January Craziness

I haven't ha time to write in forever. Over winter break I was working two jobs (one was full time and one was part time) so I have barely had time to breathe. I am happy to be back in school I actually have more free time to just hang out.

In good news I think I forgot to write that back in December my OS released me from his care, yes that means no more appointments with him or at HSS. I can't believe that after all I have been through I am done with Hospital for Special Surgery. I definitely will not miss that place, although the doctor did add something about calling him if my knee gets worse...you win some and you lose some.

As far as the whole Celiac thing is going, that has become quite an adventure since getting back to school. My school has a gluten free area but it hasn't been stocked since getting back from break, so each time I try to get food I have to chase down someone to get me some frozen meal and then I have to microwave it, the whole thing is really frustrating and takes way more time than it should and I end up starting to eat when my friends finish eating. I started counting my calories to see if I am getting enough calories, and I seem to only be eating 1000-1500 calories a day, EEKK. I am hoping to see the campus dietitian soon to see what options I have on campus. I also made some lovely gluten-free brownies this evening to help remedy the situation, I was actually surprised by how lovely hey are.

I love all my choices...

So hopefully my life will come down a bit and I will be able to write more soon.

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Feeding Tube Awareness Week Day 1

Today is the beginning of feeding tube awareness week! A year ago if you had told me I would be feeding tube dependent in less than 6 months I would be feeding tube dependent I would say that's crazy. Anyways here I am and its not super scary like one might think.

Day 1: Talk about the reasons you, your child, or your loved one is tube fed. Raise awareness of the medical conditions that made tube feeding necessary.
I am tube fed because I have gastroparesis and dysautonomia.
Gastroparesis: Delayed stomach emptying, which means I can not tolerate normal amounts of food because it doesn't leave my stomach as fast as it should. The symptoms include feeling full, nausea, and vomiting (there are many others, these are just the ones I deal with the most). Gastroparesis is caused by nerves not firing and telling the stomach to empty. Due to gastroparesis I can only consume a few hundred calories a day so I receive most of them through my tube that goes into my small intestines instead…

The Swollen Wrist

This morning I woke up to a red painful swollen wrist. My right wrist was not happy or useable for the better part of the morning. Of course my mom wanted to make a rheumatologist appointment for this week but I really did not think it is worth it. Since I am now in the 2 week period before my hip surgery I can not take anything but Tylenol anyway (no voltaren or fancy cream), so there is not a whole lot that can be done. We finally settled on me going to my GP (for the 2nd time in one week as I had a pre-op appointment with him on Monday), and I took a picture so I can show my rheumy at my next appointment.

I managed to get an appointment at 11AM because my GP was in the office this Saturday. By the time of the appointment my wrist looked pretty normal, although I had the picture so he could see something was up. He had it x-rayed just to rule out any issues non rheumatology related, and as we both guessed the x-rays came out normal.

I was left with the advise to call me rheumy Monda…

Preparing to Fly with Complex Medical Issues

One of the most stressful things to do is travelling, now add some needles, medical liquids, and a suppressed immune system to that and flying goes from stressful to down right scary. As I prepare to fly to the rare patient advocacy summit taking place this week in California I figured I would share what I have found works the best for me when traveling.

Before my first flight with a feeding tube I looked up the TSA policies on medical liquids. Basically as long as you notify them while going through security and separate them from the rest of your things you should be allowed to take them through without issue. No doctor's note required. Same goes for needles and syringes and inject-able medications. You may want to print this policy out or have easy access to it on your phone in case you encounter any issues although I have yet to have a problem.

A few days before your flight call up TSA cares. They will set you up with a TSA specialist to help you through security. This is th…

Life with a Flare

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