Weekly health update (feat. a quote).
This last week I finished up the book series Throne of Glass and as I’m reading and watching shows and going about life, I find things that help move me along and keep putting one foot in front of the other. That being said, a quote that stuck with me this last week from Throne of Glass series, the Queen of Shadows book (pg. 521) is…
“What if we go on,” he said, “only to more pain and despair? What if we go on, only to find a horrible end waiting for us?”
Aelin looked northward, as if she could see all the way to Terrasen. “Then it is not the end.”
That is how I’m going to continue to choose looking at this journey. It’s not done until the ending is good. Which gives me hope and motivation to keep going.
Okay, sappy stuff aside, I just had to share that. My health update this week is as follows …
09-29-2024 So big surprise, I got my period on Sunday. It took me out like a freaking car crash. I was sweaty, dizzy, in serious amounts of body / muscle / joint pain, headache, abdominal pain, and much more. I basically was very grumpy the whole day and could barely eat because it was pretty painful to eat.
09-30-2024 I had my first pelvic floor physical therapy, which included an assessment where they went internally into my vagina and tested different muscles for pain. And again surprise surprise I had a lot of pain all over. The ladies were very nice but the assessment ended with me in tears because it was painful and also just WOW really intimate. I also don’t think that it helped that I was on my period, so my body was super fragile. Then I did a few different exercises and was on my way and was sent home with these to do everyday.
10-01-2024 I went to the rheumatologist and I was not feeling well. By this point I was starting to have a lot of difficultly eating because it was causing me pain and my body tremors / shakes were back. Which was really frightening. I thought that these were gone for good but nope, my body was having diarrhea and could barely allow me eat but I still went to this appointment. The doctor decided to have me get some bloodwork to see if I have a connective tissue disorder and also to see if I have rheumatoid arthritis. He also ordered me hand and wrist x-rays because I have some pain in my left hand quite often. The bloodwork came out normal but the left hand x-ray showed inflammation, so now I’m going to get a hand ultrasound to see if that inflammation is caused from something like rheumatoid arthritis. I literally feel like I’m 70 years old. LOL.
10-03-2024 I went in bright and early at 7am to get a mesenteric duplex ultrasound to see if I have any vascular compression. The ultrasound was actually fairly quick, only like 20 minutes, and then I got the results that afternoon which didn’t show anything but I’m still waiting to hear the official results from my doctor.
I was supposed to go to more visits this last week, but by the end of the week I was the most unwell I’ve been in awhile. I could barely move from my bed and couldn’t really eat besides when my body felt like it was about to give out. I honestly feel like I was really out of it and kind of have trouble remembering this past week because it was so bad. There were a few times that I thought I might need to go to the hospital because my body wouldn’t stop shaking. And then my body was so sore from the shaking that it was extremely painful to move around. Then on Friday, when my bleeding stopped, all of these symptoms basically went away. Like I had just lived through a bad dream. I am a little bit terrified to get my period again because I don’t know how I can honestly live through that again. I lost like 3 lbs this last week from not being able to eat. I’m scared.
However, I will say I have an appointment with an endometriosis specialist in about two weeks and I cannot wait because I need to figure out if I do have this and then can get some help for it. I really don’t want to get back on to birth control but I might not have another option with the way that my period has totally been taking me out.
I’m hoping for more answers and more help then in this month to hopefully get me to a better place where I can hopefully attend some of the holidays with the family.
Okay, I’m going to end my post this week but I just need to reiterate that I will have PTSD from the symptoms that I experienced this last week. I cannot do that again. That was really scary and really intense and makes me a little bit afraid of my body and what the HELL is going on.
(Picture from Denver, CO, USA.)