Sunday night

Sunday, August 26, 2007

It's Sunday night and today was better than yesterday was; I could walk more independent of the cane, though I've more or less accepted that the cane will be with me for the rest of my life. One less battle to fight.
We shall see what tomorrow holds.
peace

We made it to the weekend...

Saturday, August 25, 2007

So, we made it to the weekend.
I went in yesterday with CC to see my primary care doc and I think the coldness of the office atmosphere brought on an attack and he coded me right then and there and away to the ER I went via ambulance again.
I STILL feel like a truck ran over me and I'm heading for the couch to lay down for a while so this is a short one.
My CK levels have been very high indicating muscle problems and damage and my ALT levels have been elevated as well indicating liver issues.

I feel more like a I'm a science project gone wrong.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Monday and yesterday morning were pretty good days, especially Monday. Yesterday I woke up and realized I had sweat pretty substantially by morning and then once up and going I was feeling better.
I drove the kids to school and stayed with them through the bells for class, except that Joshy tweaked his neck jumping from a 3’ monkey bar post to the ground. The pain was enough to bring him to tears and cause hyperventilating fright, so I took him home and began Motrin and ice bag 15 minutes on/15 minutes off from 9 AM through noon.
I then went to have lunch with my buddy Rob at Olive Garden where I had salad and a bowl of minestrone soup and a 1/3 of a bread stick. No after dinner mint either, sigh.
I felt no symptoms after lunch or while driving home.
I got home just when CC had gotten home and had begun unloading the van from Costco.
It was nearing the time for Missy to be picked up so we agreed that I would stay home and then take Joshy to a later afternoon Dr. appt. while CC would pick up the kids from school and then go do another errand. CC left, Joshy was on a computer and I was trimming some tri tip to prepare for marinade and dinner that evening.
While trimming I noticed that one eye then the other would twitch involuntarily and I would blink to regain my focus and orientation. I then realized that my eyes were having muscle spasms and then the spasms began in my forearms and biceps / triceps as well. I got most all the mat cut when I began to feel lightheaded and needed to hold the counter to keep my balance and very shortly after that came muscle pain and pressure in my center and left chest and I had to go sit on the couch. I called CC twice and got voicemail and then she called back and came back home.
We ended up not taking me in but CC treated me at home and I feel like hell today, par for the course.

Here’s CC’s account for records purposing:
```````````````````````````````````````
Episodes

8/21/07
3:30pm

Chest pain ( center left )
SOB
Nausea
Muscle Spasms – eyes, chest and arms
Cold sweats
Dull ache left thigh

Gave:
1 Aspirin
4 Ativan
3 Methadone
Oxygen


Low key day
Out to lunch w/ Rob
Working on food in kitchen when sx occurred
e-mail Fujioka details for documentation

4:00 pm


Lower back pain
Body spasms

1 table potassium

Hot / cold sweats
Spasms
SOB (short of breathe)


4:45pm


Nausea
Gave:
2 tsp Phenegran



5:30pm


Resting, meds taking effect, chest pain lessoned, right thigh pain

```````````````````````````````````````````````````
Today we head in for more labs and a doc appoint for Joshy who’s still feeling pain from yesterday.

Some help if you are so inclined...

Monday, August 20, 2007

I woke up this AM around 6:15 and got the kids ready for school and actually was able to get them to school in plenty of time. I attribute this good fortune to feeling much better today than my previous several days and weeks. I’m taking it as a heavenly gift and appreciating it in like fashion.

The help I’m asking for is in creating an Excel worksheet which will log daily experiences so I can more formally track my own symptoms easily. If it is much more than a simple “fill in the blanks” or “check the box here” then it won’t be feasible for me to keep up with when I’m feeling poorly. I plan to keep the log in my Axim (similar to a Palm Pilot…but better in my opinion…) so I can always have it with me and I can sync it with the computer when I sync up.
I try these logs from time to time but I have little success because I make them more than they need to be inevitably, so I’m hopeful some of you will be willing and able to create a log for me to use or at least try out in Excel format; I’m using Microsoft Office, that’s the catch.

