Infection in Left Knuckles Infected & on another round of antibiotics Still with me, along with more issues, now the city and my road a mess they have made!

SO! I STILL HAVE AN INFECTED "HAND" joints, whatever! I have been through hell this past 10 days or more. Between this hand, worrying about having to postpone the pacemaker AGAIN! (no way they will do a pacemaker when I have an infection still going), then the city had FRIGED UP MY ROAD! I found out THEY SCREWED UP, HAVE HAD US HALF WAY BLOCKED IN AND WE NEVER KNOW IF WE WILL BE ABLE TO GET IN AND OUT OF OUR DRIVEWAYS -

they did this AND NEVER WARNED ANY OF US! I talked to neighbors yesterday and found out they did NOT get the materials in they needed so now they are "stalling". They keep putting truck loads of gravel type almost a sandy rock mess and if it were not bad enough, rolling that down, and then if it is not wet from rain they come along and wet it. So, either it is WET AND MUDDY! OR it's dry and the dust flies everywhere!!! No one "SEES" that they are driving and kicking up mud, dust, rocks everywhere driving over it. I blame the city for that also, they should have SIGNS UP WARNING THESE IDIOTS NOT TO DRIVE FAST OVER IT.

Then they have "built up" the road so high (my property already has water that runs on it if it rains very much, because they have the other side of the road high enough, so all of the water runs to my side and into our ditches and under my carport, and my back yard looks like a landslide has happened. I know they can't help the rain BUT they dug out "some ditches" but like mine is full of water it needs to be dug out and the culvert is so old, it's bent down and won't allow water to run thru so now it's standing in water, causing mosquito's (but they gripe at us) for letting water stand if we have anything ti can stand in....

and now they are running I guess mice into my laundry room... and (suddenly I had the bars out just disappear 3 times now since this began) and then something (which could be a possum etc or a stray cat we have and so forth) run under my house and die! For the 3rd time in 2 weeks I woke up now to my laundry room with a stench worse than anything else you can imagine! I have every hole blocked, but they can weasel their way under anything if they are desperate! I am in the process of trying to type an email (I can barely type my left hand hurts so bad).. to the guy over this mess of a road they have made, and give him a piece of my mind... who is going to fix this mess, details our cars covered in dust and grime? Who is going to get that water out of those ditches... I hate to sound prejudice but I "live on the wrong side of town"... if I had a 500,000 dollar home, I bet it would be concreted, with a walkway, and they would have the water properly running out and away from the homes.... I am just so fed up. I pay MY TAXES ON TIME! Believe me if I didn't they would FINE ME 10 or 20%!!!! I should tell the city each day this is a mess they owe us on this road back a portion of the taxes we pay! Anyway, so keep me in your prayers... I NEED this hand well, so I can get this pacemaker in and go about my life... why is it that it is ALWAYS SOMETHING WITH ME?????"

I have to wonder if the pain in my hips that I still have after the injections, is not also something to do with this infection. both hips especially the right one still hurt. I was at the market on Monday, and when I was trying to finish up and get checked out, my right hip and side started to hurt. It scared the hell out of me. I came home with a LOAD of groceries, since they had my road so messed up I could NOT get out of my driveway all week last week! So, my groceries were in about 7 bags (the reusable ones) plus 4 gallons of water. I did not think I would ever make it in with it all, and get it put up.... but I managed.

I worry my RA and Lupus could be getting worse, or something else is going on, and they have not found it yet. My labs they did a couple of weeks ago when they found the infection, were really all messed up. My white blood cell count was at 15. But, there were other labs that were also really "off" that usually were not that bad, so I have to wonder.

Happy Father's Day TO Each if you - Dad's, Grandad's, step-dad's those who raise you like they are your Dad & More!

TO ALL of the INCREDIBLE DAD'S, FATHER'S, SONS WHO WILL SOMEDAY BE DAD'S, GRANDFATHERS, & the list goes on.. no matter how old we are "Our Dad will always be"  Our Dad and "Bestest Fishin' Friend!" Happy FAther's Day! And Dad even after this much time has gone by, I STILL miss you! I seem to "still use some of your sayings" almost everyday of my life! LOL!

