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canadiandiamondSo, it's been awhile since my last update, and there's quite a lot to write about, at least from the recent past.
In general: work has been crazy, ever since I had a long trial that set me back even further than normal with respect to just about everything else. The trial ended in, oh, early June or so, and I'm still not caught up. Of course, that's a relative term because in my profession you never really get fully caught up, not truly. You can get close and be on top of things, but if you're ever completely caught up then you'd be out of work, I think. On the other hand, of course, no one wants to be constantly behind on nearly everything, which has been pretty much exactly my experience for a few months now. There's no lying that the stress of that (and some other self-imposed stresses, but more on that later or in another post, perhaps) has taken its toll on me, which, well, it sucks.
Going back to last Tuesday, I started having some abdominal pain, right in the middle of the region. It wasn't too bad at first, I chalked it up to indigestion and didn't think much of it, even as it persisted into the night. Waking up on Wednesday, I found it was still there. It lasted all day and evening as well, more of a nuisance than a severe pain, but it would come and go, pulsating and making me screw up my face a little in the worse moments. I called my family doctor but the closest appointment I could get was Monday morning. I told myself that if it persisted into Thursday I'd see another doctor or go to emergency about it.
Thursday it was still there, and it had made it very difficult to sleep on Wednesday night, so I called into work and told them I'd be going into the hospital. After calling the clinic to see if there was any other doctor I could see (in case of a cancellation or something, you never know) I found out that they could sneak me in before 11 to see my family doctor. Great, or so I thought. I went in and saw him, but he didn't really know what it was that was wrong. Due to the lack of certain specific symptoms he didn't think it was my bladder or my large intestine or anything, maybe my prostate but I'm too young for that really, so instead of ordering tests on the latter he said to go rest and if I got worse then to come back or go to emergency. In the meantime I was to rest and take it easy, so I did.
I got home, had a nap, and tried to relax. Unfortunately, this is where things take a big turn for the worst. I ended up napping for a bit but then I awoke with a yelp and a huge cramp in one of my legs. They hurt like hell and, while I don't get them too, too often, oh man. When they do, look out. Just ask![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
believeitup how cautious and paranoid I get when I think there's even a chance one's coming on and how I get up to walk and try to head it off, heh. >.> But yes, one hit and OW, hell, so my instinct, as per usual, is to get out of bed asap and stand up, stretching it out, which hurts too but doing so shortens the cramp I find and overall lessens the pain. But as I'm swinging my other leg out of bad, BANG. Cramp #2 in the other leg. FML, etc. etc. So here I am, yelling out a couple of times, standing and leaning on my computer chair and in severe pain. Mom was working in the next room and came out at my cries, and I told her it was just cramps, it'd be ok (though I still had a pain to deal with, it wasn't a heart attack or anything). Dad's downstairs and she goes out to answer him calling out about what's going on, and then that's when the nausea hit me.
It's not uncommon when I have these cramps to feel sick to my stomach, and lightheaded, along with the pain. I've even seen stars before, my vision getting blurry / hazy, it's bad news. And this was in both legs at the same time, the muscles (my calves, specifically) of which are knotted up and hurting like hell. I felt like I had to throw up and my little waste basket in my room, which was half filled with paper and bags and such, wasn't going to cut it. So I made the stupid, instinctual decision to make a bee-line for the bathroom. About 3-4 steps later I'm leaning against the door frame, exhausted, and calling out for someone to come help me get to the bathroom.
The next thing I remember was waking up as from a long, long sleep, everything out of focus and being so, so weak. It took a few seconds to realize I wasn't in my bed but I was on the floor, legs out in the hall, Dad holding me up on a 45 degree angle with a cold cloth to my head and Mom out in the hall. I'd passed out, for about 45 seconds they said, cold junk. Thankfully I'd been leaning on the door frame so when I passed out I just kinda slumped against the wall, letting my folks get me down easily so there was no chance for my body to strike anything else on the way down. Having just passed out I was, of course, completely out of it - so weak I couldn't move, could hardly speak, my vision was blurry (they took my glasses off), and I was kinda terrified myself too - so they ended up calling an ambulance. It took them ~10-15 minutes to get here and by then I was sitting up on my own power, holding my calves - don't you bastards dare try to cramp up on me again now! - and able to talk, see (yay for glasses being back on!), etc. Once they got here they did their own tests to make sure I was stable and whatnot, then off to the hospital.
