It's been a week plus...catching up

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Well, I’ve let my written accounting go for another week; sorry about that. I seem to suffer attacks nearly every other day, though they are not what we consider “big” or critical attacks, they still knock me down for hours at a time and shift all home responsibilities to CC and the kids each time they hit. Missy has become very familiar with how to care for me once the attack hits. I don’t think it is fair that she has had to learn this, but it takes the solitary stress off of CC from time to time when it does hit.
Worthy of note though, is that I’ve had some really decent days in the past week in spite of having caught some kind of bug that CC and Missy caught and have been contending with. Sore throat, head ache, lots of congestion. My version has not been as bad as theirs, but it seems that the simplest symptoms became exaggerated in effect.

We’ve learned that the long term disability that we’ve had, is actually hinging on our receiving Social Security which they expect to be repaid through. In other words, even though we’ve lost two petitions to Social Security and we are now on our third appeal, should we succeed in receiving Social Security, the company who is paying out for the long term disability expects to be repaid in full through the award of our Social Security claim; i.e. they get paid back through the award for all they money they paid us. We had no clue until recently when we were being “encouraged” by the Long Term Dis. Company to win our appeals case with Social Security and then we read the fine print in one of the letters we had received months ago. They have been, in a sense, simply “loaning” us the money until Social Security goes through then they get their money back through our award. We had been looking forward to winning our case with Social Security so that we could get our feet back under us far better, but apparently that’s not what the future holds at this point. More stress.

CC has connected with a Chiropractor up in Roseville and our united prayer there is that he can help bring relief to her back pain and migraines. She had seen one back when we lived in the Bay Area and it had worked out well for her as far as relief was concerned, so that is our prayer now as well.

I’ve been working with some of the symptom charts that some of you sent me and I’m beginning to get the hang of it now, though it is more challenging than I had thought it would be to keep up with. It’s my hope that these charts will better illuminate what is happening with me and can be sufficient data for whichever medical care we see. Currently, we’re still with Kaiser, fighting away. My last appointment was with another Endocrinologist, but this one from Kaiser San Francisco. She did a thorough exam and concluded our appointment with her saying she has absolutely no clue as to what is plaguing me but she will be digging into it over the following series of weeks.
The last series of labs I’ve had done (on my own) have shown possible liver issues which we think might be explaining why I feel as crappy as I do, like today, but so far, it is just our research and assumptions based on the data we see from liver lab tests that have come back abnormal. I’m going to email my doc today and see if he will investigate this avenue more thoroughly. Symptoms are/have been; over-all malaise, nausea, increased tiredness, abdominal and lower back pain, some stomach cramping, light-headedness. “Hurry up and wait” syndrome, I’m much too familiar with.

Due to how I was feeling since I awoke this morning, I took a long, few hours nap this afternoon and accomplished so very little. When I feel like I'm dancing slowly with my symptoms, all I want to end up doing is trying ot sleep it off, which is frustrating in and of itself.

Plus note:
Missy and Josh are doing really well in school even though Joshy doesn’t have as many friends in this class make up as he did in last year’s class make up. That’s hard for him, but we have been really proud of both of their efforts in class so far. Joshy has done great in his spelling and writing and Missy is 130% in her reading expectations. Considering the stresses we are swimming in as a family right now, it is a true blessing to see them succeeding in their efforts at school.

That’s all for now.