Tag: health

A Very Bad Week

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Medical stuffLeave a comment

Last Sunday I woke up not feeling well. I was having really bad back and lower abdomen cramps. I had had them on and off the week before but just thought they were gas pains. This day though, my whole body felt “off”. I went to bed early and Monday I was sure I had a UTI. I had all of the symptoms so I started AZO. For some reason it just wasn’t working, but I thought I could just power through.

Tuesday and there was still no relief and I started getting extremely nauseated. I decided to go the the grocery and pick up some cranberry juice. I was basically living on AZO, aspirin and cranberry juice by this point. The UTI was not letting up. I would have called to make a doctor’s appointment, but I already had my 6 month thyroid one scheduled for Friday morning.

Wednesday and nothing had changed, only gotten worse. I drank a half gallon of juice. I couldn’t eat because I felt so sick. My lower abdomen, side and lower back were killing me. That night I contemplated going the the ER but decided I could stick it out until Friday.

Thursday morning I woke up still hurting. I was having the worse UTI I have ever had in my life with not relief from anything. I went to the bathroom to pee and immediately felt better. I look in the toilet and lo and behold there was a kidney stone.

I still wasn’t feeling super great so I was ready for my appointment on Friday. They tested my urine and found blood in it. By this time though, my UTI symptoms had basically vanished. (kidney stones can cause UTI symptoms) The doctor (if you read here you know we don’t have a great relationship) stepped out of the room to make a referral for me to get an x-ray and call in an antibiotic for me.

My phone was on 1% when I got the text from Walgreens that my prescription was accepted. I clicked on the Rx site to see what he had prescribed. I am so thankful that I did because he had prescribed Cipro. About a year ago I saw a TikTok video about how dangerous Cipro is. Sixteen years ago the FDA warned doctors about the very bad side effects that this drug can cause. It’s a Black Box Warning antibiotic.

screenshot_20251121-173822~22087885330640511791.

It’s also not just a run of the mill antibiotic that you would prescribe for something that is on the mend but you just want to make sure it gets cleared up. It’s BAD!!!!

His assistant popped in to tell me it would just be a few more minutes and I told her that I was not going to accept the Cipro and could he please prescribe me something not as dangerous such as Bactrim. I expected a fight from him, but he did it. I cannot express enough to advocate for your health. If you feel something is wrong or you are not getting the care you feel you need SPEAK OUT. Don’t just blindly accept what a health care worker tells you.

I got my kidney x-ray done so I guess I’ll find out later this week if everything is okay. I actually feel better today than I have in about a week and a half.

I did make my detox salad and it was so good!

Whataweekend

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Frugal LifeLeave a comment

On Friday Jackson graduated from high school. I cannot believe how fast time flies by. I know that he will cherish his time at East Texas Charter School and that him going there was the best decision ever. Small class size, teachers that truly care and an amazing superintendent that kept the school in tip top shape made for an amazing 4 years.

The students get to pick their first and second choices of who to stand up and speak about their time at ETCS. Jackson picked his favorite teacher Mr. Damoude.

It’s so interesting to hear about each graduating senior. I’ve never been to another school that does this. There are no valedictorians. Each student has a chance, if they choose, to speak after the teacher gives their speech. Jackson did not want to.

There were a whopping 29 graduates this year.

Group shot before the hat toss.

A proud dad who unfortunately had to go back to work right after this was taken.

Proud mom and sister.

Jackson’s best friends. Two of them will be also heading off to Kilgore College in the Fall.

We have a tradition that when it’s your birthday or another special event, you get to pick whichever restaurant you want to have dinner. Jackson’ picked Rotolo’s. I loved it because they have cauliflower crust pizza. That was the last meal I have eaten because I got sick.

Right before we were about to leave I started having floaters in my eyes. The headache came right after we got home so I went to bed early. Saturday morning I woke up and felt like I couldn’t get out of bed. My body felt like it was made of lead. I still had a horrible headache. I ended up sleeping all day.

Sunday I was feeling a little better so I made a quick Aldi run. When I got home my stomach and back were cramping so badly. I was also coming down with a UTI. The fatigue was also back in full force. I asked Donny to pick up so AZO and cranberry juice. He knew that I was not eating sugar so he picked me up the only zero sugar he could find. I highly recommend NEVER getting this juice. My whole body puckered and seized up. I tried diluting it with water and stirring in some honey. Nope, that didn’t work at all. Hannah didn’t know that it was awful and had the same reaction.

