The topic of tonight's Blog is 'Irony'.
My best example of irony is me.
I went to the doctor's due to my not feeling well and listened to what they told me to do.
Prior to going I was doing really great for about four years and I was back down to what I euphemistically call my fighting weight of 103.
Going to the gym five days a week where I worked out for an hour and half each day.
Then I slipped getting out of our pool and my knee swelled up.
So after a couple of days of trying home remedies I went to the doctor.
All they could do was to take X-rays and recommend continuing with the RICE, rest ice compress and elevate, treatment I was doing.
Medication was not to be taken since they knew my stomach history of ulcers I could only take Tylenol, since all anti-inflammatories killed my stomach Advil had put me in the hospital.
But I wasn’t able to go to the gym the knee needed rest, within days the swelling went down.
And I went back to the gym.
Katrina hit the Louisiana Gulf Coast that year and brought back those horrid memories of me being hours in our hallway as our home was destroyed around us.
It triggered memories that I would not want to recall.
My knee had a soft swelling behind it that reappeared, and so I went back to the doctors who felt it was a benign cyst, and they chose a wait and see attitude, and so I did and it went away.
But I found myself going less and less to the gym where I had another full year already paid for.
My neck started to hurt and my balance waivered.
So back to the doctors where they started doing an MRI of my shoulder and neck, which we all knew I had arthritis in.
The MRI showed that I did have stenosis in my cervical region, the neck, and a tear in my muscle in my right shoulder.
The Orthopedic surgeon did a neurological test for balance and told me that it looked like I had Ataxia and that I should see a neurologist, and I did.
More MRI’s and in the interim a visit to an ear nose and throat doctor to rule out middle ear problems that test was negative.
The MRI results showed plaques in my brain that indicated MS, but also TIA’s.
Since both my parents and my now I know my brother died from strokes it was recommended that I quit smoking.
But I was not readily convinced until the MS doctor said that if I quit my MRI might not show anymore TIA’s, and he could get a better diagnosis of my MS, and so July 11. 2006 I finally did.
But now I had been taking seven prescriptions’ dedicated to each of my many symptoms and each doctor insisted that they’re not responsible for my weight gain, which was 30 pounds at this point.
So my dilemma to quit smoking was another weight gain which had happened each time I had quit before, which had been six times, adding fifty pounds each time and then I would miraculously take it off when I exercised and returned to smoking.
But this time was different I had tangible evidence that the smoking was causing something serious, and so that was my motivation.
I looked at it this way the threat of a stroke would be lessened and I would feel all better from not smoking so then I would exercise and lose the weight and not gain anymore.
Hah! Not to be, the weight that I already gained was causing me havoc and was making it difficult to do many things. I was too embarrassed to go back to the gym so I tried weight loss clinics and at two different ones wasted over $2400 and not losing a pound. Not one of my doctors would admit that the meds were causing the weight gain I only found out from doing my own research and by then I had gained all that quit smoking weight on top of the medication weight.
But I didn’t let that stop me I was determined to lose it and so I decided I would walk around my neighborhood since many times before I had walked to lose that smoking weight and it did work. I was even a race walker for a while able to complete 3 miles in 40 minutes. I even took myself off the medications that I felt were causing the weight gain, but two I could not. Cholesterol and blood pressure medications when I went off them it proved that my cholesterol went up significantly and so did my high blood pressure which until this weight gain I never had before.
So walk I did I started slow but eventually got up to one hour five to six times a week and I lost 12 pounds!
But then the summer came and the heat is hell for MS with our humidity, and so I switched to the pool, which is more range of motion than weight loss for me being a certified Aquacize Instructor and all.
So in the summer I gained it all back.
In the fall I began again this is now the fall of 2008 and by November my what I thought was bursitis is constant and with my cane I walked with for my balance issue of Ataxia my shoulders felt like they had bursitis too, which I know I did have in my past, both hip and shoulder bursitis so back to the doctor again.
In my heart and all my training I knew that bursitis wasn’t this chronic for months and this debilitating not being able to sleep from pain for nights and nights.
And so when I went to the doctor and asked if now it might not just be Osteoarthritis of those two areas he said yes, and told me not to walk and that I would need my hips replaced and surgery on my shoulders so to try to lessen my cane use inside.
So this is why I use one of those motorized carts in the stores since both hips have bone on bone that I can sometimes hear but always feel, and my shoulders are shot too, which makes even pushing the motion buttons on those carts, hurt.
So the next time you see someone in one of those carts think twice before you crucify them.
Oh yeah, get them fixed you say, well, it just so happens that when my husband was injured on the job of being a deputy, which he gets disability for we did try, but COBRA wants $1200 a month for their insurance, which is nearly 40% of our income, not good, and four other companies turned me down due to me being pre-existing, so please people don’t assume things when you see someone in a difficult situation most do not want to be there, actually all; who would want this?
Good night to all and to all do not judge people without knowing all the facts, no change that to don't judge people ever, no one should.
Speaking My Mind is about: Tobi, who is a middle aged, no, oh all right a slightly over the hill woman with all the imperfections that go with that, and this concerns her daily life's perceptions and experiences.
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