the latest

Ok...I have become one of those annoying people that starts a blog and that does not update it. It has literally been 5 months since I started this journal and I am now just adding my 2nd entry. I will try to do this blog justice by updating more often.

What a difference five months makes. When I started this blog, I was diagnosed with polymyositis, ra, lupus(not 100% sure) among other things. The medication was controlling my symptoms and I was actually feeling better. The only thing I noticed was that I was having a hard time working 40 hours a week. I would come home so exhausted that I could only retreat to my bed. I could not care for the kids or my house. By the end of June, I had to quit my Girl Scout trainer job and had found employment with an adoption agency. It was a 20 hour job, based out of my home. I would be doing my life-long dream of being an adoption social worker. Life was good.

As far as my health, I was finally off the dreaded drug prednizone by the end of June. I will dedicate a whole entry to the evils of prednizone in the future. Within 10 days of my last prednizone, all my symptoms had returned. I was in touch with the specialists and my blood work indicated that my inflammation rate was increasing. They put me back on prednizone and eventually increased my other meds. From mid July until mid August, I felt my body getting worse and worse. Finally the morning of August 13, 2009 my body gave out. I was running a temp of 103, I could not get out of bed without screaming in pain and when I finally got to the clinic, my blood pressure was 80/40. I was hospitalized for 4 days without being certain why I was so ill.

Once I stabilized, I was released. Two days later, Doug took me to Dr. Erickson in Omaha. He was the one that diagnosed me with polymyositis. I will have to dedicate a blog entry to him in the future as he is one of most compassionate Drs I have ever met. He spent 10 minutes evaluating me and then promptly put me in the hospital in Omaha. For the next week, I was put through a gamete of medical tests and procedures. Within 48 hours they were narrowing in on a diagnosis of antisynthetase syndrome. Within 48 hours I felt my world crashing down around me. More later......