Well, it’s not exactly a Eureka moment, but it does appear that I may get to go home tomorrow. That’s not carved in stone, but is a likelihood. At that point I will have been at UVA five days without any recurrence of the gut issue that landed me here, and although everybody remains mystified as to what that was all about the consensus seems to be that it’s over and that there is no longer any reason for me to be hospitalized other than low platelets. I’m lobbying for them to stop worrying about that so much since it’s been a constant in my life for years. It may be new to them, but it’s routine to me. I have a feeling I’m going to have to use the “medical bills are the #1 cause of bankruptcy in the US” argument, hopefully they’ll see reason though since I am on a fixed income and the platelet issue really is old hat for me. There is some risk to low platelets, but I’m smart enough to recognize the signs of a brain bleed now and I sure wouldn’t ignore them in the unlikely event such a thing were to happen.
As best I can tell, the gut issue was related to what I can only call medication toxicity. I say that because my docs in Lynchburg and in Raleigh before that have had me on eight to ten different prescription medications daily for years, all but two of which have been discontinued without ill effect. I’ve been on three different BP meds for years, and since getting here I’ve been off all of them and my BP has been perfect. Ditto the hormone replacement therapy I’ve taken for over 20 years, ditto an antidepressant, ditto a daily antihistamine, ditto several vitamin supplements… ack. I think I have to own some responsibility in as much as I didn’t refuse the meds, but the bottom line is that I’ll be going home on only two meds, and one of them’s one I will likely be able to get off of over time.
I will require zero heart meds- which is kind of amazing the docs given the severity of the cardio issue at the time it struck. They’re now saying I had what’s commonly known as “Broken Heart Syndrome”, aka Takatsubo's Cardiomyopathy, which is to say a stress-induced cardio event that, once the stress ends, resolves without recurrence. The stress in this case was the pain of the gut issue- now that I’ve been a few days pain free my most recent echocardiogram shows that my heart has already 100% recovered, which really has ‘em scratching their heads but no one’s complaining- and no one’s disputing either the earlier assessment nor the current one. So geez, I’m feeling a bit silly about all the drama but all I can say is that they told me I was in really awful shape, and I believed ‘em. Happy all of us that this is seemingly no longer the case. Needless to say, I’ll be looking for a new primary care physician who’s less inclined to write an RX and more inclined to see what my body can do on its’ own.
I’m not sure what else to say, except to again tell you all how very grateful I am for the prayers and thoughts, and to hope you know how much my knowing I have such a large and loving support system of friends does to help me when these scary, scary things happen. Not having children makes me all that much more appreciative of the large and loving circle that holds me in its’ loving arms when I need it. Y’all really are my strength and salvation.
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