My Health

My blog, "Life Through My Eyes" is just that, a blog about things I see, or better yet the things I live through or with and the things that are a major part of my life. I blog about my kids, grandkids, things or projects I make or start…..sometimes finishing, my brothers, The KING (my dog) and so much more. I try to keep things positive and upbeat but sometimes there are just those days that you wish to share that might not be so upbeat or so positive. We all have those days we have all lived through them at some point in our life. I want to share this blog with you in hopes that if there is someone out there that does not understand, maybe it will help them. Someone out there that might not realize that some of this stuff is happening to them and they were not sure what it could be, maybe this will answer some of those questions. Plus, as I get older it becomes hard to keep up with all this and the order...this will be for my memory also.

Keep in mind what I blog about here today is my experience and it might not be the same for all. Keep in mind that most of the things that I tell you are things that have happened and through studying and researching the net I found that it was a part of what I live with daily. I don't read this stuff and make up the pain or the issue, it is there already when I go to search for a cause. Okay…..so what is she talking about now! My health!! My health that I have watched and experienced slowly sliding down hill for years now. I suffer from sleep apnea, fibromyalgia, IBs, asthma, acid reflux, migraines, back issues, skin issues, Raynaud Syndrome, hot flashes, fast heart rate, diabetes and possible blockage in the heart all at the ripe old age of 53. But I started falling about years ago.

When I was a child I had eczema behind my knees. Made for sitting on your legs in a hot summer hard to do. As I grew, it migrated around. At one point, on the top of my feet and between my toes. There was a time where I could only wear white socks cause the dye in them would cause me to itch so bad. It moved again to my forearms. Washing dishes as a kid and only being tall enough to reach over the sink without resting my arms on the silver band around the sink was not easy, so there was where it developed next. From there, the inside of my hands and between my fingers. Rubber gloves was no help at all cause the hot water to wash dishes would make my hand sweat and they would start the worst itching. I even lived with it there for years, into adulthood and while I was a mother to my first child. I no longer, (where is the wood I need to knock on?), have to deal with flare ups much anymore. But to my understanding, it never leaves your body so from time to time I will have a mild case of it but it has been awhile. Nothing much helped me to deal with this except a cream that I was given years ago, Lidex cream, a steroid. That was my saving grace.

Oh….and how many times did I get pink eye? Several that I remember. It would usually start with spring, pollen and me rubbing my eyes. I remember one time it was so bad that the eye doc put me in a completely dark room for a few days. I had to keep cold washcloths on my eyes. Mom threw a green army blanket over the window so light would not come in. There was no TV for me then. I think for the most part, I out grew that. I still have allergies that I have taken shots for but mostly they affect me in the way of a headache.

Next in my life I had to deal with an infection in my blood. Not sure how I got it, where it came from or why I was picked to be the one to get it, I do have two brothers so the question was always, "why me"? I developed boils. I had some pretty major ones on my legs and knees. There were the days that you were told to soak them in Epson salt. So I would sit in the floor with a tub of salted water under my knee or leg and I kept dipping a washcloth in the water and laying it over the spot. Later as I grew and was married I worked at McDonalds, the grease in the air was so thick and it messed with my skin, then I started with boils again. Had to go to the doc and have one lanced on my cheek, the one on my rear! But worse and the reason I left McDonalds was the infect came back, and I was getting boils on my eye lids. Really rough. Need to really be knocking on wood cause I have not had to deal with that for years either.

I think that covers my early years! LOL…now to move into what happened when I was 18. I was working for the state of Tennessee at the time and they give employees free flu shots. I went to the Capitol where they were sat up and got my shot. Yay, I am doing something really good for myself. It was the year of the Swine Flu. I heard it was going to be a rough flu so I wanted to protect myself. Being under a certain age I had to have a follow up shot. So, I think a few weeks later I had to go back and have another one. No more got it and got back to my building till my neck started to ache. Ached so bad I could hardly hold my head up. By the time I got home I was in pain, just in the neck. A few weeks later, out shopping with my mom for Christmas, I reached up and felt a golf ball sized knot on my neck. YIKES, what was going on. To the doc we went. Image this, you are 18, and all of a sudden your doc is telling you that he is sending you to a surgeon because he don't know what is wrong, what that knot is but he thinks it needs to come out, he thinks it might be cancer. You see the surgeon and he telling you that he has seen 2 other cases like this in the last few weeks, not on the neck but other parts of the body. I went in the hospital and it was cut out. By that time and by the fact they had to go so deep to get it, it was the size of a baseball.

My labs were all sent to Vanderbilt in hopes of figuring this out. All that came back was, abscess on the lymph gland caused from bacteria. It appeared that for some reason whatever bacteria entered my body all went to a weak place, my neck. Okay, I know you are thinking the same thing I did, did the flu shot cause this? Well according to my doctors, no. But also, do you know many in the 70's that are going to go against something like a flu shot since you are encouraged to have one by them? To this day, yes, I think it caused it.

I went home with a thin scar on my neck, sewed up so nicely. But, fluid built up in there and it finally busted, making that nice neat thin scar, big and wide and ugly.

Four months of wearing a bandage, four months of my neck being in a total raw rash cause my skin don't even like hypro-allergic bandages….I changed docs, I was not healing. The new doc said, pour hydroperoxide in the opening and put Neosporin on it. I was healed in no time. Thanks Doc…..but it left a nice…..UGLY scar that I still live with. Thank goodness it has faded and don't look bad. LOL….and oh the stories I have told about how I got that scar. I had some fun with it.

Whoops…..it is not over! Nine years later a knot reappears on that spot. New doc, new insurance, same neck, same spot…..but so much as changed. I think the first time I stayed in the hospital several days for surgery this doc had a surgical area off his office. First time, I was put to sleep, this time the area was put to sleep. Same results, bacteria settled there. Apparently what happened was that a partial or piece was left behind after the first surgery, it laid dormant all those years, only to flare up after me having a cold or something. So in the process of sewing the area up I just ask him what about it coming back again, can you just not put a zipper there so I don't have to go through having it cut open again! Yeah, well you know that did not happen, but with luck, the knot has not returned.

Okay folks....giving you a break. I will continue this in

the next blog. If you think this was all interesting,

Come back and see where life leads me with

health issues.

Thanks for stopping in,

Pam