Emergency Room

On Monday I wasn't feeling well and I was having some irregular heartbeats along with some discomfort but it didn't seem that bad. By Monday night it was happening on a continuous basis and the pain was getting worse. I decided that I wouldn't go the the ER that night because I would probably need to be seen by a cardiologist and they wouldn't have one in the hospital at that time of day. I talked with my mom who made me promise that if it was still happening when I woke up Tuesday that I would go no matter what. The pain continued throughout the night so once I was finally able to get out of bed I showered and went to the hospital. It was a huge waste of my time and money seeing as how the doctor wouldn't listen to anything I said. They put me on a heart monitor for 3 hours and then told me that I was fine and I could go home. I tried repeatedly to tell them that it's not a problem with the electrical impulses in my heart that it is a problem with the actual structure of the heart, probably the valves. They also took some blood and then told me to stop taking the medications that my specialist has prescribed. As soon as I got out of the hospital I called my doctor's office and they told me to continue with the medication until I could talk with the doctor. I have talked with the nurse again this morning and she said that she would relay all of the information to him and then let me know what he wants to do. I think that I need to see a cardiologist so that I can have an echocardiogram done to actually see my heart. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

I leave you with a picture of me hooked up to the machines.

Doctor's visit

I saw our orthopedic doctor this morning and he feels that there isn't a break but a significant bone bruise. He wants me to keep the splint on until the pain lessens as well as ice and elevation. If I don't feel any improvement in 2 weeks I am supposed to go back to see him. What a sigh of relief!

Damage from the storm

The damage is worse than I originally thought. After being sore all day yesterday from my fall on the ice the soreness quickly turned into severe pain. My wrist was hurting so bad last night that I couldn't sleep. This morning when I got to work I had my boss and co-worker take a look at it and we have come to the conclusion, after some black-market x-rays, that I have broken my wrist. I'm going to see our orthopedic surgeon in the clinic on Thursday morning so we'll decide something then. Right now I am in a hard splint and just dealing with the pain.

Updates

A couple weeks ago I had a phone consultation with my doctor. I was able to let him know about the horrible reactions I was having to the latest antibiotic so he decided that I should quit taking it and move on to the next set of medicine. I have felt a little bit better since then but I am still having odd symptoms. I go back to see him the end of January so maybe I'll have better luck figuring this out face-to-face.

Here in southwest Missouri we are currently in the middle of a 5-day ice storm. They are predicting at least another inch of ice before it's over on Wednesday. So far we still have power and the roads aren't too slick. I can't say the same about the driveway. I didn't enjoy the 30+ minutes that it took to defrost my car this morning or the fact that I fell on the driveway. These are pictures from around the area. I'll try to take some at the house tonight and post them tomorrow.

On another note, my house is still for sale. I'm running out of time and money. I lowered the price again 2 weeks ago but I still haven't heard anything from my realtor.

Keep us in your prayers for the week so that we can make it through this storm safely.