I went to bed early on Sunday night and by Monday I still wasn’t feeling well. Now let’t throw in a sore throat and my TMJ acting up. It’s like my body’s check engine light came on. I slept most of the day, again. Today I feel like I’m at 75% which I’ll take over the previous days.

To make matters worse a skunk sprayed a possum right outside our patio door on Sunday night. If I hadn’t known better I would have sworn it had sprayed in our kitchen. It made Donny so sick to his stomach and gave me another headache. So that’s how the weekend ended.

I am ready for some good days ahead that’s for sure.

I Found A Way

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home StuffLeave a comment

Everyone knows that you are supposed to drink water every day. I would always fill my tumbler up, take a few sips, and then somehow just lose the tumbler, forget about it, you get the idea. Lately I had beginning to feel dry. Kind of like my skin like a sponge left out in the sun. I googled how much water I should be drinking every day and it was a lot, 80 ounces to be exact. I knew for a fact that I wasn’t getting anywhere near that so I came up with a plan.

Every hour I would fill up my mason jar to the 1 cup mark and then I would just chug it. Think guy at a frat party chugging. I would mark it on the dry erase board on the fridge because I knew throughout the day I would lose track of how many cups I drank.

This is the third day I’ve done it and it’s been so easy. I will admit that I have probably gone through a roll of toilet paper per day but I hear that it gets better once your body adjusts. I can honestly say that I feel so much better. It’s amazing how fast it works. Hannah is even trying it out too. She has the blue tally marks. Even if you don’t like water, you can chug 8 ounces in under a minute and the benefits are so worth it.

I also found this amazing pumice stone. We have a VERY old gas stove. Even though I clean it there was always this flat burned on stain. I have tried scraping with a razor blade, baking soda, bar keepers friend, cleaning paste, really just about everything. I was in Drug Emporium and ran across this.

I thought it couldn’t hurt to try. So I got to rubbing.

You can see the spot where I started. It took a lot of elbow grease, but it came off like a charm.

I couldn’t believe how much better it looked and there were no harmful chemicals used so even better.

In Sickness & In Health

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Medical stuffLeave a comment

Today is my birthday. It has hovered around 22 degrees all day. Donny had his quarterly meeting in Dallas. Needless to say, we put off celebrating until later this next week. Those aren’t the only reasons though. Starting about 17 years ago Donny would have flare ups in his ankles and sometimes knees. It always seemed to happen around Halloween or Thanksgiving. Whichever joint it decided to hit it would cause redness, swelling and intense pain. It would last a few weeks and then just go away until the next time.

He started going to doctors. He had x-rays, blood work, you name it he probably had it. We were referred to an orthopedic doctor. He was told he had gout, but gout medication only made it worse. The weird pain would always just stay in his lower extremities and only occur once, maybe twice, a year. About a week ago his shoulder started to hurt. It then moved to his left hand. It was so swollen he couldn’t even bend it. When his hand started to get a little better it moved to his right knee. It swelled up the size of a cantaloupe and he could barely walk. The pain was intense. We were trying everything. I have googled his symptoms for years trying to find an answer. For a while I thought that it might be lupus. He had some symptoms, but not all of them and not the ones that were major markers for the disease.

I gave it one more try and did the exact Google search I have always done and this time the first 5 answers was something I’ve never even heard of. I clicked on one of them and started reading. I would bet everything I own that this is what he has. It’s called Palindromic Rheumatism. He checks off every single box. I also found a blog that a women writes about her battle with PR. Turns out it’s not very common and can be hard to diagnose. It’s different from RA because it hits hard with extreme pain and then basically goes into remission until it decides to strike again. There a few prescription drugs that help, but some have horrible side effects and getting the dose right can be tricky.

Last Saturday was particularly bad pain wise. I told him that I was going to make him a doctors appointment first thing Monday morning because we needed a referral to a rheumatologist. He was able to get an appointment on Monday. When we went in they pulled up his last blood work and told us that because his blood work didn’t warrant a referral they didn’t think they could give up one. One thing I have learned along the way is that if you don’t advocate for yourself nothing will happen and I was not going to let him leave the doctor without a referral. I KNOW doctors hate when a patient comes in and basically says, this is what I have and we need to treat it, but that’s exactly what I said. Luckily this doctor had heard of PR and agreed with me that this is presenting as exactly that. So now we are just waiting for the Rheumatologist to call us.

