food poisoning, but it didn't feel the same. It was like cramps, but incredibly sharp and incredibly intense.

I actually though I was going to need the emergency room, (Zack was worried it was my appendix) but thankfully TONS of Motrin helped. Walking is still painful and I can't tie my shoes, but at least I'm not screaming out like I did this morning trying to get out of bed! I even managed to finish my Christmas shopping.

So, the good news is that it's not related to my medicine at least- the bad news is that it hurts like hell, and who wants a cyst on their ovaries? lol (oh, and minor bad news was that Tops was all out of my heartburn meds, so it might be a rough night)

Thanksgiving

This past week was Thanksgiving- one of my favorite holidays purely because the food is unbelievably good. How can you go wrong with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and cranberry sauce? Not to mention the pumpkin pie to cap it all off!

Unfortunately, I caught a bug or something (maybe complications of my meds?) and was sick most of the week. I had/ still have pain in my lower stomach. I haven't gotten sick (upper or lower) but it hurts like mad. I hope it's not like...an ovarian cyst; which I've had before.

Thanksgiving dinner was the first real food I was able to eat. I thought maybe I wasn't drinking enough fluids to work with my meds, but I've upped it a lot and am still in pain.

I'm not sure if it was just foods I wasn't used to eating, or what. So I'm cutting out anything remotely new, and going back to what I've been eating (pre-holiday foods) and we'll see if that helps!

I go back for my check-up soon, so it'll be something I have to discuss with my doctor.

Fate intervenes?

Last night, I was looking all over this site to see if there was any way to suspend this blog- where I wouldn't lose the domain name, but I could put it on 'pause' for a while.

As I was doing this (which I couldn't find a way, btw) I came across my "Stats" page - which I never knew existed. It was very interesting- apparently I've had over 300 page views in this month alone, not including my own. That FLOORED me.

Plus, one of my referring sites (the sites people get here from) was 43 Things, so there are some very nice people on 43T who are kind enough to come check in on me.

Now I'm undecided about discontinuing this. It really was a great way to keep track on my day-to-day stuff that I don't want to clog up 43T with, and it seems like a shame to stop something that was actually helping me because of one or two people. The reason I started it was to help raise awareness for people who are suffering from the inability to gain weight/dealing with anorexia/and (now) to help shed some light on a little-known condition.

What to do?

I was going to update...

but I decided that I'm just not going to do it anymore. The people who "follow" me on here, I talk to in other venues/arenas and that's good enough for me.

Unlike other people, I'm not okay with just anyone/everyone reading my stuff- and I suspect it's more than just "official followers" who are creeping my stuff anonymously.

So, this message will be up for a week to let anyone who reads this know, then this whole thing will be deleted.

I'll talk to you all either on 43Things, or in person. To everyone else, sorry but your creeping is over.

day 10

Sucky. It might be because of milk products though. Zack had asked me to try an Ensure to see if it was just pure milk products- apparently not because it made me ill most of the day. Later on I was feeling better, and today (which is 'tomorrow' I'm writing this about yesterday lol) I'm going to go milk product free 100% and see how I fare.

day 9

Well it's been just over a week. Generally, I think I like what this medicine is doing- at least I can get out of bed without having a heart attack, and wash my hair without my arms going numb, and use the bathroom without passing out (I know, TMI, but it's important to keep track of lol)

I'm still not feeling great exactly, but I am able to get out of the house for a couple of hours so that's definitely an improvement. I think after this week, I might try starting to exercise a little every day.

I'm starting to definitely suspect I'm becoming lactose-intolerant. Anytime I eat or drink anything milk-related it just sits like a rock and my stomach is constantly upset. It's weird because I drank TONS of milk when I was younger and now I can't tolerate it at all- which suck because I love it...and cream cheese, sour cream, shredded cheese...bummer.

Day 8

Pretty decent day. I baked some and did grocery shopping early which was great.

I'm starting to be a little concerned about the amount of hair-loss I'm having. I know that stress can cause it (that's happened to me before) but I'm losing at least a hundred strands a day.

Day 7

Not a bad day. Chest is still pounding, but the headaches have subsided. Hopefully the upset stomach will go away.

I'm starting to get discouraged because I'm no longer feeling as great as the first half day. I know that you can't feel awesome all the time, but after almost two eyars of feeling like hell- I was hoping for more than two pretty good" days.

Maybe the dosage still isn't right.

days 5 and 6

pros: got out a lot yesterday- much longer than I have in over 6 months.

cons: had a pretty bad day today and later last night- horribly upset stomach, headaches, weakness


...bummer.

Day 4

Overall, a decent day. I had heart murmurs again which sucks, and my stomach was upset for a good portion of the day. Just have to wait it out I guess.

day 3

Liquids: Not great. 5 cups maybe. Have to do better tomorrow.

Diet: Nutella on bread, cheddar rice cakes, chicken, mac and cheese, misc halloween candy

Florinef: taken

Cons: migraine, nausea this morning

Pros: being able to go out for a longer time than usual

day 2

Liquids: about 6 cups. Not bad.

Diet: half onion bagel with cream cheese, steak, pretzels, half hamburger, potato pancakes, leftover halloween candy

Florinef: taken

How I feel...

Pros: This morning, I felt AWESOME. Much better than I have in over a year. I went out to vote, and walked in the cold and didn't have any palpitations! I speed walked, and didn't get short of breath or have my arrhythmia. I washed my hair without my arms going numb!

Cons: Towards the middle of the day, I started to have bad indigestion again- I hope that goes away. I also got very run down, and after eating dinner had a very upset stomach and a headache all night. They say most side effects wear off after a week, so I'm hoping.

day 1

Diet:

Liquids: 7-8 cups. About half a gallon, almost 2 Liters which is what I'm supposed to be drinking so that's good.

Food: Pancakes, potato with sour cream/cheese/bacon bits, steak (made even more delicious because I won it in a bet), popcorn, various snacks.


Florinef: taken- first day!

Negative Side Effects:
- I could tell when my body absorbed it- it gave me a weird rush, almost like having a CT scan done (if you've never had one, I can't explain it)- almost like getting a saline drip where you can feel it run through your body in a cold wave.
- sharp pain in my shoulder, I don't know if this was from an injury, or not as aches and pain are a side effect
- headache...mostly in one spot, made me a little nervous but I didn't want to overwhelm my body by taking motrin too
- indigestion, pretty bad actually
- chills

Positive Side Effects:
- no intense heart pounding when I stand up
- increased appetite? (maybe, it's hard to tell- I have a couple of hungry days now and then, so it might not have anything to do with this)
- no intense vomiting feeling immediately following eating

Overall Opinion: Pending. I like not having my heart pound constantly, but I am verrrry achey and the indigestion is pretty rough so we'll see.

change of pace

I had an idea today to use this as more-or-less a journal (which is basically is) to record how I do on a day-to-day basis with the drug trial(s) I'm starting. I have to be on Florinef for a month, and then go back to the doctor- by that time, I probably won't remember what things were really like over the course of the month- so why not write it down? Worth a shot at least lol