sickness | The Angel Forever

Category Archives sickness

Name that virus

Posted on October 3, 2009 9:33 pm by TheAngelForever

Last Sunday I had a headache during the day. I took medicine, napped some and then took NHL to a birthday party. When we got home I really felt lousy and took my temperature. It was elevated for me. I took some ibuprofen and went to bed. During the night I woke up with chills, body aches and the headache was still there. I knew this was not a good sign. Needless to say since I was sick, I drank and ate a little over Yom Kippur. The boys stayed home with me as my temperature started to climb and JL went to temple.

Tuesday I felt a lot better. I did laundry (sheets had to be washed from fever breaking several times) and in the afternoon took NHL to the dentist. That night I had a mild headache, but nothing too bad. My temperature was down quite a bit. Wednesday I took it easy in the morning. In the afternoon, I brought JSL to my Aunt’s house to stay with her and my grandmother. NHL had an eye doctor’s appointment that would take at least an hour and a half and I did not want to have the little guy tag along. I made a large mistake before going to that appointment. I did not take iboprofen. By the time I was home that night I felt wiped.

Thursday morning I took it easy again and that night felt well enough to go to open house at NHL’s school. We did not stay long and I kept my distance from everyone. Friday was not a good day at all. My fever kept climbing to 101 when it is normally just about 98 on our thermometer. I had chills, aches and to add to the mix a cough joined the party.

When I talked to my doctor’s office earlier in the week about the flu shot for JSL, I asked the nurse about my symptoms. She said so many people were sick right and it was likely a virus. She agreed that there was no need to be seen. During the night I tossed and turned. At 4:00 I woke up with a horrible coughing fit. I could feel a slight trickle down the back of my throat and it was driving me batty. I took something to try to help it and sat on the couch watching Roku for three hours. By the time the boys woke up I had a pounding headache. The coughing, fever and lack of sleep caught up with me.

I tried to nap as much as I could today, but it did not come easily with the noisy boys, cough and headache. Tonight, the cough is back and although I feel like all of the energy in my body is zapped…the fever has not spiked YET.

My theory is that I picked something up in the ER when we were there last Friday. Everyone looked like I feel and they were coughing, wheezing and some had masks on while others did not. My family guesses that this may be the Flu, possibly H1N1, but we are not sure. Now my biggest fear is passing it along to the rest of our family no matter what it is. Fevers scare me with the febrile seizure history.

So, please excuse me if I am not here as much for a little while. I will be taking a little more me time this weekend to try to mend a very sick me. If I am not much improved, or the coughing get worse I will be taking myself to the doctor on Monday to get check since it will be a week with whatever virus has taken over my body.

Categories:
bad news looking back losing my mind me moments sahm sickness

Flu shot frustrations

Posted on September 28, 2009 9:04 pm by TheAngelForever

As I sit here and type this, I am battling some sort of virus. I do not think it is the flu. I have had a horrible headache, body aches, chills and a fever. No congestion, sore throat or the like YET. Being sick on Yom Kippur was rough. Hubby went to services and the boys stayed home with me. Thanks to the television and toys, they were happy. At points, they came to check on me, and I went to check on them.

Still in the back of my mind, I worry and do not have time to be sick. I worry not only about TechyDad and NHL catching what I have, but I am particularly scared about JSL. The little guy had a febrile seizure, stopped breathing and turned gray in February 2008. He was hospitalized for four long days. A little over a year went by and we thought we were safe from a repeat. The reality was two additional febrile seizures in a 30 hour span of time in March 2009.

In August, when NHL went to the doctor for his physical the office already had their flu shots. The three of us (TechyDad had his at work) were ready for our shots. When the nurse came back in, she had to report that they did not have any of the vaccine for children under three years old. She told me to call back in mid-September to see if they received their shipment.

October is quickly approaching and still no flu shot for JSL. Each day it scares me because he is quite vulnerable if he catches something with a high fever. Going to the ER on Friday scared me even more since almost everyone was coughing and so very sick. I have now done some more investigating to try to find out where I could get JSL a flu shot. The short answer, there is no location in our area that has them for children under three years old. According to the Health Department, they have not even been able to get any. When I asked the nurse what the hold up was, I finally received an answer. She told me that the federal government told the drug company to halt production of all of their vaccines and to switch gears to produce the H1N1 vaccine.

