Not Over Till The Fat Lady Sings

We experienced some very cold weather this week with daytime temperatures as low as minus 31C and night time temperatures as low as minus 41C. This is too cold for humans and animals. 

This has been a quiet week and all I did was take down my Christmas decorations. The bone pain is back in full force and I hate it. I wake up every morning feeling dizzy, nauseated and in pain but this week has been exceptionally bad. The nausea lasts all day and the medication only takes the edge off the pain. I really do not know what I will have to do to convince a medical professional that I hurt and something needs to be done about the root cause of this pain. Covering it up with medication is not a good long term solution. However, it is the only solution that is being offered to me. The answer I get from No Name is, “Don’t worry about the medication.”  Easy for him to say. 

My blood pressure was 180/110 just before Christmas. This is probably due to the pain but it is worrisome. The medication I have been taking since December 22nd is called Cilazapril. It has helped somewhat; my blood pressure fluctuates between 140/90 to 180/110 with sudden spikes as high as 190/110 and sudden drops to 80/63. 

I gathered up my aching bones and attended the first game of my Grandson’s hockey tournament tonight. It was held in a community about 8 miles from us. The boys played an amazing game tying the score 4-4 in the last 2 seconds of the game. Trust me these games are the better than anything you could ever see on TV.  You can feel anticipation and excitement in the arena when both teams come out of their respective dressings rooms; the music is playing over the loudspeakers and the referrer gives the signal for the boys to skate out on the ice. When my nine year old Grandson comes skating out on the ice; gives me our special “thumbs up” signal, the pain suddenly becomes second place.

I have made up my mind to attend all his games this weekend, come hell or high water. I will crawl into the arena if I have to. I will not let this pain take over my life and prevent me from participating in events like this even if it means that the rest of the time I am flat in bed. It is truly pathetic that I have to resort to living this way and that no medical professional has taken the time or made the effort to try and find out why I have been experiencing these symptoms since the summer of 1998. If they could only walk in my shoes; or I should say crawl on my knees for one day!

We had our first blizzard of the year last night.  My husband and I decided to go out for dinner. The restaurant we chose was only 4 miles from our house. When we left for dinner at 5:50 PM it was snowing lightly and blowing a bit but it was nothing to be overly concerned about. After a very enjoyable evening, we left the restaurant at 8:00 PM.  To say we were shocked when we got outside is an understatement. It took us forever to drive the four miles back home.  The visibility was practically zero.

By 11:00 PM last night the highways leading out of town and the Trans Canada Highway were closed by the RCMP.  Apparently there were 60 cars in the ditch along a 12 mile stretch of the highway.

The highways were opened by noon today. We  had to make a trip to the airport in Winnipeg.   On the way home we decided to stop at a mall and do some shopping. I had the energy to actually enjoy shopping.  I left my husband at Chapters with a paper and a latte and headed to Gap Kids. The Gap was having a great sale so I bought Grandson enough clothes to last the winter and then some.  Chapters was my next stop.  I spent an hour browsing through the books and drinking a vanilla espresso latte.  One of my Christmas presents was a gift certificate for Chapters.  Since Chapters also had a sale I ended up buying more books than I had planned.  Grandson is intrigued with my mystery book preferences o I bought him two books; the first book in the Hardy Boy series and “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” written for 9-12 year olds.

The bone pain seems to have subsided somewhat which I am very grateful for. The pain was particularly bad on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I must make an appointment with No Name in the next week and insist that he at least make an attempt to find out why I am experiencing these high levels of pain.

My 89 year old aunt became very ill at the beginning of November. She went to see her doctor at the Communist Clinic and was told that she had a growth in her colon. The doctor told her that this was why she was sick and that the growth had to be removed as quickly as possible. Her surgery was scheduled to take place three weeks later; the day before her granddaughter’s wedding.

During those three weeks before her scheduled surgery, my aunt became sicker and sicker.  Her sons finally insisted on taking her in to emergency.  The emergency doctor diagnosed a very severe bladder infection.  The poor woman never had a growth in her colon; what seemed like a growth was a result of her very severe infection.  The emergency doctor gave her antibiotics and assured her that surgery would no longer be necessary.  She improved so quickly that she was able to attend her granddaughter’s wedding a week later.

Needless to say, her sons cancelled the surgery for the imaginary growth in her colon. I wonder what the outcome of the surgery would have been if her sons had not intervened? Would the surgeon have come out of surgery to inform the family that the surgery had been difficult but the removal of the imaginary growth had been a great success?  I cannot imagine a medical professional who would schedule surgery on an 89 year old woman for an imaginary growth when in fact all she had was a severe bladder infection? Wonders never cease!

