Tag: fever


No One’s Laughing at God

27
December

I haven’t felt very well lately, but I’ve tried to keep my whining to a minimum. I didn’t really talk much to my parents this weekend about how sick I was feeling, because a whiny daughter isn’t really something that I thought they would appreciate. Besides, what could they have done? Nothing, except maybe send me to the ER, and the ER isn’t exactly a place I enjoy being. I don’t enjoy being at any doctor offices really, though. (I doubt anyone does, except maybe doctors and sadistic folks.)

So, I may try to see my family doctor this week, but I have a feeling that she’ll be a bit dismissive–suggesting things like ibuprofen (can’t take), eating high fiber diets (which doesn’t generally help), and losing weight (but not having an idea how I can do this with no major risk to my clumsy/death-wishing body). She will mean well, telling me that when my sinuses are easily clogged that I should use the sinus rinse more often; she will fail to realize that the sinus rinse tends to make me feel worse. She will say that I should take something in the triptan family for my migraines, and will not understand how I can’t do that and can’t do the ergotamine versions of the migraine meds either. Basically, it won’t do any good for me to see her.

Oh, I forgot to mention what I’d gotten for Christmas.

From my parents:

  • An 8GB SD card
  • Plush Blanket (from Target, I think—don’t really care as long as it’s soft and warm)

According to the phone call from my Nana, I got the following from my aunt & uncle, cousin & his wife, and from her:

  • $40
  • A $15 Gift Card for iTunes–so expect new tunes to be displayed on my last.fm soon
  • Dear John Blu-Ray
  • Inception Blu-Ray

Not too bad. It was the first year, though, that I didn’t get a teddy bear or stuffed animal. That was a bit of a bummer, but I know that they can be expensive and I’m probably too old to get them. I’m thankful for what I did get. I hope that my family can stop having holidays where things go completely awry, though.

Comment » | Family, Sickness and Health

I’m Not That Girl

18
December

I know that some people feel the need to tell others when they’re violating certain mores. I understand this. I don’t, however, appreciate it when I become the person who gets told what to do.

I have a problem with authority figures, and have for a long time. This really isn’t a secret to anyone who has read this blog for very long or has communicated with me in very many places. I feel like no one really has the right to tell me exactly what to do, and as long as I’m not doing anyone any harm, then I think that my actions should basically be allowed. This can lead to certain people getting frustrated or annoyed with me or thinking that I’m the most inconsiderate person that they’ve ever met. (I am a bit inconsiderate, but that’s typically when I’m severely pissed off.)

I guess that because it was 32°F (0°C) out, though, that the greeter at Walmart felt the need to tell me that I needed to be wearing a coat. Though most people were wearing coats or jackets inside, or even sweaters, I was not and I did not feel that it was necessary to be told that I needed to have one on. (It’s not a “requirement” to enter the store, so there wasn’t really anything that could be done.) Well, I told her that I didn’t, and she seemed a bit taken aback; maybe it was the snippy tone I used or the fact that I didn’t just smile and nod.

I was annoyed because my own mother had already tried to convince me to wear something over my long sleeveless dress. I was also annoyed because there were other people wearing just as little (most with shorts + jackets) that weren’t being told that they needed to have on warmer outfits. I was also annoyed because people assume that because they get cold outside in freezing weather that I do, too. And, though some cold temperatures do make me uncomfortable, 32° isn’t typically going to bother me when I’m spending very little time in it.

I went about the brief shopping trip with very little temperature (over-heating/fevers) trouble, which is a first for Walmart (or pretty much anywhere) in a long time, and was quite pleased with that. I think that maybe I warded off the overheating and the joint inflammation by being cooler when I went in the store. Of course, it could be pure coincidence. And as I headed out, the greeter didn’t try to talk to me again, so I made progress there–at least this one time.

1 comment » | Confessions, General, Rants, Sickness and Health

Work All Day, Sleep All Night

23
November

The day after the D&C, I was back to cooking dinner again. Mom is still struggling to get around, and his royal highness couldn’t be bothered to quit playing Farmville long enough to cook dinner. Admittedly, a D&C isn’t really major surgery. (Though, when I had what was considered major surgery, I went through the same stuff.) This time he was a little bit perkier since he didn’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to take me for surgery.

I had the sore throat I complained of for a couple of days. My temperature was borderline-high over that weekend, but I figured I just had a cold. I was sleeping as much as I possibly could, because I was completely wiped out and because I just felt really bad.

