Lord Andrei's Blog

Day 5: Low on food, low on liquid intake; the tums…the tums….

I could call it an uneventful day…but it’s been more of the same with new players and status.

Woke up a little after 4am in a horrible state. Last dosed at 10pm so it was over 6 hrs. Shaking and dizzy I made my way into the bathroom and took my dosage. Shambling back into bed in a manner that would make Lovecraft proud, I shook violently for about 30 minutes before going back to sleep.

I became mostly awake at 9:30am when Ariana called. We talked for a while and then I tried to get myself into a really good awake, state.

I had a 1pm appt with a new local doctor to see how I’m progressing. She confirmed what the hospital had shown and told me to maintain the medications. She did tell me to try to lighten the 1gm of tylenol from once every 4 hrs to every 6 hrs. Something about trying not to blow out my liver. She’ll see me again Monday Morning. Which means that I will officially be going onto disability (sheesh, I thought that was for people who got hit by forklifts or something). Hopefully, I will only be on for at most a day or two.

After that I meandered the 1/2 mile to my bank. Wires complete and funds in their place I withdrew a rather meaty Cashiers Check. I then walked across the street to Mailboxes, Etc. And had it fedEx’ed out.

I guess the good thing is that I said by the end of this week. So I’m actually ahead of the game by a day. Bully for me :-/

Would that the value of the check were anywhere near the value of what I lost.

The walk back was long and despite the weather being glorious (mid to hi 70’s with light spring breeze) It had been 10am since my last dosage and I was horribly cold and getting jittery.

I’ve just gotten back. First I wrote some email. Other people get the more technical, more detailed version first. Then the elaboration without so many technical details.

Now I’m recently redosed and waiting for the meds to kick in. This will bring my mood back up. It unfortunately falls off a bit at dosage time. Maybe a ‘happier’ post later.

Well, here we go…

Health:
Now off of iBuprofen (I’ll bet you didn’t know that it was an Apple branded drug) the swelling seems to have gone down mightily. My hands are as follows:
L: Thumb can now touch other fingertips with relative ease (A little strain on the pinky). I can get 80% of the way to making a fist. Wrist mobility 100%, Hand comfort is at 85%
R: Thumb can now touch other fingertips with relative ease (more difficult on the pinky). I can get 65% of the way to making a fist. Wrist mobility 50%, Hand comfort is at 40%
Temperature has been in the 98.8 – 99.4 range regardless of my current dosage.
I’ve spend pretty much all day in bed basically groggy but in good spirits and chatting online

Work:
The HR division called to notify me about my rights. Apparently, since I’m out on physical leave, I cannot (during this time) be: laid off, fired, replaced, removed, etc. Also. If I am forced to be out longer than 5 days (Not return on Monday) I qualify for short term disability. I will get paid 75% of my salary and can collect the rest by taking 2 hrs of PTO time /day. Lastly, for both my safety as well as the office, I will need to provide written notification from my Doctor stating that it is safe for me to return to work.

Close People:
I have apologized profusely on the phone to her and she has told me there is no blame….but I have put Ariana through hell the past week. She’s getting ready to come out and visit for a week. Twice this week I have called her really late to let her know I was going to the hospital. I have kept her up late and worried. She is happy that I’ve been very honest and as timely as physically possible with information, but has been horribly worried. I just want her to know how much it means to me 🙂
I’ve also been running Meredith ragged. Last night was supposed to be; Andrei’s all drugged and it’s a Buffy night. When I hit 102.8 she dragged me back to the hospital. I told her today but I’ll make it public. Meredith is sweet. She brought me some cans of chicken soup last night. I got through one last night. She said I could make myself a can today if I felt up to it. When I stumbled into my kitchen I found a bag with somewhere around 6 cans. I was expecting 1 other can. Like I said. “Sweet” 🙂

Friends:
As I’ve said I’ve been pretty much in bed all day. The net has been my sanity. I’ve talked to a lot of ppl today and made some LJ posts and everyone who’s written me or chatted with me has made suffering through this s&%* so much more bearable. Thanks in no particular order to: Ben, Tara, Shawn, Jenn, Lynne, Joanna, (and Ange, though we haven’t chatted today), Leslie (My very cool boss), Joy and of course…Meredith and Ariana.