Happy New Year.  May your New Year be filled with happiness, peace, contentment and good health. For those of you who are diagnosed, may you find the road back to good health quickly and easily. For those of you who remain undiagnosed, may 2004 be the year that you find the answers that you need to begin your journey back to good health.

Today will be a day of rest and relaxation. I can hardly move but I am responsible for contributing to that problem.  Friends of ours had their 40th and 50th birthdays in December and decided to have a family orientated New Year’s Eve Party to celebrate. We had a wonderful time.  Our grandson came to the party with us and his parents joined us about 30 minutes later.  Grandson got to dance; it took him a while to get up the nerve to go out on the dance floor.  The problem was that there were no other 9 year old boys dancing.  When my husband and I got up to dance, grandson joined us and the three of us a great time. Yes I danced. I figured what the heck; my mornings are hell whether I danced the night before or not.  I don’t get that many opportunities to dance with my grandson. As I mentioned, I am paying for it today but it was worth it.  We stayed at the party until 12:15 AM.   Grandson had never been to a New Year’s Eve party before and he wanted to stay for the count down. The food was fantastic; home made cabbage rolls, homemade perogies, cold slaw and Ukrainian sausage. Absolutely delicious!

My 82 year old mom had brunch at her house this morning. She makes the best waffles in the world.

My New Year’s resolutions are simple. I will make no New Year’s Resolutions; that way I don’t have to deal with the guilt when I break them.

Today was the last Christmas family get together for this holiday season and I am exhausted. The holidays have been wonderful. My daughter, son-in-law and grandson came over on Christmas Eve to spend the evening with us. Since we were all feeling a bit under the weather, we just talked, ate and watched a movie. The kids were back on Christmas morning at 10:00 AM to open gifts. My parents arrived at 3:00 PM for Christmas dinner and to spend the rest of the day with us.

December 26th and 27th were spent finishing up last minute Christmas presents; music CD’s and calendars. 

Tomorrow I am going to be lazy and just sleep or read a book. I do need to tidy up my house but I think I will leave that for Tuesday when my housekeeper comes. 

It rained all day on December 26th, which is very unusual for our part of the country. Most often it is -25C or even -30C at Christmas time. Today it is cold with a strong north wind and snow. The roads and sidewalks are treacherous.

This week I am going to enjoy my Christmas decorations since I have been too busy to do so till now. I decorated the main floor, the downstairs and outside. We keep the decorations and trees up until after Ukrainian Christmas.

The bone pain has been excruciating all day today. I am finding that along with the bone pain I am starting to loose my balance when I walk. This is very annoying and can at times be embarrassing. A strange thing happened today. I suddenly lost all the feeling in the roof of my mouth and gums. It lasted for a couple of hours and then went away as suddenly as it had started. It felt exactly like a dentist had frozen my upper gums and teeth. Very bizarre.

I am off to bed; hopefully I can sleep for at least two hours before I am up again. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

My grandson slept over last night since his Christmas school break began today. I had an appointment with No Name this morning and Grandson came with me. This was supposed to be a longer appointment so we could discuss my continuing medical problems and the CT scan results from my latest CT scan. The discussion about the CT scan was one sentence long. It consisted of No Name telling me that he was not sure what it all meant but he thought it was nothing to worry about. My blood pressure has been rather high for the last few weeks with readings as hiigh as180/110,  No Name gave me a prescription for medication. He was not interested in discussing my other on-going health problems. The appointment took all of 6 minutes. 

After the doctor’s appointment, I took Grandson with me to finish up some last minute Christmas shopping. I was busy in the stores we went to and did not pay much attention to what Grandson was doing. After a morning of shopping the two of us went out for lunch. We sat down and before we got our menus, Grandson told me that the Christmas Elf could wait no longer. With that he pulled off his cap, unzipped his parka and pulled out a card. As he gave the card to me he told me that he had picked the card because of the picture on it but the most important reason he had picked the card was because of what it said inside. The inside of the card read, “To my wonderful Grandparents.” Grandson had signed the card, “To my Nana and Papa with love.” His is such a precious child; when I read the card he said, “Nana, my card must have been very special because you have tears in your eyes.” I told him it was the most special card in the world. Inside the envelope were two reindeer zipper pulls. Papa’s zipper pull read, “#1 Grandpa”. My zipper pull read, “The Boss”. When I read what it said on my zipper pull I burst out laughing. That child has a wonderful sense of humor! You should have seen the sparkle in his eyes when I saw my zipper pull and started to laugh. Grandson had bought the card and the zipper pulls that morning while I was busy shopping. He told me the clerk at the store had given him a pen so that he could sign the card and surprise me at lunch. I never noticed a thing. This grandson of mine is the perfect antidote to a disappointing doctor’s appointment. I am the luckiest Nana in the world.

This evening Grandson and I attended the Christmas party for his dance group.

