In the Beginning ...

While some of the information may be incorrect (like dates) it is as accurate as I can make it. I first began experiencing my symptoms over the summer. Unfortunately, I did end up missing a lot of work for it.

The first thing I did was to get a primary care doctor. I went to Dr. Hill  on Friday July 20 upon the recommendation of a friend. She really liked her PCP and I thought that he would be a good doctor for me. He liked to push his all natural products and he focused on using nutrition to cure you. While I was there, he did run some tests and it turned out that I had a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) and he prescribed me a medication. He also did some physical tests to see what was causing some of my problems. At this point, I was experiencing headaches, which I brought to his attention. He recommended that I take some all natural supplements and that would get my body back to normal. I ended up buying Iodine tablets (I did watch the video that he recommended to go with it) and Phosfood Liquid that I was to mix with my bottle of water. He had also wanted me to start his purification program, but as it was over $200.00 I did not want to do it at that time.

The next 2 days I tried to rest and I took the supplements that I indicated above. That Sunday evening though, I found myself in the ER. My headache had worsened and I could no longer tolerate it. I do not remember if I was throwing up at this point or not. Eryck was kind enough to take me and we ended up with one of my friends from high school as my treating doctor. It was nice to see her again and she gave me medicine that actually made my headache go away. It was very nice not having the headache for a change. She also recommended that I see a neurologist. She recommended that I see Dr. Dugan of Valley Neurological. She also said that she could run some tests, but he would likely just redo them when I went in. I did not wish to pay for them twice, so I just said that I would go to him. In hindsight, I should have had her do them. (If given the choice, ALWAYS get the tests!! I should know as hindsight is 20/20.) I believe she also prescribed me vicotin & Valium to help with my headaches while I waited for my appointment with Dr. Dugan, I also had some blood work done that Monday. I missed work that day with everything that was going on.

On Friday, July 27 I finally got in to see Dr. Dugan for the first time. I thought that this was really good as it only took 1 week to see the doctor. Again, hindsight tells me that this should have worried me, after all, why doesn't he have more patients? Mom went with me to this appointment. We thought that it went well. He prescribed me some medicine, but he did not run any tests like MRIs or CT scans like I expected. I was surprised, but I took the medicine. He was the doctor after all, I'm sure he knows what he is doing :(

That weekend was the Klondike Reunion (The neighborhood that we lived in at the time) My uncle is one of the people in charge so Eryck and I went to help. I found it to be very frustrating. I am usually a get the job done kind of person, but I was having trouble doing simple things. I had a lot of trouble bending down as I would get really dizzy & my headaches came back. I had to have Eryck do a lot of the stuff that I normally would so you can imagine how frustrated I was getting. Overall, the reunion itself was very nice and I was able to help with the 50/50, but I still felt terrible by the time we left and had to rest.

This brings us to the month of August. I was in a walking competition at work, and you can see how I was declining just in the number of steps I wasn't taking. The medicine Dr. Dugan prescribed me was clearly not working. I had given it some time, and it seemed like I was taking candy. I feel that I gave it enough time, but he felt differently. I did call his office and they said that I didn't give the medicine enough of a chance. I said that nearly 2 weeks should be enough to know if something works. The nurse said that they could just prescribe me something else, but I responded that I would much prefer to see the doctor as I do not like just randomly taking drugs. She was highly offended by this and said that their office did not just "randomly" prescribe drugs. I stated, that while that is probably the case, I would be much more comfortable actually seeing the doctor before switching to new meds.

