Once upon a time, I was a Lazy Lady. In 2011, I decided to train for a half-marathon and since then, I've done 5ks, 10ks, 15ks, a few trail runs and over fifteen half-marathons! I haven't lost my focus though; I'm still lazy, and I'm still frugal, so please pull up a chair and join me in my continuing endeavor to be healthy, frugal, and happy!
After rescheduling his January appointment, we met with Dr. L today. On our way there, as we were parking in the parking garage, I told him that if he wanted to quit and never have a biopsy, and never see Dr. L again, I would accept that decision. His October visit was very stressful, and he seemed just so... DONE... with everything. Personally, if it were me, I'd keep going until I could figure out what was wrong and how I could fix it. But he's not like that. He gets frustrated and overwhelmed and just flips a table and walks away. So, I put the ball in his court and said, if you quit, I stand behind you.
Speaking to Dr. L, he had to admit that we've done pretty much nothing healthy over the holidays... Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, life just sucked. Clover got sick and passed away, and we just said fuck it and didn't give a shit about anything. We ate a lot of junk food, a lot of fast food for dinner, a lot of prepared food (like chicken nuggets or frozen pizza) for dinner... Neither of us could be bothered to do anything good for us! He stopped taking his meds and doing blood pressure checks. Thankfully, we got our shit together again after New Year's, which is why we rescheduled his appointment.
She reviewed his numbers, which seemed to be wavering slightly, but not decreasing too much; his eGFR is up to 69 (nice) and most other numbers are holding. His blood pressure, of course, was much worse than it had been, but that's because he stopped taking his meds. His A1C is just a tiny bit higher than she'd like (normal is 5.6% and he's at 5.9%), so we need to keep an eye on that in future visits now, too. She stressed again the importance of staying hydrated, eating right, and exercising. I told her that we were doing better in that regard, though we weren't where she wanted us to be. I gave her a visual of a tall mountain and a low valley; she was down in the valley, demanding we come down to be healthy with her, and we were up near the top of the mountain, where it was super-unhealthy and full of Bad Things. We were slowly coming down to meet her, but still far away. We explained that there was progress being made, but because we were so high up on the mountain, it would take us a while to get down to her level. She seemed content with that, because she understood that there was forward motion, no matter how slow.
We told her about the gastro issues and the chest pain; she suggested that the chest pain may actually be Costochondritis, inflammation in the costosternal cartilage that connects the ribs to the sternum. It most commonly affects the upper ribs on the left-hand side of the body, and pain is often worst where the rib cartilage attaches to the sternum, but can also occur where the cartilage attaches to the rib. It's also known as Chest Wall Pain Syndrome or Costosternal Condrodynia. The cause of Costochondritis is unclear... Treatment focuses on easing the pain while waiting for the condition to ease on its own, which may take several weeks. Symptoms include sharp, aching, or pressure-like pain, pain that may radiate to the arm or shoulder, and pain that worsens when taking a deep breath, coughing, sneezing, laughing, or any other chest wall movement. Interestingly, Costochondritis occurs most often in women over 40, so I wonder if this is something that I'll have to deal with at some point?
Because of the inflammation, she wondered again about an autoimmune disease - something she's never been able to rule out for him. He had an abnormal antibody test back in June, which hints at an Autoimmune disease, but doesn't point to anything specific, unfortunately (it's not HIV or AIDS, we tested for that). For now, she'll take another wait and see approach while he works on getting his blood pressure back under control (it was 143/89 at this visit).
She brought up the subject of a kidney biopsy again, but surprisingly, Hubby didn't automatically shut down. He wasn't happy to talk about it, but he seemed a little more open to the idea? She didn't push it though, because she won't do it until his blood pressure is back to normal (which would be around 120/80). To that end, she upped one of his blood pressure meds, reminded him to do blood pressure checks routinely, then asked us to come back in April. I looked over at him, thinking that this would be the time for him to shut it down or keep it going, and he chose to keep it going. So we'll be back to see her at the end of April for a follow-up. Here's hoping that his blood pressure is back down and his eGFR is back up!
