Change in Status

I had thought today's post would've been a long list of everything that is going well, but instead I am playing everyone's favorite game:

Stomach flu, food poisoning or adrenal whatsis?

It started Sunday night and I was up most of the night being sick.

Since the adrenal piece didn't seem to kick in until the third trip to the bathroom, I'm crossing fingers this is something benign. Like bad kombucha. And there was possible stomach bug exposure...ten days ago, but still! There's hope of this being normal GI sick, right?

It was surreal to literally feel the strength draining from my legs, weakness overtaking me like poison. Again. For the umpteenth effing time.

I had begun to think I was past that.

As it turns out, not so much.

It's a bummer because I had just done the 2.5 mile walk for the first time without feeling like I wanted to lay down on the sidewalk and die. (Note: The walk made the hubby feel the same way the first time he did it with me. I think it's the million percent humidity that makes it so miserable. Or maybe we are just sloths who dress up like humans--that would explain so much.)

Today will be spent resting as much as possible, hoping that will be enough.

Damn

I had to take 10mg yesterday.

Asthma flared pretty significantly over night and into the morning. My entire rib cage was sore from being so tight. Sticking with albuterol via inhaler though. It's just easier. Ended up two-timing the inhaler with the nebulizer and still...yucko.

The fatigue was killer. And my body started acting out with that adrenal complex of sore throat and general malaise with weakness.

I gave it a few hours and added some caffeine, but things just were not improving so I caved and did 5mg. Then another 5mg.

Work was bad. I started with diarrhea which I hope was just Augmentin messing with me, but, regardless, the adrenal piece came alive with generalized stomach and back pain, increasing weakness and fatigue replete with clumsiness resulting in a cut finger and a bruise along my spine. I also lost time, zoning out and coming to with no memory of things that were said to me or that happened.

I am not sure what I should do today regarding everything.

Hopefully it's just that I did too much the other day and will settle down now that I've had a good night's sleep stayed up most the night with abdominal pain and adrenal inflammation in my back. I have another IV today and I'm looking forward to its assistance with the mess that is my body.

It's not that I get sick, you know. Bugs happen. It's that I can't seem to get better. If I feel better and act accordingly, I get sick again. Over and over again this pattern manifests, usually with adrenal strain, but now with asthma and adrenals together. It needs to stop.

On the upside (my life is not one long downer no matter how much it reads like it) I have a 'date' with a new friend and the families liked my photos. I like taking photos and it looks like I have an eye for it, if not the actual $5,000 camera needed to do it well.

I did 'silly face' photos with all the kids and it was gratifying to hear everyone laughing and enjoying the pictures at the 'graduation' party. To think I had a hand in that creating that moment just blew my mind. One family wants me to come take photos which will be fun.

As for the comment on the previous post regarding if I ate paleo. I do. Pretty much. Here are photos of lunch and dinner from Tuesday (I'm working on a food project). Breakfast was a 'green' smoothie, which I drank, but didn't care for so much.

Surprise

I'm sick. I'm not sure if it's going to settle in for a long torture session or not, but I'm definitely sick. No more waffling or dithering. At least things make sense now.

If it's the bug the toddler had and it manifests at even half power in me, I may be in trouble re: asthma which could mean trouble re:steroids.

The whole thing is a good validation of what is and isn't adrenal for me. The stomach pain is back and I now realize that all the gallbladder pain was somehow related to the adrenals. It improved somewhat with the switch to Nexium, but it really got better once the HPA axis was functioning more normally and hardly bothers me...unless I'm adrenal.

Given how my gallbladder thrashed like it was in a mosh pit, I would not have expected any adrenal connection. But it really wasn't the GERD, which is actually much worse these days--medication is kind of not working.

If I didn't have the adrenal stuff complicating things, I would be pursuing surgery to tighten the sphincter asap. My stomach produces copious amounts of acid and the muscles are too lax and I really miss eating cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and cabbage.

Bewildered

I took 5mg this morning after waking up to adrenal pain and just not feeling great. I did a little bit better last night after a nap, but it took hours and hours after I woke up to get that improvement.

5mg is really helping, but I wonder if I might actually need 10mg.

Trying not to do that, but it may come down to taking more.

Is my system pooping out on me? Or was last week really too much? Really?

Today I'm not sick. Yesterday I was congested with asthma symptoms. It seems like every other day I feel like I'm coming down with something, which I guess I will now take as a sign of adrenal stress.