*sigh*

Yes, the H1N1 is a very serious virus, but so is the regular flu. People forget that the flu kills thousands of people, including young children under three each year. I can not understand why they would stop producing the vaccine that is used for children if there was not enough for the majority of the population. My phone calls also included a pharmacy where an amazing pharmacist did even more research. She called the company of the flu shot and was told that they will not be able to fulfill any new orders until 2010-2011 – OY!

Please understand that I am not downplaying the H1N1 virus at all. As a thirty something adult it scares me a lot. This flu is attacking and killing people in my age group the most, along with kids that are the same age as my children. I understand the gravity of the situation, but I think perhaps some of this was done the wrong way.

Now I must sit, wait, and pray that my little guy stays healthy. The nurse at our doctor’s office told me today that they will likely get the pediatric flu vaccine in by the end of October, after the H1N1 vaccine will be released. So with any luck, he will get that it in the next month.

Categories:
doctor health awareness jsl looking back photos sick kid sickness vent

Oy, it has soy

Posted on July 9, 2009 9:42 am by TheAngelForever

Did you know that almost all foods contain soy? It seems to be a very popular filler that many of us are unaware of in the foods we eat. Of course, as a mostly vegetarian house (kosher meat is too expensive) we eat a lot of veggie burgers, "burger" crumbles, veggie dogs, tofu and the like. I was well aware that these were mostly made of soy products. You are probably wondering why I am suddenly noticing all of the soy in our daily lives. The answer is a little complicated.

Over the last 3-4 weeks I have been quite sick. For days I would end up on the couch with the boys doubled over in pain. Then to add insult to my injury, I was sick to my stomach and running to the bathroom. At first I thought it may be from all of the new vitamins that I added to my diet. I was taking them with food, but they are still harsh. I stopped taking them for 3-4 days and nothing stopped. The abdominal pain intensified to the point where I could no longer ignore it. I made an appointment to see my doctor to try to get some answers. One other odd symptom – I was horribly itchy. I was literally clawing my arms and legs because they itched so badly.

I went in wondering if it had anything to do with my endometriosis, might be IBS or something else. In the back of my mind I also wondered about my gallbladder. My doctor immediately suspected my gallbladder was to blame. She sent me home with a TON of items to do and scheduled me for a gallbladder ultrasound. She mentioned that if that was clear another test would be ordered soon after that.

Last Thursday night I went for the ultrasound. The technician hinted that she saw nothing wrong when I wondered why it was taking so long (got a little nervous). On Friday evening I was miserable. I have a high pain tolerance, but that night I was in agony. I was crying hysterically and almost called my parents to watch the boys so I could go to the ER. As I told JL, the pain was worse than when I had no epidural and was getting pitocin during labor. Seriously!

Suddenly, in the middle of my agony it dawned on me. The last major attack was on a night that we had Morning Star riblets as part of our dinner, the time before that when we had fake burger meat balls. Friday night we happened to have veggie dogs. Hmmm. . . . . all of them are mainly compromised of SOY! Could this be the problem when it had never been for all of these years?

I told JL my theory and we made a conscious effort to avoid foods with soy in it. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I ate nothing that had a major amount of soy, took my vitamins, workout out with Leslie Sansone DVDs and felt pretty good. Yesterday my doctor’s office called to tell me that the ultrasound results were perfect and to schedule me for another test. I asked the nurse to give the new information to my doctor. They called back and agreed that it very well could be a soy allergy/intolerance. I spent part of the afternoon yesterday reading up on soy. How do soy allergies present in adults? Why are soy allergies becoming more prevalent in adults? And the big question of the day, what items have soy hidden in them?

I was floored to learn that most vitamins – including almost all of mine have soy listed as an ingredient. All of our breads, cereal, Fiber One bars, and even the sprinkles in our house list soy. The nice thing is since it is a common allergan, companies must clearly list if the item contains even traces of soy.

Tuesday I am heading to an allergist. I have not been to one since I was in elementary school. Clearly something has changed in my bod with the newly found anaphylactic response to walnuts and now this suspected soy allergy. IF I do have a soy allergy I really do not know how I can completely avoid it in my life, but at this point I will take it one day at a time.

Do you have a soy allergy or know someone that does? I would love any advice or information from anyone that can provide it.

Categories:
allergies doctor food glorious food health awareness losing my mind me moments sickness vent

It isn’t easy feeling green

Posted on June 18, 2009 7:10 pm by TheAngelForever

Trying to play catch up with blog posts and other items has been on hold the last few evenings. I have felt quite sick and pretty green. As much as I love Kermit, being green is definitely not my thing. Sitting at the computer to do blog posts was not an option last night. I actually went to sleep at 9:00 and curled up into a ball and slept. This morning I felt better. I did my EA Sports Active 30 Day Challenge workout, along with two more to total about 45 minutes of exercise. When all was said and done I felt pretty good. The plan was to go out tonight to the graduation at the school that I used to work at.

