I might be interested, Jackie, but I'm still struggling with the games I run. I seem to be tired all the time right now.

Yay, it's not me anymore.
Welcome

As I probably mentioned, ever since I caught COVID back in October, I've felt like crap even after it went away. Supposedly, the aftermath leaves you tired for months. So I don't have enough energy to post very often most days, and when I do, I'm barely managing to do chores and run errands.

Last two weeks, I've been having minor chest pains on my right side (I'm not an alien--I only have one heart and it's on the left). While I thought it was just a muscle strain from lifting something, my previous heart problem and age had the VA nurse advise me to go to the ER.

So Thursday afternoon, that's what I did! After two days of poking and prodding and inspecting and injecting, they finally determined that I had absolutely no heart concerns. They sent me home Saturday morning with a $600 prescription! At least the first month is free, but unless the VA covers it, I won't be taking that next month.

And the stupid part is that I felt worse when I got discharged than I did when I went in!

Outside of the hospital, though, someone suggested my tiredness/lack of energy may be due to an iron deficiency, which might also account for my lack of appetite.

And then there's the insomnia... haven't slept in five days.

Anyway, I felt a little better today, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

You take care of yourself, hear?

Get well soon.

Vitamin D, b12 and iron all sound like a good idea to me. Also... fod that is not hospital food... because that stuff will make anyone feel bad. :D

And getting sleep would definitely be a good idea.

Travelling tomorrow then embarking on a ship for a cruise Friday. Then will test the onboard wi-fi and hopefully will be back among you.

Hope you're heading to the tropics, Kyle! The temperatures are going to be brutally cold through the U.S. over Christmas.


Yeah, too many 'minor' interlocking problems... each feeds on the other, I'm thinking. Just don't know what the underlying cause is.

Got a doctor's appointment for Jan. 13, so may have to suffer till then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHfAZkBxcQ

I was actually thinking the scene where Riggs and Murtaugh get promoted to Captain in Lethal Weapon 4

In reply to Lucas Wheeler (msg # 339):

Hey Everybody!

Something that some of you may know about me is that the December to February time of year is when I send my Brain out for a good Washing.  And as so often happens, I then can't remember where I sent it, and it takes a month or two to find it again ... so that's where I've been.

But enough of my lies and excuses...


StarMaster went back into the hospital last Friday (01/06).  Over the last month -- after he'd been cleared of COVID by the Doctors -- he was still feeling weak and "out of it".  The weakness got slowly worse, and he also lost his appetite, just couldn't sleep well, and had difficulty focusing.

He finally managed to schedule a VA appointment to actually see a Doctor for next Friday -- so he needed to go to the VA to get bloodwork done this past Friday.

He was unsteady on his feet by then, so I drove him up to the VA for the bloodwork that morning -- we got home around Noon and about an hour later, his VA Doc calls up and orders him to get to an ER immediately!

The Doc said his A1C was way abouve 9.0.  That's no typo -- abouve 9 - point - 0!!

We rushed him immediately to the Hospital (assume Standard Hospital ER Nightmare) and finally got him admitted.

As of the time of this writing, if the Docs actually have any idea about the cause of what's happening, they ain't telling StarMaster...

Anyway, That's all I know.  I'll keep checking in with him, and if I learn anythi--Crap!  My Brain fell out from my ear again!

Now I gotta go chappabloomatonka...pllllllllllllltt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the update; I'm going to post this into the other game I'm in that StarMaster runs so that the people there can be updated as well.

Give him our best, please.

Conditions other than diabetes can cause elevations in A1c - anemia, liver disease, kidney failure can all cause a high A1c. I wish him the very best and hope he gets an answer soon.

The highest A1c I've ever seen was an incidental finding in routine pre-op labs I had ordered during my general surgery residency. The patient was sitting at 15.6 (22.3 mmol/L) and was completely asymptomatic. Needless to say the surgery was cancelled and aggressive measures were taken to get the undiagnosed, completely out of control DM under control since elevated blood glucose (especially that high) makes wound healing highly problematic.

Sadly the rapid drop in A1c brought on by very aggressive management fried the nerves in his legs and brought on peripheral neuropathy which was all endo's doing. A slow, steady management approach is called for in cases like that.

Oh, bless. Poor StarMaster.

Makes my holiday disaster pale into insignificance. Search 'Arvia Christmas' if you want some of the gory details.

Now home...

Ouch. That sounds awful. I hope they plan on doing something to make things right by the affected passengers.

So here's what's been happening...

I've been 'ill' for about three months now, starting with getting COVID back in the beginning of October. Wasn't too bad and I got over it in a few days, but it left me with the typical aftermath symptom of being tired ALL THE TIME. I was slowly getting over it, and even had a few hours of energy every day.

I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for mid-October but then Hurricane Ian hit. The VA clinic took some damage and was closed for two weeks. I finally got the appointment rescheduled for Jan. 13.

