The Early Bird

Remember hearing that from your parents ?
"The early bird gets the worm." We heard it regularly while Mom was bravely attempting to get us up for school. Or her gentle reminders to not be late.

I'm changing the saying just a little today. The early bird gets sleepy too fast.

My nightly ritual lately is:
All quiet until I lay down for the night.  Then as if by magical hour,  the cough finds its way home.  Not the chronic rejection cough, the thyroid pressing on the trachea cough. The cough that repeats over and over, "I'm gonna make you wish you could breathe and make me stop, but you can't".

Last night it started early. I was sitting in the recliner,  and Wham! I finally got things relatively calm but noticed it had triggered A-Fib. This was about 8PM.  Gotta love the feel when your heart jumps from 52 beats per minute to 118. I mean all those darned butterflies are flapping their wings in complete unison trying to break out of my chest.


I gave my heart the allotted time to correct itself,  to no avail and got my Metoprolol. Now I admit, I detest taking this and resist at all cost. It slows me way down, makes me dizzy and nauseous.
 Hoping to sleep the effects off, I went o bed.

Yes my old friend the cough came too. When it finally calmed to let me sleep, my kidneys decided they wanted the night shift. I was up every hour...grrrrrrr

 I finally waved a white flag of surrender and got up at 3:30. My heart rate is down, but not where it should be. Anothe dose of Metoprolol might do it, but not until later.  12 hours per dose,  would be 9AM.  But I have a 9:30 Doctor appointment for suture removal and since the medicine causes dizziness as well as nauseau, I think it best to wait. No, I do not want to have a stroke!  Trust me, if it gets worse, they can remove the sutures at the hospital.

Dilemmas and chaos are a part of everyday life,  just once I wish it were something other than medical chaos. But then agsin without all this my life just might be utterly dull. :-)

So here I sit, propped on the couch, resting for a bit. Maybe the Powers that be will favor me with a nap ;-)

Blessed sleep

Remember I mentioned previously how refreshing a good nights sleep is? You wake up in the morning , stretch, and happily breathe in the start of a new day.
I've had one week without that dastardly cough waking me repeatedly during the night.  The cough suppressants by the bed have been happily ignored!  One week in almost 2 years ! Two pillows sit on the floor at night, when they used to join 2 friends under my head, forcing me to sleep upright,  if I wanted to sleep at all.
Glancing at the clock and realizing you seriously slept is a beautiful thing.

Well,  the pillows have gotten lonely and had clandestine meeting s with those cough drops. They will soon be back in their rightful places.  My cough returned with a vengeance this morning! 5AM I bolted straight up in bed (vertigo hit too) coughing to the point of choking.  Like an excited friend returning from the vacation of a lifetime,  it has not stopped speaking since .

This does give me serious thought.  Were those IV antibiotics worth the cost ? Was it worth me taking a nose dive into that Black Hole known as the coverage gap? My checkbook loudly shouts NO! But my throat, chest and mind are nodding a vigorous Oh Hell Yeah!

7 days of blissful sleep is well.......heavenly.
I knew 22 years ago this could happen, but would you trade that many years of life on a maybe?  Me neither.  Being chronically ill means your health is front and center a full-time job. We can take breaks & mini vacations,  but will always return to our job.


Yawning,  I lean back in my recliner and hope to get a 20 minute power nap - game on     me vs cough.

Caustic or Costic???

Like my new word?

Caustic is what this medicine is doing to my lip.

Costic is when I saw the price I paid vs the retail price.

I will never understand why pharmaceutical companies can't make small tubes of medication as opposed to larger ones that end up being thrown away. I mean geez, I have a 2mm spot on my lip that I use a Q-tip to put this medication on for 2 weeks tops. And the smallest they make is 30gram tubes. Do they expect us to use it all over or what?

Well, this is the second day and my lip looks pinkish and severely chapped. I am having withdrawal symptoms from Chapstick.  You can't use it while using this medication. I can us Vaseline -but my tubes are so lonely there on the shelf and Vaseline doesn't last as long either.

