No Answers, But What Else Is Knew?

I had my appointment with the endocrinologist today and while something being off was definitely noted, what that something may be was not. As I have said before, my calcium levels are high and I have a problem with kidney stones. I currently have a about 4-6 sitting in each kidney and every once in a while it goes acute and causes me a lot of pain. I have never been able to have one of these stones analyzed to find out what they are made of, but with my calcium issues it has always been assumed they are made out of calcium.

The endocrinologists seemed to want to get a better handle on what the stones are made of. Usually when calcium is high, another hormone called the parathyroid hormone will also be abnormal. In my case, the doctor called it "inappropriately normal". This confused them and opens up other possibilities for why my calcium is high. None of which are that good, and none of which I really want to get into right now mainly because it's kind of scary.

The plan for now is to redo the calcium, parathyroid and all of those tests. I'm getting more kidney function tests and some other hormone tests. Then we can make a decision as to whether imaging needs to be done of the parathyroid gland to check for masses and if the doctors need to actually retrieve the stones from my kidneys to verify the stone's composition. Just hearing how the stones would be retrieved made me cringe.

I also saw my endometriosis specialist today and I am reducing my Aygestin. He basically said anytime my prednisone doses are changed around it will interact with my Aygestin and cause the problems I have been having. But since my lungs like to swell up so much, getting off the prednisone is proving kind of difficult.

I'm pretty discouraged. I just want my body to work. There were other alternatives mentioned that are too hard to really think about right now, and my mind is spinning a little bit. It just seems like every time something starts to do right, I fall back into another medical quagmire. And I am getting very sick of it.

Well, That's Done

The semester from HELL is over. I finished my last final at 2:30 Friday and went straight home. It took me three hours to get home because I left just in time for rush hour traffic, but it was good to be home nevertheless.

By my last final, my brain was off. It was for my history of film class and I could barely remember any of the movies we had seen over the semester. Hopefully I did not bomb it too badly.

Now I have a whole month off to do NOTHING and it is so wonderful. I do not really have any plans, but that is fine with me. We got our Christmas tree yesterday so I can finally start getting into the Christmas spirit.

I have a couple of upcoming appointments next week. One with an endocrinologist to see about the issues I have with regulating my calcium and one with my endometriosis specialist for some issues I have been having with it. I also got a call saying that I was scheduled to see surgeon in the endometriosis specialist's office, but no one talked to me about that. I really DO NOT feel like having another surgery for it.

I hope everyone has a good holiday

Belated Thanks and Another ER Trip

Thanksgiving was pretty awesome in my house this year. It was the first time in many years that a we had more family members show up than not. We had some amazing food (I made mac and cheese) in large quantities. My aunt made this pumpkin spice cake that was absolutely divine. I also got to see one of my aunts for the first time in almost two years.

There was only one little problem. I realized, just after the halfway point between home and school, that I had forgotten all my medicines at school. I was so far into my trip home, and just wanted to go home, that I did not turn around. I just hoped that the people at the pharmacy could help me out since I am quite friendly with them. Unfortunately, due to some insurance crap or whatever, I was only able to get some of my medicine. Only 1/3 of my lupus medicines. But I made it through Thanksgiving pretty well with only a few bouts of pain.

Things changed when I got back to school with a horrendous bout of chest pain. I knew what was going on. Over the summer I had inflammation on my pleural membrane, and this felt the exact same way. I called my rheumatologist, who was not in, and spoke to her assistant. The assistant told me to call my primary care doctor, which I did. They told me to go to the ER. UGH. So my roommate and I went and after spending hours there so they could run all sorts of tests I was put back on 25mg of prednisone.

I hate prednisone, as I am sure you know. I have spent many months trying to come off it and then to get put back on the same dose I was on over the summer was so disheartening. Luckily, I am now only on 20mg and will keep reducing rapidly. My cheeks were swollen by the third day.

I have definitely learned my lesson about taking my medicine.

Also that night, I managed to lock myself out of my apartment at 1am, bleed all over the place from a cut in my arm, have a pukingly bad migraine and get a $1500 medical bill. It was very unpleasant.

Anyway, I am two weeks away from the end of the semester. Only 8 exams, two papers, 1 lab report and several smaller assignments to go before I am on a blissful one month break.

