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I haven't posted this here, mostly because it's been easier to copy/paste from test results into Facebook and text messages than to actually type out a lot of stuff here. However, I still kind of want to document more concretely my experiences.

I've been diagnosed with breast cancer. )
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The roommate started running a fever Friday night, but woke up thinking he dreamed it. Saturday plans for both of us were cancelled as a precaution, which proved to be a good decision.

I've discovered that my touchless thermometer is a piece of worthless crap, but the digital under-tongue one I've had for 20+ years is still reliable. He went from low grade in the morning to 102 Saturday night despite meds.

I'll be checking in on him this morning, and we'll see if I'm driving him to the care clinic. We have no idea where it came from, as so far no one we've been in contact with has been ill.

It's possible I'm a carrier from my interactions with co-workers, since I got vaccinations just a few weeks ago ahead of the holidays, and at least one co-worker I've been training has had a couple flu-sick kids she's had to stay home with recently.

Personals

Oct. 20th, 2022 07:54 am
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The previous update was all about the house stuff, so here's another update.

All About Me )
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Only now it's the right leg.

So yeah, a year and a half later I have a second Superficial Thrombophlebitis, in the same "shallow and vain" vein, in the same general area next to and slightly above the knee, but this time in the right leg.

The first occurrence happened right after I was stuck in quarantine in my room for a week. This time it happened after a major sunburn on my legs that has caused me to wince in pain all week, feel both legs swell up like balloons, and waddle around as little as possible. I'm beginning to thinking sedentary life really doesn't work well for me.

Oh, and I probably didn't mention that I got a near 2nd degree sunburn on my legs last weekend while spending a day with my friend/supervisor in her pool. After we got out and had been shopping in an antique mall for about an hour, I bent my knees to lean down to look at something lower in a case and felt massive fire emanating from my front thighs. The movement of the leggings I was wearing created just enough friction to cause my skin to start screaming from the now VERY sensitive burn. We shopped a bit longer while I just made sure to not bend again, and when we stepped outside into the 95+ heat, my thighs started immediately screaming bloody murder again. The heat of the outside was unbearable, and continued to be so every time I emerged either from my car or from a building.

I started walking mostly normal again yesterday, but then yesterday evening while watching TV was when I started feeling this new pain in my leg. I first thought it was like the muscle pains I've been feeling in my legs from having to move so slowly while sitting down and standing up that the muscles are now complaining. However, I quickly recognized that it was a different pain, and not unlike what I felt in Jan 2021. This morning I typed a message to the doctor's office to see what they wanted me to do, and I explained how I spent valuable time and effort the last time having to go for x-rays and MRI and then to the hospital after hours for something I had already diagnosed myself, but the nurse practitioner didn't want to accept my conclusion.

Luckily, I have a new doctor, and he took my claim that I was pretty sure this was another blood clot seriously, despite again there not being anything on the leg to visibly indicate an issue. That appointment was at 10:30am this morning, and by my 4pm appointment for the ultrasound imaging, the redness had finally starting showing itself. I'm expecting the pain and redness to get worse over the weekend before it gets better like it did in my left leg, but I'll be happy and grateful if it doesn't.

So massive sunburn, followed by massive leg swelling, follow by me also briefly burning my pinky while curling my hair for the fun of it Thursday morning, followed by pain in my leg caused by a blood clot.

I'm done with this week.
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My nephews are feeling fine, and the middle one is back at school and passing his classes again, unlike in the fall when he could only be bothered enough to wake up and check in to class and then fall back asleep on his bed.

My dad was sick, and now he's feeling better. The same with my sister and her boyfriend.

My mom is still pretty sick and still had not texted me that she has received her COVID results from her Tues test.

Hell week is mostly over. I have a couple things I need to gather and submit on Monday for the auditors, but otherwise I should be good to start my January processing. This is better than in December when I only had 12/28-30 available for processing due to vacation and holiday time-off I needed to take.

