medic alert tattoos

As per yesterday's wheat allergy post, really tired of phenergan for awhile. I've had 2 IV pushes in 2 weeks and the most common phrase associated with that drug for nasty side effects is 'corrupt the vein'. Same vein, same place, second person was young and impatient, it went in fast and hard and hurt like crap. I asked her to stop several times. Wonder how many patients she has 'corrupted' being impatient. We're talking necrosis and surgery to fix this kind of stuff when it's done wrong. (Bet you guys didn't know there is a whole branch of science about how intravenous meds affect veins.) So far everything is looking ok, but my whole arm ached for 24 hours. Not to complain too much because I know people who've been through far worse, but that same vein has been blown out during pre-surg prep, ripped open tearing out the IV on a handicap bar in a bathroom, ripped again Thursday getting the IV out, blood everywhere... I'm about ready to get a tattoo down my left arm that says DON'T USE THIS VEIN. There are a bunch of medical tattoos on pinterest, click this if you want to check it out.

pill phobia at its finest

I have felt like this the last couple of years thanx to zealous overmedicating by my doctors.  Coming out of my stupor now.  New year, new things, feel like a new person.

Briefly, it's pure and simple medical mistakes.  I was already on 3X the blood pressure med I really needed (ironically, that can force your heart to freak out and go into panic mode, making it look like you still have high blood pressure), was put on a daily inhaled steroid after no one caught that I had an allergic reaction to my rarely used rescue inhaler last spring and assumed instead I had asthma, those two meds wreaked enough havoc to spike my blood sugar into crazy mode and now I've been labeled diabetic, and in the middle of all that, my thyroid went beserk and they bumped up the dose.

In January, after months of this cascading domino affect with no supervision because my old doctor left her practice in September and all her patients dangling, my body exploded.  It felt like the worst anxiety imagineable, and urgent care only told me they don't handle anxiety.  Finally got in to a new doctor after the new year and he had the wit to ask if NO one thought I might be allergic to my rescue inhaler and sent me to a pulminologist.  Went to PFT lab-- no asthma.  At all.  It's all med-induced.  Then we started trying new blood pressure meds, that went absolutely nuts and I went through 5 changes in 3 weeks.  Wound up back on the original-- only a third of what I'd been on before.  That was a horrible experience, 3 solid weeks of super high BP and racing pulse, only to find it wasn't necessary.  And after I got those meds figured out, my blood sugar started adjusting back down.  By itself.  I wasn't even taking the meds the doctor gave me for diabetes.  I used a glucose monitor and just watched it, studied online what to do, made lifestyle changes, and I'm nearly back to normal now.  Now I'm getting test results back that I've gone hyperthyroid since everything else is settling back down.  Once again, time to back off on a med.

How many people on this earth spiral into 'natural aging' through overmedicating?  I had reached a point of near immobility, severe disability, unable to function even cognitively.  Now?  I'm able to do daily walks without gasping for air or collapsing from severe fatigue, I can think again, and I even started doing things like cleaning out drawers.  I hadn't cleaned my house beyond dishes and laundry for two years.  Can only wonder where I'd be if even just one doctor had looked at me holistically, the whole body responding to all my meds, systems affecting other systems.  Everything medical nowadays is so standardized, you get this test result, you tweak that med, you have a problem, you add another med, usually something like an anti-depressant to calm the patient down, and then those are a real biatch to get off of because some of them are more addicting than heroin (so I've read).

I don't recommend that people just start getting off their meds, but after that wild cascade I went through over time, I can see why our society is so full of chronically ill people.  I have spent my adult life in pain and fibro and autoimmune problems that started with a bad car accident and damage to my spine when I was 19, but the resulting over medicating through the years with anti inflammatories and steroids crashing me slowly into organ damage and despair and nearly complete immobility was ALL MEDICATIONS.  Once you are taking meds to fix side effects of other meds, you are on a downhill slide, and there is no coming out of it.

I can't say enough for a good chiropractor with a physical therapy staff, a kind psychologist who gets to know you well, and attempting to eat healthy and get a little exercise.  Study your meds, observe your own body, don't assume doctors will 'save' you from your own ignorance.  And bless those that actually try not to hand out easy meds.  I'm done being a guinea pig lost in the medical maze.  If all I have to do is stop drinking pop and eat some salad to save tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills, huzzah!