Where did the time go?

Holy cow! Where have the past two months gone? I can't believe that it is June already. I am so grateful that it is finally summer! Now I can starting hitting this bug with full force and put all me energy into getting well. Let me give you a brief update of what has been going on.

Unfortunately I have been still suffering with a lot of pleurisy/pericardist and other pains. I had a new symptom show up around the beginning of May: massive headaches. Very intense, all over pain with sharp jabs just behind the ears. Sometimes the pain has gone into the ear lobes and feels like someone is trying to rip them off. Went into my family doctor and he diagnosed them as migraine headaches. He gave me a shot and some pills to try. Unfortunately the only thing the medication did was make me jittery. I was finally able to get an MRI and thankfully it came back normal.

Right after the MRI I flew out for my second visit with Jemsek. We went through all my lab results and discovered some interesting things. First of all I have a minor mutation that affects my body’s ability to clot blood, and my body also can't detox as well as other people. I talked to him about my headaches, and he prescribed me a medication called Diamox that is use to treat altitude sickness and brain inflammation. That was the craziest drug ever! Every time I would drink a soda it felt like I was licking a nine volt battery, and it caused awful sciatica. On top of some seizure medication that he prescribed me to help with my shaking and convulsions, I was completely out of it. I couldn't work, couldn't drive, it was all I could do to walk from my room to the bathroom. I decided that I would prefer dealing with the pain so I stopped it all. Thankfully the headaches and spasms have calmed down a bit.

I have to mention how wonderful my orchestra students have been through all of this. It has been hard to be away from them so much, but they have done well. They have been extremely supportive and have worked hard. We finished off the year with an awesome concert and I am so proud of all of them! I will miss them over the summer.

So what’s the next step? I will be getting my PICC line in on Thursday and will be starting my antibiotic treatments. I've had a Mid-line put in last year which is similar except the PICC line is longer. Not looking forward to the procedure but I hope they will have an easier time finding a vein this time.