December 1st, I had a minor chest pain on my right side. It felt like just a minor muscle strain but at my age and with my medical history, I felt it was prudent to check. Called the VA clinic to see about a walk-in visit the next day and the nurse I talked to went into panic mode with the 'chest pain' words, and told me to go to the ER. So, on Friday, December 2nd, that's what I did. More panic mode.

Spent 4 days being poked and prodded, inspected, detected, and injected and stuff, only to be told my heart was fine. More exactly, they couldn't find any cause for the chest pain... the obvious cause seemed to elude them.

Here's where it started going to hell. Getting out of the hospital, I had an extreme loss of appetite, shortness of breath, and NO ENERGY. Didn't have any of that when I went in!

Not only was I not hungry, but nothing tasted appealing any more. Could barely eat my favorite foods, and then only 2-3 bites. On top of that, I ran out of one of my diabetes medicines. Not eating and drinking much, I also wasn't taking my meds as regularly as I had been.

This went on for the next three weeks, so things probably grew gradually worse without me quite realizing it.

December 31st, I managed to pull a back muscle, and while the pain meds I took didn't do squat, I at least knew it'd go away in a few days. It did. And then I got hives!

Jan. 6 I went to the VA clinic to get bloodwork done for my doctor's appointment. No sooner did I get home than the doctor called to tell me my blood sugar level was 903! I needed to go to the ER pronto! That's where I've been for the past week. :-(

I still didn't feel all that bad (weak and no energy), but I definitely had some serious health issues. Turned out I had ketoacidosis and some kidney issues. After a few days treatment, the keto was gone, kidneys were all better, and my blood sugar was back to normal. Now I had to survive the 'recovery'. As long as I was stuck in that hospital bed, though, I knew I wasn't going to get better. So now I'm home.

Have a nurse helping me, and physical therapy should start tomorrow. And now I have to play tag with a doctor's appointment again...

Anyway, the reason I'm telling you all this is in case you, family or a friend should find yourself in a similar situation, you'll have a heads-up/warning about what's might be happening.


Now it's just recovery and rehab.

I'm glad you're back and recovering though I'm sorry you had to go through all of that over the past few months.

903? **faints**

Sorry for the delay in our thread. The Mrs is working away & I'm home alone with a teething toddler, when I'm not finishing work 3hrs late & burning through my babysitter's goodwill.

If I escape from work on time tonight, I'll get a post up once I've drugged the little one to sleep.

More health issues. Been in hospital for past 11 days. Transitioning to rehab soon. Will update when I can.

Oh dear. Every good wish for a speedy recovery.

So while I was stuck in the hospital bed for two weeks, I wrote and rewrote this post in my head several times. Don't remember any of it now, so here's the newest version.

THE NEVER-ENDING STORY...

The Missing Chapter: when I was discharged from the hospital back in January, I was sent home with a Foley catheter, which was more of an annoyance and handicap for my home rehab at the time. Managed to get an appointment with the VA  urologist two weeks later. He thought I should never have been sent home with it, but it was time to get it removed. Took a week of scheduling shuffles but finally went home without it on the following Thursday.

That Friday night when getting ready for bed, I lost my balance while setting something on the floor and fell over on my back onto the concrete floor. My housemate helped me get up and everything seemed fine once I was back out in the recliner. Nope. Come Saturday, I was in excruciating pain across all the muscles in my chest and back. Doan's, Aleve, Tylenol didn't help at all. Monday added a heating pad... better. Wednesday, switched to BenGay... better, but still couldn't sleep, so Thursday went back to the VA for some stronger pain meds.

That doctor saw the previous records and thought I might be having a pulmonary embolism and immediately did an ambulance transfer to the ER. 6 hours later the ER doctor decided that wasn't the case and sent me home with vicadin. Didn't do anything but pharmacy was closed so had to wait till the next day to get more.

After that, everything was fine for a few hours. Mid-afternoon, I suddenly couldn't move my legs!

EMT/PD shortly had me back in the ER. MRI of head and neck revealed a tumor in my C2 vertebra. Had spinal surgery next morning! Being the weekend, it took 4 days to get the pathology back which identified it as prostate cancer. Caught it early and getting chemo, and now in rehab to walk again.

Other than that, I'm in great health (for my age)! Probably 4-6 weeks in rehab before I go home.

You've had a rough go this year, StarMaster. I'm glad you're on the mend and hope the rest of the year stops treating you so poorly.

Not trying to out "shit going wrong" StarMaster here, but I'm probably going to be quiet for a short while. Had to have my dog put to sleep at weekend, so I've lost my best friend & furry therapist. I'll get back on it as soon as I can think straight again.

So sorry to hear of your loss. They worm their way into our hearts, these furry friends. I still miss mine who have gone ahead... hopefully they will be waiting wagging their tails when it's my time to go.