Tag Archives: trees

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May Update

Let’s see, what’s been going on in my life? Well, April was the best month I have had in about six months. I have been walking 1000 to 1500 steps a day instead of the 500 average in December. I have been out of bed for about 9 hours a day instead of the 5 that it was for so long. I’m still housebound, but I’ve been in the garden and tried driving myself to nearby appointments. Best of all, I’ve been upbeat. Just like that… I get some space from the crippling symptoms and my mood brightens and the future seems oh so hopeful.

I’ve been on Prednisone for three weeks now (my feeling better started about two or three weeks before, so I can’t credit Prednisone). As much as I don’t want to be on it, every doctor I see has encouraged me to give it a try for diagnostic purposes. It’s only 5mg, but it was still rough in the beginning. I wasn’t sleeping well and I was grouchy and hungry. Those side effects seem to have abated, but I have others that continue: more facial hair growth (which would be great if it were my eyebrows and eyelashes) (but it’s not), swollen, hot hands and feet and constipation. The latter is the biggest problem. I feel like my bowel is inflamed, swollen and stagnant, which is the opposite of what I would think steroids would do. On the plus side, my skin is much, much better (although I was warned about the Prednisone-withdrawal acne flares by my dermatologist) and my joints seem to be bothering me less in the night (specifically, my shoulders and hips. They still crack and pop constantly, but they’re not as sore).

I saw my first naturopath. Some of you, I’m sure, will roll your eyes and some of you will wonder WTF took me so long! I am in the best place possible to visit excellent NDs because Bastyr University is right up the road, but I’ve held out because my faith has always sat solidly with allopathic doctors and western medicine. But, now, I’ve lost all faith. I told her that, too. I told her I am conflicted: On the one hand, I applied, got in and intended to attend Bastyr. I have researched it and I know the training they give and the scope of treatments NDs employ… And, on the other hand, for reasons I cannot quite understand, I want some big machine to find the problem inside me and some specialist to prescribe a drug that will make it all better and I can go on living. I know better! I know that what happened to me was the perfect storm of genetics, upbringing, lifestyle choices, viral exposure, toxin burden, detox pathway blockage, immune system malfunction, nervous system blitz etc. I know that I need full-body, whole-life help, so I’m not sure why it took me 40 healthcare practitioners to finally see an ND.

Well, let me tell you, I left in tears of gratitude. I needed someone to replace the Good Doctor and now I have the Better Doctor. She spent 3 hours with me. What?! Who does that? She took my history from womb to present. She addressed everything. She had ideas to support my system from all angles: endocrine, digestion, liver, adrenals, nutrients, lymph, circulation and on and on. She said, “Email me any time and, if you are scared or freaking out about a symptom or side effect, call me.” Who does that? She said she wanted to come with me to my endocrinology follow-up to hear what the doctor had to say from the horse’s mouth. No cost. Who does THAT?!

She wants me to try some things that I would normally scoff at, such as castor oil over my liver and high-dose vitamin C, but, what I keep reminding myself is: a multi-vitamin gave you the worst side effects you’ve ever experienced . Your weird pressure-point-restore-circulation physical therapy is the only thing that has helped. So, I’m open to anything. She wants me to come in every week for hydrotherapy. I’m not sure what this involves yet. I’ll let you know.

The clinic gave me a huge discount on the visit and supplements because I have no income and it’s located about 5 minutes from my house, which means I can drive myself on good days. All in all, I’m excited. But, I have a history of being excited by first appointments and disappointed in the long run, so it’s a cautious optimism.

I finally managed to apply for disability. My “rehab counselor” (aka shrink) gave me the name of a lawyer and that’s all I needed because I couldn’t manage to get going on my own. I never spoke to the lawyer, only her assistant who told me what info they needed. I spent a few weeks creating a spreadsheet of all the doctors I have seen, clinic addresses, tests ordered, drugs prescribed and, when the phone appointment happened, she didn’t need anything else (thank god because talking is still so difficult). The hardest part was I got a letter from the lawyer saying they will submit the info, it will take 6 to 8 months for a decision. It will probably be denied and they will file an appeal and if I don’t hear from them for a year or two, don’t be alarmed. I knew this was the case, but it was demoralizing to see it in print. If I had managed to apply or find a lawyer when I left work two years ago (how the hell has it been two years?!? LIFE IS SLIPPING BY!), I’d already be at the appeal court date by now.

