Because no-one believes me …<\/p>\n
December 2012<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I am at a customer’s home in Gilbertsville, grooming several dogs.\u00a0 Typically, when at the customer’s home, I am alone.\u00a0 They leave the door open for me, I go in and groom the dogs, and they come home to a sparkly clean and fresh dog!<\/p>\n I am about halfway finished with the last dog when my body suddenly does a very bizarre thing.\u00a0 I feel like a rush of cold runs from the top of my head to the bottoms of my feet.\u00a0 My left arm and left leg feel like lead and don’t want to move properly when I stand up.\u00a0 My heart starts racing and pounding in my chest.<\/p>\n OH MY GOSH … am I having a heart attack?<\/p>\n I quickly release to dog from the table (in case I pass out, I don’t want the dog to jump off the table and hang himself from the lead he’s attached to.) and dial 911 on my cell phone.<\/p>\n I describe my symptoms and I find my words slurring.\u00a0 They tell me to stay where I am and they’re sending an ambulance.<\/p>\n I call my husband and again, I find my mouth to be full of cotton balls and my words hard to form and speak clearly.\u00a0 I am also feeling very dizzy and the room seems to be spinning off to the right.<\/p>\n My customer’s teenage daughter is home today, so I fill her in on an ambulance coming to get me and she looks ready to cry.<\/p>\n Oh my goodness.<\/p>\n The ambulance and a police officer arrive and take me to the hospital (Pottstown Memorial).\u00a0 On the way there they are monitoring my vitals and I hear someone say, “Blood Pressure 200 over 120.\u00a0 Pulse 140.”<\/p>\n Well now, that can’t be good.<\/p>\n Tears well up in my eyes and I begin to worry.<\/p>\n The “coldness attack” has passed but now I’m in a full blown panic attack.<\/p>\n At the hospital they do<\/p>\n Young doctor comes in and scares the beejeezus out of me by saying that although all the bloodwork tests, heart tests and stroke tests came back perfectly fine, it does not mean I am not having a stroke and he wants me to stay over night for observation because I could die.<\/p>\n YES!\u00a0 He said that to me … “You could die!”<\/p>\n Uh, no … not staying here over night.\u00a0 Especially because (now) I feel perfectly fine.<\/p>\n \u00a0I call my husband who drives over an hour to come and get me from the hospital because they will not allow me to call a cab to leave.\u00a0 They insist, right until I actually walk out the door that I have to stay because I could die and they need to observe me.\u00a0 The young doctor is convinced I am having mini-strokes and a huge one is on it’s way.<\/p>\n I’m not convinced that he’s right and I leave (and I’m perfectly fine)\u00a0 My husband drives me back to my customer’s home.\u00a0 I finish grooming her last dog and then drive myself home.<\/p>\n April 2013<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I am driving to Easton to do grooming for the day when I am struck by a rush of coldness, quickly followed by vertigo and the road in front of me tips to the right.\u00a0 I check my mirrors, which have gone all squiggly and I pull off the highway.<\/p>\n Whew.<\/p>\n I sit there a couple minutes and my heart is pounding and my chest is heavy and painful and I’m having trouble catching a good breath.<\/p>\n Now what?<\/p>\n May 2013<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0Stress test on my heart, everything is A-OK.\u00a0 So what is causing these dizzy spells, crazy flashes of adrenaline and my blood pressure going up and down and never staying stable?\u00a0 Now we start the fun times.<\/p>\n August 2013<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Sent to a Kidney Specialist.\u00a0 Kidneys are fine, but lo and behold, there is a mass on the right adrenal gland.\u00a0 Better have that checked out…and in the meantime, let’s also try some drugs to regulate your blood pressure.\u00a0 I explained I had been that route already and nothing worked for more than two months then my blood pressure would start fluctuating again.\u00a0 He didn’t care, “Here, take these meds.”<\/p>\n sigh<\/p>\n February 2014<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Sent to an Endocrinologist.\u00a0 Did tests on everything from vitamins, metabolics, all the hormones in my system and everything came back middle of the road.\u00a0 Except the salts were a little low on the scale and the potassium was a little high on the scale.