BURNING URINARY TRACT SPASMS. My years-long urinary tract infection roars on with a vengeance, and the pain has been wretched for the last few days. There’s nothing I can take to cure the goddamn thing, so every time I pee it feels like I’m trying to piss a ball of lava. This all started in 2014, back when my primary care physician would prescribe various rounds of antibiotics month after month after month … with no cure. By the time I wound up under the care of a hospice in May 2018, I was finally resistant to all known antibiotics and suffering a double whammy when I came home from the hospital catheterized. The catheter turned that ball of lava into a scream-fest 10 or 15 times a day. Even though I stopped wearing a catheter about seven months ago, the pain in my urinary tract continues unabated, and it’s hideous. I’m worn out.
BUT THERE’S MORE TO THIS STORY THAN PAIN. As a diabetic senior citizen my immune system is shot to hell, and my long-running UTI is delivering some frightening side effects now: 1) confusion; 2) delusions; 3) I’m unable to come up with the right words when I write or speak; 4) vivid dreams and nightmares; and 5) I’m sleeping 12 to 15 hours at a time. All of these are very frustrating.
CELLULITIS IN MY LEFT LEG. This is another long-running bacterial infection. Antibiotics don’t work for this sucker, either, so I have to let it run its natural course. The infection will never go away by itself, though, so most likely it will become “septic” (i.e., fatal) at some point. My leg is red and hot to the touch but fortunately isn’t causing me any pain right now. Life goes on.
SEARING KNEE PAIN. I’ve been bedridden at home for almost two years and can’t move my legs without help. Whenever I need to adjust my position in bed I begin with 20mg of Hydrocodone, and half an hour later I’ll be ready for Sam to lift each of my legs about an inch above the mattress and carefully shift it to the left or right, depending on which direction would give me the most relief. I usually scream when he does this (poor Sam!) … even though I always feel much better by the time he lowers my leg. We finish up with a layer of Bengay.
INSANE TEMPERATURE SWINGS. I’m sweating. I’m shivering. My body temperature can move from 92° to 103° in an hour and then drop back down again … an exhausting cycle that leaves me feeling limp, clammy and thoroughly miserable. The fever hoo-hah is a combination side effect from advanced diabetic neuropathy and a lousy immune system, although Sam and I are convinced that it’s happening more frequently now — at least once a week — because of those two incurable bacterial infections.
CELLULITIS IN MY LEFT LEG. This is another long-running bacterial infection. Antibiotics don’t work for this sucker, either, so I have to let it run its natural course. The infection will never go away by itself, though, so most likely it will become “septic” (i.e., fatal) at some point. My leg is red and hot to the touch but fortunately isn’t causing me any pain right now. Life goes on.
SEARING KNEE PAIN. I’ve been bedridden at home for almost two years and can’t move my legs without help. Whenever I need to adjust my position in bed I begin with 20mg of Hydrocodone, and half an hour later I’ll be ready for Sam to lift each of my legs about an inch above the mattress and carefully shift it to the left or right, depending on which direction would give me the most relief. I usually scream when he does this (poor Sam!) … even though I always feel much better by the time he lowers my leg. We finish up with a layer of Bengay.
INSANE TEMPERATURE SWINGS. I’m sweating. I’m shivering. My body temperature can move from 92° to 103° in an hour and then drop back down again … an exhausting cycle that leaves me feeling limp, clammy and thoroughly miserable. The fever hoo-hah is a combination side effect from advanced diabetic neuropathy and a lousy immune system, although Sam and I are convinced that it’s happening more frequently now — at least once a week — because of those two incurable bacterial infections.
Everything is collapsing now in real time.
I’ll include download links below the graphic in case you want some of these for your personal collection. And remember … the Howdygram’s free fonts are always kosher for Passover. L’chaim!
Pintersan • Monisa • Jumat • Pathout • Takaria • Fontanka • Raveria
Achievement • Rockyeah • Strawberry • Batrider • Ariston • Lovingly Friends
Candy Night • Risolla Calisto • Paw Fighter • Summer Seas
Achievement • Rockyeah • Strawberry • Batrider • Ariston • Lovingly Friends
Candy Night • Risolla Calisto • Paw Fighter • Summer Seas
While I’m on the subject — the Coronavirus! — I’d like a show of hands. ARE YOU PREPARING FOR A WORST-CASE SCENARIO?
Here are some of the products I bought this week from Amazon and Thrive Life. Pictured below are powdered whole eggs, a Mountain House freeze-dried entrée, Ready Meals shelf-stable kosher entrées — stuffed cabbage! cholent with barley, kishka and kugel! — and large cans of freeze-dried ground beef, freeze-dried crumbled breakfast sausage and freeze-dried instant refried beans. (These big cans of protein from Thrive Life are expensive. The ground beef cost us $78.19 and the crumbled sausage cost $83.09.)
I also ordered large buckets of Thrive Life’s freeze-dried green beans and scrambled eggs with bacon, and yesterday morning Sam picked up a jumbo order from Wal-Mart for canned soup, drink mixes, Chicken of the Sea salmon in pouches, canned beef stew, Manwich, frozen veggies, gravy mixes, Hamburger Helper, frozen country fried steak patties, Crystal Light and so on. We definitely won’t starve. Sam also spent part of the day yesterday reorganizing the pantry so the emergency food is separate from our everyday food.
Guys, you might want to think about doing something like this for yourself, because the World Health Organization has officially declared a pandemic, and we never know how much worse life can get with that bullshit “president” in the White House!
I should have published this post quite some time ago, because now it’s 7:15 p.m., I’m trying to wake up from 13 hours of very sound sleep, and I can barely keep my hands on the keyboard due to tremors in my fingers and severe pain in my arms. (The hoo-hah in my arms is definitely something new. What the fuck.)
I’ll do my best to start posting more frequently again, okay? Thank you for reading this, and please do your best to remember the Alamo once in a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment