My body has survived many things over the years that it probably shouldn’t have survived at all. I suffer Status Epilepticus on what now seems to be a regular basis and really ought to spend more time in A&E than I actually do (this is probably, in no small part, due to my outright stubborness and hatred of hospitals).
When I was 19 years old I was hospitalised with a nosebleed that refused to stop. I spent four days in hospital with a surgical balloon in one nostril because it was the only way to check the heavy blood flow – and even then it didn’t stop immediately. When I was admitted they were vacuuming blood from my nose as quickly as possible to try to find the problem – and cauterised a small, white spot that I have always had in my left nostril because they suspected this to be the source. They then packed both nostrils in the hope that this would be enough to stop whatever was happening so that they could send me home the following day.
That first night about half a pint of blood was vacuumed out of me. I know this because I could see the measurements on the jar that it was being sucked in to. That’s a lot of blood, and I had already been bleeding for several hours by this point.
There turned out to be nothing to cauterise when they removed the nostril packing from my still-bleeding nose the following morning, and I wasn’t haemorraging. It was, as they so succinctly put it, “A freak of nature”. I returned home severely anaemic and clutching a month’s worth of strong iron pills.
Since then I have almost died on the operating table due to a seizure, emotionally survived things that would give another person a complete mental breakdown and gone through my entire life until four and a half years ago completely unaware that I had dangerously low levels of vitamin B12 (I can neither store nor produce it). I fully admit that the GP I had in my home town was rubbish, but failing to notice this glaring issue when I was always showing up as anaemic could have actually killed me. I now have B12 injections every eight weeks and am all the better for it. There is actually some colour in my cheeks now, and I no longer resemble Darla from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
I have unusually low blood pressure and significantly raised cholesterol – and yet, I am as healthy as they come. I won’t say fit; after what the Lyrica did to my body I have to get my fitness back – but I am definitely healthy. My GP believes that he can add the cholesterol to my “Normal for me” medical notes.
The latest concern, as I believe I have blogged before, has been my liver function. My Gamma GT levels are through the roof. I admit that I’m quite fond of the falling-down juice (this is intertwined with my eating disorder and so I can’t just stop without therapy) but I’ve considerably cut down of late, and the readings in my blood tests just don’t correlate.
Today I had to go to the hospital for an ultrasound on my liver. It was all over very quickly and I learned something: I never had any idea before just how large the liver actually is!
According to my Gamma GT readings, we were expecting to find an enlarged liver with obvious damage and scarring. After all, I’m still a slightly heavy drinker – especially for a woman – even after cutting right back (my new addiction to Chinese tea is playing a part in furthering my alcohol reduction). At the very least, I was expecting an ulcer.
The scan was clean. According to what we saw on the ultrasound screen I have a normal-sized, healthy, perfectly functional liver.
I think I might be turning in to a female Wolverine – but hopefully not anywhere near as hairy. No matter what, my body seems to regenerate and fight off everything that is thrown at it.
Somebody recently suggested to me that Autism may be a form of evolution that we have yet to understand. Is it possible that we might be the first generation to evolve/mutate to protect ourselves from disease and to heal faster?
Sending good thoughts your way. You have a strong spirit, and that helps a body heal.
This.
You know me: never give up, never surrender… or something
Thank you for this. My Nan always taught me that it was all about “mind over matter” and joked about “If the body doesn’t mind, then it doesn’t matter”. She had quite a sense of humour
Also sending good energy to you! Reading all of that made me cringe in pain.
I’m so used to being examined and prodded and poked and stabbed with needles that the “vampire nurse” loves me; she can draw blood from me and I’ll happily sit and watch!
Good energy is always welcomed; thank you
I always ask if the nurse wants more. My internist’s office prints labels to put on blood vials and anything else tested during the visit. I often tell the nurses not to waste those labels; instead, take another vial, just in case.
I’m not sure if I can do that here in the UK, but I can ask next time I go in. I have regular blood tests because of the medication I’m on, so they know me by sight now!
Keep going.
I don’t intend to go anywhere any time soon! Thank you for the support
I have no idea how you manage to cope but keep on coping I salute you;-) xx
I must take after my Nan; I only remember her being ill once! The body really is an amazing thing!
Go girl!
When did us ‘Nammers ever give up?
“We can’t read and we can’t write but that don’t really matter
Cos we all come from Cheltenhamshire and we can drive a tracterrrr”
Well said!
Heheh, I actually *can* drive a tratterrr
I’ve started taking perverse sense of accomplishment in my diagnoses that are a fancy way of saying “the doctor doesn’t know why.” For example, I have pseudotumor cerebri (too much brain fluid and the doctors don’t know why), vasomotor rhinitis (my nose runs a lot but the doctors don’t know why; no allergies), and myoclonus (muscle twitches, spasms, and an occasional limb flailing about). I suspect the myoclonus was caused by my brief and disastrous Cymbalta trail; I spent 48 hours in the epilepsy ward and nothing showed up on the scans. Finally, I’m missing a piece of my brain, the septum pellucidam, and I should be blind and severely mentally disabled. Yet I’m neither.
I probably have Aspergers as does my younger son, but I’m not officially diagnosed. So maybe we are mutants. I want to change my order then! Can I trade my myoclonus for the ability to fly? Or manipulate magnetic energy perhaps?
Haha, you sound like me in so many ways! I’m also an undiagnosed autistic – but my son is diagnosed and profound, and my nephew is high on the spectrum – so my sister and I both know that we’re high-end ASD too. And we love that feeling of being “different” – if we were NT we wouldn’t be the fun, quirky people that we are!
If I could trade my Epilepsy for anything, it would be for the ability to control the weather (flying would be nice too). I’m a gardener, so it would be fantastic to be able to command the perfect elements for wonderful growth in my garden