Here’s what I was using so far with the formatting change of the Date, Time Row would be diagonal to like 15%, though I’m not seriously attached to that formatting. Also, instead of “X” I’d like to have a box that I “check off” or mark, fill in, so to speak, where multiple symptoms can be selected instead of just one. And the format could be done vertically instead of horizontally if you see how to do it…see, I start to get all creative and want a finished Masterpiece when I’m done…sigh.
Anyway, see below for the columns I am certain I need in the chart and keep in mind when creating for the possibility for adding more symptoms if needed:

Date

8/20/2007
Morning

Time
Body sweats
head/neck sweats
light headed
Disorientation
have to sit down
general weakness
blurred vision
Numbness (location?)

Muscle Cramps
Muscle Spasms (Brief, minor)
Muscle Spasms (Major)
Chills
Myoclonic Jerks (Logged the morning after)



Please send me any ideas to v12.pilot@comcast.net and know that they will be received with the utmost appreciation and gratitude. I need help on this so I’m calling out to anyone interested.

peace

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Life has been moving by swiftly since I last entered my previous text.
Last Monday, August 6, as best as I can recall, I spent nearly a couple hours cleaning some of the carpets in our house with a carpet cleaner while CC took the kids to karate.
Progressively feeling weaker as I went, I wanted to complete a certain amount of the task I had put in front of myself and after completing the task I had set, I realized I was very tired and was having a hard time keeping a clear head to think, so I sat down at my computer and began to read some emails. Sometime after sitting down and reading some, I passed out and woke up with my head on the edge of the keyboard. After waking up, I was very concerned and light headed, in a panic because I was alone and couldn’t remember where everyone was. The cold sweats began and numbness began in my hands. My chest began to feel tight and it was becoming difficult to breathe with a localized pain in the left side of my chest and left arm.
I made it down to our bedroom and lay on the bed. Somewhere in that time frame, CC called and I think I told her of what was happening and that I was scared in this one.
After she came home, I told her I had been experiencing more of the same and some distinct muscle jumps (contractions) but the numbness did not progress past my hands and wrists. She gave me a dose of liquid K+ but nothing improved and that furthered my fears so I asked her to call 911. It was around 6:30 PM, I think.
EMTs were there in a manner of minutes but I don’t remember much past hearing the sirens approaching. They got me onto a gurney and CC road with me in the ambulance where they administered a number of doses of nitroglycerin to ease the chest pain (which it did, as I recall) on the way to Roseville ER. My aunt was waiting for us at the ER after getting a call from CC before we left and she stayed with me through the night and till noon the next day.
This next section of timing details is what I recall from my haze of lack of sleep, pain, pain meds, nausea and muscle spasms, etc.
After arriving at the Roseville ER, I stayed in a hallway near the nursing station for several hours until they moved me into a back room in the ER somewhere and my aunt was told that I would be admitted “eventually”. “Eventually” went from the initial target of 2:00 AM to 4:00 AM to 8:00 AM and then I was offered the option of being transported to Morse Avenue Hospital where they had open beds waiting instead of waiting for the new targeted time of Roseville’s noon to 2:00 PM, so I opted for the transfer to the Morse Avenue facility.
The EMTs arrived to transfer me to Morse and I asked for some nausea medicine for the ride but was told “No, they’ll give you some when you get there”. The whole reason for asking for the medicine was because I was feeling sick and expected the ride to make that feeling worse (which it did) but it was clear that they didn’t want to take the time ti administer any more meds for whatever reason. Even the EMTs looked at each other with a kind of quizzical/”I don’t understand” look after I was refused the medicine so one of the EMTs went out and asked on my behalf and was shut down as well, much to their surprise as well.
After arriving at Morse Avenue on Tuesday morning, I ended up in a room which should have held one person, maybe two at the max, but was set up for three patients very snugly. CC came by after she got off work that morning and stayed with me until she needed to go get the kids from a babysitter arranged for at the last minute. I want to make sure that I note that CC went with me to Roseville and went home around midnight, so that she could sleep some before getting up and going to work the next morning at 4:00 AM and my aunt stayed awake the whole night in the ER and also came straight to the Morse facility after briefly heading home and getting something to eat just as I was transferred to Morse.

