Flu, Flareup, or Both? - 3/4/2011

Sleep was horrible again last night. I might have gotten one hour between midnight and two and then I was up the rest of the night until 7:30 when I was able to get maybe 2 or 3 more hours of sleep.  I was able to take a nap today though. The lack of sleep will probably soon catch up to me if it hasn't already.

Things took a downhill turn today. I'm not sure if I'm coming down with something or if this is just a flareup or both. It's one thing to eat and get nauseous and vomit, but it's a different thing when you don't eat or drink anything and are still nauseous and vomiting. So annoying and miserable. My body isn't even processing the acid/bile it's making. It's just sitting in my stomach making me nauseous until it builds up so much I get sick. I am thankful for the G-tube to drain the stomach so I'm not vomiting quite as much. When the nausea gets bad I can drain my stomach through the G-tube to try and prevent the vomiting, but then you just get the dry heaves.

Temple appointment is in 4 days. I am 30% excited, 60% nervous, 20% don't know what to think. I'm just hoping things work out and that I don't fall through the cracks as I have at other places. Answers and a treatment that helps would be fine with me. I know there is no cure but there are things to make it more manageable and tolerable.

Taking it one day at a time and hoping for a better day tomorrow!!! 

3/3/2011

I'm sure these posts have been getting fairly boring lately because there isn't too much to report. I still am on TPN everyday, so nothing new there. I had no appointments this week, so nothing to report there. I haven't gotten worse which is a good thing. I'm still by no means running any kind of marathon. I'm still just relaxing and taking it easy.

As I sign most of my posts, I'm just taking it one day at a time. That's really all I can do at this point. I can't spend all my efforts and energy worrying about the future because I can't change it anyways. I just need to use it to face the day ahead and just take one step at a time. So right now, I'm just waiting on the next step to come whatever it may be.

One a sunny and brighter note, I can't wait for warmer weather and for spring to get here. I like the warmer weather and the sun rays to soak up. I would have to say winter is my least favorite season but I do love the beautiful snow when it lays on the trees though. 

Taking it one day at a time!!!

Wednesday Whims!!!

I called Temple today and they hadn't received any paperwork yet, so I had to call Geisinger to make sure they send it. I had to fax them an authorization to even send the paperwork. I'm hoping it gets there, so the doctor has a chance to take a look at my notes and reports. So I don't get there and he is just finding everything out right then, and reading the chart while I am sitting right there in his office. Hoping he has a chance to review my chart and start thinking of some ideas.

I also recently had to renew my nursing license. They nursing office at work has been emailing me to send them a copy so I faxed that to them today. Stupid me though forgot to sign the license so I have to fax it again today.

I was up again half the night, as you can tell by what time I posted the poem early this morning. As soon as I do settle down and either just about asleep or having just fell asleep, our two dogs start barking. That makes it really hard to go to sleep then. I'm hoping for a better night sleep tonight.

Taking it one day at a time!!!

God's Big Plan

It's been a long time since I have wrote a poem. I thought since I was having trouble sleeping tonight I would write one. I was thinking about people from my GP support group while I wrote this - so this is for them!

God's Big Plan

As round and round in circles we swirl
It is back and forth from here to there

The feeling it brings makes us want to hurl

Our bodies been through too much wear and tear

Tired of fighting day in and day out

The more we struggle the more we doubt

Just wondering what this is all about

It makes us want to just shout

After wrestling this through the months and the years

Our body so weak we can barely just stand

We may not be able to see through our tears

Having no idea what is God’s big plan

We need to hold on to any hope we have left

As we struggle to make it through this test

We need to let go and just take a rest

For God only knows what truly is best

We need to see beauty in the little things

So we can see what tomorrow and the future brings

- Brenda P.  (March 2, 2011)

Thoughts for Tuesday - 3/1/2011

I didn't sleep good last night. I spend half the night tossing and turning trying to get to sleep. When I did finally fall asleep it seemed like I would still wake up every hour. It's so annoying. I'm not quite sure why it is. Maybe it is a combination of being nauseous and uncomfortable and not being able to get up and do a lot during the day.

I received a call from the GI doctors office that they had made copies of some of my paperwork to take down to Temple with me. So I ventured out to Geisinger to pick them up. Made for a tiring day, so I'm hoping I can sleep good tonight.

It was a fairly nice day out so I decided to get my nice car out of hiding a take it for a spin to go pick up the paperwork. It was nice being able to get out of the house for a little bit and enjoy some sunshine.

Something about Geisinger that doesn't quite make sense. Geisinger is a hospital which means that is where sick people go, right? Well then, why do they make the parking so far away? If your sick you probably aren't going to be able to walk that far to even get in the hospital let alone once you are in it. It just doesn't quite make sense to me. If you do make it inside the hospital, then you have another mile to go to get to your destination.

Tomorrow I will be making some phone calls to Temple to check and see if they received any paperwork from Geisinger, and to see what all I need to do if they didn't. I started today and Geisinger acted like they haven't sent anything and weren't planning on it. So I need to see what is going on with that tomorrow.

Taking it one day at a time!!!

New Address!!

For those of you who haven't noticed this blog has a new address. Some of you may have to change it in your readers to continue getting updates. The new address is: www.snippetsandsnapshots.com

Monday Meditations - 2/28/2011

Home health nurse was here this morning and did blood work and she also changed my dressing so that now they will just have to come once a week and do everything. So the nurses won't be back until next Monday when they will do more blood work and change my dressing.

A week from tomorrow I'm going to Temple. I really hope something good comes out of it. I joined a support group and have been able to talk with a couple different people who have went to Temple. Some have had positive things to say and some were not so positive. Sometimes it's hard for me to be positive because I don't want to get my hopes up and be really disappointed especially the way things have been going. From what I've heard, it will just be a visit where he goes over my chart and my history and orders a couple tests to be done. Some say they may do some blood work while I am there, but the other tests sound like they will be outpatient and that it takes a couple weeks sometime to get them scheduled. I was hoping we could get things moving a little faster.

As humans we want things done now. I don't want to just keep sitting at home on TPN for weeks/months to come. I need to get better so I can get back to work. I have already used up 1 of my 3 months I get for FMLA. So I am hoping it won't take too long to at least get the ball rolling toward answers and treatment.

I know that God's timing is the best so I will try my hardest to rest in that fact and let things happen as He allows them to.

Taking it one day at a time!!!

2/27/2011

Not much to post about tonight. Today wasn't a very good day. Struggled with nausea and pain more than my norm most of the day. Hoping tomorrow will be a better day.

Nurses are coming tomorrow to do blood work. Hopefully everything will be within normal limits. I'm pretty sure the same nurse is coming tomorrow that was here on Thursday. That's a good thing.

Taking it one day at a time.