When the body turns against you

To say that we've been unlucky in the health department is an understatement.  We have a crazy high deductible for our insurance. We usually meet our deductible by the end of the year but this year, we've already hit it.  It's only April people!  We actually hit it in March.. Can someone please throw us a bone???

We all know I get kidney stones.  I tend to get them once every 3 months.  I started off the year with a stone, no big deal. A quick trip to the ER and I was as good as new.  My newest ailment is my knee.  I finally got my butt off the couch and started running again.  I actually felt good running for the first time in my life. I was motivated and finally prepared mentally to start making running a part of my life.  But of course, my body had other plans.  A few Saturdays ago, I went to get something out of the dryer and felt the most intense burning pain I have ever felt in my life.  After hobbling along for a week, I saw the orthopedic surgeon who diagnosed me with plica syndrome.  Pretty much crazy inflammation of my plica that is controlled by either steroids or surgery.  I just finished a course of oral steroids and my knee doesn't feel any better.  I go back in a few weeks to see whether or not I get a cortisone injection or a surgery date to fix the plica.  It could also be a torn meniscus but they wouldn't know that until they get in my knee.  Either way I'm not looking forward to my next visit.

The Hubs had a pretty big scare in March.  He called me at work saying his blood pressure was like 150s/100s.  Not exactly what I wanted to hear.  He was having some chest tightness and tingling as well so I took him to the ER.  He ended up spending the night for observation since he fits the heart attack description: overweight male in his 30s, who doesn't eat well or exercise, with a ridiculous family history of heart disease.  Thankfully his work up was all negative and he was able to go home the next day.  He is on blood pressure meds, which are working pretty nicely, and he's (slowly) making some healthy lifestyle changes.

Emmy has always been a puzzle when it comes to her health.  I think I've talked about it before but she gets sick every 3 weeks like clockwork.  It's always the same too.....fevers, runny nose, cough, sore throat, and skin rashes.  We've been seeing an Immunologist since August and we've stumped her.  All of her work up has been negative but they are still concerned (as am I).  Finally I broke down and discussed her health history with one of my Bone Marrow Transplant docs who specializes in Immunodeficiencies (and who I respect and trust and who is absolutely brilliant).  She suggested we scan her sinuses and maybe it's a really bad case of chronic sinusitis.  So we did and her sinuses were packed.  We started her on 21 days of antibiotics.  I was so relieved and hopeful that this was our answer. Well sure enough, she got sick like clockwork, even on antibiotics.  Our Immunologist is out on maternity leave so we saw the nurse practitioner (who I adore) and we've stumped her as well.  Thankfully everyone is reaching out to their colleagues around the nation to see if anyone else has any ideas.  We have to come up with some answers soon because Emmy has a lot of exciting things on the horizon (stay tuned for a post on it!!!)

So that leaves Noah.  He had a seizure on Valentine's Day. Thankfully he's okay and has not had any further seizures but we don't have any answers.  We're left with a ton of "whys" which leaves me constantly on edge. It was the worst experience of my life.  There's so much emotion that I'm still feeling because of this.  I'm so thankful he's okay and that we haven't had any other issues but I feel like I'm changed because of it.  It's hard to explain.  That day is forever etched in my brain and I can't help but play it over and over in my mind. I'll explain more tomorrow.

Other than that, we're hunky-dory over in the Crimella house.  I'm impatiently awaiting the day when I can say we're all totally healthy at the same time!!!