Emergency Rooms, Kittens and Pertussis - An All-Around Update

Today marks the beginning of the third week in a row that I've been home sick from work. After two Emergency Room visits I finally got a diagnosis of Pertussis. Apparently, even if you've had the vaccine as a child, it wears off. 

I work with infants. 

During finals week, I had an interview at a school that offers childcare for kids from infancy to Pre-K in San Francisco. I got offered the job the same day. After applying to more than 70 jobs since January I quickly accepted, knowing how I was going to be one of the lucky few in my class that would be graduating with a job.

In the month following graduation, I found a place to live, moved in, got a kitten and started work. 

I started work on June 5th. 

June 30th, my cousin who now lives in Boston came back to California to get married. I went down to Laguna with my family for the weekend for what turned out to be the most beautiful wedding I've ever been to. My cousin's older sister had given birth to a miracle baby, Lucy, a mere 9 days prior to the wedding. (Lucy was a NICU baby as her intestines were growing outside of her while she was in the womb and had to get all her GI stuff taken care of before she would even be able to be held for the first time. Lucy had been expected to be born on her aunt's wedding day but made her arrival just in time for her mommy to be at the wedding. Lucy is now doing phenomenally and is home, released from the NICU weeks ahead of schedule. ) Due to the Lucy's miracle in the air, I think everyone at the wedding was just appreciating life more. There was no drama, no controlling parents, everything went off without a hitch. Not to mention that the wedding was done on the beach and everyone watched the sun go down over the ocean as we ate.

The night of the rehearsal dinner though, at the end of the night, I lost my voice. I figured that I had simply been laughing far too hard as my voice was back the next day, in time for the wedding. I lost my voice on and off the day after the wedding and back at work, I started to get a cough that got worse as the week progressed. By Friday, I was using my asthma rescue inhaler every  four hours and still not able to catch my breath.

I went home to my parent's house for the weekend and to the doctor. I was told I had a virus, not to go to work for the week and was put on Prednisone and an inhaler that I ended up being allergic to (which landed me at the doctor the following day). A week later and I had been through a round of Prednisone, a round of antibiotics (for a possible bacterial infection), a rescue inhaler every four hours and a chest X-ray. That Sunday I was put on another round of Prednisone and was told that I could go back to work. 

I went to work on Monday and Tuesday and was absolutely miserable. I couldn't catch my breath or stop coughing and was super dizzy and weak. All the while I was trying to take care of nine infants.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights, my mom drove down to stay at my house overnight in case I needed to go to the Emergency Room. Wednesday morning I scheduled an appointment and was given cough medicine and told that I shouldn't be at work for the rest of the week. 

I called in to my work and then went home to my parent's house. 

I took two doses of the pills for the cough on Wednesday and after the second dose, realized my throat was closing up and I needed to go to the ER. 

I was given a ton of tests, treated for an allergic reaction. One of the blood tests that they did came back as having a high glucose level that signified having Diabetes. Due to the fact that I was on Prednisone they said they wanted to wait and retest me in a few weeks before actually giving me that diagnosis. (I'm still a few weeks out from that retest but they are guessing I'll be fine based on my past, lower glucose levels.) As I was being discharged had another attack. So I was readmitted and kept another couple of hours. During the readmission, I had an allergic reaction to the IV Benedryl that they gave me which had my chest burning and my legs appearing to be having a seizure.

I got there at Five-to-Nine and by 2am I was back home in my own bed. 

I didn't seem to be getting much better over the next few days so I went in to one doctor after another. 

Saturday, I was finally feeling somewhat decent so my mom got me out of the house to go see Brave which I had been wanting to see for a while. Just as it got to the climax of the movie, I was overwhelmed with nausea and dizziness and had to rush to the bathroom. The nausea calmed down and I was able to get back to the movie just as the last two minutes of the Disney-Happily-Ever-After appeared on screen. We left as the credits began to roll as my throat began to feel like it was getting hard to breathe again.

We went to the ER where I was informed that the Pertussis test that had been performed during the Wednesday night visit had come back positive, I hadn't been informed because the doctor who saw the results noticed I had already been on antibiotics (though the antibiotic course had been completed prior to the testing). 

I was sent home once again, this time with a diagnosis (and the information that there is NO treatment) and the fact that I'm not contagious because I've been on the antibiotics. 

And so it is Monday once more and I'm cleared off work until Friday.

Certainly a good way to spend 3 weeks of my 90-day probation at work huh?

I'm now caught up on all of my television shows and Pinterest obsessions and am trying to work on eating at least one meal a day. 

It's a start right?

Oh! And my kitten, Shaylee, is here with me which makes everything SO much better.

And it doesn't look like my parents are minding having an extra little one around for the moment either.

For now? It's almost 2pm and I think it's about time for a nap.

This New Year (With a Medical Question and Update)

So far, this New Year has been proving to be wonderful! It's shown that in these few days, it's going to be far superior to 2009! I rang in the New Year of 2010 with my best friends at one of their homes in San Francisco and had an incredible time.

