Well, it has been an action packed couple of days!! Where to start?? At the beginning I suppose...
Well, my sister went into labor at about 12:30am Wednesday morning. She had Lark Kalynne Wall at 1:30pm the same day. Lark was 8lbs 11oz., and 20 1/2 inches long. She's got a head full of dark hair, and Mom says she looks like her daddy, but I haven't made up my mind yet. Ask me in a few months, when the rate of Change has at least slowed down a little. There were no complications, except a really sucky anesthesiologist, so she got stuck a total of FIVE TIMES with that big ole long needle, and had to stay still, in heavy labor, for forty-five minutes. Can you IMAGINE???? Yuck!! But mom and baby are fine, they're home already, and doing well.
I had an appointment with my good doctor, the one I've been going to since I was ten, on Wednesday. Very serendipitous, since he's in the same town as my sister's hospital, so I was able to just nip over after the appointment and visit her and my new niece. My doctor is just simply wonderful. He decided to put me back on antibiotics...for the next three months. He believes in a more aggressive approach with this particular disease. Not a moment too soon as well, because the day after I saw him, and he pronounced his prognosis, I got sick again. Yup, that was yesterday. I'm feeling better today, but really really tired. I lost all ground with my stamina, but I am on orders to start exercising gently 4-5 times a week asap, so I intend to gain that ground back. I'm sick of being....well, sick.
So, mostly good news!! I'm really excited for my sister, and my new niece. One down and one to go Renae! (who, for those of you who don't know, is my sister-in-law, and she's due June 28) I'm excited to finally be in good medical hands, and have the end of this nightmare in sight. Soon, maybe in as little as three months, I'll have my life back!! Hurray!!
The Almighty Liz
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Nothing Much
How was everyone's Memorial Day? I hope we all remembered what the holiday is for, at least briefly.
Mine was fine. I spent it chasing after a bored little boy because my husband took off for the north to work on our superfluous house and took our car and my daughter and I couldn't find the cables to hook up our vcr/dvd player, and it was raining, and our connection to the net is too slow to use the instant browser option on the netflix website. (how's that for a run-on, Timpani?) John did, however, bring our books home from his mom's last weekend, so I wasn't entirely without things to do. Only Erik didn't have anything to do.
We are settling in here at our house. We like it so much better than our old one. Not that our old one was bad, we had just so entirely outgrown it! Everyone LOVES having their own room! John and I can hang out in our room now! It's great for the old love life.
We did some yardsaling last Saturday (or, I did, John's contribution was to watch the kids.), and I picked up some much needed items, like couches, and got some great deals on things that weren't needed per se, but were really cheap and would be very useful to have. Like a reel lawn mower for $5. We are loving having somewhere to sit! So, even though we are not totally unpacked (and that could take several years at the rate we are going) now that we have places to sit, we are ready for visitors!! *hint hint* So if anyone wants to come see us...
My sister is going to have her baby today! She's being induced, much to her disappointment. At least the wait is over, though! And she's totally miserable, as is everyone after nine months of pregnancy, so she's ready!
Well, that's all for today. Nothing momentous, I'm just trying to be better about posting more regularly. Your welcome.
The Almighty Liz
Mine was fine. I spent it chasing after a bored little boy because my husband took off for the north to work on our superfluous house and took our car and my daughter and I couldn't find the cables to hook up our vcr/dvd player, and it was raining, and our connection to the net is too slow to use the instant browser option on the netflix website. (how's that for a run-on, Timpani?) John did, however, bring our books home from his mom's last weekend, so I wasn't entirely without things to do. Only Erik didn't have anything to do.
We are settling in here at our house. We like it so much better than our old one. Not that our old one was bad, we had just so entirely outgrown it! Everyone LOVES having their own room! John and I can hang out in our room now! It's great for the old love life.
We did some yardsaling last Saturday (or, I did, John's contribution was to watch the kids.), and I picked up some much needed items, like couches, and got some great deals on things that weren't needed per se, but were really cheap and would be very useful to have. Like a reel lawn mower for $5. We are loving having somewhere to sit! So, even though we are not totally unpacked (and that could take several years at the rate we are going) now that we have places to sit, we are ready for visitors!! *hint hint* So if anyone wants to come see us...
My sister is going to have her baby today! She's being induced, much to her disappointment. At least the wait is over, though! And she's totally miserable, as is everyone after nine months of pregnancy, so she's ready!
Well, that's all for today. Nothing momentous, I'm just trying to be better about posting more regularly. Your welcome.
The Almighty Liz
Thursday, May 22, 2008
On a Lighter Note...
Well folks, we are moved! We managed, with a terrific realtor, and a dynamite mortgage guy, to close in two weeks! So the whole process only took a month, which was a blessing and a curse all in one. Moving day was last Saturday, and it ended up stretching into Sunday due to not quite enough help on the loading side, which ended up exhausting John and Bruce, which resulted in John locking the keys in a running car containing our cat. An hour and a half and a locksmith later, they were on the road to our new home! Unfortunately, it was far too late to unload that day, so we did it in the morning. Unloading took much less time, and we saw the mettle of our new neighbors, who unhesitatingly pitched in to help move our piano! The kids LOVE the new house! They each have their own room, (and John and I are enjoying having a room of our own again too!!), Erik has graduated to a Big Boy Bed, and the fenced in backyard is, to put it lightly, an enormous blessing. We have spent hours out there everyday just soaking up the good weather. It's raining today, so we are stymied. How did I get along without a fenced yard for so long??...
