Peaks and Valleys

by Duf Anything and Everything

Yesterday Cindy was feeling really wiped out.  She said it was tough for her to breathe and she was feeling weak.  It scared her enough that she had her mom take her to the local ER to get checked out. I got over there about 2:30.  Cindy was tired and was just resting in the bed.  They had taken some blood, did a flu test and did a chest xray, none of which showed anything of significance.  A nurse practitioner came in and said their official recommendation was for them to admit Cindy to the hospital which was not what anyone really wanted to hear.

She mentioned that a steroid injection may help which sounded like they would only do once she was admitted.  However maybe 10-15 minutes later a male nurse came in and gave Cindy the steroid injection.   As we hung out there Cindy started to feel better as her breathing improved.  We told the nurse that we were going to forgo hospital admission.  They said that was fine but Cindy had to sign a waiver that basically said “if you die, it’s not our problem”.   We got out of there a little after five.

I treated Cindy to a Culver’s meal for dinner, one of her favorites.  We took it home to eat there.  I did my best to encourage Cindy to just take it easy all night.  She has a hard time sitting around doing nothing much like I do, so it wasn’t an easy assignment.  She is taking today off from teaching classes and hopefully tomorrow she will be able to resume her schedule if her energy level continues to improve.

These sorts of peaks and valleys are par for the course with her ailment which has been diagnosed as multiple things over the last couple years including mercury poisoning, Lymes, and now MS.  The problem is the symptoms of these conditions all overlap one another so getting an accurate diagnosis is very difficult.  Cindy recently underwent a spinal tap to get some more clarity.  Because of my natural temperament, I keep a level head about the situation, knowing that whatever the circumstance is we will address it and keep moving forward.  It’s the only viable choice to me.