\u00a0 Still within normals, but not mid-road like everything else.\u00a0 Tested the adrenal glans siz ways to Christmas and determined that it’s a mass I was probably born with and is not at all affecting anything in my system because all my hormone levels are normal.\u00a0 Including my “female” hormones, so I have not entered into menopause yet.<\/p>\n Now what?<\/p>\n April 2014<\/strong><\/span> – major attack while driving which sent me to the side of the road in fear for my life.\u00a0 Called an ambulance.\u00a0 Blood pressure through the roof (I am on blood pressure medicine at this time.)\u00a0 Heart rate through the roof.\u00a0 Took me to the hospital and they tested me for …<\/p>\n Diagnosis?\u00a0 Panic attack.<\/p>\n WHAT????\u00a0 I’m just driving along, on my way to a customer and I had a panic attack for no reason.\u00a0 Your diagnosis sucks.<\/p>\n Psychologist comes in to talk to me and said that physical pain can cause the body to induce a painc attack.\u00a0 Asked me if I was in any pain.<\/p>\n Why, yes I am – every day – every minute of every day.\u00a0 Stupid asshole that rear-ended me (read that story here<\/a>) damaged my neck and back and I have constant pain.\u00a0 All the time.<\/p>\n Head doctor asks if I take anything for the pain.<\/p>\n Why, no I don’t.\u00a0 Occasionally I hit on some Aleve, when it’s too bad, and when I ride I always down tylenol but the fist full.<\/p>\n He gives me a prescription for Tramadol, tells me to follow up with my family doctor and sends me home.<\/p>\n WAIT!!!!\u00a0 Why did my blood pressure shoot through the roof?\u00a0 Why did my body feel like it was flooding with hot oil?\u00a0 Why was I shaking like a leaf and barely able to talk when I called 911?\u00a0 Why aren’t you fixing me????<\/p>\n July 2014<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Two attacks, two days in a row.\u00a0 Tramadol does not fix it.<\/p>\n January 2015<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I’m still complaining to my doctor, at my annual wellness check.<\/p>\n Hey, I still have this constant burping.\u00a0 I still have wild fluctuations in my blood pressure.\u00a0 I still have moments of “panic attacks”.\u00a0 I still have problems with my back and my neck.<\/p>\n My family doctor renews my prescription for Tramadol.<\/p>\n sigh<\/p>\n I had a good run of riding competition in 2015<\/a>.\u00a0 For the most part, my body behaved itself and I was able to compete, and do it well.\u00a0 Then at the end of the season, I started having a different set of issues.<\/p>\n September 2015<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I had a very bad scare, thought I was dying.\u00a0 Went to the hospital.\u00a0 They did tests and said I wasn’t having a heart attack or stroke but they diagnosed me with Angina.\u00a0 Mostly because this is the third time I’ve been in for this same reason.<\/p>\n Angina.<\/p>\n Is this another phantom diagnosis?<\/p>\n October 2015<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n My best friend is diagnosed with heart arrhythmia and she’s hospitalized.\u00a0 They blame it on her smoking and she quits.\u00a0 To help her out, I cut way back on smoking and take up e-cigs.\u00a0 Well, that didn’t last long because apparently the scar tissue in my lungs from the pneumonia I had in January 1996 doesn’t like the vapor from the e-cig.\u00a0 So, I just cut way way back on smoking.<\/p>\n November 2015<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I am down to less than half a pack of cigarettes a day, my girl friend is still having to go to the hospital and have her heart shocked back into a regular beat.\u00a0 This scares the piss out of me.\u00a0 Especially because I have started coughing – a lot – and there is tons of clear flem when I cough.\u00a0 And my chest has started hurting.\u00a0 Like all the time.<\/p>\n December 2015<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Hot flashes?\u00a0 Am I having hot flashes?\u00a0 I feel like I have a fever, break into a sweat and then run chilly.\u00a0 Maybe I am having fevers.\u00a0 And the burps have become very painful and are causing me a lot of grief.\u00a0 And now I have a constant cough with lots of clear flem coming up.<\/p>\n My family doctor tells me it is because I have cut back on smoking and the cilia in my lungs are coming back to life.<\/p>\n I don’t believe him.