My scariest health scare in a while...

Physically and mentally I have had a really hard time lately. In June or July, my doctor took me off of my blood pressure medication.  My body and my brain have been going through an absolute mess ever since.

The blood pressure medication was discontinued because of an allergy. My face started swelling up. This probably started in 2019, and was mostly just the left side of my face on my jaw. There would be a strange feeling, then a lump, then a little bit of swelling. I finally broke down around January or February of 2020 and finally went to the urgent care doctor that could see me and they diagnosed me with a blocked salivary gland. Try to eat less sodium-- and hey, while you're at it, work on losing some weight. To help activate the salivary glands, why not suck on some hard candies. 

The swelling continued, without any explanation, and sometimes it got into my throat, which would construct as if I had tonsillitis or something. We were told that it was a food allergy, so let's do an allergy diet. Constrict a food, see if that helps. I got rid of cinnamon and mangos and watermelon and lettuce and a few others that I honestly can't remember.  I introduced them back in to no reaction, so continued to eat them. 

I tried that, and for a while, it seemed to work a little bit. Then, sometime during the pandemic, I would guess winter of 2020, I had a major episode. My face started to swell, but this time, it wasn't just my face, but my throat completely closed off as well. I stopped being able to breathe through my mouth. I couldn't breathe if I was laying down. I could sit up with a TON of pillows behind me and my CPAP machine on and sort of breathe that way, but if I laid down at all, everything was completely constricted. Because of the pandemic, the thought of going to the emergency room by myself caused a severe anxiety attack, so I waited it out. The swelling went down, but I decided I was done with this.

I contacted my doctor again, wondering if this could be some kind of autoimmune disease or something strange, and she sent me in for tests.  Nothing too exciting came back. I had some elevated things and some low things. Then on January 20th, Inauguration Day, I woke up at midnight to the itching and swelling -- again.  I posted a picture to my Facebook, joking about how my face was so proud that Biden was President it had swelled right up.

Ultimately, we found out that it was an allergy to a medication. I stopped taking the medication and almost immediately lost 25 pounds.  I found most of it again, since I'm not moving as much as I should, and also because of all of the testing and medical stuff found out that I have some tumors on my hip, arthritis in my back and lymphedema in my legs. 

I don't make resolutions. I'm bad at keeping them, as most people are, so I'm going to leave this here to think about and to encourage myself and others to take better care of themselves. I'm tired of being scared. 

Episode 22: Thar she blows!

Ugh.  I woke up at 5:15 this morning, after having tried to snooze myself back into some sort of blissful stasis where I dreamed of (oddly) musicians and puppies.  But the puppies, and the musicians for that matter, were very cute, and I wanted to go back to sleep.  Unfortunately, my allergies really had other plans.

A lot of people have spring, pollen allergies.  AH gets them the worst when the trees behind our apartment (beautiful willows which hang down near the water's edge) begin to blossom their tiny yellow buds.  They spray green pollen everywhere, so much that AH's car will look like it's ready to say "Hulk Smash".  Spring allergies come and go with the season, the flowers closing up and dropping off to leave behind the fruits of summer and the harvest.

My allergies, however, are autumn and winter allergies. And just to be extra fun, they usually end up being spring allergies too.  I'm allergic to molds and dust. (I won't give up bleu cheese dressing though... just sayin'.)  My allergies come in the form of anything damp, which means that when it rains, or gets particularly humid, or even sometimes just a bit cold, my nose starts acting up and I can sneeze upwards of 15 times sometimes.  AH swears I sneeze this much because I don't know how to sneeze properly, but I seem to do just fine.  He will usually say "bless you" for the first 2 or 3, but after the sixth or seventh, he tells me that I'm greedy and I am left to sneeze in peace.  If there was any truth to the rumor that 15 sneezes is equivalent to a heart attack, and sixteen to an orgasm, I would have had many many orgasms.. right after a pretty decent heart attack.  Fortunately, I am proof that none of that is true.  Sneezing just happens... again... and again.. and again.  Blech.

I'm gonna spend a few minutes this morning taking my Friday measurements. AH says it looks like I have physically lost weight, but we'll see.  This has been another pretty bad week for me, what with school starting and the campus cafe making such delicious (and pointiful) lunches.  I need to start bringing my own lunches, making them at home, and planning out my foods for the week ahead of time so that I know I'm hitting my mark and then can have a few extras when I want them.

Ka welo happy.

Have a lovely day!  Love to all

EDIT: After taking measurements, I have lost 8 inches off of my body. I hope it keeps going down.

ToryLynn