Hi there! If you're new here, my husband has Chronic Kidney Disease, and we're both learning how to deal with this weird avalanche of related and unrelated crap that goes along with it. If you've missed any part of this adventure, you can catch up here:
When I last checked in, his eGFR was around the mid-60s, and he was adamantly refusing a kidney biopsy. We made a deal with Dr. L to just maintain for the next few months and come back in January to check his numbers. I was mad at him, and heartbroken that he wasn't seeming to take this seriously, and I just kind of mentally shut down.
All caught up? Okay, let's go.
Throughout the end of October and into November, he was having the opposite problem of his previous insomnia... he was sleeping fartoo deeply. I could shake him, slap him, tickle him, turn on the lights, and he just wouldn't wake up. I'd start trying to wake him up for work at 6:20 like I normally did, eventually backing up to 6:15, then 6:10 until Sunday, November 3rd, when I was literally shaking him back and forth, without him waking up. He'd finally wake up around 6:50 and hobble in to pee; of course by then it was too late for him to get to work.
Also, there were multiple times where he fell asleep on the toilet, being in there for 20-30 minutes until I realized he was still in there and I had to check on him. At first, it was a little funny, but then it got really worrisome. Because of this, he'd either get to work late (and have to use Leave to cover the missed time), or just not go in at all. Things got back to "normal" around Veteran's Day just to suck again, when our cat got sick and eventually passed away mid-December. That really threw a wrench into the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's and both of us just let ourselves do whatever the hell we wanted... Lots of fast food for dinners, lots of junk food, no gym or parkrun, skipping blood pressure checks, not taking meds; really just a few weeks of Fuck It behavior.
He was supposed to follow up with Dr. L on January 7th, but because of this Fuck It behavior, we requested to reschedule to February so that we could get back on the wagon, so to speak. Dr. L didn't seem too happy about that, but was able to find an appointment for us.
At the beginning of the year, he had some unplanned time off (hours getting cut for many employees), which worked in his favor a bit, since he'd wanted to take some personal time off anyway. Unfortunately, he was battling bouts insomnia and heavy sleeping again! I can't wake him up, it's frustrating as hell, it's scary, and it's just making me mad. Near the end of the month, he had a scare, with unknown chest pain that he thought might be a heart attack (it wasn't, thank goodness). Because he'd taken a number of days off (he was back on the work schedule at this point), he had to put in for another Leave of Absence, which meant that he had to wait for it to be approved before he could go back to work, even though he was fine and okay to work (this procedure is so stupid). So, whether he really wanted it or not, he got more time off, and I got more stress, having to figure out how to pay bills and keep the household afloat with no paycheck coming in for weeks and weeks and weeks.
In the beginning of February, he had another bout of... gastrointestinal issues (we all know what that means, right?) I had picked up a Publix cake and made tacos for dinner on February 8th to (belatedly) celebrate my 18th year quit, and both of us suffered from "hot snakes and bubble guts" all night.
This came again and again for him over the next 5-6 days, with his troubles being worse than mine. We still hadn't gotten any paperwork for his LoA, which sucks! Last time we did this, the paperwork showed up almost immediately, so where the hell is it now?
Mid-February, he said to hell with it all and planned to go back to work; if they kicked him out, they kicked him out, but maybe it would prompt HR or Sedgwick to do something, right? But then the morning of the day he wanted to go back, another week with upset stomach! Mostly he'd be fine all day long, sleep fine, wake up fine, get ready for work, but then get stuck in the bathroom for 45 minutes - which would make him late for work (and since he was already on such thin ice with the stupid LoA problem, it didn't make sense to go in to work), so he'd stay home again.
February was just this never-ending rollercoaster of shit and sadness. At one point, I wondered if the gastro issues were due to Publix cake. He had issues (including nausea & vomiting) back in September, right around my birthday, and of course, I get Publix cake for my birthday in September... I hope it's not, because I love it, but not having the poops is a lot more important than having cake!
On February 21, we met again with Dr. L, who seemed, I don't know, content, with Hubby's progress. She stressed again about eating right and exercising and drinking water. We shared with her the information about his gastro issues and the chest pain; she said that the pain was most likely Costochondritis, inflammation where the ribs meet the sternum. And that inflammation could be a sign of an autoimmune disease, something that she has yet to rule out for him, since he does show some positive test results for unknown autoimmune diseases. She again brought up the kidney biopsy, and while he kind of side-stepped the entire issue, he didn't shut her down. But she wants his blood pressure to get down (and stay down) in the normal 120/80 range, so she didn't push him on the biopsy. She upped one of his blood pressure meds and told us to come back in April.