That’s about it for now. I’m very busy this month: a teeth cleaning, a new dentist for a new oral appliance for sleep apnea (and it all starts over from the beginning) and follow-ups with my GP, rheumatologist, nutritionist and dermatologist, plus the hydrotherapy and mental therapy appointments… Exhausting.

It’s chilly again here and one of my dogs broke his toe chasing squirrels, so we’re all stuck back in the house being lumps on logs. I did manage to make it to the cemetery on my mobility scooter on that last hot day (thank you, husband, for making that happen). It was glorious.

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Allergies and all.

I wonder how much of how crappy I feel is from allergies. I wonder this all the time because I have never been able to accurately pinpoint my allergy “symptoms”. I don’t think I have any, but doctors continue to insist that I do. When I was a toddler, doctors did a whole slew of skin-prick tests and told my mother I was allergic to half the things on earth. I’ve seen the list: dogs, dust, insects, newspaper, hog hair (?!)… it goes on and on. Of course we ignored it and I don’t remember being plagued  by any allergy symptoms throughout my life (or maybe I was and it was “normal” to me, who knows?). Then, during a check-up about 5 years ago, a doctor told me I was “boggy” in my nasal cavities and said I should use Flonase to help with the symptoms, but I didn’t know anything different, so I never thought I had symptoms, so I never used the Flonase.

Then, after I fell ill with ME, I had some skin prick tests done again (searching, like so many of us do, for any answer to my problems). I was told I was allergic to dogs, cats, and dust mites. This time I took it marginally seriously and began the endless quest to kill dust mites (mattress, duvet and pillow covers, new allergy comforter, new latex pillow, wash bedding weekly in dust mite-killing detergent, HEPA air filter, UV and bright light, wet dust etc.) and started the lonely nights in bed without my pups to cuddle. Nothing about my symptoms changed. My ME/CFS symptoms, that is. Like I said, who even knows if I actually have symptoms to these supposed allergies at all? I don’t sneeze, I don’t itch ~ could my allergy symptoms simply be tiredness and a “bogginess” I never knew existed? “Yes,” the allergist said. “You will be able to breathe better and have so much more energy to play with your dogs, that you won’t mind not having them on the bed.” Never happened. Then I was tested for allergic reactions to trees, weeds, grasses, and molds.  I was allergic to all of it, especially alders and birch trees (see photos below).

birch tree reaction

birch tree reaction

alder tree reaction

alder tree reaction

Uh oh. There are birches all over our neighbourhood ~ we have one in our garden. There is an alder tree next door, looking over our yard. I looked up the current pollen count for our area: HIGH for trees, especially birch, alder and juniper.

Screenshot_2013-04-13-12-26-25What do I do with this information? I took a child dose of Zyrtec because I thought I should do something, but, as usual, I can’t really pinpoint symptoms. Yeah, my nose runs and my eyes feel … annoying… But, they don’t itch and I’m not sneezing and spluttering like those poor souls in the ads on tv. Should I be taking more antihistamines more often? Could it eventually help some of these allergic reactions I don’t even know I’m having? The doctor last year gave me Nasonex and oral steroids. They went in the drawer, unopened, of course. Maybe my allergic reaction would be more obvious if I went outside and rubbed my back up and down our birch, Baloo-style.

baloo - Edited

bare necessities

And I haven’t even started into the yes-you-have-food-allergies/no-don’t-trust-the-results arguments the doctors have when it comes to my positive blood antibody tests to tomatoes, cod and egg. I’ve always thought, if it’s not anaphylaxis, who cares? Unfortunately, with ME/CFS, it seems I HAVE TO care because reducing my body’s inflammation and stress hormones and toxins and oxidative stress and everything else that life throws at us is the only sure-fire way to feel better. Maybe Dr. Cheney was right when he joked that he’d like to be able to put patients in a coma to facilitate recovery ~ and, while he’s at it, how about we lie in a sterile bubble in a hermetically sealed room with no visitors, happy images fed into our subconscious, and nothing but anti-inflammatory glop in the feeding tube?

I’d rather curl up with my dogs (and the hogs) in the dirt and grass of the garden, under the shade of the alder, with a cold Mac & Jacks, and eat an omelet with some pico de gallo … and a cod and chips… with mayo and ketchup… fried in something other than coconut or olive oil… and live life. Allergies and all.