Then, on Monday, I had to see my new (old) psychiatrist. She was the one that I had seen in 2007 at the infamous appointment. She was really nice, and was asking me some basic questions. She needed to know why I’d left the last psychiatrist. (I said I didn’t feel comfortable with her. I didn’t mention that I didn’t appreciate the old psychiatrist insulting me.) She had a nurse practitioner in on the appointment. She didn’t ask if it was okay, and I guess I could’ve asked the nurse practitioner to please leave. I didn’t, though. The psychiatrist asked what medicines I was on. I told her just the Effexor, but I hinted at some of the older medicines. My mom wanted me to see if I could be put back on anxiety medicines, partially to control my tachycardia episodes. I mentioned being on Klonopin, but didn’t push it. Around the time I mentioned it, I had broken out in a sweat and felt like I was about to fall over. I pretty much struggled to get through the rest of the (brief) appointment and then trudge out to the cart in the cold, wet November rain. We had to go get dog food (because we’d run out and it would’ve inconvenienced my dad to come back) and pick up medicine from the pharmacy (again, so he wouldn’t be inconvenienced). By the time we got home, and I could finally figure out if I had a fever or what, it was about 5:30 (past the time when any doctor around here will answer their phone) and my temperature was 100.1°F (37.8°C). I chugged some ice water, took 2 Tylenol, and rested on ice. Thus began a week of sleeping, Tylenol, and icing myself down. (I kept forgetting to call the doctor.)

I slept a lot. I was sleeping so much that I was waking up with horrible pains in my hip/back area, and I eventually decided that I was going to have to sleep in shorter intervals. So, I slept about 3-4 hours at a time, which helped the pain some. It didn’t help the sickness or the fever.

I was going to call the gynecologist yesterday, but I slept through office hours yesterday, and ended up calling today. When I called today, I was told that it would be sometime in the second week of December before they could see me. So, I’m going back for my re-check then.

I’m hoping the weird sleep and fever will get better. It shouldn’t continue that long, should it? And hopefully, by then, the period, the one that had gone away and has now come back, might be less flow-y and clot-y, except that it’s me and that’s how mine roll. Gotta think positive, right?

Oh, and one last thing, has anyone seen Jonna (aka Jojo from plinsessa/hellfrozenrain/bubblecandy). It’s been around 2 months since I’ve heard anything from her. I was wondering how she’s doing.

Comment » | Alabama A&M, Family, Friends, Internet, Mental Health, Sickness and Health

Weight Loss Is The Key

21
October

When I was in seventh or eighth grade (12-14 years old), I was extremely clumsy. I fell down a lot, sprained joints, etc. I was constantly seeing an orthopedist to see if I’d damaged my joints too much. I ended up missing out on PE quite a bit, and became the antagonist in the mind of one of the gym teachers. One day, I sprained my hand and she told me that if I lost weight, I wouldn’t have hurt my hand. I could never figure out the reasoning behind that statement.

Fast forward to now, or at least an hour ago, and you’ll find me sitting in my rheumatologist’s office. I’m trying to get out the problems that I have been having lately with my joints. Every time I say anything, he is dismissive. I tell him that my joints are stiff, he says that’s my hypermobile joints. I tell him that they’re feverish, he says that’s normal for osteoarthritis. I try to point to my hands and wrists to try to explain that they’re getting harder to use and that they hurt a lot lately. What does he say? He tells me that if I lose weight, I won’t hurt so much. Huh?

I get that weight increases pain in joints that are weight-baring. Since I don’t crawl around or walk on all fours, then I would say that it is highly unlikely that more weight is exerted on my hands than on the hands of any other person, including people who weigh a hell of a lot less than me. And if he actually looked at my chart, he might see that my weight has gone down since the last appointment. Of course, that would’ve required him to pay attention.

His solution was that I need to take more muscle relaxers. Before I could get out that the muscle relaxers don’t make my pain go away, he was out the door. I didn’t recover my ability to speak fully until we got out to the car. My dad seemed shocked by the way things went down. (He had never gone back with me before.) He thought that the doctor was too dismissive.

He also thought that I shouldn’t complain about joint problems since joint hypermobility isn’t really that painful. That was quite enlightening. I wonder if he came up with that on his own or if he consulted the crackpot’s guide to connective tissue problems.