Sometime, shortly after this conversation, Eryck & I did meet with the doctor again, though I'm not sure exactly when. This meeting was awful. First off, he reprimanded me for not giving his meds enough of a chance. Then he told me that I have to give them a chance to get out of my system (this was not an issue over the phone, but apparently is now) and that I should only take Ibuprofen until my next appointment. Needless to say, Eryck and I were both upset by this. You could hear the worry in his voice (if you were listening to him). He had been watching me steadily decline and all the doctor could say was take this over-the-counter medicine that I had been taking before and still no tests had been run. Unfortunately, Eryck & Dr. Douche can errr I mean Dugan, started screaming at each other. While I know I am prone to exaggeration, I wish that were the case here. Eryck, was visibly upset while the "doctor" felt his authority being questioned. I was still on the exam table and did I mention that my main complaint was horrible headaches and they were screaming at each other? I finally got up and was about to leave. I was in the process of walking out the door when Eryck stopped me. I believe I started crying at that point and begged them to stop yelling at each other. Eryck apologized to me and tried to convince me to stay. Unfortunately, we thought we needed this ya who. The so called "professional" took Eryck's quietness to mean that he got to yell at us some more. I believe that I said something again to the nature of "this is not appropriate" and we need an answer to what is causing everything. At this point, he FINALLY ordered an MRI. He wanted me to go on Ibuprofen through the MRI and then we would find out exactly what was wrong. While Eryck & I were still reasonably pissed at him, we thought that this was a good option, paid him and left.

The next appointments I had were with Dr. Jesko, my chiropractor. He was trying to see if my back was part of what was causing my headaches as that had been the case in the past. He is also the one that recommended just how much Ibuprofen I should take because Dr. Dugan never did. It honestly felt that the only doctor that cared was my chiropractor.

I did see Dr. Hill (PCP) again and had an Ansar test done. Then again for the results. At some point during this, he had put me on blood pressure medicine as I was running consistently high. He did take some convincing as he was still trying to push his cleanse. He did, however, say that I was a diabetic and have me start checking my blood sugar though he never ran a test. (By the way it was never out of the normal range) I also pointed out a minor problem that I was having, though he dismissed that and said he would deal with it after the major issues (my headaches) had been dealt with. This issue has still not been resolved.

Around the 29th of August, I had had my MRI and was back again to see Dr. Douche Can (sorry Dugan, I have lost all respect for him at this point) Eryck decided to wait in the truck, so as to not "cause trouble" at my appointment. He said that there was "nothing" wrong with me. The MRI showed nothing and he was referring me to the UPMC headache clinic in Pittsburgh. My appointment was for October 1st (yes you are reading it right in that it was over a month away) and he was essentially "washing his hands" of me at this point. What we didn't find out until later, the MRI was of my neck, not of my head. By the way, there is nothing wrong with my neck.

So sometime within the next 2 days, I fell at work. (That's right, nothing is wrong with me, but I'm falling at work) I was taking papers to the next person that was to process them and I fell. I'm not talking about a simple "I have 2 left feet" or "there was something in the way" type of fall. This was a "I have no control over my body and the world is going dark" fall. Thankfully, I had enough control to push myself to the middle of the aisle when it was happening so that I didn't land on any bins or cubicle walls. Needless to say, my bosses were worried and needed to cover their butts at the same time. I was told that I would need a doctor's note in order to return to work at all and my boss walked me out to where Eryck was waiting to drive me home. At this point, I had voluntarily stopped driving as even I felt it was not safe. I do wish to reiterate though that there is nothing wrong with me. I believe this was my last day at work.

I went to my PCP again, and he gave me a note to return after the labor day weekend. He said that I needed a few days off but by Tuesday, September 4th I should be fine and it would be OK to return to work. Again, there is nothing wrong with me.

All of the doctor's were telling me (with the exception of the chiropractor of all people) that I was fine and there was nothing wrong with me. What's worse is that people believed them. I had family members offering to pay for the purification cleanse, because maybe that is all I needed. I even had one person buy me a pregnancy test as the vomiting was probably morning sickness. I think people not believing me was the hardest at this point. I knew something was wrong. I was missing a lot of my life. I had voluntarily given up driving (which I love). I missed the Canfield Fair, which is a big deal in my family because it is where my parents met and my sister and her kids were in town for it. I also missed a pre-season Steeler game that I was super excited for and was already paid for. I was missing my life and all people (family & doctors a like) would say was "it's all in your head". The concensus seemed to be that I was faking and could will myself better.

Come Tuesday, September 4, 2012, all of that would change, but that will be the start of my next entry as I am exhausted and need to go to bed. Good night all!