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Health Update.
11 years ago
General
(This has been copy-pasted from a tumblr post I made a few days ago; I'm posting it here in case folks didn't see it cross-posted elsewhere.)
So I’m gonna have a difficult time typing this up, but that’s part of why I decided to do so now rather than later. It’s becoming difficult for me to really type properly, so I hope I can manage this much.
In my last post, I mentioned a few “discoveries” turned up in my genetics testing. I have seen a physician multiple times since then, but because of conditioning from a former friend, I’ve been too… nervous, I suppose, to bring the subjects up. My condition has worsened greatly in the last two months, and has worsened at an accelerated rate in the last three weeks; I’ve since changed physicians due to the first’s reaction to my describing my physical condition, and the second is being much more helpful. More on that later in this post.
On 24 September, I flew to Seattle for RainFurrest. This had the added benefit of putting me in the same area as my long-lost grandfather, who’d been divorced from my grandmother since before I was born and hadn’t associated with the family since. Swung by and visited him, stayed the night at a friend’s place, then went on to join the convention proper.
It was the evening of the 25th that I first started becoming concerned. I’d needed to void my bowels more than once that evening, and had large quantities of gas. I stopped off in one of the hotel’s public restrooms to pee before heading out with a friend for something, and… let’s just say, it was the beginning.
The next evening, my condition soured very, very rapidly. Food was moving through my system in under three hours, not nearly enough time to absorb any of it; to make matters worse, I was also swiftly becoming dehydrated as a result. After discussing things with multiple folks with basic medical training (which includes myself), I (shakily) walked up the road to the 7-11 and grabbed a large bottle of Gatorade and a package of Loperamide.
The next morning, I was feeling much, much better; friends who had been with me through the night mentioned that I was even *looking* noticeably better, which of course was encouraging. Had a large lunch (due largely to being so famished from the night before); everything seemed to be okay, until it happened again that night. I took the medication the moment the symptoms cropped up again, and, as before, it seemed to help considerably.
All of that being taken into consideration, the overall symptoms remained. The diarrhea never really properly stopped; my former physician prescribed dicyclomine in the hopes that it might help, but ultimately it actually exacerbated the condition.
Upon returning to southern New Mexico, my condition worsened. My physical strength was beginning to falter, and I was getting fatigued far, far more easily. With the Loperamide, food was staying in my system and being digested properly, but it felt like I wasn’t gaining the energy I would otherwise from it. (In spite of this, I was actually gaining weight.) Bringing these things up with my previous physician after three weeks of having diarrhea, he didn’t really pay much attention to the symptoms I was telling him about, requesting tests be done to find a potential cause for diabetes. (I do not have diabetes, and he proved this himself.)
About three weeks ago, I began having skeleto-muscular tremors. These were greatly exacerbated by any sort of exertion, but would often happen just in trying to move. Typing (as I mentioned at the beginning of this post) became a massive chore; walking was next to impossible without basically throwing my weight behind each step. Any heavy lifting was right out. I could barely even be in public, the strain on my body due to the stress of being around other people causing the tremors to worsen exponentially. I also began getting very dizzy and light-headed with no provocation. Language comprehension began to slide; it now takes me multiple tries listening to someone to really understand what they’re saying, and often I have difficulty verbalizing a proper response.
About two weeks ago, I began having fainting spells. (This hasn’t been confirmed; the doctor wants to rule out seizures first.) The first time I fainted, I fell out the bathroom door, slammed the back of my head on the kitchen counter, and caused my cat’s food bin to explode. That was really the moment when I decided I needed to change physicians, and when I determined this was a very serious thing.
New physician listened to me describe the overall situation; upon listening to my chest, he remarked: “Ohh, your heart sounds are not normal…”
I am presently hooked up to an electrocardiogram; tomorrow, I’ll either be returning it to determine any results, or possibly resetting it so we can get any results. Additionally, I’ll be hooked up to an EEG next Thursday to determine what, if anything, might be causing my “fainting” and other brain issues. We are presently working with the hypothesis that this may be the beginning stages of a developing ALS.
