Feeling better

What a difference a week can make!

Two weeks ago, our director, lovingly decided to book me off work for a week to get some rest and hopefully recover from my stomach and breathing issues that had still been lingering and in some ways gotten worse. I was given the loving directions to rest for the week, listen to what the doctors advised in the two appointments I had and then we would re-evaluate the situation before moving further. I saw the surgeon who had taken out my gall bladder first. My stomach was still bothering me and I was still having difficulty keeping food down, which was quickly becoming a problem in that I was lacking nourishment and getting dehydrated quickly. The photo you see of me in the blue sweater was taken before I started keeping food down on a regular basis. As you can see, I wasn’t looking great.

After 5 days on an antibiotic to fight off any post op infections that may be lingering and a week on an med to ease some of the acidic problems I was having with my tummy, I was able to keep food down. Now after two weeks, my apetite is back and I am able to eat essentially anything I want. Now I just have to be careful not to gain all the weight back that I had lost. I’ve already gained a few…yikes:).

On Monday of this week, I saw a heart and lung specialist that had been recommended to try and re-evaluate the breathing problems that I had been struggling with since January. We had become quite leary of the asthma diagnosis as the medications were not working and were actually making things worse at times. The new doctor was very friendly and offered many possibilities. He did an ultrasound of my heart, lungs, kidneys, all of which came back clear…Praise the Lord! When the doctor was finished with the ultrasound he sent me for more blood tests, thankfully not the ones I had already had done before. There were no results on Tuesday, but Wednesday the doctor’s office phoned and wanted me to go in for one last scan. We were all singing praises when the doctor phoned on Wednesday night and said they had finally found something and that it was easily fixed. The doctor informed me that I was suffering from pleurisy. This was probably caused by the bronchitis that I had gotten back in January. The doctor informed me that he would be putting me on a cocktail of medications and that he had every expectation that I would be feeling better in two weeks. I am already feeling better and breathing better than I have in months. I felt good enough that I even thought I would try jogging this morning. That was a little bit too ambitious for only a week of feeling better, but hopefully I will be up to jogging around the property in the mornings very soon!