Health matters and such

I decided to strike while the iron was hot.  And in typing that I FINALLY understand that damn saying!  Yes!

But in my case it means more about continuing to write now that I have gotten the momentum rather than being hot, sweaty and an ironworker.

I do not remember ever, ever blogging about my health or health issues.  Either the physical or the emotional ones.  Now, that doesn't mean I haven't it just means I don't remember it.  But if you asked me I would tell you I am pretty healthy.  Healthy for a short fat person anyway.  I mean, my blood pressure is always low, my temp is always on the low side, my blood sugar remains level, that sort of thing.  However, my ailments were mounting.  First there was the flares of arthritis in my fingers.  I remember clearly the first time I felt that shooting, stabbing pain in my finger.  It was in 1997 when we had just moved from Buenos Aires to Santiago, Chile and I sort of assumed it had to do with the carrying and unpacking of boxes.

After the finger then it moved to a different finger.  And occasionally, like every year or two, not anything you could really see a pattern in, my lower back would go out.  Sciatica is a bitch, let me tell you.  After we moved here I got sick in the fall and everyone said "oh, your body is just adjusting to all the crap in the air.  Once you go through a full year you will acclimate."

This is a big fat lie.  Every single spring and fall since I have been sick with all the sinus and throat stuff.  And it seems to get worse every year.  And this year has been the mother of all illness years. For 1 year now I have had what they call a frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis) and I have done 9 months of physical therapy and have about 85 - 90% of my range of motion back.  While that was going on I had the worst sciatica I have ever had kick in and I was down.  It was excruciating. And before THAT healed up I started with the sinus, cough stuff.

I said to myself, "hey, let's be proactive and get this treated asap and not let it go into bronchitis like last year".  This was the first of April and 4 1/2 months later and oh so many doctors and prescriptions and x-rays and finally CAT scans they finally diagnosed me with a bad sinus infection and pneumonia.  I am currently on my 5th round of antibiotics along with a shit ton of other drugs. I don't like taking this stuff.  I would rather keep my liver around for the rest of my hopefully long life, thank you very much.  Oh, and every thing I have is an inflammatory issue.  The arthritis, pneumonia, everything.

And I started doing what I do best which is to worry and project possible events in the future that could be horrible.  What I was seeing is that having one health scare on top of the next and then the next before any of them could be cleared up was not boding well for the coming months.  And I got determined to put myself on the top of my list and do whatever I can to get healthy.

So I talked with a friend of mine who is a nutritionist and we are working on getting my adrenals and kidneys working and my lymph moving and that seems to involve a lot of cleansing and detoxing, so far.

I am not sure how well all this is working while I am still taking the medications for the pneumonia, but I am hopefully making some good habits that will be there to kick in once the meds are finished. What it seems to entail is getting rid of the meat, dairy and gluten to get detoxed.  A vegan, gluten-free diet, if you will.

I have ordered some supplements that are arriving today and once I get things going I will post some updates on what is working and what isn't.  Also, I am scheduled to see the pulmonologist next week to see about biopsying the nodules in my lungs from the damn pneumonia.  Which sounds scary, but if it will get rid of the coughing I have been doing since the first of April, I am all for it.  This is month 5 of The Cough That Wouldn't Quit.  I have become a recluse because I don't want to be annoying to others.  I am so annoying to my own self with all the damn coughing.  Other than the coughing, I have absolutely no energy, no stamina.  I swear I get one thing done in a day and then I am wiped out.  I am blaming that on running at 93% oxygen saturation for the last 4 months.  Also, I am too tired to run two thoughts together.  You might be shocked at how long it is taking me to just type this!

The plan is to get rid of the pneumonia and the sinus infection and the fatigue and to gain some energy, some health and good spirit.  Please, wish me well and send some good thoughts my way when you can.