We went down to Tampa for Gasparilla and when we came back, he was ready to head back to work; he still hadn't gotten anything from Sedgwick (well, a confirmation email back in January, but that's it), and he was tired of waiting. And, unfortunately, that's when shit hit the fan...
Last week, we had that crazy freak winter storm that brought 8" of snow to the Florida panhandle, and freezing temps to our little home in North Central Florida. It was expected to be worse than it was, so I was able to stay home on Wednesday, January 22nd, and Hubby was home since his employer was cutting hours after the new year (he was off the schedule for a good few weeks, honestly). He was actually supposed to return to work on Thursday, January 23rd, but stayed home because of the weather.
On Friday, he woke up with some pain across his pectoral area; first he thought that he'd slept wrong, but as the day progressed, he began to worry that something was really wrong... Chest pain is nothing to ignore when you're 50 and out of shape! We used Dr. Google and came up with some scary and not-so-scary options, and opted to take a wait and see approach over the next day or so. We weren't seeing any symptoms of a heart attack, so this approach seemed safe. He skipped work on Friday, and later decided that he should stay home until we figured out what was wrong (nobody wants to have a heart attack at work, right?)
By Saturday night, the pain was still there, varying in severity, and he decided he was ready to see a doctor. On Sunday morning, I reached out to his Primary Care Physician via MyChart to request an appointment for Monday (I didn't know that this was a stupid idea when I did it). I worked from home on Monday, and all day, I was waiting for a reply from his doc (I should have just called, honestly). He was still feeling pain in his chest, around his sternum and pecs, above the nipple line.
I went to work on Tuesday and got a call from the doctor's office finally. They said that in the future, I should just call the office directly; using My Chart isn't the best for these kinds of things. So I left work early and we headed over to the doc. He told them that he'd experienced this pain three or four times over the past few months, but this was the worst time, lasting for days. There may not be correlation, but he believes that he feels a corresponding pain in his back, along the same plane, above the shoulder blade area.
They poked and prodded him, listened to his heart and lungs, never making any oh no sounds, not even any hmmmm sounds, which was good. They ruled out any sort of cardiac issues, even going so far as recommending an EKG. I expected that we'd have to go somewhere else to do the EKG, but they just rolled a machine into the room, put little stickers all over him, and shot some voltage through him. Results came out perfectly fine. Between all of this, I think we ended up seeing at least five different people (Nurse, Medical Assistant, Dr. R, Attending Doc, and EKG Guy). Everyone was very nice, which put Hubby at ease (he's still not a huge fan of doctors in general, so it's like trying to earn the trust of a whipped dog).
While we were alone in the room, waiting for the Attending Doc to come back, I gave him a few snuggles to ease his anxiety, and suggested again that we need to get up and get moving, stretching, walking, all that stuff. I know he knows we need to do that, but he's just not there yet mentally. It's like when someone tells you you need to quit smoking. You know you should but you don't want to, so you don't. It's frustrating for me, but I can't force him to do anything... He's an obstinate man and any change has to come from his end, not mine. All I can do, really, is be a good example for him, and encourage him when I see him trying something new.
Dr. R concluded that his problem must be something musculoskeletal, and suggested using pain meds (like Tylenol) or topical creams (like Voltaren) to lessen the pain. Dr. R even submitted the Voltaren (diclofenac) as a prescription to see if would be covered by his insurance, which it was! Name brand would cost $20 a tube, generic would cost $13, but prescription covered three tubes for $19. Voltaren is best for relieving arthritis pain, improving mobility, and reducing stiffness.
I picked up his prescription after work the next day, and it seems to work fine. There's no magic salve for muscle pain, no matter what anyone says. But it worked enough that he stopped moping around the house like an old man.
Of course, now that his immediate pain is gone, he's reverted back to old habits; he's not taking care of himself, not stretching to make sure this doesn't happen again. So this will probably happen again. And he'll complain about the pain and put on some goo. And the cycle will continue.
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