Health- broken record
Took a chance and e-mailed a Doctor at UVA hoping that they might be willing to help me in a last ditch effort to get medical treatment. (Yes, there is still fight in the old girl yet!)
It is amazing how, when someone is at their lowest (and believe me, yesterday was about as low as I go) something or a series of things will happen that will give a glimmer of light in the darkness...
When I dragged myself online I found a response to yesterday's blog and was able to connect someone (who is a new part of my Gastroparesis Online Family now) to probably the best online support group I know of and there is absolutely nothing in the world that can add light to my life than helping someone else.
Then I checked my e-mails (to see if the Doctor responded) and though he had not I had a very nice surprise in the form of a inquiry from a Researcher and Global Medical Analyst who had found my website and requested more information (links to where I got my facts and figures) which I was happy to supply. This reminded me that even though we do not see it happening right in front of us all the time there IS research going on and people are looking more into this incurable disease.
My personal health is no better... as I am sitting here I am struggling with the meal I ate three hours ago as it tries to creep back up my throat. I did not want to eat at all but my magnesium is so low that the muscle tremors are almost like convulsions lately and I decided to risk some ground goat meat (lowest fat meat available and high in protein, iron and magnesium) but it is sitting like sharp rocks in my stomach and though I cannot vomit seems to be trying to crawl back up my throat instead of into my small intestine. I have been really pushing the fluids as well lately and that is not helping matters at all, but my urine output almost stopped completely and it is either push push push and suffer the consequences or avoid the added pain and distension and risk organ failure.
Also had a couple of fun runs of ventricular tachycardia today... popped my pulse oxometer on my finger to watch the show as I waited for them to end and get my breath back... pulse looking like a bunch of toothpicks lined up unevenly across the graph in the 240 range and oxygen dropping swiftly... but after about 30 seconds or so it would go flat then be a bounding pulse and irregular before leveling back out and my oxygen would go back up.
Some might be wondering why I do not call an ambulance when that happens... and the truth is that it would be over by the time the 911 operator got to the point of asking the nature of the emergency and I can't actually speak while it is going on anyway. There is nothing that can be done after the episode ends... and if it does not end, well... no help could get here in time to make a difference. I can't even call out in the house for help when it happens so I simply have learned to keep my pulse oxometer handy and keep a record of how often it happens, how long it lasts, the numbers and any residual effects. I have had a minor heart attack in the past and have mild heart failure (LHV, where the left ventricle of my heart has thickened walls that do not pump effectively) and the truth is that panicking about it will not do any good so I just go with the flow and when it is done resume whatever I was doing.
So, anyway... today is a mixed bag but I will take the good with the bad and be grateful for the good.
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