I am doing better. I'm done with round four of the antibiotics, and so far so good!
John I think likes his new job. The people are nice, the hours are better, he doesn't have to commute at all, and the benefits are great. He hasn't really done anything like work yet, he's just been training, so we'll see what the real evaluation will be in a few weeks.
So all in all, life is darn good. I love that I'm so much closer to family and friends now, and as soon as I'm totally well, and John brings home the other car from our old house, I fully intend to take advantage of it. I'm also close enough to go to my old doctor, and that is very exciting for me. Things are definitely looking up!
The Almighty Liz
I am doing better. I'm done with round four of the antibiotics, and so far so good!
John I think likes his new job. The people are nice, the hours are better, he doesn't have to commute at all, and the benefits are great. He hasn't really done anything like work yet, he's just been training, so we'll see what the real evaluation will be in a few weeks.
So all in all, life is darn good. I love that I'm so much closer to family and friends now, and as soon as I'm totally well, and John brings home the other car from our old house, I fully intend to take advantage of it. I'm also close enough to go to my old doctor, and that is very exciting for me. Things are definitely looking up!
The Almighty Liz
Monday, May 5, 2008
And the Moral of the Story is...
Okay, I've been meaning to do this for awhile, but have been too weak to do a long post. I am now well enough, and although a lot of you already know this story, I feel like telling it so that the everyone can learn from my experience. I won't, however, go into all the gory details. I'll just do the cliff notes version.
I got really sick around the beginning of February. This in itself is not unusual. I do believe the vast majority of folks came down with that really nasty respiratory flu that burned through the ranks this winter. I was subject to that as well, and the only difference with me is that I had already had it once and I also became infected with strep throat at the same time. If you've been reading my blogs, this is not new to anyone. I was severely ill for about two weeks. After that, my symptoms went away for awhile, but I didn't recover. I continued to be debilitating fatigued and severely weak for months afterward. I also became infected with anything I came into contact with over those months. I had that horrible flu I counted 3 or 4 times. I got stomach flu no less than three times, and a host of colds. And always, the fatigue and weakness lingered and never ever went away. As time passed, I began to add to those two overarching symptoms. I became short of breath for no reason. I began to have tingling in my extremities for no reason. I was getting light headed and dizzy, again for no reason that I could see. You are probably asking yourself at this point why I hadn't gone to see a doctor. The answer is that I was seeing a doctor almost this entire time, by the name of George Gilbert, and a prompt care physician that I don't know the name of. (I will not credit Gilbert with the respectful title of "Doctor" at this point.) What was my diagnosis? I'll tell you: depression. That's right people. Depression nowadays apparently comes with raging fevers, swollen glands and lymph nodes, sore swollen throats, and flu-like symptoms. At one point, since I have a deadly blood disease that runs in our family, I insisted on having some blood work done to rule this out. I had to not just insist on it, but practically order the doctor to do it. After we had waited for these results for a week, I finally gave in to the urging of my husband and called the office. They had had the results for that whole time, and the doctor had not even looked at them yet, but the nurse told me that everything looked fine. This was the last straw. I had a doctor that would not listen to me, would not even look at blood work he had in his possession, and his staff was interpreting it. We severed our ties, and went looking for greener pastures. We found a new doctor, Dr. Robert Lizer, who's staff not only got us in in a week for a new patient exam, but were kind and compassionate. Dr. Lizer made eye contact and listened, took reams of notes, and pronounced that I didn't look depressed to him, I looked sick. (aside, John came with me to this one. He wasn't about to let another doctor blow me off, and at this point I was incapable of driving or even walking any distance without support) He ordered twelve different blood test, and insisted on having the results to the one we had already had done. Quite a difference from the way I had been treated thus far. He put me on antibiotics right away, and kept me on them for almost a month. He told me in my follow-up visit 10 days later that he had the diagnosis the minute he had the copy of the results from the work I had insisted on. I had Rheumatic Fever, and had been a breath away from heart failure when I came to his office. If I had stayed with Gilbert, I would have died, and the really rum point is that he had the diagnosis in his hands, and did nothing. As it is, I have no permanent damage to my heart (for those of you who don't know what R. Fever is, it is a secondary strep infection that affects your heart, and is extremely deadly, and extremely hard to get. I just happen to be lucky that way) because priesthood blessings work. I will, however, have to make some permanent changes in my life. I have to get my heart as strong as I can get it, which means getting in shape. If I don't, every cold I get will be deadly. Even if I do get in great shape (which I plan on, no worries), I will still have to see the doctor every time I get a cold because there is now a permanent chink in my immune system armour.