It was quite the experience - I'd never had to ride in one before, not that I can recall anyway, and they even had to use the sirens thanks to traffic. Policy meant that, even though they both cautiously hovered around me as I walked to the ambulance under my own power, they had to strap me in, hook up oxygen, etc. Then when we got there I was wheeled in from the back and put into a room. They did so many tests - urine, blood, blood culture, EKG, x-ray, and some others - to make sure everything was ok. The doctor's final diagnosis was to go home and rest, not to eat anything too hard on my stomach in case that was the abdominal problem, and to order a CAT scan. I got called the next morning at just before 9am and told to come over, and they were surprised in the CT department that I hadn't had one on Thursday, but I did one, necessitating two more further needles (right arm first and when that failed the left, for an IV for dye). I felt like a frickin' pin cushion at that point but I did it and it wasn't too bad.
So, now tomorrow I have the day off for Orangemen's Day, though my assistant made an appointment with someone out of province a few weeks' ago for tomorrow at 10am and by the time she realized it was a holiday it was too late to reach them. So I have an appointment tomorrow morning, but I'd already made my family doctor appointment for 10:30am pre-fainting last week, both to get it done early and to also give me an excuse to make the work appointment short, heh. I'm going to have a long talk with my doctor tomorrow, I hope, to figure out what's going on. I do feel much better now; yesterday I spent the day in the city with Mom looking at beds and couches for the new house, putting a set of each on layaway and should have them for when the wife is here, and getting some other misc. household goods. :) But yes, want to see what the heck's going on tomorrow.
I'm wondering how much stress has to do with it. There's tons at work, as usual, which has been amplified by 1,000,000 lately for the aforementioned reasons, and I'm putting pressure on myself, too, to work on the house and to keep up in LOTRO and to read books as fast as I can, etc. These things on their own aren't that unusual and are often good things, motivation is good at times, but maybe all of this at the same time has been hurting me. Or it could be a virus or something, or something else entirely. The point is to find out as much as I possibly can tomorrow, so that's where things stand now. The abdominal pain is almost 100% gone now, only palpable if I push down really hard or force it, there's no random pulsating or pangs of pain, thank heavens.
That's the biggest news anyway, haha. XD Other than that, well, I talked about it a little above: picked out a bed set and some couches for the new house, omg. Which are so nice, and are on hold for now, but I need to contact them asap if they're to order them in for sure. They get shipments every 5 weeks so if I want them to be here by the time Sara gets here (which is 5 weeks from tomorrow to the day, but who's counting?) I need to let them know soon. It may be quicker than that, we'll see, but I'm very excited. The current deal includes free endtables with the couches, and the bedding comes with a free frame and pillows - the pillows are not a big deal but the frame will do once we get another mattress for the spare bedroom. We'd still need a headboard too but that'll be easy. Actually, to be specific, we'll be getting a cheaper mattress and boxspring right now with the good bedroom set, just to have something to sleep on while Sara's here, and once she arrives we'll look at a really nice mattress to put in the master bedroom for later on and we'll move the first mattress to the spare bedroom on the free frame we'll be getting. :)
Other than that, I finally finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo today and it was great, didn't expect the ending to it at all. Well, part of it I kind of thought about, but not all of it, haha. Very good book, and I have the second and third book queued up on the Kobo, and have the movie to watch too, now that I've finished the book. Maybe for tomorrow night.
