This month has been challenge filled to say the very least. I've spent five days in the hospital and a couple of days in the emergency room. Yep, days.
Except this time when I got home I couldn't breathe and my heart was pounding and the center of my chest hurt like a cinder block was crushing my sternum.
I trudged up the stairs and took my blood pressure. All I remember now is that it broke 200. We went to urgent care and then the emergency department.
Rinse and repeat a month later.
The chest pressure accompanied me most every where I went. Nitro occupied a permanent place in my pocket. Labeled "stable angina", I popped Nitro a couple of times a week. The cardiologist said that was too often and upped my dosage of a heart medicine called co-reg.
Co-reg made me dizzy; a fall down drunk sort of dizzy. I've had a lot of scrapes and bruises from said dizziness. I carry a cane to help me keep my balance.
Six weeks ago my primary care doctor and I were talking and I mentioned the dizziness. She took me off the co-reg and put me back on a drug I'd previously used. The dizziness dissipated within twenty-four hours, but the angina grew worse.
The next time I saw my pcp I mentioned I was having the angina occasionally at night, painful enough to wake me from sleep. She had me call my sister and I went to the emergency room. I spent approximately twenty-seven hours there before I was admitted.
Several days were spent attempted to regulate my blood pressure which ranged from 120 - 190 / 75-99 or so. Lots of tests, lots of different drugs, lots of experimentation.
Finally, I was released but had a near immediate set back. While shopping for my new prescriptions, I had an event which terrified me and did nothing good for C. Since I was still adjusting to my new meds and had been off my feet for nearly a week, I was in a wheelchair. While looking at a bottle of Tylenol, I found I could not form the word Tylenol, nor adequately explain what I wanted with the Tylenol. The thoughts were coherent in my head but I could not make them come out of my mouth in any sort of cohesive order that made sense. I was speaking gibberish and I knew it.
We returned to the ER. In the few minutes it took to "sign in" and get seated in the waiting area, I threw up the little I'd eaten. More tests, all sorts of physical gymnastics; touch your nose, hold your hands out, smile, lift your eyebrows, puff your cheeks and a host of others. No, I hadn't had a stroke.
Another overnight, in the ER.
Finally, I was allowed to go home. I even made it there this time. The next day, I woke and was feeling pretty good considering all I'd been through.
That was until about 2:00 p.m. when I took my blood pressure and it was a whopping 80/53. Dealing with low blood pressure was something new, and in and of itself was quite an adventure. End result, I was back in the ER, this time at a different hospital. I was kept there for about seven hours.
So far, I've made it six days without a visit to the emergency room.
Today my eighty-three year old mom, and my sister came to help me clean my house which hasn't been properly done since that first ER visit six months ago.
Today, while I didn't have a lot in the way of energy, was the first day, I felt like I might be on the mend. There were a couple of high blood pressure moments, and there were some wonky blood sugar readings, but right now I feel that I am tracking a positive direction.
With such serious health events occurring, my general life focus has changed.
And, God willing, that will be Part 2 of this missive.