I've had an additional situation and not sure if it's separate or aggravated by this medicine.

My heart has been racing like the wind since yesterday. Got it calmed down yesterday evening only to have it start again this morning. I'm sure all will calm down eventually.
I got alot of sleep last night and feel much better.

So, to take my walks I need a bandaid on the area (feat of the impossible) and a hat. I tried a hat yesterday and for the life of me couldn't figure out how it will protect my lip with the Florida sun. No matter how I situated the hat it just did not shadow my face. It was a big straw hat -totally me- with rhinestone dolphins and jewels all over the brim.. My beach day hat. I opted for my baseball cap and walked with my head down.. I'm sure the neighbors thought I was insane or something.

Today we have to wait for it to cool off. Little DB would never make it in this 90 degree heat. I usually carry him most of the way at night-but he does much better if we wait.

We'll see how this crusty lip looks in the morning!

Butterflies, Blocks and A Heart

The title may not make much sense, but it's how I've come to rationalize last night.
In 2006 I had Ablation therapy on my heart due to the inability of medication to control a rapid heart rate. Everything has been awesome! until last night.... For the last 3 years my heart rate has been in the low 50 range, something I never thought I'd see or experience.
About 9:30P.M. as I got out of my recliner to get ready for bed, I felt a bit of nauseau on standing up, followed by a cool sweat. My insulin sometimes makes me feel this way when it starts to work, sort of wheels churning in my abdomen. I checked my blood sugar and it was a nice 103 so this was not the problem, and it still continued.
I checked my blood pressure and heart rate.. my eyes popped out of my head! Heart rate of 120! No, this can't be ..So I checked it again, and again in another 15 minutes. It got to 100 beats per minute, but still not where it should be. I've always had the nagging fear that the Ablation could reverse itself and prayed I wouldn't be one of those unlucky ones. But I must say, this really set my mind reeling... We all know that when things like this happen we're told to keep calm and let it drop naturally. BUT HOW DO YOU STAY CALM WHEN YOU'RE WORRIED? I took one of my PRN tablets for heart rate and waited for a result. My PRN medication is 2 years old and this is the first time I've had to take it.
After 30 minutes, no results... I had to do the one thing I dread. Call my lung transplant coordinator on a Friday night and wake her and her kids up. I placed the call, she and my doctor both said since it was steady and not erratic just try and get some sleep, but take another pill in the morning to keep it low and correct the problem. Please tell me how to get sleep when it feels like a concrete block is on my chest and a thousand butterflies are fluttering around inside looking for a way out? After awhile it felt like those butterflies hired a few thugs who were using bats and clubs (anything available) and trying to beat their way out!. Ever have one of those headaches where you feel the pound each and every time your heart beats? That's the beating those thugs were giving me. Only at 116 beats a minute! Darn little buggers! One might think I was charging them rent or something, they way they were going at me!
I went from the recliner to the couch, to the recliner. Each and every time with 3 little 4-legged boys following me. I was seriously tired. (I thought dead tired or dog tired took it to far) Not enough sleep or rest makes for a terrible day to follow, especially for the chronically ill. Finally about 3AM the pounding stopped, guess the thugs came to an agreement with my chest. Anyway it was calm enough for me to try the bed again, not slower but calmer.
I dozed in and out of sleep until 6:30, no deep restful sleep tonight. Back in the recliner for my morning date withe the boys, take the blood pressure, read a little of my book. My heart rate was 75. WHEW..... I can't begin to explain the relief. Now to get it back to where it should be, and prevent the nightmare journey of 3 years ago when I walked into the Emergency room at Shands with a heart rate of 196.

One good thing about all this..... It made me forget about the pain in my left side. Possible fractured ribs from coughing... well at least until this morning when all was calm and it returned..

Now for hte morning walk and keep my heart as healthy as I possibly can.