Alright, that's my update for now. Hope everyone else has been having a better time of it than I have lately, haha, and that everyone had a nice weekend. :)
In general: work has been crazy, ever since I had a long trial that set me back even further than normal with respect to just about everything else. The trial ended in, oh, early June or so, and I'm still not caught up. Of course, that's a relative term because in my profession you never really get fully caught up, not truly. You can get close and be on top of things, but if you're ever completely caught up then you'd be out of work, I think. On the other hand, of course, no one wants to be constantly behind on nearly everything, which has been pretty much exactly my experience for a few months now. There's no lying that the stress of that (and some other self-imposed stresses, but more on that later or in another post, perhaps) has taken its toll on me, which, well, it sucks.
Going back to last Tuesday, I started having some abdominal pain, right in the middle of the region. It wasn't too bad at first, I chalked it up to indigestion and didn't think much of it, even as it persisted into the night. Waking up on Wednesday, I found it was still there. It lasted all day and evening as well, more of a nuisance than a severe pain, but it would come and go, pulsating and making me screw up my face a little in the worse moments. I called my family doctor but the closest appointment I could get was Monday morning. I told myself that if it persisted into Thursday I'd see another doctor or go to emergency about it.
Thursday it was still there, and it had made it very difficult to sleep on Wednesday night, so I called into work and told them I'd be going into the hospital. After calling the clinic to see if there was any other doctor I could see (in case of a cancellation or something, you never know) I found out that they could sneak me in before 11 to see my family doctor. Great, or so I thought. I went in and saw him, but he didn't really know what it was that was wrong. Due to the lack of certain specific symptoms he didn't think it was my bladder or my large intestine or anything, maybe my prostate but I'm too young for that really, so instead of ordering tests on the latter he said to go rest and if I got worse then to come back or go to emergency. In the meantime I was to rest and take it easy, so I did.
I got home, had a nap, and tried to relax. Unfortunately, this is where things take a big turn for the worst. I ended up napping for a bit but then I awoke with a yelp and a huge cramp in one of my legs. They hurt like hell and, while I don't get them too, too often, oh man. When they do, look out. Just ask
believeitup how cautious and paranoid I get when I think there's even a chance one's coming on and how I get up to walk and try to head it off, heh. >.> But yes, one hit and OW, hell, so my instinct, as per usual, is to get out of bed asap and stand up, stretching it out, which hurts too but doing so shortens the cramp I find and overall lessens the pain. But as I'm swinging my other leg out of bad, BANG. Cramp #2 in the other leg. FML, etc. etc. So here I am, yelling out a couple of times, standing and leaning on my computer chair and in severe pain. Mom was working in the next room and came out at my cries, and I told her it was just cramps, it'd be ok (though I still had a pain to deal with, it wasn't a heart attack or anything). Dad's downstairs and she goes out to answer him calling out about what's going on, and then that's when the nausea hit me.It's not uncommon when I have these cramps to feel sick to my stomach, and lightheaded, along with the pain. I've even seen stars before, my vision getting blurry / hazy, it's bad news. And this was in both legs at the same time, the muscles (my calves, specifically) of which are knotted up and hurting like hell. I felt like I had to throw up and my little waste basket in my room, which was half filled with paper and bags and such, wasn't going to cut it. So I made the stupid, instinctual decision to make a bee-line for the bathroom. About 3-4 steps later I'm leaning against the door frame, exhausted, and calling out for someone to come help me get to the bathroom.
The next thing I remember was waking up as from a long, long sleep, everything out of focus and being so, so weak. It took a few seconds to realize I wasn't in my bed but I was on the floor, legs out in the hall, Dad holding me up on a 45 degree angle with a cold cloth to my head and Mom out in the hall. I'd passed out, for about 45 seconds they said, cold junk. Thankfully I'd been leaning on the door frame so when I passed out I just kinda slumped against the wall, letting my folks get me down easily so there was no chance for my body to strike anything else on the way down. Having just passed out I was, of course, completely out of it - so weak I couldn't move, could hardly speak, my vision was blurry (they took my glasses off), and I was kinda terrified myself too - so they ended up calling an ambulance. It took them ~10-15 minutes to get here and by then I was sitting up on my own power, holding my calves - don't you bastards dare try to cramp up on me again now! - and able to talk, see (yay for glasses being back on!), etc. Once they got here they did their own tests to make sure I was stable and whatnot, then off to the hospital.