I was released on Wednesday morning after Morse ran a series of blood tests ruling out the likelihood of any kind of heart attack. Our physician at Morse was very compassionate and puzzled by my whole plight, even appearing confused by our stagnant situation with Kaiser. My parents headed up our way Wednesday sometime to help with my care and to help manage the house while I recovered. Just stopped what they were doing and left their lives in motion in San Carlos to come up and help us.

When I was released, my K+ was at the minimum level of 3.5. We don’t know what my Phosphorus levels were during my stay this time (normal range is 2.5 to 4.5), but we do know that Thursday night, the 9th, after we went and had my labs done, my phosphorus was 5.4 and on the 11th it was 4.9. The high levels of Phosphorus help to explain the muscle pains and chemical imbalance which continue to keep me feeling like dirt, but Kaiser hasn’t treated the Phosphorus imbalance or even noted it as a concern except for Redwood City back in February where I was admitted for low levels of Phosphorus. They don’t seem to be the least bit concerned about me, let alone my lab levels which are out of balance.

I spent most of Wednesday in bed feeling like I had been run over by a truck. Thursday, after going outside to look at what Joshy thought was a huge bee, I stood up from being in a somewhat crouched position and collapsed into the arms of my mom and CC who were looking at the bug with me. Back to bed I went, still feeling like a 4 wheeled vehicle took me out.

Last night (Saturday) we went to a church service up in Roseville and then to dinner and then home to bed. Today is Sunday and we went to see Nana at her place at Eskaton since my parent’s haven’t seen her since she moved and haven’t seen her new place. We went to lunch with her and then got an ice cream afterwards and now are about to call it a day being that CC has to work tomorrow morning.

I did want to note that, months ago, my symptoms began with confusion, disorientation and then paralysis and that since February my symptoms have begun more with localized spasms, Myoclonic spasms and muscle pain throughout my body. Monday’s attack was the most severe I’ve had in quite some time. Over the past several weeks, I have had attacks almost every other day, but they have not been as severe in that CC has taken care of them herself with liquid K+ stopping the numbness and spasms.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

I’m back at home on my bed.
It hurts to walk and stand and I’m more than tired.

No sleep while we stayed at Roseville Kaiser lying on a gurney in a hallway for several hours, waiting for a room that never came then several more hours in a back room someplace in the ER. The Roseville hospital admitting room never came and I was sent via ambulance to Morse Ave Hospital where 3 beds were squeezed into a room that should have held one bed. No sleep for another 36 hours or so.

May God show pity on me and my family and not allow any more of this calamity befall ANY of the rest of my family and my friends and may He bring rest and restoration to me and my wife and my children.

I’m so tired and beaten. No more writing for now.

Will it be better tomorrow?

It's Wed. and Ive been

It's Wed. and Ive been sent home once again being told we are on our own. This doc said his prayers are with us.

I'm home.

Had my aunt not been

Had my aunt not been there and my uncle willing to drive CC home in the late/middle of the night, we'd have been stuck...

My aunt stayed awake with

My aunt stayed awake with me, from the ER ride in the early evening yesterday through the night and this morning till noon

That being said, docs don't

That being said, docs don't know if the attack was cardio or K+ but whichever it was scared me seriously.
...

I cleaned some carpeting in

I cleaned some carpeting in the house and likely pushed my limits on physical exersion and the docs are ?? heart attack..

I'm back in the hospital,

I'm back in the hospital, at Morse Ave Kaiser after a scary attack at home by myself yesterday. CC called 911. Home soon?

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Short one tonight. Very tired.
3 attacks this week, two with numbness; Monday morning, Wednesday morning (immediately following CC's trip to the ER via ambulance that morning for chest pains, weakness, difficulty breathing. She's alright now and was released a few hours after she was brought in to the ER) and then again today after going to see a screening of a polar Ice movie for global warming awareness. After meds today, I slept upwards of 7 hours.

More on Wednesday and today later...too tired now.