Post by Admin/ Traveler on Mar 6, 2021 20:25:48 GMT
I'm still here! And, I want to share.
First of all, it's been an extremely long and hard 2021 for me so far, believe it or not.
First, I had a serious medical situation pop up in January. I didn't realize I had high blood pressure for the last 2 years, but boy did I learn that the hard way. My most wonderful hubby had a blood pressure monitor sent to him by his health insurance co, so (smart aleck me) sat down and said "let's see if this thing works!!" Ha. It did and I made an appt with a new doctor right away, as my BP was much too high. I did the right thing and started taking the meds, but after a week, there was no change in my BP, I called the doc and she doubled my dose...and all manner of craziness ensued. I believe my adrenals started the mess (still undetermined as of yet, lots more testing is in my future).
To make a very long and scary story shorter, I ended up in the ER with "stroke level" high blood pressure early Feb, was admitted to the hospital for 2 days where my kidneys were well tested/scanned, and was released to go back home, even though I still had uncontrolled BP. I ended up in my Primary Care doc's office with BP still in stroke range, with severe muscle tremors (had these the each time my BP reached those levels). I was put on a different BP rescue med, along with my other (SIX!!) BP meds. This at least triggered some real concern, and more blood/urine tests were ordered.
At this point in time, I am only chair/couch bound (spent 3 weeks bed bound), and I just managed to cook for the first time since this started, back in the beginning of January - let me tell you, for someone that doesn't like to cook, I sure enjoyed cooking potato soup today!!!! And now, I'm back in my chair for the rest of today and likely tomorrow (like a good girl, lol!) as I wore myself out!!!
So, the current thinking on my medical issue is that it is being driven by "something" (lol), but we have yet to determine what it might be. I have what is called "Resistant Hypertension" in the medical world. I have a sneaky suspicion that it's tied to my adrenals, since I've had issues with them before, so I started looking and resistant hypertension CAN be caused by the adrenals. So, being the curious little thing that I am, I wondered if it just might be connected in any way to our favorite topic, Lyme disease. Lo and behold, I found an NIH article that confirms it's possible! (Gasp!) Evidently those little buggers (the spirochetes) can actually scratch the surface of one or both of the adrenals and cause a tumor to form sometimes. Won't it be interesting if I end up discovering that is what happened to me? It takes a series of articles to see this, and I'm simply not up to doing that amount of computer work right now, but I'll be back to follow up on this!! Who knows? Maybe I'm not the only one that has had this to happen to them and they are looking for answers as well.
Anyway, I never had any of the typical symptoms of high blood pressure, as a matter of fact, the last two years have been my most productive in terms of physical activity. I felt GOOD, except for migraines and a very nagging "3 inch blade in between my shoulders" feeling. Never had any clue that was from high blood pressure!! Now I do, and that is one of the things I wanted to pass along - don't stop taking regular readings of any of the basic health measurements!!! NEVER. I sure won't from now on!!
During this time, I've needed to have a symptom tracker (my brain was not mine to control for the last two months, it was off doing it's own thing), and I finally found one that has worked very well for me. It's called Bearable, and although it's "meant" to be used for mental health issues, yet a person can easily manipulate it to accommodate the things I needed it for. I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for such a thing.
Anyway, for anyone that might still come upon this forum, I'm back, as I will still have a LOT of time to sit still in the next months, possibly for most of this year - but it's going to be a great year!! I survived ONE SCARY health crisis!!!
First of all, it's been an extremely long and hard 2021 for me so far, believe it or not.
First, I had a serious medical situation pop up in January. I didn't realize I had high blood pressure for the last 2 years, but boy did I learn that the hard way. My most wonderful hubby had a blood pressure monitor sent to him by his health insurance co, so (smart aleck me) sat down and said "let's see if this thing works!!" Ha. It did and I made an appt with a new doctor right away, as my BP was much too high. I did the right thing and started taking the meds, but after a week, there was no change in my BP, I called the doc and she doubled my dose...and all manner of craziness ensued. I believe my adrenals started the mess (still undetermined as of yet, lots more testing is in my future).
To make a very long and scary story shorter, I ended up in the ER with "stroke level" high blood pressure early Feb, was admitted to the hospital for 2 days where my kidneys were well tested/scanned, and was released to go back home, even though I still had uncontrolled BP. I ended up in my Primary Care doc's office with BP still in stroke range, with severe muscle tremors (had these the each time my BP reached those levels). I was put on a different BP rescue med, along with my other (SIX!!) BP meds. This at least triggered some real concern, and more blood/urine tests were ordered.
At this point in time, I am only chair/couch bound (spent 3 weeks bed bound), and I just managed to cook for the first time since this started, back in the beginning of January - let me tell you, for someone that doesn't like to cook, I sure enjoyed cooking potato soup today!!!! And now, I'm back in my chair for the rest of today and likely tomorrow (like a good girl, lol!) as I wore myself out!!!
So, the current thinking on my medical issue is that it is being driven by "something" (lol), but we have yet to determine what it might be. I have what is called "Resistant Hypertension" in the medical world. I have a sneaky suspicion that it's tied to my adrenals, since I've had issues with them before, so I started looking and resistant hypertension CAN be caused by the adrenals. So, being the curious little thing that I am, I wondered if it just might be connected in any way to our favorite topic, Lyme disease. Lo and behold, I found an NIH article that confirms it's possible! (Gasp!) Evidently those little buggers (the spirochetes) can actually scratch the surface of one or both of the adrenals and cause a tumor to form sometimes. Won't it be interesting if I end up discovering that is what happened to me? It takes a series of articles to see this, and I'm simply not up to doing that amount of computer work right now, but I'll be back to follow up on this!! Who knows? Maybe I'm not the only one that has had this to happen to them and they are looking for answers as well.
Anyway, I never had any of the typical symptoms of high blood pressure, as a matter of fact, the last two years have been my most productive in terms of physical activity. I felt GOOD, except for migraines and a very nagging "3 inch blade in between my shoulders" feeling. Never had any clue that was from high blood pressure!! Now I do, and that is one of the things I wanted to pass along - don't stop taking regular readings of any of the basic health measurements!!! NEVER. I sure won't from now on!!
During this time, I've needed to have a symptom tracker (my brain was not mine to control for the last two months, it was off doing it's own thing), and I finally found one that has worked very well for me. It's called Bearable, and although it's "meant" to be used for mental health issues, yet a person can easily manipulate it to accommodate the things I needed it for. I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for such a thing.
Anyway, for anyone that might still come upon this forum, I'm back, as I will still have a LOT of time to sit still in the next months, possibly for most of this year - but it's going to be a great year!! I survived ONE SCARY health crisis!!!