21 April 2012

In the six days since my last entry, things have been like a downhill roller coaster.

My last blog entry talked about the terrible day I had last Saturday. Well, Sunday I felt better, though not great. While the major S/S's had decreased to "normal," I still felt under the weather all day. I did feel up to going on a short drive to hopefully get a few photos. The drive was good--it was great getting out of the house!--but the drive itself was noteworthy because I had only a small issue with nausea or vertigo. I think this might be because of the new car I just got. It is a mid-size SUV that I can easily get in and out of, and it is higher off the ground. I think that the taller vehicle has gotten me above a lot of the visual stimulus that triggered the vertigo and subsequent intense nausea. A few more rides in the car should help bear that assertion out...or not.

Monday I felt a little off again. It was nothing major; I just felt ill all day, and had increased body aches, and continued diarrhea.

Tuesday was another really bad day. I awoke after about ten hours of sleep to a horrible headache, body aches from head to toe, a very intense ill feeling, a lot of bilateral flank pain, and nausea, too. As the day progressed I was again subjected to three bouts of diarrhea, and an increasingly intense headache. I sat around all day, dozed off for a half hour numerous times, and just felt totally wiped out. I ate nothing until about 945p, and was able to keep the food down.

Wednesday was again better, though not great. The headache was finally under control at a solid 9, which was actually nice. I still had two more episodes of diarrhea, continued flank pain and continued body aches. I was at least able to get around a little bit to get some housework done.

Thursday was better still. All of the symptomology was down except the headache, flank pain and (again) the diarrhea. My energy was up, and I actually ate a fairly good amount of food. Granted the food made me nauseated; but at least I ate.

Yesterday (Friday) was an OK day. I felt a little better, my headache was down to a very welcome 7, and I again ate a good amount of food--around 2.5 cups in total for the day.
On the negative side, the flank pain was again elevated and very constant, I still had diarrhea, and I ended the day with a huge increase of edema in my lower legs. I hadn't seen edema that bad in a month or more. I did a single rebound test at my ankle and the numbers were Color: +3   Skin: +15. 

Today I awoke with my headache raging. You know it is bad when the first thing I do after waking is to take a T3--which is exactly what I had to do today. Overall today I am not feeling overly bad; but I am not feeling at all very good, either. Very blah, too.

On the subject of my headaches, I had the "wonderful" experience of getting an MSG induced headache last night. I am intolerant of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)--an artificial "flavor enhancer"--, and am always careful to avoid eating any because it causes me to have sudden, unbelievably intense, pounding, all encompassing headaches that start about an hour after ingesting food with MSG. These headaches go well beyond the headaches I am having every day. They feel quite different, too.

Anyway, I ate some food that I knew to be safe. About an hour later, I felt my headache suddenly shoot to about a 14 (on a scale of 1-10). Two T3's didn't even put a dent in the headache. I just had to endure it. The only cure for this MSG induced headache is time...time to filter out of my body. Normally that would be about 1.5 hours after onset. With my kidneys in such poor shape that time frame increased to over six hours. NOT fun!!

I looked at the ingredients of the food I ate and sure enough, MSG was now the fourth ingredient down the list; meaning that there is a good amount of it in the food. I have to give my son the rest of the product that I have because that is now off limits for me. Once the headache had calmed, I got online and wrote the company about the issue. That may not make any difference, but at least they know that one of their products is now out of my purchasing ability.

In other areas, my urine continues to be odoriferous and very foamy (no obvious blood though!); my sleep is poor in quality, consistency and restorative ability, my eyesight continues its good to bad movement (dependent on how I am feeling), my breath is well, terrible, and my energy level is very poor.

So, that's a fairly good summation of my week. I am hoping that this next week is far, far better. However, a bad week will not get me down. My mind is still in a good place, I am as productive every day as I can be, my personal projects are moving forward, and I have much to be thankful for, and lots still to accomplish. So, on we go...

Good Health to All!

ScottW