And....I woke up this morning with pain in my leg again, a little further down than before. Last week the pain was directly next to my knee. Now it's a few inches lower, near the top of my calf.

It's most likely the same clot moving down my leg. I'm not planning on another ER trip unless something gets really worse. I left a message to notify my PCP of the change, which they probably won't even hear until Monday, and who knows if they will request me to do anything. I've already scheduled a blood test to narrow down the anemia that showed up on my blood work, but the soonest that will be happening is Jan 29th thanks to so many other people needing tests right now.

Four More Days left on the Special Added Offer to 2020.
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So, I posted about my last day of 2020.
How about what happened after that? )
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3am, and still wide awake when I'm supposed to be getting my beauty sleep for tomorrow's, er....today's job fair. It doesn't help that my nose has decided now would be the perfect time to develop a sinus infection. What's worse is that it's either viral or a super-resistant bacterial, considering I've had 4 rounds of antibiotics since September, and am still finishing off this last round, due to my underarm issue. I better not start running a fever between now and 2pm, at least not until after I've hit the job fair. My blessed honey bourbon is helping my throat, but not really helping me to get back to sleep. Arg.
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At the surgery center, they had me all prepped and ready by 11:20. Surgery was scheduled for 11:30. My surgeon was stuck in another surgery at another hospital, so my surgery didn't start until 2:30. The first two hours were me just feeling awful from the shoulder nerve pain. Then they finally got approval to give me some fentanyl, and all was right with the world. I watched a little I Robot when my doctor showed up. I remember saying "see ya later" to my mom as she was pointed down a different hallway to the waiting room while I was being rolled in the operating room. The next thing I remember was waking up in recovery. I don't even remember if they asked me to count down backwards or anything.

As far as we could tell, I was also the only person having surgery that day. No one else in the waiting room. No one else in the pre-op. No one else in post-op. Mom asked them about it being really quiet and slow, and they said most folks get their surgeries done at the end of the year to use up FSA and other insurance related moneys. This was typical for January, so yeah, it was just me.

All Friday afternoon and evening I looked like a pale ghost and could only eat a bite or two of my food before feeling nauseous. So, it took me a couple hours to eat my tomato soup and grilled cheese while Mom and I watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow until the roommates got home. She hadn't seen it. I opened a yogurt for dinner, but we think the cat ate more of it than I did, again because of the nausea. Kevin and Eileen brought me a cream liquor, some cheese, and later some edamame they brought home from their dinner, none of which I could touch. Even I saw myself in the mirror when I went to brush my teeth and wondered if I still had any red blood cells left in my body. I regained my color and felt pretty good the next morning. I made myself some bacon, french toast, and eggs, and later had a pork chop and salad for lunch.

The shoulder actually backed off hurting Saturday evening, so I was able to get a couple projects done. The surgical sight started feeling a little bruised by Saturday evening, but only when I press on it or accidentally try to reach for something far away with my right arm. Otherwise, it doesn't really hurt. Also, the right side of my trachea felt slightly bruised yesterday, which the anesthesiologist said might happen, but that's already feeling better. I'm still glad for the pain pills, because the shoulder issue still came back with a vengeance during my sleep last night.

This morning I finally get to take my shower. I had to keep the stitches dry for 24 hours, and it was just easier to not take a shower at all until now than to try to manipulate it so the right armpit didn't get wet. Oh, I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this shower. Yay.

Update

Jan. 9th, 2020 07:58 am
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In theory, I should be having my surgery tomorrow, Friday 1/10. I should hear from a nurse at the surgical center today to go over the details and confirm medical intake data and then to sell them my soul via credit card.

The meds are helping. I can tell when they are wearing off. Mornings are the worst, because everything has worn off by then and sleeping has put pressure on that shoulder, no matter how I sleep.

