I hate being sick. I hate being in pain. I hate having things happen to my body for which I have no reason. Case in point. I am swollen from three inches above my knee down to my toes.
I first noticed it Friday night that my feet were swollen. Puffy, if you will. I didn’t recall stepping on anything nor did I feel getting bitten by an insect. But swollen I was.
Saturday morning the swelling was more pronounced and the skin on my legs was taut. I had slight difficulty walking in that I could feel the fluid in my feet. I called my sister-in-law Michelle, who happens to be a nurse practitioner, and talked to her about it. She suggested I go get my blood pressure taken and that this is nothing to fool around with. I decided to give it another 24 hours to see if it would go away.
I am so not a doctor person. I hate going to the doctors. I don’t like the expense and I don’t like the fact that they have needles. I repeat, I am so not a doctor person.
Since it didn't seem to be getting any better Mom drove me up to the local Walgreen’s and the pharmacist took my blood pressure. First time it was through the roof. White coat syndrome? Faulty cuff? Blood pressure really that high? The first numbers were reading 182 over 98. I have never, ever had numbers that high and this scared me. When I showed my alarm at these numbers the pharmacist said, “Let me get a new cuff and we’ll do it again.” I sat there and relaxed for the next 10 minutes. When he returned it went much better. I now knew that because I am retaining so much fluid that the cuff would be unusually tight which I didn’t know the first time around and that added to a soaring blood pressure reading too, I’m sure. This next set of numbers was still a little high for me but more realistic I think. I was looking at 138 over 82. I’m always, always, 120 over 70. The pharmacists said that a water pill would probably do the trick for me but he didn’t have anything that wasn’t prescription. He took me to the Midol aisle and said that something called Premysyn or something like that should help me without going the route of a prescription. I’m hoping so.
Sunday morning, still swollen. my skin on my feet and legs feels like it could burst open any minute. I can actually move the fluid on the top of my feet. I’m taking the pills the pharmacist suggested but I’m not seeing any change.
I had reason to talk to Michelle again on Monday and she asked me how the swelling was going. I told her that it had actually gotten worse and in her best nurse practitioner nurse admonished me about seeing a doctor. She explained that this could be something that could kill me! Oh, well, in that case I’ll go.
After dinner mom and I talked about and looked at how swollen I was and I decided that maybe it would be a good thing to see a doctor. I called my friend Cindy and asked if she was busy. Upon hearing her negative reply I asked her if she wanted to hang out that evening since we hadn’t seen each other as yet. She assured me she would love to spend time together and what did I have in mind. I suggested she accompany me to the Urgent Care center and we could catch up while I waited in the waiting room. She replied, “Snookie, you just always think of the most fun things for us to do together!” She picked me up 15 minutes later.
It didn’t take long before I was called because there was only two people ahead of me. I got called back to the examining room and when the doctor entered she said, “Hi, I’m Doctor B….., how are you doing? I replied, “Hi, I’m fine and I don’t do needles.” She looked at me and said, “Okaaayyy.”
She poked and prodded and asked me a lot of questions. She wanted me to have a chest x-ray and an ultrasound of my legs. I agreed to the ultrasound. She was most concerned about blood clots. it didn’t make sense to me to think that blood clots could be the cause because what would be the probability of having clots in both legs? But hey, I’m not a doctor and what do I know? She wrote me a prescription for a diuretic and the plan is to have the ultrasound to rule out clots, take the pills to get rid of the fluid and if they don’t work then we’ll do more tests. I'm hoping these pills work because the doc is mentioning things like congestive heart failure. I don't even want to go there.
By the time I was leaving there we were leaning towards this happening because of me coming from such a dry area (Arizona desert) to this ungodly humidity and this is just my reaction to it. That's now my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Cindy and I then went for a ride and to Kohl’s to check out what they had on sale. We made plans to get together when we returned from the beach.
When Bob and I arrived at mom’s she gave me an envelope that had arrived just days prior. We were all amazed that it made it all.
My mom’s address is 8 Poplar Avenue, Wilmington, De 19805. Look at how this was addressed.
This made it from Australia all the way to Mom’s in Delaware even though it was addressed for Washington D. C.. Zip codes are a wonderful thing!
So what was sent to me from Australia? One of my FaceBook friends, Jennifer, sent me this bag she made for me. She makes such lovely things from yarn. I’ve seen several pictures of things she’s made and now I have one for my very own. Jenn, you are just the best!
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