Hello, all! I am back, for now anyway, and here is what has been going on since my last post. I’ve been working on my dissertation (here’s hoping I finish before the end time), was in the ER, have had good & bad days, worked on a new line for the shop my fiancé and I have… Needless to say, a lot has been going on, and I haven’t paid as much attention to this blog as I should be. I’m looking to change that with some new time-management methods.

So figured I’d talk a little bit about living with an invisible illness. We don’t know what the cause of my issues are and more symptoms have come up recently. What we do know is that I have a heart condition, but we don’t know the cause. I have GI issues, hypothyroidism, gastritis, and a hiatal hernia. I also have spinal stenosis (though it’s not all that bad right now) and neuropathy in my arms, face, and legs; I also have sciatica, which during flare-ups cause me to limp or I simply am unable to walk. Fun stuff, eh? Some days are better than others, and it’s difficult to explain to people that not all health problems are visible. Not everyone with a disability, injury, illness, etc. needs a wheelchair, scooter, etc. (although some should be in one, and refuse to do so until they really no longer have a choice).

My most recent ER visit was because I thought I was having a heart attack. Having had scares in the past, and a family history of heart disease, I wasn’t sure necessarily going to go in. I felt a bursting pain in the mid portion of my back and my heart rate went up over 146. It stayed in the 120 range for roughly 45 minutes. In the meantime, I called the nurse line on my insurance card. Of the 7 signs of a possible heart attack, I had 5. Since I was out, someone had come to get me so I could get checked out. the EKG showed no signs of a heart attack. I also thought about aortic dissection (as did the doc), but the X-rays came back normal. He mentioned that it could be related to my spine and to follow up with my GP. I did, and we still have no clue what the issue was. I was standing, wasn’t hit, didn’t have a panic nor anxiety attack, so who knows? Honestly, the only reason I went to the hospital at all was because there were added symptoms to what I’ve previously experienced and my heart rate stayed elevated for a long period of time.

Since then, I also had a stomach bug…well, we all did. We have no clue where, how, or why, and we all caught it at different times during the week (it was like one person succeeded the other). It was one of the worst things I’ve experienced in terms of stomach and intestinal pain. On the plus side, that has blown over, and we are all nearly 100%. That’s enough about health things. The last couple of days have been pretty good, and I’m on this side of the grass, so all-in-all, I guess I’m lucky to be alive.