It was quite the experience - I'd never had to ride in one before, not that I can recall anyway, and they even had to use the sirens thanks to traffic. Policy meant that, even though they both cautiously hovered around me as I walked to the ambulance under my own power, they had to strap me in, hook up oxygen, etc. Then when we got there I was wheeled in from the back and put into a room. They did so many tests - urine, blood, blood culture, EKG, x-ray, and some others - to make sure everything was ok. The doctor's final diagnosis was to go home and rest, not to eat anything too hard on my stomach in case that was the abdominal problem, and to order a CAT scan. I got called the next morning at just before 9am and told to come over, and they were surprised in the CT department that I hadn't had one on Thursday, but I did one, necessitating two more further needles (right arm first and when that failed the left, for an IV for dye). I felt like a frickin' pin cushion at that point but I did it and it wasn't too bad.
So, now tomorrow I have the day off for Orangemen's Day, though my assistant made an appointment with someone out of province a few weeks' ago for tomorrow at 10am and by the time she realized it was a holiday it was too late to reach them. So I have an appointment tomorrow morning, but I'd already made my family doctor appointment for 10:30am pre-fainting last week, both to get it done early and to also give me an excuse to make the work appointment short, heh. I'm going to have a long talk with my doctor tomorrow, I hope, to figure out what's going on. I do feel much better now; yesterday I spent the day in the city with Mom looking at beds and couches for the new house, putting a set of each on layaway and should have them for when the wife is here, and getting some other misc. household goods. :) But yes, want to see what the heck's going on tomorrow.
I'm wondering how much stress has to do with it. There's tons at work, as usual, which has been amplified by 1,000,000 lately for the aforementioned reasons, and I'm putting pressure on myself, too, to work on the house and to keep up in LOTRO and to read books as fast as I can, etc. These things on their own aren't that unusual and are often good things, motivation is good at times, but maybe all of this at the same time has been hurting me. Or it could be a virus or something, or something else entirely. The point is to find out as much as I possibly can tomorrow, so that's where things stand now. The abdominal pain is almost 100% gone now, only palpable if I push down really hard or force it, there's no random pulsating or pangs of pain, thank heavens.
That's the biggest news anyway, haha. XD Other than that, well, I talked about it a little above: picked out a bed set and some couches for the new house, omg. Which are so nice, and are on hold for now, but I need to contact them asap if they're to order them in for sure. They get shipments every 5 weeks so if I want them to be here by the time Sara gets here (which is 5 weeks from tomorrow to the day, but who's counting?) I need to let them know soon. It may be quicker than that, we'll see, but I'm very excited. The current deal includes free endtables with the couches, and the bedding comes with a free frame and pillows - the pillows are not a big deal but the frame will do once we get another mattress for the spare bedroom. We'd still need a headboard too but that'll be easy. Actually, to be specific, we'll be getting a cheaper mattress and boxspring right now with the good bedroom set, just to have something to sleep on while Sara's here, and once she arrives we'll look at a really nice mattress to put in the master bedroom for later on and we'll move the first mattress to the spare bedroom on the free frame we'll be getting. :)
Other than that, I finally finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo today and it was great, didn't expect the ending to it at all. Well, part of it I kind of thought about, but not all of it, haha. Very good book, and I have the second and third book queued up on the Kobo, and have the movie to watch too, now that I've finished the book. Maybe for tomorrow night.
Alright, that's my update for now. Hope everyone else has been having a better time of it than I have lately, haha, and that everyone had a nice weekend. :)
