DAY 256 Intergalactic Travel, Part 2

Hello Journal & Friends!

Today, we continue the Outer Space Saga... or the Punyville Sickness Drama, whichever you prefer. ;-)   Part 1 of this speech started on Day 255. 

Here we go... continuing with my speech at my IO meeting, Incurable Optimists.

Breaktime over... please take your seats again. Thanks.

Okay, where'd we leave off?? Oh yeah, I told you about my amazing trip to Outer Space. It's hard to come back to earth, but the story resumes now on Monday morning. I decided I was tired of not being listened to by busy medical office personnel, and was NOT going to call first, but was going in to the doctors office.

Having RUN a medical office, I know it's poor protocal to just show up. I also know if they are doing their job, they leave wiggle room for urgent care. I ALSO know most don't really listen on the phone half the time. I was fed up with not being able to breathe, and arguing over the phone with staff girls who don't know the difference between hypoxia and hypothermia.

I decided that I would be my own best advocate. I was planting my little behind right there, and either I would walk out with a prescription for oxygen, or they would let me see a doctor, who would do... whatever.  Yes, I was grumpy, tired, sick, and DETERMINED! Why of course I am not stubborn...moi??? I simply Politely and Persistently Persevere (The 3 P Principle).

Got there. Checked in. They hear me breathing hard, and have the brains to let the nurse take me back. I take Jim back with me, cuz if you think *I* am tough, you don't even wanna KNOW how aggressive he can get when necessary! Like I said...taking no prisoners today. 

This fat old lady wasn't being judged today, that was that. Been there, dun that, had them assume everything was just because I was too fat too many times. No patience for it anymore. Not going to allow myself to EVER be treated that way again. See? Already some benefits going on here.... yes, yes, my IO condition is surfacing again, sorry.

So, he actually was nice, for someone who didn't know me (my usual doctor was away). He really listened, actually READ my chart, and didn't give me the bums rush. Sent me for blood work, and said he'd let me know the results soon, make appointment for checkback Friday.

All good so far... except I missed his concern. He wouldn't prescribe oxygen until we got the blood work back.... and I missed the words about a possible pulmonary embolism. It wasn't until we returned home that the penny dropped in the slot!

About the time my sister, a retired nurse, was explaining to me the seriousness of it, the other line cut in, and I answered. It was the doctor himself, saying come back immediately, he scheduled an emergency CT-Angiogram in a couple of hours! 

I still didn't get it, and explained Jim just walked out the door to make the 30 minute drive to work (which was right across the street from the doctors office we had just come home from)... and I wondered if we could do it Friday, his day off. 

The doctor said we really need to do it NOW...it can be deadly. The embolism can dislodge, and travel to the brain or heart, and kill me.

Great. So I have to call Jim's work, and leave a message for him to turn around and come home again, and take me back... again. Poor guy, he was so sweet and supportive. A rock.

Got there. Checked in.. which at any hospital takes forever. But... I had a secret weapon in tow... JIM! He works at this hospital... knows everyone. He's the therapuetic cook. CT Bob, (yeah they really call him that) said he had to do a great job or Jim would poison him. Everywhere we went, as long as Jim was with me, they bent over backwards for me. I could get used to that!

Anyways... it was my first cat scan. First, they had to find a vein to inject the dye. Good luck, guys! They already stuck me 5 times that morning for the blood work. Thankfully, it only took 2 more sticks to inject the dye.

Now to be inspected by the Cat.  May I proudly say... I FIT!!! If this had happened when I was 460 pounds, I would not have fit in the machine. 

So, here we go. The blood work had confirmed a pulmonary embolism. Well, they looked and looked at the results from the cat scan... and could NOT find one!!! Happy dance and hallelujahs!! I dodged a bullet as well as Neo did in The Matrix. :-D

Bottomline, remember me mentioning the high doses of antibiotics they gave me last Wednesday for my infected finger?? Well.... yep... turns out I am DEATHLY allergic... to BOTH of them, Keflex and Septra. Mystery solved. 

I hadn't taken my Monday doses yet... and they had me stop them totally. By now, all the symptoms are gone or almost gone:

pounding headache, nausea, stomachache, dizzyness, in a fog and falling asleep, thick yellow mucous, chattering teeth at night and hot during day, extreme muscle weakness, blood in urine, and finally... hey, can't breathe!

I listed those so if any of you get prescribed stuff and react that way, don't let some just-hatched-from-an-egg chick play it down. Check into it pronto! Honestly, I intuitively knew I was being poisoned, I KNEW it, yet no one listened, and I submitted to "well, he's the doctor" instead. My regular doctor has known me for 20 years, and trusts my intuition. Being shuffled around to the fill-in doctors can be dangerous!!!!

So that's my story, fellow Incurable Optimists. And I learned alot through this whole experience.

 Since we are out of time for this meeting, at the next one I'll tell you about "that" conversation I had with my sweetheart on the drive to the hospital...not knowing if they would wisk me off to surgery and I would never come home again. I mean... they won't do knee replacement surgery yet because they say I am NOT a good surgical candidate.  So, not knowing the future, I had to accept that it might be my time. And so we talked... 

From Dr Phil's book: "Change your thinking to change your weight."

My verse for today: "You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior."

My quote for today: "With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverence, all things are attainable." --Thomas Foxwell Buxton

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta

=^..^=