So I’m gonna have a difficult time typing this up, but that’s part of why I decided to do so now rather than later. It’s becoming difficult for me to really type properly, so I hope I can manage this much.
In my last post, I mentioned a few “discoveries” turned up in my genetics testing. I have seen a physician multiple times since then, but because of conditioning from a former friend, I’ve been too… nervous, I suppose, to bring the subjects up. My condition has worsened greatly in the last two months, and has worsened at an accelerated rate in the last three weeks; I’ve since changed physicians due to the first’s reaction to my describing my physical condition, and the second is being much more helpful. More on that later in this post.
On 24 September, I flew to Seattle for RainFurrest. This had the added benefit of putting me in the same area as my long-lost grandfather, who’d been divorced from my grandmother since before I was born and hadn’t associated with the family since. Swung by and visited him, stayed the night at a friend’s place, then went on to join the convention proper.
It was the evening of the 25th that I first started becoming concerned. I’d needed to void my bowels more than once that evening, and had large quantities of gas. I stopped off in one of the hotel’s public restrooms to pee before heading out with a friend for something, and… let’s just say, it was the beginning.
The next evening, my condition soured very, very rapidly. Food was moving through my system in under three hours, not nearly enough time to absorb any of it; to make matters worse, I was also swiftly becoming dehydrated as a result. After discussing things with multiple folks with basic medical training (which includes myself), I (shakily) walked up the road to the 7-11 and grabbed a large bottle of Gatorade and a package of Loperamide.
The next morning, I was feeling much, much better; friends who had been with me through the night mentioned that I was even *looking* noticeably better, which of course was encouraging. Had a large lunch (due largely to being so famished from the night before); everything seemed to be okay, until it happened again that night. I took the medication the moment the symptoms cropped up again, and, as before, it seemed to help considerably.
All of that being taken into consideration, the overall symptoms remained. The diarrhea never really properly stopped; my former physician prescribed dicyclomine in the hopes that it might help, but ultimately it actually exacerbated the condition.
Upon returning to southern New Mexico, my condition worsened. My physical strength was beginning to falter, and I was getting fatigued far, far more easily. With the Loperamide, food was staying in my system and being digested properly, but it felt like I wasn’t gaining the energy I would otherwise from it. (In spite of this, I was actually gaining weight.) Bringing these things up with my previous physician after three weeks of having diarrhea, he didn’t really pay much attention to the symptoms I was telling him about, requesting tests be done to find a potential cause for diabetes. (I do not have diabetes, and he proved this himself.)
About three weeks ago, I began having skeleto-muscular tremors. These were greatly exacerbated by any sort of exertion, but would often happen just in trying to move. Typing (as I mentioned at the beginning of this post) became a massive chore; walking was next to impossible without basically throwing my weight behind each step. Any heavy lifting was right out. I could barely even be in public, the strain on my body due to the stress of being around other people causing the tremors to worsen exponentially. I also began getting very dizzy and light-headed with no provocation. Language comprehension began to slide; it now takes me multiple tries listening to someone to really understand what they’re saying, and often I have difficulty verbalizing a proper response.
About two weeks ago, I began having fainting spells. (This hasn’t been confirmed; the doctor wants to rule out seizures first.) The first time I fainted, I fell out the bathroom door, slammed the back of my head on the kitchen counter, and caused my cat’s food bin to explode. That was really the moment when I decided I needed to change physicians, and when I determined this was a very serious thing.
New physician listened to me describe the overall situation; upon listening to my chest, he remarked: “Ohh, your heart sounds are not normal…”
I am presently hooked up to an electrocardiogram; tomorrow, I’ll either be returning it to determine any results, or possibly resetting it so we can get any results. Additionally, I’ll be hooked up to an EEG next Thursday to determine what, if anything, might be causing my “fainting” and other brain issues. We are presently working with the hypothesis that this may be the beginning stages of a developing ALS.
fyi_dragon
i hate bad news like that, and i know how nerve wracking it can be.
Things come, and things happen.. believe me, i remember how it feels to simply wait for sense to come out of a worsening series of just really bad things. But try to rest assured, that you're being taken care of, and people care about you.
it's been ages since i played dr. House for anyone, but this seems perplexing to me for now.