To bring you up to date ... My doctor has been quite obsessed with my alleged high blood pressure. She prescribed some meds three years ago, which have done nothing to bring down the numbers she sees. She asked me to purchase a home monitor two years ago, which I did.
The first prescribed med. was hydrochlorothiazide--a water pill. We started at a low dose and when that had no effect, climbed higher. Still no effect. Well, other than the fatigue that has been sucking my patience and body dry. After all, just who sleeps 16 or 17 hours a day anyway? Well, other than me, not many folks that I know.
When confronted with the actual numbers of hours of sleep I required instead of the vague "fatigue" word, she conceded that perhaps my need for sleep was excessive. So she prescribed an ASE-inhibitor by the name of Lisinopril. Again, at a low dose, but ...
I am amazed, totally amazed at the speed with which life changed. The lisinopril kicked in and my blood pressure dropped. Dramatically. As recorded on the home monitor. Unfortunately, so did the side effects. Major and uncomfortable. Nausea, dizziness, light-headedness. What I thought were unrelated physical manifestations were chills, insomnia, huge coughing fits for absolutely no reason and with no productive outcome, and emotional melt-downs. Turns out that everything but the chills were related to the lisinopril. Chills? Well, wouldn't YOU be cold if your blood pressure was somewhere around 100/65?
At the last check-up on March 5, the doctor and I discussed the situation. Turns out that the home monitor readings don't count. Are, in fact, worthless, because she didn't take them. (Why I got to spend $100 buying the blasted monitor I still don't understand, especially if she is just gonna ignore the numbers.) I had already decided to stop taking the lisinopril, a decision with which she agreed. Fortunately! Now I just had to wait for the meds to work their way through and out the body.
Thursday evening (the 13th), I ended up going to the local emergency room. I had a pain in my right side that basically had me hunched over and not breathing. The diagnosis? Well ... it MIGHT be a fractured/dislocated rib caused by coughing so hard; it MIGHT be pneumonia because there was shading in the lung on the x-ray; it MIGHT be a kidney infection since there was blood in the urine. Sweet. Got some lovely antibiotics and some of the good (pain) drugs and sent home. Things are improving, albeit slowly. Monday morning I get to go for an ultrasound and then we'll see how things go from there.
Because of the lack of sleep and brain fog I have been experiencing, there really hasn't been much knitting done around here. By me, anyway. It was March Break for the daughter, and her brother was willing to come visit. This is the fabulous sight I saw on some evenings here at my house:
Jeffrey may look a wee bit perturbed at his knitting, but the reality is that he was concentrating very hard. Such determination!He was here at Christmas time and started and completed his first project: a hat!
Inspired by his success, he went searching for a special hat for a young lady friend of his. She performs dances wearing a black dress ... and needed a flapper-style hat to complete the outfit. He found a pattern, his step-mother provided the yarn, and he went to work. 
The flapper hat as modeled by his younger sister. Turned out quite well, in fact.He wasn't done knitting, however, so he browsed around the shop and decided to make himself a sweater. He selected a pattern, I suggested yarn, and he has begun the adventure of a lifetime. He is becoming a Knitter. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I made contact with a friend of the Yarn Harlot's who lives in his neighbourhood, and inquired about male-friendly shops and knitting groups. He now has a knitting buddy nearby. How cool is that?!
Time to take another of those good drugs and hit the hay. Tomorrow is another day, and since I'm starting to feel better, I'm actually looking forward to it!
3 comments:
That is such a wonderful picture of your kids knitting. My eleven-year-old loves knitting -- as long as I'm the one doing it.
So sad to see that you're under the weather. Take it easy and be good to yourself. And best of luck as you and your doctor find the right combination of drug and dosage to make you healthy AND comfortable.
{{hug}}
Wow, you weren't exaggerating about feeling bad when I saw you Thurs! Take care of yourself.
Great to see your kids knitting too.
You asked in a recent comment about the Jaywalkers fit. I didn't like the heel when I first knit one so I substituted the Sherman heel, the short row type that works the best for me. There is a good tutorial on the internet for learning it. I used it on the recent Little Shell socks too. I still use a flap heel on my old faithful basic sock pattern, but if in doubt about a new pattern, I switch to Sherman. Hope you're back to feeling healthy and knitting and blogging again soon.
I always look perturbed at my knitting! haha Just surfed over and thought I'd say hi!
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