Icky stuff:
The last of the wires have been set up from my brokerage account to my local bank. Apparently, yesterday’s wire went just ‘over the wire’ so it processed a day later. Still on schedule for payments to go out by Saturday. Yay me :-/ A note. I definitely think depression is an issue. When I hit 102.8 I was a dribbling mess about how I was trying to make things better and how it just seemed to be getting worse. ( I was VERY fevered ) I guess I have to look into that more 🙁

Bottom Line: No really, see it is. Things are improving 🙂

At 8pm I tried to watch Buffy. Medication today has not really been working.

At 9pm once again I checked temperature. Now I was at 102.8 (This is bad)
New high score!! Bonus Game!

Back to the hospital. I’m starting to recognize them there.

This time we’re going to go from Ibuprofen to Tylenol (Shouldn’t mess up my stomach and may reduce the allergic reaction) That and adding some Benedryl should help.

Oh, also had a chest x-ray done.

Hey guys…I have Pneumonia!

So.. now I am also on antibiotics. Levaquine to be exact.

Maybe this will help.

More on this tomorrow. I am really tired now

Haven’t had much else to post about.

Just ‘dosed’ again. I have to force food before I medicate because part of my medication is Ibuprofen. This morning at the peak of my dosage period I was reading 98.9. This is a good sign; but it’s also while medicated. I wasn’t exactly fully focused at that point.

I held out until 1:45 (P) for this afternoon’s medication. My temperature was 100.5 which (besides being a good radio station somewhere) is also the lowest temperature that I’ve had while un-medicated.

The down side is that the Ibuprofen disables my Zyrtec. This is allergy medication I take everyday to prevent me from having random parts of my body swell up. If you’ve ever seen an extreme allergic reaction…I get them. I’m just not really allergic to anything that allergists have been able to find.

Current result: Hands and fingers are swollen horribly today. Effectively I can type but I can’t close my hands further than gripping a cup or phone receiver. This too shall pass in a few days.

I was able to make myself a cup of soup which I’m eating which is also a good sign. This means my appetite is coming back up.

In other news:
The sale of my ESPP finally dumped partially into my brokerage acct. I’ve already contacted them and they are wiring it to my local bank. If my bank is on the ball I will be able to go there tomorrow and request a bank cheque or other form of guaranteed money and send it along to my current major debt that day. My goal was to have it remedied by the weekend. This makes it a few days earlier. I only wish I’d been able to be more timely and not as foolish so as to have been more honest about it.

In further news: (Damn, he won’t shut up…he must be getting better…We won’t necessarily say improving)
Thanks to Meredith who has been helping me while I’ve been incredibly sick; I have made a discovery. She brought a copy of ‘Finance for dummies’ Interestingly, there was a section on “Debtors Anonymous” It is pretty much the same thing as “Alcoholics Anonymous” but for people with extreme and self-destructive money related behavior.

I am of two minds on this one…. I’ve subcribed to one one of their Yahoo groups (web only) to look. I am very interested in this because I think that working with other people who share the same problem can help me greatly. Unfortunately, it is a true 12 step program that seems to provide true salvation only under the acceptance that “GOD” will guide you to the light.

My concern is not the word of the guidance but the result of the word. I am very comfortable in what I see as my personal view of the “Divine” I can look at the 12 steps and see that I have been missing them in my own spiritual views. HOWEVER, I also (possibly wrongfully) assume that the average person in 12 step programs have a very standard, popular view of a “Judeo-Christian” God. My concern is that people will be more interested in ‘converting me’ than helping me reach it on my own terms.

“Because your view of God is wrong, you can’t reach the next step…”

Not sure what to do yet on this one…But I am looking and will probably wind up mailing them either today or tomorrow and trying one meeting (at least)

Okay…Ibuprofen is kicking in so typing is getting harder. Maybe more later.

Oh…after thought…
Thank you so much to everyone who has been writing to checking up on me and ask how I am doing. Especially I want to thank Ariana who has probably used more phone time (for online and calls) and kept me in great spirits. And had the misfortune of correcting my ever flakey memory that there is only 1 N in her name. I still think I caught it from her dad.

Well, I am back from the hospital. Despite some apparently not too misplaced Jewish anxiety and my usual flair for the overly dramatic, I went to the hospital.

the rest of the details….