For those of us in the chronic illness business, a flare is a period of time when our symptoms are markedly worse than usual. Starting last night, I'm having a flare within a flare. Lucky me!
On December 3, 2012, I woke up from gallbladder surgery and my life was different. I knew it the moment my eyes opened. My body was in full attack mode, the start of Flare #1. I've been doing much better the last month or so. Definitely not my old self, but I'm functioning and caring for my precious babies without assistance and that's a win in my book! Then last night my body decided to give me a little reminder flare. Just in case I forgot how bad it can be.
This episode wasn't as bad as the episodes I experienced last December, but it was bad enough. I felt off all day yesterday. I can't pinpoint exact symptoms, just a general yuck feeling. Tired, nauseous, just off! Then last night, I had an episode after eating supper. It's interesting to me that my bad episodes are either shortly after supper or just as I'm drifting off to sleep. Anyways, I ate and shortly after I got that all too familiar wave of tingles and chills. This is always how these episodes start. Soon after, I got extremely nauseous and my resting heart rate went to 132 beats per minute (it's usually closer to 60). Then, I got the strange burning sensation in my stomach. It's not like an indigestion burning. It's more like the way your muscles or lungs burn after a workout. Like they are starving for oxygen. Luckily, this all passed within an hour, but I was left exhausted.
This morning I'm left with the after effects. Some lingering nausea, very weak arms, and a heart that wants to race every time I lift my finger. So, I'm loading up on Gatorade and forced myself to exercise, which is not easy to do when your heart is racing just sitting down! I'm extremely proud of the fact that I now have my Body Mass Index back into the normal range and I intend to keep it there! There is so much in my body that I can't control, so I am adamant about controlling the things I can. If there's one positive that's come from this flare, it's that I'm now more focused on living a healthy lifestyle (I've got a long ways to go though)!
On a side note, this is the worst episode I've had since my body started making its turn around. Dr. Goodman had me stop taking Zyrtec and Zantac (which I had started when I suspected I might be dealing with a mast cell issue) so we could focus on correcting my deficiencies. I'm not sure if it's coincidence or not that this bad episode comes after I stopped those medications. It's the only change I've made that may have caused this flare within a flare. Not that my body ever needs an excuse to act wacky! Dr. G. really wanted me to give these supplements three or four weeks before adding in the "Mast Cell Cocktail" so I'm going to try my hardest to stick it out. As Dori from Finding Nemo would say, "Just keep swimming!"
"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10
Amy
P.S. I hope I'm not being too much of a complainer with my posts lately, but this blog is a great way for me to journal these episodes! I'm very forgetful and by next week I probably won't even remember that I had an episode! :-)
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