\u00a0 I ask for a chest x-ray to rule out bronchitis (or worse)<\/p>\n He rolls his eyes but complies.\u00a0 Chest x-ray comes back as perfectly normal.<\/p>\n Then where the hell is all this clear flem coming from.\u00a0 I kid you not when I tell you I am coughing up handfuls of this stuff.\u00a0 Clear, foamy flem.\u00a0 Constantly.\u00a0 It sucks.<\/p>\n My doctor prescribes Lorazepam for me.<\/p>\n What is that?<\/p>\n An anti-anxiety drug.<\/p>\n Oh, so now I’m insane.<\/p>\n Great.<\/p>\n January 2016<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Chest pain is still with me, on a pretty regular basis.\u00a0 A low lying, achey kind of pain that doesn’t go away no matter what I do.<\/p>\n Burping is at an all time record making.\u00a0 Marc wants to enter me into burping contests so I can win prize money.\u00a0 I have episodes of “panic attacks and angina” and I think I am having hot flashes on top of everything else that is going on.<\/p>\n Why doesn’t anyone ever talk about menopause stuff?<\/p>\n March 2016<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Went to the hospital.\u00a0 Thought I was having a heart attack.\u00a0 Chest hurt, head hurt, ears buzzing, blood pressure through the roof.\u00a0 Everything checked out A-OK.\u00a0 They continue to tell me I have angina.\u00a0 I have read about angina.\u00a0 It’s not funny.\u00a0 It can lead to heart failure.<\/p>\n They gave me morphine.<\/p>\n MORPHINE:\u00a0 My eyes couldn’t focus, my body felt like it had left the bed and was floating around in the air, I couldn’t think.\u00a0 I DID NOT LIKE THIS.\u00a0 Blood pressure dropped like a stone and my heart rate dropped like a stone.<\/p>\n They sent me home.<\/p>\n TWO DAYS LATER:\u00a0 Routine follow up with my family doctor.\u00a0 Blood pressure very low recently.\u00a0 Doctor likes that.\u00a0 I don’t, I have episodes of dizziness when I do anything remotely physical.\u00a0 I told him I was tired of burping all the time could I have a referral to a gasto doctor.<\/p>\n He rolled his eyes and gave me a referral.<\/p>\n APRIL 2016<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Gastro doctor ran a bunch of blood work and sent me for an ultrasound. Everything was perfectly normal EXCEPT they found that dreaded mass on my adrenal gland.\u00a0 The lady spent 5 minutes on my stomach, 5 minutes on my gall bladder, 5 minutes on my liver and 20 minutes on that dame adrenal gland.\u00a0 I told her they had already found it once but she wanted to make sure there were no changes.<\/p>\n There weren’t.<\/p>\n Gastro doctor tells me he wants to do an endoscopy because the ultrasound showed everything was A-OK.<\/p>\n MAY 2016<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Yes, still chest pains.<\/p>\n Yes, still burping.<\/p>\n Yes, still having panic attacks<\/p>\n No, not taking Tramadol or Lorazepam.<\/p>\n Endoscopy shows irritation in the esophagus and parts of the stomach so they do biopsies.\u00a0 No cancer but I do have H-Pylori.<\/p>\n What is that?<\/p>\n A bacteria that lives underneath the stomach lining and eats away at your stomach wall causing ulcers and cancer.<\/p>\n Great.<\/p>\n They treat me for the H-Pylori ($800 for the drugs)\u00a0 Basically, three different antibiotics, taken four times a day – and a PPI to reduce stomach acid so the antibiotic can get under the stomach lining and kill the H-Pylori bacteria.<\/p>\n Great.\u00a0 They killed EVERYTHING in my system.<\/p>\n Didn’t solve the chest pain.<\/p>\n Didn’t solve the burping.<\/p>\n Didn’t solve the panic attacks or vertigo.<\/p>\n June and July 2016<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Chest pain still a constant and now, when I eat or drink, my stomach feels like it’s burning.\u00a0 Still coughing up tons of clear foamy flem.\u00a0 Went to a follow up with the gastro doctor and they gave me to a PA – FUCK THE PA – he couldn’t even answer my questions.\u00a0 I asked him about the burning when I eat, he said, “Oh your stomach is going to be upset for a while after the H-Pylori treatment.”\u00a0 Asked about the burping still going on.\u00a0 “Oh, your stomach will take a while to heal.”\u00a0 Asked him about GORD, which is pulminary disorders from having acid reflux and he says “You don’t have acid reflux”<\/p>\n WHY AM I TALKING TO A PA AND NOT TO MY DOCTOR?<\/p>\n And they charged me $100 for that visit.<\/p>\n And sent me for a stool sample to see if the H-Pylori is all gone.<\/p>\n No-one has ever called me to tell me the results of this lab test.