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Today was a bad POTS day... fatigue won.
I woke up around 3 or 4 am and was awake until maybe 6:30/7 am.
Completely crashed until noon, where I did some necessary tasks and had passed out again by 3pm.
Just woke up and it's 9pm..
Ugh....
So late morning I tried 3 or 4 times to get up from the couch to attend the boys. Each time I sat for a few minutes (to transition/acclimate before trying to stand) then crashed/had to lay back down again. Could only say a few words to our roommate in passing. The last attempt to sit up I quickly realized it was highly likely I was going to lose consciousness. (And I was in and out all morning/into afternoon) I couldn't speak. I texted roommate to wake my husband because of chest pain and being near passing out.
He came up to me and it took all my strength to *whisper* a couple words to him. The rest of the time I couldn't verbally answer his concerns/questions. That's all I could muster. He and roommate got the boys changed and fed breakfast. Hubs got juice as a quick boost before liquid iv. Periodically bringing the straw to my mouth because I could barely move and had no grip strength. Made food and fed me. My entire left arm/hand was just totally weak I could barely move it. Checked my vitals and they were very low. I was cold to the touch. My body was crashing. After a long while of helping me eat and drink I started slowly improving. Im not sure how much time passed.
The boys ate, played, watched tv. While I laid there slowly becoming more coherent/stronger. Boys just went for wind down time in their rooms and hubs was able to transition me to sitting (and checked my vitals which went bonkers, yay POTS), standing, up the stairs, bathroom, then bed. I'm still slowly improving. But I definitely was scared. I cried on the couch. Both because of love and because I was a bit scared. I was able to use my right hand to sign a little while I was still not doing good. (Which now reinforces my desire to learn asl bcuz it is extremely helpful in that situation) and yeah.
That's my day so far.
Husband and I have been afflicted by... something??? Awful.
Both of us are in horrendous stomach/abdominal pain. We're probably going to emergency here soon.
I'd rather be having contractions during labor vs what is hitting me now.
We both took the last two hydros from my old postpartum meds. For him it did nothing and for me it only took the edge off barely for maybe an hour before coming right back and knocking me out it got so bad.
Husband is someone who sorta goes by something similar to the farmer pain scale. If he's hurting, it's severe. Last time he was actually incapacitated, it was his first ever severe case of shingles.
He went to the hospital, and was on pain medication for a month or more. Which, if you knew him, you'd go "oh shit", cuz this man simply, powers through everything else below the severe category.
My only concern whenever needing the er for pain relief is their hoops to jump through. I'm autistic-adhd and do not display my pain like they expect.
My 6-10 and upwards on the pain scale is me internalizing it, shutting down, going non-verbal. I appear calm and collected which always makes them doubt the sincerity/severity of the pain level.
Hopefully with my husband and I both going in, he's verbal, we can get some relief. (Vent - Which is really irritating with doctors because last time I went nonverbal, I was still able to write it all down and the doctor refused to even look at the paper. So we fucking sat in silence until I choked out like 3 words and she based her entire limited understanding of my issues based on that. Not. You know. The extremely detailed notecard I brought in as a communication aid.)
I really wish doctors would see someone who's nonverbal from pain, unable to even hold focus/gaze, and general inability to interact as someone who hmmm might need help vs "I'm frustrated and flabbergasted that I can't easily checkmark boxes and send you on your way easy peasy" reaction a lot of doctors give in the city closest to us.
The moment they can't cure you from their pamplet checklist and get that pat on their back for doing a doctoring, they're fed up with you and instead make it your fault for being 'difficult'. (Sorry, vent because I just hate needing to go to the doctor for pain like this.)
The pain is creeping up into my chest now so I'm going to rest. We're waiting on a friend to come over to stay with our littles so we can go.
Wish us luck. 🤞🏻
Today marks the end of day 3 of whatever this illness is. Our best guess is still some sort of food poisoning? Though there has been no exploding, north or south.
A different friend is going to stay here tomorrow so we can head to the ER.
I've taken two different kinds of pain meds (the last of previous health issues which warranted them) and neither have helped. One helped briefly (MAYBE an hour tops) then wore off. The second simply, never kicked in/helped at all.
The pain is slowly getting worse in waves, for me. Husband is rollercoasting between feeling like he is improving only for it to turn around and knock him on his ass again. My poor hubs.....still is working his shift again. Last night and now tonight. Idk how he can focus at all with this. Blessed with brains and endurance, he is.
Thankfully our boys are still unaffected. Which more solidifies that it was something we ate, not something we caught. Since in the last week we havent shared the same meals as our littles.
A tender moment was shared between our eldest and hubs, though. Hubs came upstairs to see the littles before they eventually go to bed. He laid on the couch, his head on our eldest's lap. Our LO patted dad's head with one hand and the other rubbed his back. To comfort him. Clearly seeing something has been off.
After a few minutes hubs sat up and gave a peck on his forehead. To which our LO replied gently "go to bed". Gods I wish I'd gotten that whole moment on camera. It was so sweet. Hubs retired to his den/office and my eldest is still sitting here beside me. Winding down with Little Bear.
Youngest just got put down for bed. Soon eldest will as well.
I'm still sitting here, silently writhing in pain awaiting the approaching bedtime. (When I groaned during a spike of pain earlier, eldest immediately tuned in, concerned, asking what was wrong. Such a sweet kid. Love him, love them, so much. 🥲😭💙)
So here's to hoping tomorrow is a better day.
🤞🏻⭐🤞🏻⭐🤞🏻⭐🤞🏻⭐🤞🏻⭐🤞🏻
Ruled out food poisoning. Didn't really get an answer. Just gastrointestinal upset of some kind. Like.... yea I know that 😅😬
But got some scripts for some meds that should stop the nausea and abdominal cramping/spasming so 🤞🏻🤞🏻
They did help the nausea while I was there but sadly didn't do anything for my chief complaint of abdominal pain. 🫠🫠
I really don't want surgery, something just tells me it's not the right move or at least the right time for that sort of solution.
Idk. I'm super mixed up about it. I'd more than likely take three weeks (not two) to recover and I just..... to be healing for that long unable to take care of my kiddos the whole time I just hate the thought of that....
I've had some things going on that have gotten so bad I was super weak and disoriented yesterday to the point I needed help showering. Instead of my stool I had to sit on the tub floor, as I was too unstable for the stool. My husband had to join so he could help me bathe, as I was unable to do anything after trying to wash my hair first thing.
This is the 2nd time this specific issue has happened. Last time was the very beginning of the year, and it was much worse. I thought I was feeling myself die in real time. It was terrifying. This time wasn't as bad, but also I think it helped that this time around wasnt a 100% brand new experience. I started recognizing the feeling and texted my husband what was happening as I was stepping into the tub because I felt I was deteriorating very quickly.
My doctor ran tests, did visual exam, even tried an ultrasound to look into the area to see if we could find a hint. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Ah shit I have to call her and tell her it's happened again I almost forgot.
But yea. I'm so worried it's something serious that we just haven't caught yet.
Okay! Looks like the surgeon thinks it's okay to wait and monitor symptoms before going ahead with surgery. I'm relieved, for now. Hopefully the pain doesn't hit me again for another prolonged period of time.