Plans changed after NHL came home from school. Suddenly at about 4:00 I felt naseous and VERY green. The boys were playing and I curled up on the couch. By the time JL arrived home from work I was hardly able to move off the couch. I had chills, felt sick and was burning up. Thanks to the thermometer I know I have a low grade fever, so my plans were off.

I had thought that the green feeling the last few evenings was thanks to my vitamins. Today I have not taken any of them and am still feeling nasty. Clearly my body is fighting off some sort of virus. I know that a lot of kids at NHL’s school have had a variety of things going on and I have been there a lot later. So, tonight I am home and will try to rest up. With kindergarten graduation on Monday, and other plans this weekend rest is a must.

On a side note, my Twitter picture is not green to show my level of illness. Here is a Tweet that explains it all:

Categories:
me moments sickness sleep

Taking care of Mommy – lesson learned

Posted on May 28, 2009 8:21 am by TheAngelForever

Since NHL was born, almost six years ago, taking care of myself when I am sick has taken a back burner. As a mother, you have to move on and do things through sickness. Basically I often ignore things until they get SO bad. Needless to say I am at the doctor immediately when the boys are sick and need anything.

Prior to going to Disney World I was feeling amazing. I had lost almost thirty pounds, was exercising up a storm thanks to Leslie Sansone (and my pedometer), plus I was inspired by others on the same journey. When we arrived at Disney World I was the only one that barely complained about my legs/feet bothering me from all of the walking. My mother noted that the "walking and kicking" with Leslie Sansone had paid off.

During our forth dinner at Disney World we ate at The Wave in the Contemporary Resort. We had a delicious meal. Since we were on the dining plan we were able to order a tasty treat for the end. I selected the crunchy trio that included Baklava.

I thought nothing of it. After a few minutes I noticed that my throat was itching some. In addition to this, I was having a difficult time swallowing. It was raining out after the meal so we decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom and get a bus back to Pop Century.

After the boys were in bed I was still having a really tough time getting air in. I had my rescue inhaler with me and decided to give it a try. By this point I was starting to put the pieces together. I recalled during Passover when I told JL that my throat was itching after I had some charoset (apple mixture with honey and walnuts). Do you see where I am going with this?

I hardly use my rescue inhaler and was not used to the new propellant ones. I took my two puffs and then realized I had made a horrible mistake. In taking the medication, I had burned my throat. *sigh* I did not think to use my spacer that was packed and just took it. Lesson learned the hard way. The rest of the vacation I was winded easily, was coughing thanks to my throat trying to get better from the Albuterol burn, and had no energy at night.

When we came back from Disney I knew that I had to talk to our doctor about my walnut allergy concern. When I took JSL in for his 2 year check up last week I spoke with the doctor. At that point I told her that I had a physical appointment made with her (have not done that in way too long either). When she heard what happened her reply was "What pharmacy do you go to?" She was already on her little techy machine writing a prescription for an EpiPen into the pharmacy. She told me that I should obviously avoid walnuts now and must always have my EpiPen on me (something I still have to do as it is sitting on the dining room table).

This appointment was less than a week after my attack episode. She told me that the cough and everything should go away and give it time. Flash forward to this week. I still had no energy, was winded talking/walking across the room and obviously was not working out with Leslie Sansone. I felt depressed about what had happened since I had come so far. Blogging has been pushed to the side because when I typically blog at night I was fast asleep.

I called the doctor’s office to see what I should be doing. Since we were home I was still using my rescue inhaler daily and explained how I felt. They said they would call me back the next morning since the doctor had already left for the day. Yesterday morning they called back. Much to my surprise, the doctor did not request to see me. She called in a prescription for an inhaler to help my lungs rebound. The nurse said that I should feel a difference soon. Last night I started the medicine and it was the first evening that I have not needed my rescue inhaler (of course I had already used it a few hours earlier).

Tuesday I did a two mile Leslie Sansone and it felt great, although I was nervous about having an asthma attack. Now I’m hoping that by the weekend I will get back into the swing of things and be up to it. Feeling as though you are gasping for air and have a brick on your chest when breathing is not something I ever want to experience again.

Lesson learned – DO NOT ignore your body. I learned the hard way and was very lucky. Now I will be watching for walnuts as I walk and kick my way through life.