This is my first post to my new blog. I have another one junkstylediva that I had been posting my health updates on, but I started that blog a few years ago and it was geared to crafts, vintage goodies...and then I got sick December 26th 2010. Well, I got sick much earlier than that...at least January of 2010 is when I went to the Urgent Care because I was crapping my pants and I felt like crap (pardon the puns please). The doctor on duty decided I had an intestinal bug and prescribed a form of Bella Donna to treat it. Meanwhile I had to stay in bed for at least a week.
Now I rarely even get a cold let alone something that will keep me in bed for a week, but I did feel better and continued to work. Then about a month later I had more "accidents" in my pants...usually first thing in the morning and almost always when I was out walking one of the dogs. I didn't feel sick though and decided it had to be stress related. I have had issues with IBS most of my adult life and since I was working a part time job that I hated and continued looking for full time a job during the economic downturn...well, who wouldn't be stressed?
Then came the drops of blood in my stool. Again, not something new to me. I have dealt with hemorrhoids since I was pregnant, but I did decide to see an acupuncturist to take are of that problem. Within two weeks problem solved and I was back in the groove. Then August 2010 those dang hemorrhoids popped out. Crap! that meant surgery and since I didn't have health insurance that would be a problem. I went to a nurse practitioner who also had hemorrhoids and he said "yep, that's hemorrhoids alright" and he gave me a referral to a surgeon.
The surgeon was booked until January of 2011 so I made an appointment and waited. I still had issues in the bathroom and then my legs cramped so bad I couldn't get a good nights sleep. So what did I do? I ate bananas of course! I looked up the symptoms on line and decided I needed more potassium. Then by November I was tired all the time. By now I found a full time job that required me to be at work by 8 am. Since I still had toilet problems in the morning, I had to get up at 5am to make sure I was done using the toilet way before I had to drive to work. Now I hate getting up before 9 am...ask anyone who knows me... so I figured of course I'm tired because have to get up at the butt crack of dawn to go to yet another stressful job. But hey, it's a job and it helps pay the bills. So from then on I would go to work...come home... take a four hour nap and do it again the next day.
Then I woke up December 26th and my legs felt like lead weights; I had trouble breathing and I felt like total shit. I told John, my husband I had to go to emergency..something was not right. So in the car we went to the only hospital I knew of...UCI Medical Center. As I mentioned before I didn't have insurance so I kept my fingers crossed I could make payments.
We got to the emergency room and I told the woman at the desk I had trouble breathing. Five minutes later I was in a triage room and the nurse was taking my vitals. Everything checked out normal. I was beginning to think I was going bonkers and turning into a hypochondriac when the doctor ordered blood work and an hour later came back to tell me she knew what my problem was...I had less than 40% of my blood left and needed an emergency blood transfusion. She asked me if I was bleeding somewhere and I told her why yes...she said how long and I said for about four months...she almost fainted!
And from there my life changing journey began...
Now I rarely even get a cold let alone something that will keep me in bed for a week, but I did feel better and continued to work. Then about a month later I had more "accidents" in my pants...usually first thing in the morning and almost always when I was out walking one of the dogs. I didn't feel sick though and decided it had to be stress related. I have had issues with IBS most of my adult life and since I was working a part time job that I hated and continued looking for full time a job during the economic downturn...well, who wouldn't be stressed?
Then came the drops of blood in my stool. Again, not something new to me. I have dealt with hemorrhoids since I was pregnant, but I did decide to see an acupuncturist to take are of that problem. Within two weeks problem solved and I was back in the groove. Then August 2010 those dang hemorrhoids popped out. Crap! that meant surgery and since I didn't have health insurance that would be a problem. I went to a nurse practitioner who also had hemorrhoids and he said "yep, that's hemorrhoids alright" and he gave me a referral to a surgeon.
The surgeon was booked until January of 2011 so I made an appointment and waited. I still had issues in the bathroom and then my legs cramped so bad I couldn't get a good nights sleep. So what did I do? I ate bananas of course! I looked up the symptoms on line and decided I needed more potassium. Then by November I was tired all the time. By now I found a full time job that required me to be at work by 8 am. Since I still had toilet problems in the morning, I had to get up at 5am to make sure I was done using the toilet way before I had to drive to work. Now I hate getting up before 9 am...ask anyone who knows me... so I figured of course I'm tired because have to get up at the butt crack of dawn to go to yet another stressful job. But hey, it's a job and it helps pay the bills. So from then on I would go to work...come home... take a four hour nap and do it again the next day.
Then I woke up December 26th and my legs felt like lead weights; I had trouble breathing and I felt like total shit. I told John, my husband I had to go to emergency..something was not right. So in the car we went to the only hospital I knew of...UCI Medical Center. As I mentioned before I didn't have insurance so I kept my fingers crossed I could make payments.
We got to the emergency room and I told the woman at the desk I had trouble breathing. Five minutes later I was in a triage room and the nurse was taking my vitals. Everything checked out normal. I was beginning to think I was going bonkers and turning into a hypochondriac when the doctor ordered blood work and an hour later came back to tell me she knew what my problem was...I had less than 40% of my blood left and needed an emergency blood transfusion. She asked me if I was bleeding somewhere and I told her why yes...she said how long and I said for about four months...she almost fainted!
And from there my life changing journey began...
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