The reason I'm telling this recent life experience is because since moving to Peoria IL, we have had many such experiences. Not as life threatening as this last one, but close. With Robert Adams, I put my five week old son in the hospital and was on the point of committing myself to an asylum for no reason beyond his incompetence. With Kindred, I had kidney stones while pregnant, along with all the other hosts of complications I have with pregnancies, and was ignored. Each of these times, we learned a little faster an important moral. I would like to pass that on:
If you don't feel that your doctor is doing his/her very best for you, you are probably right.
If you come to the conclusion that you are right, drop them like a hot potato and find someone new, and better. Your sanity, health and life could depend on it.
If you find, after you have switched to a better doctor, that you were indeed correct about the old doctor, be verbal about it. Tell people, tell that doctor's board of superiors, tell any hospitals they are affiliated with. Do all that you can to get the message to as many people as you can to save them from your experiences and put that doctor out of business. I do believe this does much more damage than a law suit ever could.
But above all, the message I want to send today is to get out. You do not have to put up with incompetence and idiocy. Anyone, everyone is worth more than that.
The Almighty Liz
I got really sick around the beginning of February. This in itself is not unusual. I do believe the vast majority of folks came down with that really nasty respiratory flu that burned through the ranks this winter. I was subject to that as well, and the only difference with me is that I had already had it once and I also became infected with strep throat at the same time. If you've been reading my blogs, this is not new to anyone. I was severely ill for about two weeks. After that, my symptoms went away for awhile, but I didn't recover. I continued to be debilitating fatigued and severely weak for months afterward. I also became infected with anything I came into contact with over those months. I had that horrible flu I counted 3 or 4 times. I got stomach flu no less than three times, and a host of colds. And always, the fatigue and weakness lingered and never ever went away. As time passed, I began to add to those two overarching symptoms. I became short of breath for no reason. I began to have tingling in my extremities for no reason. I was getting light headed and dizzy, again for no reason that I could see. You are probably asking yourself at this point why I hadn't gone to see a doctor. The answer is that I was seeing a doctor almost this entire time, by the name of George Gilbert, and a prompt care physician that I don't know the name of. (I will not credit Gilbert with the respectful title of "Doctor" at this point.) What was my diagnosis? I'll tell you: depression. That's right people. Depression nowadays apparently comes with raging fevers, swollen glands and lymph nodes, sore swollen throats, and flu-like symptoms. At one point, since I have a deadly blood disease that runs in our family, I insisted on having some blood work done to rule this out. I had to not just insist on it, but practically order the doctor to do it. After we had waited for these results for a week, I finally gave in to the urging of my husband and called the office. They had had the results for that whole time, and the doctor had not even looked at them yet, but the nurse told me that everything looked fine. This was the last straw. I had a doctor that would not listen to me, would not even look at blood work he had in his possession, and his staff was interpreting it. We severed our ties, and went looking for greener pastures. We found a new doctor, Dr. Robert Lizer, who's staff not only got us in in a week for a new patient exam, but were kind and compassionate. Dr. Lizer made eye contact and listened, took reams of notes, and pronounced that I didn't look depressed to him, I looked sick. (aside, John came with me to this one. He wasn't about to let another doctor blow me off, and at this point I was incapable of driving or even walking any distance without support) He ordered twelve different blood test, and insisted on having the results to the one we had already had done. Quite a difference from the way I had been treated thus far. He put me on antibiotics right away, and kept me on them for almost a month. He told me in my follow-up visit 10 days later that he had the diagnosis the minute he had the copy of the results from the work I had insisted on. I had Rheumatic Fever, and had been a breath away from heart failure when I came to his office. If I had stayed with Gilbert, I would have died, and the really rum point is that he had the diagnosis in his hands, and did nothing. As it is, I have no permanent damage to my heart (for those of you who don't know what R. Fever is, it is a secondary strep infection that affects your heart, and is extremely deadly, and extremely hard to get. I just happen to be lucky that way) because priesthood blessings work. I will, however, have to make some permanent changes in my life. I have to get my heart as strong as I can get it, which means getting in shape. If I don't, every cold I get will be deadly. Even if I do get in great shape (which I plan on, no worries), I will still have to see the doctor every time I get a cold because there is now a permanent chink in my immune system armour.
The reason I'm telling this recent life experience is because since moving to Peoria IL, we have had many such experiences. Not as life threatening as this last one, but close. With Robert Adams, I put my five week old son in the hospital and was on the point of committing myself to an asylum for no reason beyond his incompetence. With Kindred, I had kidney stones while pregnant, along with all the other hosts of complications I have with pregnancies, and was ignored. Each of these times, we learned a little faster an important moral. I would like to pass that on:
If you don't feel that your doctor is doing his/her very best for you, you are probably right.
If you come to the conclusion that you are right, drop them like a hot potato and find someone new, and better. Your sanity, health and life could depend on it.
If you find, after you have switched to a better doctor, that you were indeed correct about the old doctor, be verbal about it. Tell people, tell that doctor's board of superiors, tell any hospitals they are affiliated with. Do all that you can to get the message to as many people as you can to save them from your experiences and put that doctor out of business. I do believe this does much more damage than a law suit ever could.
But above all, the message I want to send today is to get out. You do not have to put up with incompetence and idiocy. Anyone, everyone is worth more than that.
The Almighty Liz
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