Okay, here it is in a "short version"... I was scheduled for the pacemaker this coming Monday morning in Dallas. The week before Memorial Day my left hand around my knuckles "started in my thumb" began to "look odd, kind of swollen, and reddish"..I thought I just over used it doing something. By the next morning, the knuckles next to it did the same, and so on, so forth. I STILL felt it was a Lupus/RA flare BUT I HAD NEVER HAD THIS TYPE OF ISSUE WITH MY LEFT HAND AND KNUCKLES..I researched, asked 2 pharmacists, and decided it maybe "gout arthritis", and I would need a special med called "Colchicine" (it helps to dissolve the uric acid crystals in the fluid around the joints).

So finally I went to Urgent Care, I believe it was about a week ago LAST Wednesday, so almost 2 weeks ago. They felt the same either gout, OR possibly some type of "infection arthritis" in the knuckles. Well, I went into panic mode. I KNEW NO PACEMAKER IF I SHOW ANY TYPE OF INFECTION! I was now on one antibiotic, higher dose of prednisone, & they did lab work to find out if they could see what was causing the problem. I DID NOT GET to even know until Thursday (so over a week or more)

Infectious arthritis? Has anyone ever been diagnosed with this????

THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!

HAS ANYONE EVER BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH INFECTIOUS ARTHRITIS IN ANY JOINT ON THE BODY OR JOINTS????

Friends, Illnesses, Friends passing away, A young friend (43) with Breast Cancer & the Pacemaker going in for me on the 17th.. Life

Friends passing away - and Friends with Breast Cancer (young she is 43)  and the Pacemaker for me going on on the 17th

I just found out a friend of mine I worked with right after Jason was born, and then all my life I had known her We used to see each other frequently in HEBm and I had noticed I had been missing her. She passed away over the weekend. She was the most hard working woman in the world. And funny as heck... lots of things went on in her life, but she was always still rockin' it, no matter what was happening. I know she will be missed... (Audrey Minatrea) I am sure many of you in my hometown knew her and her family. 

Then another friend of min, that in fact was my "home health nurse, that came by weekly for a good while through my insurance having them do it, and in fact I got Bella from her, My Doxie, I just found out she has breast cancer and has been fighting that only 43, I felt badly I did not find out until this morning... things have been so nuts for me, that I have missed things here especially on Facebook...so IF I miss something or happen to NOT answer PLEAE send me a private message, I don't want to miss anyone, or anything that is important. Love to you all, and prayers for all that are facing their own emotional, and/or physical, or life's illnesses and hardships....

Updates.....

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, your information an your prayers...　 I am so blessed to have family and dear friends here who listen, help, hope and care. I KNOW they are the ones with the mixed up phone numbers. I had went back and rechecked ALL of the messages I left, and not one message contained BOTH numbers that I gave her, which were correct. I DO KNOW since she (Amy) is the doctor's assistant who lines all of this up in the Dallas Hospital Heart/Pacemaker Office, that part of the issue is that they are all having to "train" on a brand new computer system, doctors included so they are "behind" on everything. I figure that is also one part of phone numbers and messages NOT getting to the proper person. My doctor told me the day I was there my first visit with him, to MAKE SURE I GET through, either AMY calls me within 4 days or so, OR I had her number that HE gave me, and that I call until I get her to answer me. That was also the holiday weekend, so between new computers, training, I know that office (which contains several different types of heart specialists, had new patients even like 7 of them the day I was there... not all for my doctor, but as I said all of them are in different heart special fields, so I figure it is one big mess, training, all those new patients, and in fact, they were supposed to give me "special towels" to wipe from head to toe with the morning before I go to the hospital but they were out of all of them there in the office - 

so I asked Amy about it yesterday, & she said she made notes and there were notes on my chart. The nurses will take care of all of that after I get to the floor. She told me if they did not mention it, then for me to remind them, and I am sure they will. Usually the nurses who are on the surgical floors are extremely good at their jobs, especially when it comes to being cautious with bacteria etc... ANYWAY, I GO IN ON THE 17TH OF THIS MONTH, so a week from this coming Monday... at 8AM at the Jack and Jack Hart Hospital at Baylor Hospital in downtown Dallas.... That is my check time so I figure they will have me lined up 1st surgery, at probably around 10AM... he told me to expect 2 hours or a bit less, if it is a 2 lead surgery, if they hav to go to a 3 lead then it may be 2 1/2 hours. 