I've also gotten the chance to read eight books since Christmas day. Oh, it's so nice to be on break! Reading is one of my favorite pastimes and I always find myself a little saddened by my hatred of it during the school year. I not only often have to read books that are incredibly dull and difficult reads (in my opinion) due to the subjects that teachers feel set on using (though I do appreciate the exposure to genres I normally would have never thought of going near) but then I also don't have time to read the books I love and am dying to read. So I've taken full advantage of this time!!

I had an infection for three weeks and went through two rounds of antibiotics (after the first one, the doctor was baffled that it didn't work) and two days before the new year I got news that the infection had cleared. It was interesting in the doctor's office as I watched her turn through four pages of purely antibiotics as we were finding that I was allergic to ALL of them! There is only one antibiotic left that at this point I can take. It has lactose in it which I can't have but I have an intolerance to that rather than an allergy so I'm just miserable while I'm on it rather than being allergic! I'm just glad I can still take that one!! The doctors were watching me closely because they were really afraid that what I had was going to turn into a kidney infection. I am s thankful to say that it didn't!!

Now I just got a call about scheduling an upper endoscopy for January 15th to find out why I'm having horrible pain that is brought on my simply drinking a glass of water. I am more than a little freaked out at the idea of this.

I've never been sedated and people with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome are known to have difficulties with sedation. I'm also so allergic to so many medications I worry about the possibility that I may be allergic to the sedation.

If any of you or your kids have had this done or if any of you or your kids with many medical issues have been sedated I'd love to know how it went!

I'm in need of a bit of reassurance about this.

Even with that though I still think 2010 is going to be incredible. I start back at school on the eleventh with a difficult course load of English 5, Speech, Math, and a child development class ridden with english but feel ready to tackle it!

I came away from last semester with an A in English, an A in Theater, a B in History and an A in Child Development! The B dropped me down slightly from my 4.0 that I'd had but I am very pleased with the turnout especially given everything I went through last semester! =]

How is your year going so far?

A Medical Update And A Frustrated Me

Note: If you have a suggestion, a comment, anything, I'd love to hear it..I'm at my wit's end.

I thought I'd hit a home run when a week and a half ago I noticed there was lactose in one of my medications that I took numerous times daily (I can't have any dairy.) I called the pharmacist and had them look up the rest of my medications for evidence of lactose as well.

7 or 8 of the 11 came out positive with lactose usually being the second or third ingredient. I am apparently one of the few people who are so incredibly sensitive to food allergies that that small of an amount of lactose effects me-big time.

So, once again I thought that I was in a great place. I now knew of the situation, could stop taking those medications and start taking ones that didn't have lactose.

Heh, not so much. Each and every batch of medications has different inactive ingredients, even if it's the same medication. The cheapest at the time is always bought. So there is no way for the doctor to know the ingredients before prescribing them. It's purely a guessing game. And not a fun one at that.

Lactose is used in 98% of tablets (medications in pill form) as a bonding agent. There's no way to separate the medication from the lactose. Therefore, there are no options for me in many medications.

I was able to get two of my medications in liquid form (and may be getting a third one soon) but one of them must be refrigerated and the others I rarely take at home. For example, I have anxiety and panic attack disorder. I don't think I've ever had a panic attack when I was at home near my refrigerator. So in theory, yes I still have a couple of the medications but in reality, chances are I won't have them when and where I need them.

I am at such a loss of what to do at this point and just want to scream. I'm supposed to go on a road trip with my sister on Monday down to Disneyland but am currently, constantly in so much pain and discomfort and have no medical relief in sight that I'm getting scared.

If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, or even know of anything herbal for nausea (even morning sickness!), anxiety, stomach pain, dizziness or cramps I'm willing to take any advice or suggestion or bit of hope and hold on with all my might.

Thanks for letting me do my little rant. I'm now off to sleep.

Oh! P.S. I'm taking my first driving lesson tomorrow (yes I know I started late, I've also had my permit for 6 months now) and I'm really nervous. If you wouldn't mind wishing me a bit of luck that would be amazing. =]

G' Night and Sweet Dreams.

Tuesday Health Update

I'm back! 

Thank you so much to the sweet friends that emailed me and left comments that made me feel so much better! 

My body is feeling much better after starting antibiotics (a different kind as the first one made me feel so sick) and Prednisone. My doctor thinks that I did indeed have another lymphatic infection (this time on both sides of my neck, deep under the skin). She showed me the where the swelling showed on the CT scan. 

I had to go in to the doctor as I was getting this weird disappearing rash all over my hands. It would come and be bright and itchy and then would be completely gone 10 minutes later. I thought it was the antibiotics that I'd been put on in the ER but then realized that I'd had the rash up and down my arms for around 10 minutes while I was in the ER waiting room even before I'd been on the medications.

It turns out I'm allergic to Tegretol! Gaah! The last anti-seizure medication in the "plan of action" from the neurologist is Keppra so I'll probably be put on it at my next neurology appointment - even though thats the one with the most proven bad side effects.

So I am feeling better than I was (and can even turn my neck!) but my body is still really out of it and I now have to deal with the affects of being on no more anti-seizure medications - or any other headache medication for that matter!

My face is also normal size again and not swollen like it was in this picture.

As I once again cross my fingers for some answers I can only wish that hopefully it'll all get sorted out really soon!

(P.S. I promise to put up new pictures that I've taken as soon as I can find the USB cord for my Cannon that seems to disappeared for the time being!)