27 January 2012

A week has passed by already, so let's get to it...

LOTS of painful headaches. It seems that this sustained high pain level in my headaches won't yet go away. I wake with them, conduct my days with them, and go to sleep with my head just pounding. (blech!)

The peripheral edema has been consistently lower. It never goes away, mind you; but it has not had a serious explosion of swelling in a while now.

My urinary flow and characteristics remain the same as they have for the last number of weeks. Still no overt signs of blood, kidney stones, etc.

My breath is as horrid as ever. It reeks of ammonia. I can still smell it (the ammonia), too, at its increased intensity. Breathing in or out, it is nastily pungent.

The flank pain is constant. There have been no sudden flare ups this week.

My appetite has been about average. The only noticeable change is that the frequency of feeling ill after eating seems to be constant. Even if I don't get nauseated--which is rare--, that same ill feeling hits about five minutes or so after eating. Nothing makes it go away but time...and a lot of patience.

As has been previously, my eyesight goes from great to bad depending on how I'm feeling on any given day. Yesterday was terrible; whereas today is much better. No rhyme or reason to this, as far as I can tell.

The daily exhaustion I feel has been awful. My nightly sleep hours have been all over the place, ranging between 4.5-9 hours per night. Then, my daily naps have also been wacko with averages ranging between 2-5 hours with no consistency. The other day I got a total of 17 hours of sleep (in twenty four), and still walked around in a fog. Yet, when I get only eight hours (in total), I go about my day just as exhausted.

The cramping in my lower legs has been improved (yay!!!). This past week I have not had a single episode of being awoken with the cramping. I have had a few leg and foot cramps come on while awake, but even these have not been as rigid or intense.

My body has been cold all the time. I am wearing a coat and fleece anytime I go out and about; even when indoors. Most of the time around the house I am wearing my fleece and my warm booties. When I go too long without adequately warming my feet, they (my feet) turn blue from the heals to the toes.

My AV Fistula continues to strengthen. The pulse at the junction is incredibly strong. So much so that I can feel the pulse of it throughout my hand, and up into my bicep. Also, I am finding that even bending my elbow tightly for more than a few seconds has an adverse affect on the fistula. Doing so apparently occludes the super vein enough that I actually feel pain along my arm. Once I release the pressure (by unbending my elbow), the pain is gone. This same feeling also happens if I put too much pressure on the vein itself (or anywhere along its length). No wonder the doctor warned of no blood pressure readings on that arm. One fascinating thing for me is that I can see the pulse of each heart beat along the length of the fistula. Pretty cool; in a...former paramedic...kind or way.  :o)

Anyhow, that's all. I don't remember anything else I wanted to pass along. Have a great week, everybody!

Good Health to All!

ScottW