Since the bone pain was excruciating when I got up today and it was No Name’s morning to be at the Walk In Clinic, I went over there to get a prescription refilled. I wish I  had a magic wand to take away the pain. I suppose we all have to deal with impossible dreams.

After receiving the prescription I asked No Name if he had received the results of my last CT Scan. After checking his computer he realized he had them and printed out a copy for me.

The report reads as follows:

CT scan of the Sinuses – Uninfused:

Small air fluids are seen in both maxillary antra. There is slight mucosal thickening and a retention cyst is seen in the medial aspect of the left maxillary antrum. Mucosal thickening is also seen in the ethmoid sinuses. There is also slight mucosal thickening in the frontal sinuses. Although the turbinates are quite prominent no destructive lesion or other abnormality can be seen.

CT scan of Temporal Bones and Mastoids Infused:

The mastoids appear well aerated. No destructive lesion is seen. There are no signs of mastoiditis. No posterior fosse abnormality can be seen.

Impression:

No abnormality of the mastoids can be seen. Changes in the paranasal sinuses are indicted above. Prominence of the nasal turbinates is also seen.

I have an appointment on Monday, December 22nd to discuss the CT scan results as well as my high blood pressure and my other on-going health problems.
Yesterday evening we attended the Christmas concert put on by the students at our grandson’s school. The school rents a church for this performance so there is room to seat the parents and grandparents of the 400 students. The program was inspiring and the children ‘s performance  was fabulous

This evening I will begin my diary entry with a request.  I am having a CT scan tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM and I need all the prayers and good thoughts I can get. This seems like the end of the road for me and if the scan tomorrow comes back normal I don’t know what I am going to do next. The pain in my head refuses to go away. My vision and hearing are getting worse. I am utterly exhausted from the lack of proper sleep. The nausea, dizziness and pain in the mornings are unbearable. Please pray that this scan tomorrow will convince my doctors to take me seriously.

I have been remiss with my diary entries. My son flew home from Seattle for a week long visit on November 22nd. We had a wonderful time; the only problem was that the 7 days went by much too quickly. Grandson came to the airport with us to pick up his uncle. Since our son’s flight came in quite late on Saturday evening we had my parents and our daughter and family over for brunch on Sunday morning. During the week my son and I visited, read books and did some shopping.   He made some fantastic dinners; walked down the street to visit with his grandparents and spent time with his sister and her family. He attended his nephew’s hockey game; sat in on his nephew’s Ukrainian dance class and met his nephew’s school teacher and got a tour of his classroom. Even though he was here less than a month ago, I already miss him terribly.

By Tuesday, November 25th, I realized that the antibiotics that the doctor had prescribed on November 21st where not helping the infection in my ears and my head. I called his office and explained my problem to his nurse. She called me back a short while later to tell me that No Name did not know what else to do so he was referring me to an ENT specialist in the city.  They had been able to book an appointment with the specialist for November 27th.

My son and husband accompanied me to the ENT specialist appointment.  The specialist told me that she could not see anything wrong with my ears except for some scaling inside. (I had been on antibiotics for two and a half weeks by then; there should have been some improvement with my ears!). She also informed me that I did not have an infection in my head but that it was very obvious that I had pain in a specific area. She ordered x-rays and told me she would call me with the results. As is the case with most of my doctors’ appointments, I went home feeling very discouraged and let down.

We took our son to the airport on Saturday, November 29th.  As always it is hard to say goodbye.

Sunday, November 30th we were distracted by our Grandson’s hockey game. They won which was an added bonus. If someone had told me nine years ago that I would be hustling my butt over to all the arenas in the area to watch kids’ hockey I would have said they were nuts. Amazing what a grandson can inspire you to do; I actually look forward to going to his games.

On Monday, December 1st I received a phone call from the ENT specialist. She told me that the x-rays were normal but she was very concerned about the pain in my head and in my bones/joints. She told me that she was going to write a letter to No Name and tell him that I needed a CT Scan ASAP. I thanked her for her concern and then proceeded to wait for No Name’s call with an appointment date.

I think I could have waited until hell froze over. I finally called No Name’s office on Monday December 8th and asked for an appointment to see him. The appointment was on Wednesday, December 10th. When I asked No Name if he had made the CT scan appointment he had to refer back to the letter the ENT specialist had written to him. After reading it, he admitted that yes she had requested that he book one for me. No Name had several theories as to why I have this persistent pain in my head (behind my right ear). One theory is that my neck is too tense; the other theory is that it could be a migraine. I have no problems turning or moving my neck. Apparently I have some tender spots on the right side of my neck but that doesn’t surprise me considering all the pain that I have had behind my right ear. This is definitely not a migraine; I know what migraines feel like having suffered enough of them in my lifetime. I cannot put the right side of my head on a pillow; the pain and pressure become too intense and I then need someone to lift my head so I can get up. The pain is isolated to this one small area behind my ear.