<\/p>\n August 2016<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Went on a vacation to Las Vegas and had a wonderful time (read story here<\/a>) but had an episode that scared the crap out of me.\u00a0 Sitting and having a good time with Marc, I suddenly had a terrible chest pain, blooming out across my chest and into my left shoulder.\u00a0 Soon my left arm was tingling and feeling very wierd and funky.\u00a0 Then I broke into a drenching sweat.\u00a0 I’m sitting in a very well cooled air conditioned room, there is no reason to be sweating like this.\u00a0 Buckets running off of me.<\/p>\n It was very scary.<\/p>\n I didn’t really tell Marc about it.\u00a0 We’re on vacation and I am ot going to upset the apple cart.<\/p>\n Forty-fve minutes it passed.<\/p>\n When I got home, I called my family doctor and asked for a referral to a cardi-doctor.\u00a0 Time to have these chest pains checked out.<\/p>\n CARDIO doctor says my EKG is fine and all my bloodwork is fine and he doesn’t think I am having any kind of heart issue but he’s scheduling me for (yet another) stress test and after that I have to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours so they can see what my heart is doing.<\/p>\n Great.\u00a0 And don’t get it wet, they tell me.\u00a0 So no grooming for that 24 hours.<\/p>\n I passed my stress test.\u00a0 Yes, I have approximately 50% blockage in my right heart artery but my heart is not stressed at all.\u00a0 in fact, they said that I was physically very fit and lasted much longer on the tread mill at a much faster pace than they had anticipated.<\/p>\n Lovely.<\/p>\n And the Holter 24 hour monitor showed that out of 14,000 heart beats, I had 236 irregular beats.\u00a0 That’s less that 1%.\u00a0 He told me he wished all his patients had hearts like mine. He did explain how I might be feeling when I have an irregular heartbeat episode.\u00a0 He did say that they came in bursts of 8 to 10.\u00a0 He said I could feel like my chest is swelling and thumping and might even get dizzy or a rush.<\/p>\n Sigh.\u00a0 Yes, I do get all those symptoms.<\/p>\n So now back to the gastro doctor.\u00a0 He suspects the chest and stomach pain is likely due to excess acid.\u00a0 I said, “No!” because it’s never food related.\u00a0 Today I can eat 50 red hot chilis with nothing and tomorrow I eat a vanilla bean and die.\u00a0 He recommended that I take Pepcid-AD.<\/p>\n Great.<\/p>\n October 2016:\u00a0\u00a0 I get my very first colonoscopy.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I am very thankful never to go through THIS again.\u00a0 One day of no food.<\/p>\n WHAT????\u00a0 I eat every hour.\u00a0 I am a grazer.\u00a0 What do you mean no food?<\/p>\n Jello and broth and water and that’s all.<\/p>\n I’m gonna die.<\/p>\n And I have to drink this horrid fluid, 1\/2 gallon in 1\/2 hour at 6:00 pm … then wake up and drink 1\/2 gallon in 1\/2 hour at 2:00 am.<\/p>\n And live in the bathroom.\u00a0 I will spare you the gory details, although it was rather amazing to see the bright florescent yellow liquid coming from my body after the second go of the nasty tasting liquid.\u00a0 I was entranced by the color!<\/p>\n Then, they found a tumor and a tear in my colon.\u00a0 I have pictures!<\/p>\n He repaired the tear and removed the tumor.\u00a0 He left a metal clamp in my colon on the area where he removed the tumor.\u00a0 Said if I needed an emergency MRI in the next 30 days to let them know it was in there because it would have to be manually removed before doing an MRI.\u00a0 In the meantime, it should fall out on its own in the next 30 days.<\/p>\n He did say that he could tell I live a nice healthy eating lifestyle (I did *NOT* tell him I live on french fries).\u00a0 He said that my colon looked awesome and young, like a person in their 30’s.\u00a0 He said it could only look like that if I was eating a lot of veggies and fruits (which I do, but I also eat a lot of french fries)<\/p>\n Gee, that’s all nice but is that related to my other symptoms?<\/p>\n NO!<\/p>\n Now what, coach?\u00a0 Back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Because no-one believes me … December 2012 I am at a customer’s home in Gilbertsville, grooming several dogs.\u00a0 Typically, when at the customer’s home, I am alone.\u00a0 They leave the door open for me, I go in and groom the … Continue reading \n
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