Oy

It's been almost two weeks since my last post. Sorry about that. I guess there is nothing really to say except that I am still drowning in homework and doing a prednisone taper. It almost seems like I am never getting off of it. For the next two weeks I will be alternating 5mg with 6mg.

Speaking of drowning in work, I registered for five classes next semester so far. The total amount of credits is 17. Since I seemingly love to torture myself, I also am applying for a course overload so I can take 21 credits next semester (limit is 19). I am trying to get as many prerequisites for nursing school out of the way that I can because I am still getting financial aid. I also found a seminar lat minute that I really wanted to take because I am a nerd. So for next semester I have general chemistry plus its three hour lab, nutrition, an online class about public relations, a class called performance ethnography (unless I can get into the documentary seminar) and a psychology seminar about clinical psychology. I hope to be able to register for developmental psychology at the school down the street from mine which costs $40,000+ a year but I can take any class there for my tuition rates. This goes the same for any of the other 4 ridiculously expensive schools around me. All I have to do is be registered for 3 credits and my home institution.

Anyway, my joint pain has been increasing and I have had to supplement my prescription pain meds almost everyday with over-the-counter ones. This is not encouraging, but I do not see my rheumatologist again for a few more weeks and do not really feel like going to see her anytime sooner. Unless, of course, it gets real bad.

Hope everyone's November is going well so far!

Endocrinology

Ever since taking neuroendocrinology a couple of semesters ago I have been really interested in the field. I guess I will have some first hand knowledge now that I am scheduled to see an endocrinologist later this month. My calcium levels are wacky, my Vitamin D levels are out of sorts and I have low citrate (whatever that is) which is making me crank out kidney stones at an alarming pace. I did one round of Googling about what this all could mean and then I stopped. No use getting ahead of myself because I will probably come out of the appointment with them telling me to drink more water and that's it.

Midterms are over, thank God. Now I can get back to my normal crazy instead of extra, extra crazy. Also, the class listings went up today so I was able to make a tentative schedule while sitting around bored at work. It looks like I will be able to take two nursing school prerequisites (Anatomy & Physiology 1 and Nutrition) next semester. I still need to take another semester of A&P, microbiology with lab, two semesters of chemistry and human growth and development, but it's a start. This will also make me more attractive to the one nursing school I am applying for now because while you can take the prerequisites the summer before the nursing classes start, the website says doing this will make you "less competitive".

I'm down to 6mg of prednisone and everyone says it looks like I am losing weight, which is not true it is just my face is not swollen from the prednisone anymore. But if they think that, why not? I gained 10lbs on the stuff and I want them off now.

Anyway, happy November!

I'm So Sorry Blog, I Haven't Forgotten You

Unfortunately, things have not slowed down for me. Just this week I have 4 exams and a paper. And all my classes are pretty difficult. I'm doing everything I can to balance school and work and keep my GPA. Which leads me to another problem: work. I'm not having enough time to do both school and work. My family has realized this and been EXTREMELY generous and supportive over the last few days and asked me to quit one of my jobs. Which I would love to do, but it would leave my employers in a tough situation. So I'm not sure what to do about that.

Which leads me to my family. They have shown me just how truly blessed I am over the past few days. I don't know what I would do without them.

Anyway, lupus-wise I am so-so. Today I am dealing with a very swollen and painful ankle which is disappointing because I normally don't have problems with my ankles. My rheumatologist has also mentioned starting physical therapy again for my knees because the arthritis is in my ligaments and tendons and I can't extend my knees out at all. I also had a bunch of endocrine tests done because my calcium levels tend to be high, my vitamin D levels tend to be low and I'm getting kidney stones a lot more than a person my age should get.

Complain and Whine

Well, this post is really nothing but a big complaint. I do have posts about actual topics formulating, but the brain power and time required to write them is more then I can expend right now. Today has been one of the worst pain days I have had in a while. I was supposed to go apple picking, but guess it is a blessing in disguise that it got cancelled.

It is mostly the lower part of my body that is having the most trouble. My legs are all sorts of sore and my naproxen and Tylenol are just not cutting it. I have spent a good portion of today trying to sleep it off, but that's not really helping either.

Sigh. I guess this is all rearing its head because I am not on 7.5mg of prednisone, which is the lowest dose I have been on in...well, a long time. Hopefully things get better.