Wasp Sting turning to "infection", dealing with "overload" of paperwork after Mom's passing away, my own health issues, ankles still not well & so much more....

I've been "knee-deep" in things to do... I feel like I am s slow as a turtle these days. I've just now began to realize how much needs o be handled now, from the house, to car, and paperwork. I thought my hands were overfull just taking care of Mom while she was here, but I think I am on more "overload" than I was just a few weeks ago. My "to-do"list gets longer each day, and my "energy" and ability to "get er done" seems to be somewhere lost between the rock and a hard spot... 

Anyway, I am around, just involved in trying to get everything taken care of, and trying to keep this house half way clean. and the lawn needs to be mowed and it appears my neighbor may be gone on vacation or something. I've not seen him in over a week, and I noticed they had all of their blinds down... and his car has not moved in a few days either, so when it is as tall as it is now, plus with me STILL REELING from whatever the hell is going on with me, I cannot stand the sun to even for a moment to be on my skin... I can't really "explain" it, but after all of the burning, itching so severe it almost drove me nuts, hurting, swelling mess with the Wasp stinging me then the stinger in my arms for about 24 hours, before I realized that is what was in the little hole in my arm. But as I "tried" not to scratch it, but it looks like either I have had the "shingles" just looking at the forearm all over, and my skin almost appears as if the 1st or 2nd layer of skin was "burned off"... it is very strange... and most of it I believe is where I was rubbing it, or trying to rub like a soft cloth over it, anything due to that burning and itching... so now I do wonder if this was all the sting, OR did it turn into shingles? 

I have had now this is the 3rd time, a rash that appears almost like shingles. The others were not as bad, but they also burned and itched like crazy. So, between that, and my ankles are still not the best. My right one swells up still a great deal, if I am up and on the move... but right now I don't have time again to stay off my feet and get back on the sofa, then I feel like I really am falling behind. There is something else that I wanted to share, and I hope it does not "weird" anyone out. It could be this happens, for we are definitely "creatures of habit"... but about a week ago, I began to have these s"instant" thoughts, Gosh, I need to "call Mom", or I need to go over and check on her... it has happened now several times, sometimes more than once, if I think of something that she may have wanted to know etc... so I know it kind of hit me as "strange"... yet like anything we repeat in our daily lives, it tends to become "automatic" in life. If we get the mail everyday at 4PM, then even on a holiday, many of us probably go and look for our mail... and then find it comical that it is a "holiday" dummy.... I can say, although as "strange" as it feels, it's not a "bad" kind of strange, it is just something that I've never experienced before... 

That house is beginning to look much better inside. Gosh, talk about a "pack rat"... now I know where ALL OF THOSE PRESENTS FOR BIRTHDAY'S, MOTHER'S DAY, XMAS etc went! She has packed, packed and repacked stuff over and over again... so there were several things over there that belonged to my Granny Svehlak, and much of that is crystal bowls and so forth. So, I know there will be some things that will remain, to be passed down, etc... to my son and daughter, and my Grandkids... many "keepsakes" so just like myself, Granny always made Homemade Cookies, and she had a special jar that I loved all my life, and when she passed away, I asked if I could have it, and I have it sitting in my stands that have glass doors on them, with some other things from the family etc... Then, I am still having heck with being nauseated and not feeling "great"... I am sure the heat, plus the Lupus Flare, plus the antibiotics, and all of the stress from the past several weeks, really months, is catching up to me. My neighbor did say that there is a "stomach virus" going around here in town, and hell that is the last thing I need! As I continue this "journey" through paperwork, redoing floors, painting, and making decisions on many things, your thoughts, well wishes and prayers are definitely still needed... 

I "thought" I would almost be at the place to go ahead with my neck surgery, but as it is right now, I have to get over everything else first... plus that stupid "motion disorder" and it also can cause these "audible noises" where I think I "hear" someone with the "news" on television, or certain things just "set off" this strange mess. When it 1st happened just after moving back to TX, I was terrified... but myself, my Mom, my Granny and hers was really bad, and my daughter all have it.... it is a type of vertigo, and of course that effects the inner most ear, so when the "crystals" form, then you can have all types of motion sickness, and like me, it is like I can hear "Channel 5 News" or something off in the background... I've been through all types of tests, because I also continue to have double vision. If I don't have my glasses on (and it is over due time for a new script I think) which have the special "prism" in them, and it "deters" the double vision. Anyway, here is a bit of an update... I feel I need to be moving a million miles an hour (my brain is), but my body is just not cooperating... Hugs to all and again I appreciate your thoughts, well wishes and prayers.... Rhia

Pics of my Granny and Grandfather (my Mom's parents) then a pic of ALL of my Granny's sisters, and cousins, and all of the huge family. Abs as promised, the "Ye Old Inn" matchbooks like brand new, plus I "think" the sale and pepper shakers may have cam from there... I believe it was a "give-a-way" of something ...then the lamb and the diaper pin! The lamb was given to me BEFORE I was born! And I have not seen a diaper pin in ages... do they even make cloth diapers anymore and diaper pins???

