monkeymom's Diaryland Diary
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In which I was praying for death, or morphine.
- How many doctors I have seen - 5
- In how many days - 4
- How many prescription medicines I have to take - 3
- How many knitting projects I have finished while sick in bed - 2 so far
- How many people have spontaniously noticed I am not around and checked on me? None, but when RA and Diana found out I was sick they have checked in by phone, and RA brought food (jello and Sprite, but hey, it's caring!)
That headache I mentioned in my last entry, that became so much worse that I went to the doctor on Friday. Not my regular doctor, who was inconsiderately out of town, probably in Cancun or something, that bastard, but a Nurse Practitioner at Same Day Care, the place where the pathetic people who don't have a regular doctor go, or when their doctor is on vacation! She stopped hearing me after I said the pain was around and behind my EYE, and started looking for an eye problem.
When she didn't find anything wrong with my EYE, she sent me to see my optometrist, who inspected my EYE and didn't find anything but a little irritation, probably caused by the previous EYE exam. He suggested some soothing drops and gave me a new prescription for glasses.
Saturday morning when I got off work, I still had a bad headache and was wondering, like always, how many pain killers I could take before I would need to get my stomach pumped. I was in so much pain and had taken so much Advil that wasn't helping at all, so I stopped in the ER on the way home and saw a doctor there, who also only heard EYE and checked my eyeball carefully. He declared that I had conjunctivitis, and sent me home with drops for that. Well yeah, I had conjunctivitis by then, after three people had been pawing around in my eye! As I was leaving, the nurse reminded me to check with my regular doc on Monday, and I asked bitterly if that was in case the problem wasn't conjunctivitis. She gave a little shrug and half a nod and went away, no doubt thinking I was just being a bitch. I hope she blamed it on the pain!
Oh, I had a little rash up near my hairline on the same side, and also a couple of spots on the eyebrow, near my nose. I started noticing that on Friday, and more on Saturday.
Saturday afternoon Rachel came up to visit and watch movies, and also to clean the bathrooms for money (they look great), and when I went off to work, full of pain and misery, she felt sorry for me and told me to call her if I needed her.
About midnight I was feeling so bad I called Rachel to whine, and she came up to my office and sat with me for a while, and finally talked me into calling Kathy to see if she would come in to work the rest of the night so I could go home. Kathy wasn't thrilled, but she came in (and I would have done the same for her!). I went home, expecting to be up all night, but as soon as I got in bed I feel asleep and slept the rest of the night!
Sunday when I woke up, Rich and Kim were gone to church and Rachel was knitting and planning to go to her branch in Rockford, but when she saw I was no better, she decided we had to go back to the ER. She made a list of all my symptoms, including the rash which had spread a little on the same side of my forehead as the headache, and then she made me wear my sunglasses for dramatic effect! She was determined that the doctor would pay attention to everything we said!
A friend was working in registration, and she said that the same doctor I'd seen Saturday was working, but another doctor, one I know, was working too, so she made sure I saw that one. Who looked in my EYE just in case, but was pretty sure that I had shingles, which had also crossed my mind because of the rash and the pain being on the same side, just like when Rich, Kim, and my Gma have all had them!
So we had a nice chat with the doc, shared pictures of our kids, and she interviewed Rachel about nursing school, while we waited for a call back from an opthalmologist to tell her which eye drops to prescribe.
Rachel dropped me at home and went on a journey through pharmacy hell, as first she found that my prescription coverage was not in the system at either of the pharmacies we use, and then at the second one, they were very helpful and suggested that she pay cash and only gave her half of the expensive prescription so it wouldn't cost too much and she could get the rest on Monday when we could get the insurance problem figured out.
She finally got home and started dosing me up and I just slept and took drugs for the next 24 hours. Except for the times I had to wake up to be sick, because the dose of the Valtrex (yes, it's herpes meds, because the same herpes virus causes Chicken Pox, Shingles, and Genital Herpes. Nice.) that I was given by the ER doc was twice as much as is normally given.
I was supposed to see an opthalmologist on Monday because Shingles in your eye can blind you (!) so I called RA and asked her to call and make an appointment for me, and could she drive me to it also?
I managed to get dressed and go to the Dr. visit, stopping to be sick on the way, thanks, and I told the Dr. that I couldn't keep anything down, and did he think it might be the medicine, because the pharmacist had mentioned it to Rachel, that it was a big dose, and they had checked with the ER doc, but she said it was correct.
The Opth. doc looked at it and agreed that it was a high dose and said to cut it in half, which is a normal dose, and let him know if I was still sick. I went back home and slept for almost another 24 hours, but this time thankfully, not vomiting, and now, two days later, I am feeling much better.
Today I was even awake for most of the day! I found out that there is pretty much nothing on TV during the day, but I did finally get to watch Knitty Gritty, which all of my knitting friends have mentioned to me but is on when I am normally sleeping. Janet Szabo was on and I was excited to see her because she is a cable genius. I used to love to read her letters to the old Knitlist.
RA was over yesterday and brought Sprite and Jello in cups, and two audiobooks for me to listen to so my eyes wouldn't get strained, so I tried to listen to them today but one of them was the yarn shop book Kathy was reading at work last week and it was too bland and boring, and there wasn't enough knitting. Or murder. Then I tried to listen to the latest Cat Who book, but I'm kind of over those. Those are like Jessica Fletcher mysteries after they killed off everyone in Cabot Cove, then she had to leave town to find dead bodies. Anyway, James Qwilleran and his mustache make my ass ache.
So I tidied up my bedroom a little at a time - when I started feeling woozy I'd lay down again, and then when I felt like it I would get up and do a little more. By tonight I felt like knitting again, and that, I think, is the real indicaton of just how sick I've been - I haven't knitted since Saturday afternoon!
I don't work again until Sunday night, and I'm sure I'll be fine by then. I'm going back to bed now.
Oh, and the pharmacy problem is all straightened out. When we changed our insurance to my job coverage because it's better than Rich's, they forgot to put the drug coverage in the system, and we aren't sick much, so we never needed a prescription filled before, and that's why we just found out, a year later!
11:26 p.m. - 2007-01-17
0 comments -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
other diaries: |