Comment » | Confessions, Family, Pre-College Years, Sickness and Health

Under My Feet

6
September

I haven’t really been online a lot this weekend. That’s mainly due to heightened anxiety/stress. I think that’s due to the beginning of football season. Around the time my father woke up on Saturday morning, I started giving myself my headache medicine. It kept me asleep for around 12-13 hours. I ended up waking up during Auburn’s halftime, which meant I got to experience rants full-on. I had missed the rants about the teams that he didn’t even care about, which was good. I had wished I could make it through the Auburn ones, too, but they would have been harder to miss. Auburn ended up winning, which was good. If they had lost, then I probably would’ve started dosing myself into unconsciousness again. (I’ve often used medicines to induce sleep. It’s how I managed to sleep while I was having major sleep issues during middle and high school.)

I started crying sometime in the early morning hours on Sunday. I just felt like I was ready to scream, throw things, etc. I started composing a very long letter to my parents about how I felt like I needed to be taken more seriously. (This was what I used to do when I was a little kid–if I needed something or if I felt like I needed to apologize, I’d write a letter.) Well, the ink ran out of the pen and I got upset and threw it across the room. It barely made a sound when it hit Willow’s chair, but it was loud enough that my mom woke up. We ended up talking, and I complained about the thing on my stomach, which she checked out a little closer this time. She was surprised because it was burning up, and I told her that that was normal. (It is hot most of the time, but it gets worse in the middle of the night [around 3:30-5:00 AM] and it starts hurting worse.) I have an appointment to get it checked out with my family medicine doctor, but I have honestly lost faith in most doctors lately. Yeah, they send me for the tests, but the longer this whole saga goes on, the more dismissive they get. (Half the time, the results are never relayed to me.) And with the cardiologist refusing to even suggest anything that could help the extra beats and tachycardia, it just seems to be stupid to go through massive amounts of tests.

Speaking of tests and medical records, I think that is unfair that if I want to access my medical records, I have to pay fees. (Where is Files & Records when you need her?) If I want a copy of my blood work, I have to pay per page of the test, which can be 20-or-so pages. The doctors, who have a lot more money, don’t have to pay anything. They can get paper copies or faxes or computer access without paying anything. All that they really need is a signature from me to share the records. (If they’re in the Huntsville Hospital system and the record is on my hospital file, they don’t even need my signature.) All these people can see whatever they want about me, but I don’t get to see my own file. (At the Mental Health Center, I don’t even get the opportunity to pay for the records to see what’s been said. I can have my therapist or doctor or one of the nurses read it to me, though.)

I’m a little frustrated with the Social Security Administration. When I started on SSI and SSDI, I was told that if I started paying $200+ a month in household expenses, then my SSI check would be increased by that much. After I got the first check, I began doing just that. I’ve told the SSA about this twice. I filled out lots of paperwork the first time–nothing happened. I called again in May or June (or possibly early July)–I haven’t even gotten paperwork or anything that says that anything will happen. I get that the government doesn’t really have lots of money right now, but it seems like they could at least hold up their end of the 1/3 reduction rule.

Anyway, right now I’m dealing with an earache and headache that my mom told me was probably just TMJ. I agreed at first, but after a while, my throat began hurting. I would say it was allergies, but I know that’s not likely.

Comment » | Family, General, Mental Health, National Weirdness, Sickness and Health, So Damn Special

I Always Want Salad

13
May

Whenever there is some big E. coli scare for lettuce or any other produce item, I end up craving whatever has the highest probability of having the bacteria. Maybe my body has some kind of death wish…or food poisoning wish. (Of course, I’ve had food poisoning before, and it was NOT something I would want to have again.)

I’ve had a fever today. It’s not just one of “my” fevers, where I have a somewhat normal range for most people, but high for me temperature. No, today, after drinking all of my weight a million times over in ice water, every time I check (within a few minutes of drinking the water), my temperature is 99.0. So, I would say that that means that I have a fever. Since the temperature persists throughout the day, it isn’t just a transient spike either. This is a bit worrisome. Of course, it might just be an allergy issue. (When my allergies act up, my temperature goes up.)

Oh, and my mom thinks that I may have some kind of complication from my gastric bypass surgery that I had so many years ago. It has to do with not being able to process any of the vitamins that I’ve taken in, including my special gummy ones. I would get into detail, except that (surprisingly) I try not to discuss certain physical things on my blog…or in any kind of public forum. (See, I have certain things that cause me shame…)

2 comments » | Sickness and Health

There’s something wrong

24
April

Remember, I have a consistently low body temperature of 97.0? Right now, after a 32 oz. cup of icy cold water, my temperature is a nice cool 99.8. Water knocks the temperature down a bit and then my normal temp is almost 2 degrees lower than the average, so…this is apparently one hell of an infection. At least my immune system has finally kicked in. I was afraid it had forgotten how to work.

2 comments » | Sickness and Health

     

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