kinda sucky update

[Guest guest]

*Hi everyone-

Well... it has been awhile since I have updated ad I don't really have

anything great to say in terms of my health. I'm a bit nervous right now.

I was having some chest pain episodes which I attributed to reoccurring

costochondritis which has happened several times in my past especially with

the fibromyalgia stuff. I suppose when dealing with JRA and Fibro, it's easy

to just blame other things especialy when it feels the same. The one thing

that I wasn't sure about was that it had gone away for a long long time and

suddenly appeared. It was also slightly different in the sense that laying

on my chest produce more pain but than it would just go away.

Anyways, I mentioned it to my primary care doctor and they did a EKG which

came out abnormal. That kinda shocked me. So Now I have to see a

cardiologist.My PCP mentioned them doing a cardiac stress test and I keep

wondering How on earth do you do that with someone who can hardly walk

without a walker, crutches and is in this much pain?? I mean... that's NOT

practical but I have read they can do them using pharmacologic agents. Still

the whole test scares me! I would hope they can do something LESS invasive

to figure out if anything is going on worth worrying about. The whole idea

of the cardiac stress test makes me feel stressed!!! lol.. *

**

* I'm rather concerned because around 5 years ago, I got told I had a bit of

an enlarged heart and of course I have the whole High CRP thing doesn't

respond to anything.. not even prednisone. I hate the news for expounding on

and on about how C Reactive Protein has been correlated with heart disease

blah blah....

Hopefully I'm just over stressing for nada. I have to wait to get the

approval to see a cardiologist so hopefully all of that will get done soon.

Some of you know that I have been dealing with this Tenosynovitis in my

thumb/palm area for about 8 months? OT helped a lot and it calmed down

however now the tendon pain has moved more intensely intto my hands....

especially the left hand in the flexor tendons??? I believe thats the

area.... it hurts to bend my fingers .. sometimes it hurts to scratch my

skin .. the pressure is just painful on my hands. I really wish I knew what

was going on with all of this.*

*

Besides that.... my diabetes has improved.... my hemoglobin a1c has gone

down from 7.9 to 7.2 since I have been majorly counting carbs. Incidentally

I found out that I have problems with Gluten. I can't say that I have real

gluten allergy but whatever the case, I have less fatigue, stomach issues,

headaches bloating and have even lost quite a few pounds now that I have

been eating mostly gluten free. It's HARD to do that.... i swear everything

GOOD has gluten.... and Im not completely gluten free but I do notice a

significant difference. I mean HUGE. I even have less pain....

Also my so called high cholesterol... which I still dont beleive was that

high in the first place.. the doctor would not repeat the test.. went down

over 100 points... yay.... if it was high... but yeh... great.

I have no progress with SSI, graduate school, working... nothing.. health

insurance is still a real bugger of an issue. I have a hearing for my Medi-

Cal coming up January 5th so I really hope they will 'award' it to me but

given that I was denied SSI in the last year... it's likely I still fall

into that weird clause here in California. Only time will tell I guess but

I'm not feeling entirely encouraged based on what has happened to me

repeatedly.

I could use more mobility.... it's still very very painful to walk even with

being on the narcotics. I work on it a bit at a time but it would help if I

coudl swim more. Other than that, I just keep trucking along and hope that

my body calms down some.

I guess I'm feeling a bit down right now. My mood has been a lot better. I

deal with clinical levels of depression but been feeling a medicated

remission. That aside, I still have days where it's like UGH...and today is

one of them. I suppose this heart thing is really bumming me out.

Oh well enogh whine for now.....

Issadora (age 31- JRA/FMS, asthma, allergies, pcos, diabetes type II,

migraines, etc)*

--

" How exactly does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so badly that

you are willing to give up being a caterpillar. "

- Trina us