Saturday morning was spent determining what Christmas shopping I have left to do. I got a call late morning from the hospital telling me that my CT n is booked for Monday, December 15th at 11:00 AM. I can only hope and pray that this CT scan will show something; anything at this point; so that I can put these miserable symptoms behind me and get on with my life.

It has been a quiet Sunday. We attended our Grandson’s Sunday School Christmas program tonight. It was wonderful to see eight and nine year olds singing their hearts out. To bad this innocent age passes by so quickly.

Hope you all have a good week; Christmas is only 10 days away!

Handcrafted by my daughter. Beautiful beaded black velvet evening bag.

After a week and a half on antibiotics (Ciprofloxacin) I thought that the infection I had in my ears and head would finally be gone for good. I finished the last antibiotic on Wednesday evening, November 19th but the pain was back with a vengeance this morning. I saw No Name this afternoon and he prescribed another round of the same antibiotic and the same ear drops.

During the appointment this afternoon I asked No Name what could be causing these recurring infections. He did not have time to discuss this with me today so I promised to make another appointment for next week. I told No Name that when I came back I expected to get some answers. If I really did get some answers I would probably pass out on the floor from the shock.

At this point the pain is constant but still controllable with pain medications. The most difficult time is at night when I try to put my head on the pillow. When I put the right side of my head on the pillow the pain becomes excruciating. If I put the left side of my head on the pillow the pain is somewhat less but the pressure is unbearable. The pain is localized, behind my right ear along the bony ridge. The only way to get any sleep at all is to sit upright in my chair. Oh well, I am very familiar with fatigue and I am sure it has never killed anyone. Just makes life a bit dreary at the moment.

 Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to benormal. – Albert Camus

Two days after my appointment with No Name, on Thursday November 6th, I woke up with a headache and unbearable neck pain. Since most mornings are miserable I figured I would put on my old neck brace and see if the pain subsided during the day. That did noTt happen. I had been dealing with an outer ear infection in both ears for about a week prior to this neck pain.

By Monday morning I was in absolute agony and realized that this was not a sore neck from sleeping the wrong way.  I saw No Name at 11:00 that morning.  His conclusion was that I had an infection in my head behind my right ear. No Name felt that the problem was a result of my outer ear infection. He prescribed antibiotics.

Since I had been plagued with a skin infection in February and again 30 days later in March and both had been the result of a problem with my ears, I wanted to know why this was happening to me. Of course an answer was not forth coming
.
Thank goodness the infection seems to have cleared up; the infected area in my head is no longer swollen or painful to touch. I still have some pain in my neck but hopefully that will stop soon. Apparently the infection caused the muscle pain. I do however; need to find out why I keep getting these bizarre outer ear infections. My friend Barb who also had this ear problem has suggested that it could be a result of Candidiasis. I am beginning to wonder if she is right. Along with the ear infections I get boil like eruptions under my arms and lower stomach. During the last two weeks I have had 10 of these eruptions and most of them are the size of quarters. They are extremely painful and annoying. Again I wonder if these are result of Candidiasis.

As I mentioned earlier, I finished decorating my yard last Friday afternoon. Thanks to my niece I only had a few little things left to do. Last Thursday I had a burst of energy and put up the Christmas tree in my living room with 800 lights. Hopefully I get another burst of energy this week so I can get the ornaments on it. I also put up the garland on the banisters in the house, the Christmas tree in the dining room and the two little Christmas trees in the family room. I must say it is starting to look a lot like Christmas.

Last Saturday evening we had company in to celebrate my daughter’s 33rd birthday. She baked her own cake this year and it was a master piece. That girl certainly does not take after her mother. Baking is not my forte. Sunday afternoon my husband, son in law, grandson and my dad watched the Grey Cup game at our house. My husband has a new toy; one of those projectors you hook up to a TV or computer. The wall becomes your “screen”. Watching a football game on an 8 X 8 foot “screen” is quite an experience. I must say it has been quite a treat watching movies this way.

My son is arriving on Saturday for a week long visit. I can hardly wait. Hopefully the weather will stay mild for his visit. I am not sure he could tolerate -30 C temperatures.

Even though we had our first snow fall on October 26th, the weather became so mild during the last week that the snow has melted. It has been a nice reprieve. The cold will be back soon enough. The problem with warmer temperatures is ice fog. Last Saturday afternoon my son in law and grandson had a hair raising one hour drive home from Grandson’s hockey game. The ice fog made the visibility so bad they could not see the on coming traffic until it passed them. The good thing was that Grandson’s team won the game that afternoon.

My goal this week is to find out all the information I can about Candidiasis. Apparently one of the treatments is diet. That and working on my grandson’s website should keep me busy.