The "NEVER ENDING" Saga of Rhia, Autoimmune illnesses, cellulitis, abscesses, and feeling the pain, disgust, frustration for others like myself that seem to NEVER get a break

This is a post I sent to a friend on Facebook... she also is just having one hell u va time, dealing with "crap", illnesses, and all that entails when you feel life NEVER gives you a break! I realize some of it I've already posted, but believe me... I feel it is totally worth repetition... so others KNOW they are NOT alone!

 

 

 

  I SO, SO, SO can empathize with you and how you feel. It has been so much the same for myself. Between the already issues with Lupus, RA, and so forth, then the accident last year in March that my husband was in, now he has left and moved back to WA state.. we are filing for a divorce and honestly I am NOT sure to this moment WHY? Then I need lower back surgery, then my Mom in the midst of me finding out what was wrong with my hips and legs, which was my back, she comes down with a severe hip issue, that also turns out to be her lumbar spine also. She is 80 years old, and they do NOT even want to discuss surgery on her...but they are trying with medication, PT and supposed to do some epidural injections on her. About the time we got those scheduled her last living sibling, a younger sister, passed away of a rare stomach cancer, she had been fighting for a couple of years, then BOTH of us come down with some kind of stomach virus, & I spent several weeks of it seeming to come and go, and even got ill Sunday morning...I was so upset, I felt "fine" was dressed, and was about to walk out the door, and my stomach felt "odd" and sure enough, I almost did not make it to that bathroom and was sick to my stomach again, out of the blue... then I have been dealing with a "lump" on my mid left thigh now for about 9 weeks... my PCP thought it was cellulitis, and of course with my immune system being so compromised, he immediately put me on TWO antibiotics, which helped some, but after 3 ROUNDS of them, 7 days each, he wanted me to have a surgeon look at it, and cut it out...well, I had a hard time finding a surgeon close enough that took my insurance, finally did, but he could not see me for over a week! So, all of a sudden this "lump" that showed no signs of an outside infection... has not been red, warm, or appearing to be infected on the outside, but a week before I was to see the surgeon I woke up to it being very red, warm, and appeared to almost be trying to burst open... so I quickly called mt PCP and told him... so he put me on another round of the antibiotics until I could see the surgeon. Well by the time I saw the surgeon which was last Friday, it has abscessed inside, and he had to "CUT" it open, and let all of the infection out of it! He also sent some to be cultured, and I must have had "two layers" of infection. One kind of shallow, but another much deeper. Now he did this in his office, just injecting lidocaine in it, which hurt like hell and burned worse...and I am "tough"... nothing usually bothers me... but then I had to take the bandages off twice daily, after getting home, and "clean it out" with Q-tips and peroxide... when I took the bandage off the first time on Saturday, OMG I have a HOLE in my thigh deep to it almost feels like it is to my bone, and wide... like 2 inches deep and that wide... I almost could not do it, but I knew I had to.. so I did that and then finally yesterday, it was not quite as painful so I took a shower and used antibacterial dial liquid body wash which I had already been using, and he said to allow the soap and water to get into it, and clean it out... I did, and it hurt some but not all that bad... but then this morning, I began to take off the bandage and it again looked awful to me... it is still draining a bit... but I see him tomorrow thank goodness... now he did not address the "other lump" on my right thigh, almost in the same spot as this first one. It came up after my PCP began me on antibiotics, but I never said anything about it, thinking that medication would take care of it also... well it is still there, a bit larger, and I fear it may be the same thing. I had told the surgeon's nurse Friday, but I guess he forgot about that once he was working on this other one. So, I've got to point it out to him... it is just like the other one... it shows no "outside" appearance of an infection, it is just a lump under the skin.... to top that off my Rheumy wanted to put me on a new RA Medication, but before we could change I had to do a whole entourage of blood work, TB testing, Hepatitis, etc... well all was "okay

accept the TB test... that particular test has to be done just a few hours after the blood is drawn or it can come back not accurate... so mine came be "indecisive"... so I needed a damned chest Xray to show the test was just off... well I could not again find anyone close that took this stupid insurance, so I finally was just going to pay our Urgent care to have it done. Well, the order got misplaced that my Rheumy sent them..then due to this lump, my Mom, my Aunt passing away, I got delayed in doing the X-ray... so when I went out to have it done last week, they had NO order, or they just could not find it, and when I called and had my Rheumy fax it, it was for 2 views instead of one... so I did not want to have to pay double if it was not necessary, so I had to get hold of my Rheumy... and have them fax a new order for one view... I FINALLY got that done, and now due to the lump, the infection, the delay of the Xray... I've not had any RA meds in like 9 weeks or more!!! So, my RA, is so bad.. And within all of that is even more crap that has and is happening... and I am just frustrated, upset, disgusted, mad, and all the things you feel... it is like some of us NEVER get a break... EVERYTHING in my life has always been "complicated".... and it is just too old... for sure....there are days I want to crawl under my bed to never return.... and between all of that... my Pug has also had stomach problems and been sick to her stomach off and on also....