Since I am an "early" patient I should get to go home that afternoon, if everything is doing okay. I know INFECTION of the wound itself is one of the main things they watch for, which makes sense... because I go in a week after the surgery to the office for a recheck, and even my regular heart doctor wants to see me about a week after the surgery. She had called me actually the day of my appt and told me to let them know the day I am scheduled for surgery, and that she wanted to personally see me also, once it is over with, and I can come in to her office here in town also. So, we are "set" it sounds like, and as I told Amy on the phone yesterday the sooner the better. I want this over with and done, so I can quit worrying about all of it. I am still going over information at Medtronic's website, there are so many different types of pacemaker's - just those alone, not including other types of heart devices etc... I will keep everyone informed as things get near, or if anything changes.....  :)

Stomp Out Bullying! Even with School going to be out Bullying still continues, so Help Your Kids Learn How to Deal with Bullying...

Don’t Let Stigma Prevent Getting Help

Fact: One in five adults in the United States experience a mental health condition in a given year. 

Fact: Half of all lifetime mental health conditions begin by age 14. 

Fact: Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States.

These are sobering. But here is another fact: Mental health conditions are treatable. Mental Health Awareness Month raises awareness about recognition, treatment and recovery, and why it can be far more successful. One of the largest hurdles to mental wellness is addressing the stigma surrounding mental health.

School Will Be Out Soon, But Bullying Persists

School will be out soon for the summer and is already out in some parts of the country, but that doesn’t mean kids are always safe from each other. Kids and teens have more unstructured time in the summer, both in and around their neighborhoods and at day or sleepaway camps. This creates a wonderful sense of freedom and space, but it can also leave room for bullying. Cyberbullying is also of special concern in summer, when kids often have more screen time and less supervision.

We all want our youths to be happy, safe and healthy. To help prevent bullying, parents and caring adults should learn how to recognize the signs and how to intervene. Bullying happens when someone repeatedly asserts his or her power by being aggressive toward a weaker person. The aggressions can be physical, verbal, or relational. And bullying commonly occurs when adult supervision is limited. Cyberbullying is on the rise, where bullies torment others online, often anonymously.

Social media sites do not allow users under the age of 13 on their sites, yet kids under 13 find a way onto social media. Some parents register their young children on social media just because their kids’ friends have accounts. That is simply the wrong thing to do. These sites require kids to be 13 or over because kids younger than 13 are simply not mature enough to handle what can transpire on these sites.

Look for signs of summertime bullying:

• Making excuses to not go to camp, sports practice or other gatherings.
• Unexplained bruises, torn clothing or missing belongings.
• Problems with sleep or appetite.
• Secretive/sullen behavior or outbursts of temper.
• Seeming upset or depressed after using the Internet or a mobile phone.
• Losing interest in using the Internet, social media, computer or a mobile phone.
• Bullying younger kids (bullied children may switch roles and become the bully).

How to counsel and intervene: 

• Never tell your kid or teen to ignore bullying or to retaliate.
• Talk with them. Ask what’s going on at summer school, camp or online and how he or she is feeling.
• Don’t criticize how your son or daughter handled the bullying. Help him or her come up with safety strategies, such as telling an adult, walking away or asking friends for support.
• Teach self-respect. Confident youths are less likely to become victims.
• Encourage friendships and building social skills. Bullies tend to go after kids and teens who are alone.
• Let the summer program or camp authorities know about your safety concerns. 
• Report cyberbullying. Save copies of abusive posts or texts, and notify the appropriate summer program personnel that these activities are taking place.

