Happy 2014 to all of you and your families. 2014 has certainly come in with a bang for our island with fridget temperatures, blizzards, sleet storms, heavy rains, flooding, blackouts and rolling blackouts, oh what a time! As of yesterday all colleges, and our university and all grade schools are finally open. Our province is finally getting on track and all crisis’s has been taken care of and dealt with. News years eve my family planned a huge celebration as we do every year, music, singing, food (lots of food) and fireworks. The following day I was to cook a hot turkey supper for my siblings and their families, its tradition for our family. Unfortunately plans changed and a few days before new years I ended up in the hospital with acute cholecystitis which lead to an infection in my gallbladder. Tests also revealed that there is some damage to my liver but wont know the extent of it until after my surgery in the next couple weeks. I am currently home and taking oral antibiotics to help clear up the infection and also to prevent it from moving into my liver.
The key word I hear constantly is inflammation. Last summer I suffered with a continuous bout of pneumonia that lasted for almost 4 months and also stiffness within my heart making my beats faster than normal. I was told a normal heart contracts and rests, which is the beats we hear. Mine doesn’t rest properly after it contracts this is due to a thickening and a stiffing of the left ventricle. I was told I have inflammation of both my heart and lungs. During that time I also found out that I had inflammation of my liver and pancreas, I wasn’t feeling any ill effects of that inflammation, it showed up on tests that they were doing at the time.
I have an autoimmune inflammatory disease (PsA) diagnosed in Oct 2012 that is currently affecting both feet, right knee, both S I joints, lower back, both hands, fingers and wrists and also my right shoulder, up until Oct I was taking Plaquenil, prednisone and NSAIDS while awaiting insurance approval for Humira. I didn’t believe those meds were doing much for me because I still had significant pain, but dear oh dear, when I was told to stop taking the Plaquenil and my Prednisone went from 25mgs down to 5mgs I realized just how much those meds were helping, the intensity of pain shocked me but like everything else, I learned to adjust to it. It was also during that time while hospitalized my doctors informed me that I could not take Humira either because of my lungs. The day of my hospital release I go home to find a letter from my insurance company approving Humira, arggggg.
So fast forward to today and I am on absolutely no medication for PsA, not even NSAIDS due to my up coming surgery. My PsA feels out of control but my lungs feel a lot better, I haven’t had a bout of pneumonia since Oct and am feeling very good about that. I am told by my doctors that my medical history is complex and complicated and I understand that, what I don’t understand is why they haven’t found out what is the culprit to so many illness at once. I believe it’s the PsA, but I am no doctor and certainly do not want to offend any medical personnel who has spent years and thousands of dollars learning their skill but I feel they are missing something. Prior to Nov of 2009 I never had a sick day from work and other than my feet being painful all the time, I had no other symptoms of PsA or lung and heart issues. In Nov 2009 I contracted H1N1 virus that put me in the ICU for quite some time, it was after that time that all these other health issues started to surface. Was the H1N1 a trigger of more serious issues to come? It certainly feels that way to me.