Monday, March 30, 2015

Even the Little Things




Life with chronic illness can encompass every area of your life. Even seemingly normal or simple events can wreak havoc on your very fragile body. My recent emergency room trips are a perfect example.

A few weeks ago I started having difficulty breathing at night and also noticed my heart would beat rapidly for little or no reason at all. I have strange and new symptoms all the time so even though I was concerned I knew that there wasn't much that could be done. I kept most of it to myself, but took things a little slower to keep my heart from racing.  

And then one day I got so caught up in a phone conversation that I put off taking a shower till the very last minute. Mind you a shower is one of the most painful and exhausting things I can do. Afterwards I rushed out the door to pick Shawn up from work. The whole car ride I struggled to catch my breath. There was a lot of vog so I figured that was at least part of the problem. When I got out of the car and walked down several steps I twisted my ankle. Twisting anything with RSD/CRPS is not a good thing. When we got home my ankle hurt but my breathing was somewhat better and eventually I fell asleep.

The next morning my ankle felt better but I could barely breathe and my heart really hurt. I had never experienced anything like it and knew I needed to go to the ER. The rest of the story you can read here. All the tests came back normal which is generally a pretty good indicator that the culprit is Lyme or RSD/CRPS. My primary care doctor confirmed that this is the case. Thankfully I am feeling much better although I am trying to be extremely careful of not overdoing it. I mean if "little" things like taking a shower and then twisting my ankle can cause this extremely scary episode then it's a pretty good indicator that I need to be even more cautious than normal.