Take these considerations into the summer months, and you will be helping your child address - and ideally prevent - summertime bullying issues. If you do know a youth is going through a tough time, refer them to our HelpChat Line which will be open all summer. Live, trained volunteers are available to help youth, ages 13-24, through issues surrounding bullying and suicide. 


https://securedonate.stompoutbullying.org/np/clients/stomp/login.jsphttps://securedonate.stompoutbullying.org/np/clients/stomp/login.jsp

2 Lead Pacemakers, Lumbar back is pain & problems are from 1 to the other, horrid Weather coming & does the "tiring issues" of life ever give a break?

Here is my "gripe(s)" for the week! Heck the MONTH, YEAR....Morning TOO EARLY!!! My two fur babies think it's time for me to get up and bake or do something while they go back to bed!!! GGGRRR!!! As much as I love them sometimes I want to kick their butts! I am just so totally upset... I finally went to get the Orthopedic Surgeon for the CT results on my lower back. 

Well, as I figured as always NEVER have I had one test (CT or MRI) come back & say how bad something really is... it's not until I spend sometimes YEARS griping & bitching, and then they finally do surgery, and YES it's all MUCH worse than any of their scans!!!! IT has happened to me on my neck, my knees, my shoulders, my hips and back lumbar spine now.... (I look up what the CT Scan says and ALL OF MY SYMPTOMS ARE RELATED TO EXACTLY WHAT HE FOUND ON THE CT SCAN, EVEN THOUGH MY DOCTOR ACTED AS IF THEY WERE NO BIG DEAL!)


 I am so sick of paying out good money, then having to travel on the other side of Dallas almost to get to the doctor, and then it's like "no big deal"... Well I have the report, and THERE are thing wrong!!!! It's much worse than the one 4 years ago.. Now I am not saying he needs to jump in and do surgery BUT at least acknowledge there are issues and they could be causing the severity of pain I am in, then my left hand at the base of my knuckles on the top side from the middle finger down to my thumb all of a sudden has swollen up huge, is red and appears to almost have "fever" in it... and hurts so much I could barely stand to drive with it or even use it for anything... and I've never had problems with my left hand always my right one and not this bad... so on top of that, I had him look at the right shoulder that HE did a "total reverse replacement" on about 7 years ago... and it's been so bad with pain, and being weak and stiff ever since my last neck surgery in 2017..

 I am not sure what he did when he was doing that neck surgery, but I know it was a mess in there, but they must have positioned that shoulder in some way that really messed it up... when I showed him (as he could not even sit still long enough for me to talk to him) then he looks at my strange and says "this shoulder would I believe need to be replaced" it's "bone on bone" for some reason... so why don't he just say he screwed it up.... that would mean a MAJOR SURGERY... that would take 4 hours or more to totally replace that entire shoulder and then I may not have good use from it, or still have pain and stiffness, and it be more weak than it is now.... PLUS my ankles were so swollen after spending over an hour driving to Dallas yesterday, and then by the time I got home, I had to get on the sofa, and get them up... well, I think it's due to whatever is going on with my "heart function" being worse... I need that "special pacemaker" that has 2 leads to two different places in my heart, but I had been in the middle of this lower back mess when I found out about the heart thing, so I wanted to find out what the hell was going on with the back before going to get another doctor and facing a pacemaker, that started out as just a tiny pacemaker to help up my heart rate, to my cardiologist did that echocardiogram before the pacemaker was put in. Come to find out my heart function is worse than it has been ever...

It had not changed at all since actually that 1st heart attack back when I was 40... even though I had another one at 50, that one was mild enough, it's didn't cause anymore "damage" to the heart muscle... well now I had not had an echo done for 2 years and for some reason now the function in one chamber has gone down, SO had I NOT been the one to "kind of push" for the pacemaker at first for the heart rate being so low, we may have not found out about this heart function thing, until I had some type of problem.. I apologize everyone I hate to always seem to be "griping" every time I even try to post..... and I don't mean it that way, it just seems that I cannot get a break, if it's not one thing it's the other...now we have very severe thunderstorms coming all weekend, even possibly through next week.... and the weather has been so nuts, we are "eat up" with all kinds of ants, bugs, the rain has driven them up on the house, all of a sudden I am fighting them in the house, and I keep my house spotless, so there is nothing they are after it's just the crazy weather.... 

