UPDATES ON MOM, the Dementia, Home Health Care, MY CERVICAL NECK SURGERY COMING APRIL 13TH, and EVERYTHING ELSE.....

I wished my "mind" would rest, but I just cannot stop thinking about what ALL has to be done. There is so much to get done for Mom, but also my own stuff, it seems endless. To add to that, I have not felt the best myself, my night terrors are just horrible, and I have had a headache from hell now for at least two days. I know my doctor told me I had a sinus infection last time I was in, and he put me on antibiotics, but at night I wake up so stopped up I cannot breathe. I have to use some nasal spray, and then I can try and get some sleep, but I feel like I am suffocating. I know part of it is this stupid weather.... 

 

we have had NO winter, and now one day it is almost too hot, then the next, like yesterday and even today, it is very cool... it is sunny, but we have had rain for a couple of days now, so my back lawn HAS to be mowed before it gets too tall for me to do it with my new mower. But, our mornings the dew is so heavy it is like rain. So, there is no way to mow it, until later in the afternoon once it dries out.,.

 

I have to go and get Mom a microwave today, and I need a few things, so I have to go do that first, and then I guess I will try and get this back yard mowed... I am also trying to knock down some of the taller grass on my back lot before the city starts griping and then I will have to pay someone to come in with a tractor to mow it... I had gotten some of it down and then sprayed the weed killer on the weeds, so I had it kind of coming under control. Then of course it rained, and without the sun, now it is getting tall again, and I still have not had time to get the people that may get these bees out of that old piece of bus back there... so it will be hard to find anyone who will help me try and get that back "forty" as I call it cleared and cleaned up... I have so many dead trees, and limbs and the grass now is getting too tall, plus my neighbor never got all of his crap from the goats and chickens he had back there before he had to take the goats somewhere else... it was so nice with them back there they kept the grass, weeds and even all of the trees trimmed for me...LOL.. 

 

They would stand on ther back legs and reach up into the trees as far as they could and eat the leaves out of them, so even the trees stayed nice and trimmed back there... anyway, I hae been trying to do a couple of things here I needed to do at home, and now I am going to take my meds, eat some cereal, get dressed and go and see if I can get that microwave and pick up the other stuff I need... then I have to go over to Mom's and check on her... get her medications reorganized, and see how she is doing... she was in bed again yesterday when I went over, and I gave her some of her pain medication for her back, and got her the phone, some water, put some Ensure on the nightstand, and left everything that she needed and came home. I have not talked to her this morning yet but I had to apply for a new insurance card, SS card and her Medicare Card... somewhere down the way she LOST those in the past week or so... I cannot find them anywhere, so I got that done this morning... but I still have to go to the post office, with the form I filled out and her Drivers License and Birth Certificate to get her SS card... I thought I maybe able to do it online, and could everything else, but not the SS card yet... in some states you can order it online now, but TX is not one of them yet... anyway, thanks all of you... I need to get going... I HOPE TO BE A BIT MORE SETTLED TOMORROW SO I CAN CATCH UP HERE, ON MY BLOG, MY NEWSPAPER ETC...

 

I am so far behind on my advocacy work, blog, and everything... I am just frustrated I cannot find time to do my own stuff... and I am supposed to have surgery on my neck on April 13th!!!! I just do not know if I will be able to... if we get HOME HEALTH coming out for MOM by then, MAYBE I CAN HAVE THE SURGERY, but I MYSelF MAY NEED HOME HEALTH HELP AFTER THE SURGERY FOR A WEEK OR SO... I will be in a NECK BRACE 6 WEEKS! And I won't be able to LIFT, BEND ETC... until that begins to "heal" which takes at least 6 weeks for it to begin those BONE GRAFTS TO BEGIN TO ATTACH TO ALL OF THE HARDWARE IN THERE... OMG YOU SHOULD SEE ALL OF THE STUFF HE TOLD THE INSURANCE COMPANY HE HAS TO DO TO MY NECK... HE HAS TO TAKE OUT THE OTHER HARDWARE, AND TRY AND FUSE THIS OTHER DISC, THEN PUT IN NEW HARDWARE TO HOLD ALL OF IT IN PLACE... so this is really much more complicated than my 1st one.... plus my lumbar spine is giving me fits also, so I know I face having that surgery also... Hugs to all of you, Rhia Steele "All things Autoimmune"

#RABLOG DAY 6 - ONSET OF ILLNESS

Every person, male or female, whether that are our youth of the nation, or our 30's through 45 generation, and then from there 45, 55, and more all FIT into a Autoimmune, or arthritic diagnosis; OR as for myself as well as many, have had several different diagnosis and it changes depending on the way the "wind blow" so to speak!

In other words, age, gender, nationality, none are "immune" from suddenly and unexpectedly to hear the words, you have Rheumatoid Arthritis, and/or Osteoarthritis, which often plays into one another.


Honestly, I had suspected some type of autoimmune illness with me, probably 10 of more years before even really getting "tested" for them. In fact, it was my current PCP, who had just moved to our community from East Texas, and he is as sharp as a tack. I was one of his 1st patients, and from day one I was "hooked" with him being my PCP. AFTER, I already had several arthroscopic surgeries on both shoulders, my left carpal tunnel surgery, and the went through two total knee replacements, along with all of the various reasons I had been in to see him.... he told me he was going to run a huge "battery" of lab work on me. Some of it may take weeks to get back but I already had mentioned "autoimmune disorders" even before we began the lab work.

both of us were right, when those somewhere around 18 TUBES of blood they took from me finally were all processed, the findings were a direct autoimmune issue(s)...

From there it was a whirlwind of finding a Rheumatologist, and my 1st one, Dr. Rosenstock in Duncanville, as elderly as he was, turned out to be one of the best Rheumatologists I saw back then.

He was about 80 plus years old, and in fact, had a stroke not long before I went to see him. But, he took a very good once over of me, and told me, my toes, and fingers/thumbs, and other places especially where joints were showed signs of damage. He also told me I had Raynaud's, and I had a "hyperflexibility" of my joints, which also causes joints to be "over used" because they tend to go further back than a joint that is normal. I felt I had "undifferentiated autoimmune connective tissue disorder" and felt like as time went by I would be diagnosed with Lupus, RA, Sjogren's and so forth.

He was correct. But, as much as I appreciated him and truly felt he was an awesome physician, he was "old fashioned" and did not believe in "biologicals". In fact he still gave "gold injections".... which were used for a long while before many of the other meds became to help with these AI illnesses.

So, I went through an emotional, mental and physical battle trying to find a good Rheumatologist, and it took going through about 7 before the right one finally appeared. He has been taking care of my RA now for about 7 years or so.... and in actually my PCP takes care of my Lupus, mainly due to him being right here in town a few minutes away, and he can see me immediately when I am having a bad Lupus Flare....

I went through almost a grieving process.... first I was so totally forlorn, then I did not want to believe it was true, and then I was just angry about all of it.... insurance, doctors medications, pain doctors, then surgery after surgery all due to the deterioration of my joints due to RA/Lupus and osteoarthritis... and yes to boot, I have osteoporosis, which adds to the "fear" of all of it.

In time, and at times, first I kind of settled into the fact I was chronically ill, and in chronic pain.... yet I still fear certain symptoms and so on, just to me having several very critical times within the time of being diagnosed with RA and so forth....

I had hoped with time, I would regain more "life", more energy, more things that truly would make me happy, yet, I can day I am "not full of life" as I once was.... and all too often days are a struggle in one way ot the other.....

#RABLOG