But if I were to have excuses, this would be one of them... I realized two weeks ago, that it had been four months since I had slept more than 3 hours total in one night... What made me clue in? It was terrible. I felt like I was losing mind, literally. I love to read, but one of my favorite books, that I practically have memorized, and which, though over 800 pages long, I usually finish in a day or two, it had taken me about three weeks to read four chapters. I would have conversations with people, then two minutes later, have no idea what we had just talked about. I would watch favorite show or movie, and not take in any of it. Now, usually, I remember even the most unnecessary details... So clearly, something was wrong. My friend Tabitha had been pestering me to go to the doctor about it, but I was convinced that it would sort itself out. Until a week and a half ago. I finally reached my breaking point. I basically walked up to my boss and told her I was leaving, and going to the doctor. Being the caring and understanding person that she is, she sent me off. The doctor did some blood work and gave me lovely Ambien to use for two weeks to give me a break while they figure out what's going on... I have a follow up appointment on Thursday. I got a call about my blood work and I have a vitamin D deficiency. Given how I avoid the sun, that's not really surprising. What was surprising, is that the nurse said that a huge part of the population does too. So I am on massive amounts of vitamin D2... Sleep issues, one of my non-excuses... Not that I really have any others...
This last week sure has been exciting... On Tuesday night, I started having pain in my stomach. I didn't pay much attention to it until Wednesday. On Wednesday, at 3:00 am, I was jerked out of a sound, Ambien induced sleep, by the pain. I was actually writhing in pain. That's never happened to me before. The pain was making me nauseous. Nothing I took helped... I left work after only a couple of hours. The pain kept coming in waves. It would be super intense for a while then it would subside. I was taking large doses of Extra Strength Tylenol, just to avoid barfing from the pain, but it only took the edge off, it never fully relieved it. I arranged not to be at work that Thursday, as it didn't seem to be improving... Well, Thursday it was worse. Instead of waves of this out of control pain, it was constant. Nothing helped. My mom had been out, and when she got back, I asked her to take me to the hospital. I've never seen her looked so shocked... She took me, and a few hours later, when she got off work, Tabitha came too. It was an endless process. I had an initial exam, then stomach x-rays, blood tests, and a cat-scan. Did they find out what was wrong? No. I was given pain medication, and told to follow up with my doctor, but come in if it got worse or other symptoms appeared. Thanks, docs... Oh, did you ever wonder what it looks like when someone with really sensitive skin and difficult veins is given an IV? Or rather, when they try two different times to get one on one arm, and can't... Like this.
Did you ever wonder what it might look like if a vein explodes during a Cat-scan? Like this.
You can't really see the scope of the bruise in this photo, but it was the best one. The bruise is about four inches across... Ah, yes... It's so pleasant having difficult veins... I have slowly been getting better. Saturday was a bad day, but yesterday was good, except for feeling totally beat.
Now on to a different topic. You know, the one this blog is supposed to be about... School. This morning I tracked down the phone number for UCAS. There are a couple of questions I need to ask them before I can finally submit my application. My plan is to call tomorrow morning. If I get answers, then I will just pay my application fee, and I'll be all applied again! Woo Hoo!
Have a great week!