I am exhausted and seem to just have it piling on more and more, the lawn cannot get mowed all the way, because the weather acts up or I have to do something else before I can finish mowing....I again am just so sick and tired, of being sick and tired and of having one problem after the other... I did call and schedule the appt with the heart specialist about the pacemaker with 2 leads - I see him next week, and at least he is closer, just about 15 miles away instead of half way to OK... by the time you drive to see anyone in Dallas the way things are now... here is info on different types of pacemakers.. and this company also makes my pain pump

I KNOW IT SEEMS all I do is fuss, gripe and whine about everything... I would just like to have a bit of peace of mind and everything else for a few months, heck I would settle for days!!!

DIFFERENT TYPES OF PACEMAKERS

https://www.medtronic.com/us-en/healthcare-professionals/products/cardiac-rhythm/pacemakers.html

Lumbar Sacral Extreme Pain for TOO long & hoping CT Scan does finally show something!

Feeling "Crazy" if We don't Find out WHY I am in so much severe pain with my hips down to my knees

This may sound totally insane, BUT in a way I HOPE they DO FIND something on the CT Scan I had yesterday on my lumbar/sacral spine or somewhere there causing this extremely horrible pain. This has been just miserable, and I am so tired of putting up with it. If I stand too long, walk too long, sit too long, driving in a car over an hour is really the worst, and if the weather changes "just a little" I am just in tears. I am NOT saying that I "want to have something wrong with me" (as if sounding morose) I just WANT TO PROVE IN MY OWN MIND AND THE DOCTORS, THAT SOMETHING IS WRONG!!!! NOT THAT I think the doctors don't believe me. I had the right hip injected Monday and the main orthopedic surgeon was so (OVERBOOKED it looked like with NEW patients) although my appt was made 3 weeks ago, he was me briefly then the PA came in and asked if I wanted to "wait on the doctor" to do the injection or if it was okay with me, she could do it, because he was so swamped. I had already been there a couple of hours OVER my appt time.

I had noticed when I walked in about 15 minutes before my appt, there were like 5 or 6 NEW patients (must have been) from what was said they were ALL filling out new patient forms!!!!! Which if I HAD CANCELLED MONDAY on the day of the appt, they would have been peeved at me, but they can put a patient off for hours, and they always have an excuse.. yeah (HE OVERBOOKED TO MANY NEW PATIENTS AT THE SAME TIME ON THE SAME DAY!!!) NEEDLESS TO SAY I had the CT can done yesterday, and I see the Orthopedic surgeon in Dallas on Friday that does my spinal stuff. My Pain doctor ordered the CT for me so he could give me the order and I could have it done here rather than making a trip to Dallas, or going to the Orthopedic surgeon FIRST & he would have wanted the CT anyway, so it would take longer, and I would be out more time, and trips to Dallas.

Anyway, on Monday the PA which I asked her why I had so much pain, with bursitis, and I questioned her about "tendonitis" and other things "that could be inflamed" along with the bursa causing so much pain, for so long... plus more than likely there could be "fluid" in the bursa's (I noticed they started "popping" a few days ago when I walk, and that fluid will make the bursa hurt worse. So, she did give me a better idea what "what maybe going on

I also it dawned on me yesterday, that when I had the last CT Scan which was "special".. I can't recall exactly when it was done, but I had it done at Medical City in Dallas, and it was with dye, but it was a different type of CT Scan... since I can't have an MRI anymore, they did that particular type of CT AND that doctor asked me if I had "back surgery" before. I said well YES, but at the "cervical spine" nowhere near my lumbar spine, and he said it almost looked as if I had a "laminectomy" done on both sides. I am actually "missing" a lamina in the very lowest part of my L-5 part of the spine, where it connects with the S-1..

