Be the Youest You You Can Be!

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

― Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!

“You are not your bra size, nor are you the width of your waist, nor are you the slenderness of your calves. 

You are not your hair color, your skin color, nor are you a shade of lipstick.Your shoe size is of no consequence.

You are not defined by the amount of attention you get from males, females, or any combination thereof.

You are not the number of sit-ups you can do, nor are you the number of calories in a day.

You are not your mustache.

You are not the hair on your legs.

You are not a little red dress.

You are no amalgam of these things.

You are the content of your character.

You are the ambitions that drive you.

You are the goals that you set.

You are the things that you laugh at and the words that you say.

You are the thoughts you think and the things you wonder.

You are beautiful and desirable not for the clique you attend, but for the spark of life within you that compels you to make your life a full and meaningful one.

You are beautiful not for the shape of the vessel, but for the volume of the soul it carries.”

-- Unknown

You are also not the hardware that travels with you.

"Hard Boiled Scrambler" by DivineError (Generik Anderson) on deviantART.

Eye Am Disturbed

Vision Disturbances and Optic Neuritis (see above video)

I had been hoping that the increased exercise and better diet had "cured" me. After all, this has never been diagnosed as definitely MS. I thought maybe this flare as a reaction to the stress of surgery would be short-lived. Nope, and nope. The hand pain and weakness, leg weakness and numbness (and ache), and vision issues are still present -- now 2 months after the day of surgery. All are improved, but not gone. Stable, mostly, but symptoms still occur. Read this article.

So, we got an appointment for me with an opthalmologist. We'd warned her ahead of time what my symptoms were: pain in the eye (especially when looking to the side; one eye at a time and switches eyes) as well as double and blurry vision. She and an optometrist ran several tests, finding nystagmus (involuntary eye movement) and strabismus (eyes don't work together to look the same direction). The optometrist had me look through prisms to see if they helped, and they definitely did. There are stick-on prisms I can attach to my glasses to try them out. However, he gave me some exercises to try in order to help my eyes to start working together again -- like the brock string exercise. I haven't done it a lot, for it adds to the eye strain. So, I'm waiting for improvement.

Brain scan/MRI (scanning the brain and stem as well as "orbitals") set for February 6th. They will be looking for an aneurysm (possible PKD side-effect) as well as lesions.

Surgery in LimboLand

Howdy y'all! Ready for more in the Jennie saga? (smirk)

In June 2016, I found myself in the ER because we and the EMTs suspected a heart attack and wanted to hook up a 12-lead EKG and check things out. Heart was fine. Blood tests showed elevated liver enzymes that continued to increase to outlandish levels as well as some sort of organ damage going on. So, I was admitted to the hospital. After a couple clear ultrasounds, a CT scan, and blood tests, it was determined it must have been a gallbladder attack, and I was discharged, though my liver enzyme levels were still extremely high.

For the next six, long months, I had left-side abdominal pain that was often increased by eating only a few bites of food or even drinking a little water. Doc visits. Pancreas tested fine. Stomach tested no ulcers. Endoscopy, colonoscopy, CT scans, abdominal MRI, gastroenterologist visits, etc. Polyps found (some "pre-cancerous") and removed from colon and stomach; not cause of pain. Mild, uneventful diverticulosis found, but not cause of pain. Stones in both kidneys as well as cysts on ovaries, liver and kidneys, so sent to nephrologist. Not cause of pain either, but now have new diagnosis of Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease.

From: source


Gastroenterologist, then, suggested gallbladder removal because I'd had a few more of the middle-abdomen, crushing pain episodes along with the left-side pain.

So, on 11/29/16, I had "diagnostic" laparoscopic gallbladder removal. In other words, it should cause all pain to go away and "one doesn't need a gallbladder anyway." There's some sense to the idea, for the internist said he'd learned at a seminar that "any abdominal pain within six feet of a diseased gallbladder is caused by that gallbladder." Mine was diseased for sure. In the scans, it showed microscopic stones called "sludge." So, I went for it. One can refrain from eating only so long anyway! (chuckle)

It was confirmed after the surgery to be diseased, too. The surgeon showed us still photos taken of the procedure. My gallbladder was completely buried under fatty tissue. When my eyes got wide, he said, "You're not fat. Building that up over the gallbladder was your body's way of dealing with it being so inflamed and diseased." Interesting.

Now, though, seems to be the aftermath. The surgery was under general anesthesia with an anti-nausea patch behind my ear. I had an asthma attack in the post-op room, so was given a broncho-dialator via the oxygen tube. Then, in the recovery room, I was given Vicadon for a pain-killer. Also, in recovery, I was cold, so they put me under a hot-air blanket cranked way up.

I get my worst symptoms when my body gets hot. So, it wasn't long in recovery before I started getting vertigo and double vision. Though I still felt cold, I asked to have the blanket removed. Vertigo lessened so we checked out. But, double vision remained for the next couple hours. It went away, but blurred vision remained and is still there.

I'm home now and had read that the anti-nausea patch can cause blurred vision, so removed that a couple days ago. Still blurry vision, now on 12/4/16. Plus, I'm getting achey numbness in my left arm and leg. Also, quite short of breath and fatigue with only a brief amount of activity or sometimes just sitting there doing nothing! This was my first surgery, so I'm really not knowing what to expect, especially with a body that has weird reactions. You know what I mean, I am sure.

In the past 10 months, we'd changed our lifestyle to eat lots of fresh fruits & veggies, whole grains, good oils, no dairy, no meats, absolutely no sugars (not even honey or maple syrup). We also worked up to my being able to hike 8-10 miles a day. I was doing so well with few symptoms; now this!

For future reference, I'm trying to figure out whether this would be a reaction to anesthesia or one of the other meds or simply a shock to the body or all of the above.  Since I'm in limbo of non-diagnosis for the nervous system issues, I don't have a regular neurologist. We moved to Washington, and I have a good, "I'll do some research; what do you think, doc?; would you order the test?" relationship with the GP available in our region. Therefore, it is up to me to figure this out. Any advice or ideas or thoughts from your experiences are quite welcome, if you have the time.

https://twitter.com/YogiJennie

Happy holidays to y'all!
Jennie