I tried to do a couple of the arm components of my workout this morning, just to see. Strangely enough, I can still do 90% of my morning workout routine without pain. A couple moves I can't do at all and a couple others I have to adjust slightly. Head position seems to be the most defining aspect. As I mentioned, my left arm muscles have been spasming pretty non-stop, so doing the dumbells was mostly okay until I got to the push-ups (push straight up from shoulders to above the head). The left deltoid was not having anything of it and had no umph to push, but that's only because it's been running a marathon this whole time and probably doesn't need the extra workout.

So, to recap, sleep causes pain and workout is fine. Go figure.
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OMG, There's More! /sarcasm )

So, long story short, I'm feeling a little better with meds for my nerve pinching issue and surgery has been postponed until I hear back from the surgeon's office. It's really good that this isn't an emergency surgery. At least now I won't have to figure out how in the hell I'm supposed to sleep with painful issues regarding both arms.

Hopefully the nerve issue will clear up in time for the surgery. That would be nice of it.
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Sinus infection made it impossible to breathe, and therefore to sleep tonight. I've been awake since 3a and it's coming up on 4a now.

The most annoying part, though, isn't the snot alien my nose produced, or the exhaustion I feel from tossing and turning all night.

It's the songs that have managed to also lodge themselves in my brain meats. The Popcorn Song, and Send in the Clowns.

How I have managed to get BOTH of these damned songs stuck on repeat simultaneously, I'll never know. I get "doot, doot, doot do, do do doot" for a couple of refrains, followed by seeing the last scene with musical score from the Joker trailer playing in my head, then back to da shrimpi-shrimpi once again (see below for reference).

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I was asleep.

I was dreaming.

I got a MASSIVE FUCKING PAIN IN MY EYE that instantly jolted me awake (although I had to properly excuse myself from the meeting/presentation in which I was participating in the dream due to an eye issue, go figure). I couldn't open my eyelid and my left eye began to immediately sting and tear up like mad.

It's taken me 30 minutes and two doses of Clear Eyes to be able to keep my eye open for longer than a couple milliseconds. The right eye decided it didn't want to be left out and was also red and tearing, but the left is absolutely throbbing. It feels like it's dry eyes from hell, and I can only hope it isn't infected. I was up pretty late this evening staring at my tablet while playing a game, and I ran out of Benadryl last night, so my sinuses are acting up tonight. I have a feeling that the irritated dry eye got scratched during the REM cycle.

Here's the other half. I have discovered two mosquito bites since waking up. I'm still 99.9% sure it was a scratch on the eye during REM that has caused this, but there's now a .1% chance that I somehow got a mosquito bite ON my freaking eyeball in the middle of the night, and that thought is going to give me nightmares if and when I ever do manage to go back to sleep.

Fucking Hell.
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I don't know how the title "How to cure Ankle Tibial Nerve" relates to the rest of the actual meat of this article, but "stress fracture of the medial malleolus" appears to be taking shape in my right ankle. I'm not in the mood to see a doctor for something that currently isn't causing major pain and can be cured with a good ankle wrap or, worse case, if I need to find my old ankle boot that I had to wear back when I had a 3rd degree ankle sprain on that same side.

There's swelling and very defined pain along that exact area that's been going on for at least two days now. I know of no specific moment in which I got injured, but the pain, and especially the swelling, are indicating a not-so-simple injury. I have been using my elliptical more at home and have been standing, walking, and even dancing and doing jumping jacks while at work just to try to keep myself moving more versus 8+ hours of sitting at a desk.

I'm leaning towards blaming the jumping jacks since, you know, even the article mentions jumping activities as a likely culprit.

I'm going to have to watch this very carefully. It could just be a ligament tear, but if it is the kind of stress fracture mentioned, it sounds like it could easily get worse. The last thing I want is to have to pay for a doctor's visit and x-rays.
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Despite my fun programming posts this past week, most of it has been plagued by another flare up of the torso pains. They've come and gone about every other day since Saturday. Despite taking lots of pills upon going to bed last night, it still took an extra hour or two before I fell asleep and the pain kept waking me up during the night.