Here are some of the remedies we have tried because basically when Donny is in so much pain we will try anything. I chopped up avocado seeds and mixed them with alcohol and let them sit. It does work, but not for him. He takes supplements that take the edge off a little bit. He takes NSAIDS, but those can wreck your gallbladder so we have to be careful. He has started on a high dose of Vitamin D. There is an arthritis cream that my friend’s mother uses for her RA that I picked up for him tonight. My landlord has a friend whose son had very similar symptoms and the hospital told him to take Claratin everyday so I went out and got that today. I normally don’t talk to my landlord about stuff like this but I got locked out of the house today and had to have her come bring me their key. There are many other things we have tried throughout the years. These are just the most recent. Thank goodness we kept the crutches from one of his really bad flares because he’s back on them.

From more that I’ve read they don’t know the exact cause of why this happens. One of the theories is that it could be something in his diet that triggers the attacks. I found this book that we’ve been looking through. The hardest part it the trial and error because it just seems like it takes so long.

I’m hoping that something works soon. It’s so hard to see someone you love going through this.

I did end of having a perfectly good birthday though. I didn’t do anything and took a nap which was heavenly and the perfect weather for it.

Juggling

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn familyLeave a comment

It’s only Tuesday, but this week has already been a juggling act. Donny got had jury duty on Monday. The guy settled, so there was no trial. He came home for a bit since he had taken the morning and afternoon off just in case he was chosen. I got a wild hair and decided that we needed to clean out our bedroom closet. Donny has two large fabric cubes that he had just been throwing clothes in that either didn’t fit or he didn’t like. It became a problem when every time I had to pull down my jeans basket his stuff would fall on my head. I couldn’t go through it because I didn’t even know what all was in there. Well yesterday he went through both cubes and the hanging clothes. I went through my stuff and this is what we accomplished.

That’s a LOT of stuff. During the process I looked around and thought, there’s no way we will ever finish this today. This was the bedroom mid clean.

This morning Hannah had a doctor’s appointment at 10. I had made the appointment last week. They informed me that she already had her yearly appointment scheduled for today. They said they would add what her GP had suggested be looked at. Well, when we arrived, where we always go, we were told that her doctor had moved closer to the hospital. We rushed over there and they had no record of her appointment. When he switched offices he also became the assistant chief medical doctor and all of the appointments made in 2024 were just dropped off. They were supposed to call and let us know, but didn’t. They told us that they could try to get us in in a few weeks. Nope, what they are thinking this is cannot wait. Hannah is learning how to make her own appointments and she learned an important lesson today. Everyone needs to advocate for themselves. We told them nicely that we understood there was a mix up but this can’t wait and we need to be seen asap. They were able to squeeze us in tomorrow morning at 8:15.

Next Hannah drove around our neighborhood. She’s working toward getting her license. She did really well. Longview is a scary place to drive. The amount of red light runners, DUI’s and wrecks is insane in a town of this size. Also just people driving and being on their phones adds to the problem. She’ll get there though.

She wanted to come with me to pick Jackson up so we could go thrifting. She hadn’t been able to go in a while due to work and she wanted to hang out with her brother. She found some cute tops for work. Even though she works in a department store she’s very frugal and saves her money. We were in the one we call relish when Jackson came and got me because he found some framed artwork that he wanted for our home. If you have ever been in our home there’s really no space for anymore artwork. The pictures were really cool so we bought them and I found a place that I think is just perfect.

They are right above where the cat bowls are.

The past two days have worn me out. I feel like I’m living in the kitchen when I’m at home. Last night I’m thankful that Donny cooked the steaks and all I had to make was the broccoli and rice. Tonight the kids wanted waffles, sausauge, bacon and eggs and that was alright by me. I just took a shower and really do not feel like going and cleaning up the kitchen. I’ve found that if I just go and push through it doesn’t take much time and I’m not walking into a messy kitchen in the morning. I’m getting better at staying on task and making sure what needs to get done does. Although it does sometimes feel like I’m juggling balls and keep getting new ones thrown in.

P.S.

I saw a video that if you do 10 body weight squats every hour your mobility increases. Ever since I quit working the bounce houses I feel like I’m getting creakier. The squats really help with that. Just a though.