So, they think I had been born without those. For some reason they never spotted them before, they said it could be now because of aging, and the Lupus/RA and degeneration of the lumbar/sacral spine it is now showing up. So, I have to wonder now since that was I believe about 4 years ago and that report said it was "worse" than the one done about 3 years previously.. so from about 2011, then one in 2015.. now 4 years later 2019... I have to possibly figure that has now gotten bad enough it is causing problems.. All I know is that I don't want to feel "nuts" but find out what the hell is causing so much pain!!!!!!!

Memorial Day 2019! May we all remember why we are the Home of the Brave and the Land of the Free!

Some gave all, and ALL gave some

Stormy Weather, makes Joints hurt horribly, Echocardiogram shows "heart Function" issues & "special pacemaker" coming...

Weather here SUCKS!!! Thunderstorms, lightening, rain like we need more rain... and it appears it may NEVER quit! I've not been online much or as far as on FB, Social Media etc I've posted in my blog, and update my newspaper and send it out daily.. but I've been stuck with yet again doctor's visits, the weather reeking havoc with my joints... and just feeling lousy... I had an echocardiogram last week. It was supposed to just be "routine" before we made a date to implant the pacemaker. So, I didn't think much of it. Monday, I went in to talk to the surgeon about putting the pacemaker in etc... and he was

RUNNING VERY, VERY LATE! Which is the usual for surgeons especially Monday's... so had waited quite a while. they finally called me back in, and I waited again for a bit to see him. Well, he kind of "burst" into the room, (which he is kind of that way) LOL just a great smiling doctor... but can get serious when need be... and as I started to say something, and he said well your cardiologist (which is his wife) said that you needed a "special" type of pacemaker with two leaders rather than one.

I did not know that the test fro the echocardiogram came back showing my "heart function" was "worse" than two years ago sine I had the last one. So, he proceeded to tell me they were trying to avoid you coming in to see me, because I don't do the 2 leads type but Dr. Rae in Waxahachie does, That is who Dr Meg Sullivan is sending me to, I was so upset first because had not even heard about my test results yet and had no clue, they were "off"..which since 20 years after the 1st heart attack, and even after the 2d one the tests had always remained the same. no better of course but no worse either... So from what information I got hod of online, then her nurse called me ate Monday evening to tell me who they were sending me to see and I had her look on the test results to tell me, "what is going on with my heart function?"

She said it had always remained at a "45" which I believe they are talking about the "trajectory" and how the two chambers of my heart "work" as far as pushing the blood in and out, and sounds like the natural "electrical" part of my heart is not working as well as it should. So, suddenly this went from a "regular" pacemaker, that we hoped with it keeping my heart rate as a normal place it would help several other problems, fo NOW I NEED IT because I have DEVELOPED ANOTHER PROBLEM! So, that was like me hitting a "brick all" since I was not expecting any of that at all. Anyway from what I read n that specific pacemaker, it is attached to I guess the chambers , two of the and it keeps the natural rhythm, but keeps that trajectory on tract also... so I am waiting on a call fro the specialist to go see hi, and in the meantime,

I am getting the CT next week on my lumbar spine and already have a appt made to see my Orthopedic surgeon. My pain doctor who ordered the CT scan had called my Ortho doctor for him to be sure and see me once the CT results are in. If it's not one thing it's the other... so I guess in a way it was good that I did go in about the pacemaker, or she would have not ran the echocardiogram... and this problem may not have been found.... and of course with the weather as it is I hurt ALL OVER!!!!!!!!

https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/heart-and-blood-vessels/about-the-heart/understanding-how-your-heart-functions

FFA approves Medication for our Pediatric Patients which is terrific news for them!

Great News from the FDA for our Younger Lupus Patients (first ever pediatric patients!)!

http://www.worldpharmanews.com/fda/4803-fda-approves-first-treatment-for-pediatric-patients-with-lupus

Often we may let it slip our minds we havee many "very young patients" with Lupus. Up until now it was extremely difficult to help treat them!