Even knowing what this is, I still sometimes feel the urge to commiserate with others when it's acting up. Threads like this one are good to read, but ultimately bad for me. They remind me of two things. 1) There's no known explicit cause nor cure, and everyone with costochondritis has reached the same conclusion as I have: it might be less painful to OD on a bunch of pills than to keep having to deal with this symptomatic issue. 2) When someone says they've been dealing with theirs for a year, and then someone else tops them at 5 years, I realize that I got them all beat by a decade-plus and the duration just seems to keep getting longer every time it comes on.

I wonder if all the long-timers of this condition are, like myself, out there enduring without commenting. Reading and trying to decide which is better, laughing or crying. I can't imagine that I would be one of the longest sufferers of this, but I'd hate to post something in a forum like that to say, "Oh, don't worry. It only gets worse over time, and so far, from my experience, it NEVER actually goes away." That would be a horrible bummer for the readers of such a thread.

Instead, I imagine an extra-secretive clique, where other folks like me are all thinking the same thing and opting to not post out of the hope that by not posting we won't jinx it for others. Maybe they'll get lucky, only deal with their one episode, one year, five year battles, and then be done with it. I think our secret-agent handshake is a self-fetal-position hug, and our battle cry is a combination of whimpering and moaning.
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This is the first evening I haven't had full-on torso pain in the past few days. Even Tuesday was spent mostly sitting on the couch all day trying not to move much while the electricians worked on moving around some light switches in my room, but that still didn't keep things from hurting. Yesterday evening, after saying goodnight to roommates, was me back into a fetal position crying on my bed from the pain. I gave up and took quite a round of pills to try and knock myself out. i can understand how people with constant pain can get addicted to pain killers without meaning to. Last evening was the worst of it so far this past week, so I'm really hoping the inflammation is starting to die down finally. I hope.

Speaking of which, this guy makes a lot of sense in what he's saying about costochondritis. I'm also highly partial to someone that can say, "No, this isn't some secret, unknowable, rocket science mumbo jumbo," (which is totally what he's saying with a New Zealand accent). I think I might talk it over with my chiropractor and see what he thinks.
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I had another torso cramp start yesterday afternoon, get worse by evening, and stick around into the night. It was the first one I've had in many months, but knowing what it is and not having them as often still doesn't change how much they hurt.

I do admit, knowing what they are at least eases my mind regarding having them. I'm not quite so freaked out wondering if I should be hightailing it to the hospital or something.

There's still a little residual pain this morning, and knowing that it's inflammation, I'm likely to have a couple more bouts of pain until it completely subsides. I'm mostly just documenting it here.
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This is important, because I've been thinking that it was Monday ever since I woke up. Apparently my feverished brain decided to lump two days into one, and at some point yesterday I started to think it was Sunday.

It could also be because I slept most of Friday, so my mind might have counted that as Saturday.

Either way, this is good news, because it means one extra day of recuperation before I have to go back to work. It also means I'm not dragging myself out of bed in the morning only to wonder why no techs are coming by the office to do their turn ins.
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Snorting the little alien baby out of my sinus cavity and into my mouth has GOT to be one of the grossest things about having a sinus infection.

Good news is, that sinus is gonna be clear for a good 24 hours.

Sick

May. 22nd, 2015 10:30 am
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It's definitely another sinus infection, but possibly strep throat returning as well. Co-worker was home yesterday with strep, while I in turn had a massive headache, body aches, and what felt like more temp coming on.

I didn't have any temp when I got home last night, but I did have a low-grade fever and start to shiver horribly when it was time to go to sleep, and it spiked to 100.4 at 2am, so I called in and made plans for others to handle the work meeting this morning. The temp keeps fluctuating, currently being back up to 99.7, and as tired and body achey as I am, I really don't want to lay back in bed. It's making my head hurt even more.

So much for a nice 3-day holiday weekend. Looks like I'm going to be miserable through most of it.

I also had to fix a ton of typos on this.

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