Thursday 16 October 2014

Updates Spring/Summer 2014

It has been quite the last 6 months to say the least! I was on a 9 month remission stretch when high blood sugars brought on a gastroparesis flare up. March 20, 2014 I ended up in hospital and was there for 32 days. I had a picc line put in and was sent home with it just in case I was to get sick again shortly after and could get medications easily and quickly since I am an extremely hard IV start. I have had anesthesiologists use ultrasound machines to try and get IV's on me that couldn't, that's how tough it is to get one. I literally become a human pin cushion. After being home from this flare up for a couple weeks I went to my family doctor to get my picc line removed which went good until a few days later my entire left arm was swollen. This made me nervous. So I rushed to a clinic and was put on antibiotics in case it was an infection and was told if it did not get better in a couple days to go to the ER for an ultrasound to see if it could be a blood clot. This frightened me and to be on the safe side I went to the ER the next day. And sure enough it was a blood clot from the picc line. I was put on warfrin which is a blood thinner to help get rid of the clot. The downside to this medication is that you have to get blood work drawn every couple days to monitor your INR levels and there are also a few food restrictions while on it. I also found it had a bit of an interaction with the medical marijuana I smoke. I would not wake up to use the washroom at night and ended up having a few 'not so pretty' messes...Super Embarrassing! lol. This was a problem because I was barely tolerating fluids and some days I was not well enough to get my blood work done or even keep the warfrin down. For the next 7 weeks I was in and out of the hospital having one flare up after another. I was finally put on a different blood thinner called Riveroxiban which you don't have any food restrictions and don't have to get any blood work done since Riveroxiban doesn't effect INR levels. I have now been put on Tinziparin injections for a blood thinner because it turned out riveroxaban was meant to take with food and well, that does'nt work for me. After 5 months I still had the blood clot due not getting as consistant amount of the blood thinners because my stomach was not absorbing them. After 5 month |I still have the blood clot. So now that I am getting the injection I will at least know I am for sure getting the medication. Now I am on Tinzaparin because its an injectable blood thinner which I needed because after a few months of being on pills I was not digesting them and/or they weren't being absorbed properly

During one of my flare ups in hospital I was able to get my neuro-stimulator (gastric pacemaker) checked to make sure the settings were still where they should be. I ended up finding out that the battery was running low. This meant it was time for a surgery to replace the battery. I ended up having the surgery to replace the battery, which went very well. I was a but tender and sore for a few days but nothing too bad :)

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