Health Update: Thursday In Review

I meant to post this on Friday, but didn't get the chance, so I'm doing it today.  For those of you who have been waiting for the full story, thank you for your patience! :)

Ok, so Thursday...What a day!  I'll walk you through it and give you my health update in the process.

My middle kid's big toenail, 15 months after he smashed said toe with a bench.

At 8:45am, my middle kid had to be at the podiatrist to get his toe looked at.  It's been 15 months (yes, that's MONTHS) since he smashed his toe with a bench, and the nail still hasn't reattached correctly.  We were afraid that he would have to get the nail removed and the nail bed destroyed, but the doctor was happy with how it looks, so we wait.  Apparently, it can take YEARS for toenails to fully reattach after injury.  Joy.  As long as it's not snagging on things or getting infected, we just have to wait and keep it maintained.  We'll see how it goes.  Please pray that it doesn't infect and that it will reattach sooner than later.  Thanks!

At 9:40am, this same child had to go to another doctor (yes, my husband went from one appointment to another one - the locations are about 15 to 20 minutes apart, and I let him know about the second appointment that we made THAT MORNING around 9:15am while he was still in the first location) because he had an odd looking rash on his face that we were afraid it could have been ringworm or impetigo.  Turns out that it was just a pressure rash that ended up basically disappearing by the time he got home so we dodged a bullet there, BUT this same child was missing a vaccination that they didn't have when he went to his last well child, so he got a vaccination before he came home.  Poor kid.  He was a trooper, though, and did just great.

By the time my hubby and son got home, it was nearly 10:30am.  We needed to go clean the missionary apartment at our church because we didn't know when I'd be done with my neurologist appointment, and Thursday was the last night of our tent meetings that we would need to get to after my appointment, so we decided an hour and a half would have to be enough time, and it was.  We worked quickly, but we got'er done! :)

We got back from cleaning at just before noon, got the kids loaded up to go to Grandpa and Grandma's, and took off.  We got them all settled there, and then headed off to my neurologist appointment that was an hour away.

Possible triggers for my mysterious, invisible condition.

We made it to my neurologist appointment on time (1:40pm), and we even had time to grab some lunch on the way.  I was feeling very grateful that we'd gotten so much done and gotten to where we needed to go on time so far. :) 

Anyway, both my EEG and MRV were "within normal", which is what I expected, honestly.  Since I have not been getting worse (though I do have bad times, and have actually had improvement in a lot of ways), and because I've found that diet at least plays into it in part and that increasing my thyroid meds seemed to help reduce my amount of episodes, she told me that she is leaning towards a "migraine variant" that is being complicated by my Fibromyalgia, diet and thyroid/hormones.  I'm not sure I'm 100% convinced of this because I've tried treating my episodes the same way I treat my head migraines and it doesn't work, so...time will tell.  At least I have a game plan now.

I was sent home with a list of common triggers, and I'm to see if avoiding the things on this list makes a difference or not.  Now, I already avoid some things (like alcohol - I don't drink - and artificial sweeteners), but I'm to see if avoiding the things I don't already avoid make a difference.  I will avoid them one at a time for at least a week each and go from there.  

I'm also supposed to get my potassium levels checked (and do a Celiac panel if I haven't already had one done) to see if anything is off there.  If all looks good, and I continue to do ok, then I may not be going back to the neurologist.  If I have another really bad episode or get worse or new symptoms, then I go back. 

I'll keep you all posted, and I appreciate your prayers as we work on figuring this all out.  Thanks! :)

I don't know if you can see the metal fray on the edges, but it's there.  This tire was flat as a pancake and shredding.  It tore up hubby's hands pretty good.

On our way home at about 3pm, our front, driver's side tire decided to go flat.  We pulled over as far as we could without going into a ditch to change it.  We had major traffic going back and forth (mainly Mini Coopers - there was some kind of convention or something going on, me thinks, as we saw over 30 of them while hubby changed the tire), and we were in gravel.

Things were going well until hubby got the new tire on (but not bolted), and he had to jack up the car a little further...and the car started to roll backwards!  He'd forgotten to chock the tire!  Thankfully we were able to stop the car and make makeshift chocks with a large flashlight on one side and the old tire pictured above on the other.  It must've been quite the sight for those passing by!

After we got that all done, hubby had to dig into the gravel with a flat bar to get the jack under the car properly.  That was successful, the chocks held, and we got the car jacked back up to proper height.

Now, when the car rolled backwards, the new tire had gotten caught under the car.  He was able to get that out, it wasn't damaged, and he was able to get it on the car (after digging more into the gravel with the flat bar again), and we were able to get back on our way.

The new tire was a little flat, but not so much that we couldn't drive on it, which is a good thing because we couldn't get air into it until after we got back to our hometown. 

Anyway, we ended up getting home after 4:30pm, and had about an hour and a half to eat, get ready for tent meeting, and get to church.  We were grateful that my folks had the kids (and had agreed to keep them and take them to tent meeting after we'd let them know about our tire issue) and that we'd cleaned the missionary apartment already or we'd been in trouble!

Oh, and did I mention that some time while we'd been gone we'd lost power?  Yah.  It was on by the time we got home, but we knew it'd been out because the clocks were flashing and some things were off that we'd left on.  This made us extra glad that we'd taken the kiddos to the grandparents vs. having them come to our house.

All in all, Thursday was a crazy day!  I didn't find out anything new regarding my mystery health issue, but we do have a direction to head in and try, though.  We also had an amazing tent meeting, and if you'd like to watch some videos from it, you can find them here.

I appreciate all of your prayers, and I will continue to update you as I find out more.  Your support and prayers have meant the world to me!  If there is anything I can pray with you about or help you research, please feel free to email me or comment below, and I'll do what I can to help. :)

(This post was originally posted on my original site, Fibro, Fit and Fab!)