So this past week I've been in increasing amounts of discomfort. I feel like my body just hates me. It obviously started with the miscarriage which caused extraordinary cramping...No wait...it didn't...It started before my egg retrieval with a tooth that began to ache that hurt all the way to my temple, but there wasn't really anything I could do about it. Plus, I was on IV antibiotics and taking tyelenol which kinda worked. It did kinda get better, but THEN I had a miscarriage and was miserable on all fronts. This includes suffering from liver poisoning (Not really, but then again, maybe...) and puking whenever I thought about taking ibuprofen.
When that sort of settled my mouth kicked it into high gear, but I had antibiotics, tylenol, and ibuprofen so moving on...
Yeah so I woke up last Thursday, like, 'eww I slept wrong'. Friday pretty much the same no worse. So knowing that I had to judge a gymnastics meet the next two days with a bad mouth and a wry neck I tried to be proactive, and I dug up the pain meds I didn't take after my egg retrieval. I took one and got no relief. It says you can take two at the same time, so I took another one. Fortunately, I wasn't driving to Clarkesville, so I could lie down in the backseat and pretend I wasn't suffering. Only I was getting more and more nauseous. So I spent 10 minutes puking on the side of 40E while my carpool was like, 'Eww.' So if you're wanting to count, I've been nauseous for a week, better for 4 days and now back to puking on the sides of highways.
So like a charm, my uterus decides to remind me that I have endometriosis that has been aggravated for the last 8 months so I'm also having cramps like a dehydrated football player. Luckily I kept enough medicine down to only be aware of the pain, but not care for the rest of the car ride. After googling on my phone, I decided that I probably wouldn't die if I took benadryl (Loratab makes me jittery...and sometimes so does benadryl), loratab, ibuprofen and amoxicillin and if I did, I wasn't completely convinced that it would have been a bad thing...so it was win-win. Day time functioning was brought to you by crackers, ginger ale, tyelenol and ibuprofen cocktails. Plus we finished way early so I got to add my narcotics at 8:00pm and try to sleep until Sunday morning.
I got home around 10:00pm Sunday evening and my neck and mouth were killing me. I laid down on a neck roll, and it felt SO good. I slept without moving which was great except I woke up not being able to move when I wanted to. My neck is frozen. I had to roll on my stomach and slide off my bed because I couldn't sit up. I cried because I was at my wit's end, but I put my big girl britches on. I made it to work without killing anyone due to my inability to turn my head. Once at work, I took a boat load of pain meds and held a heating pad to my neck and head. I was also freezing cold, but so was everyone else in the office so whatever. Shivering only hurt my neck more. Oh and my dentist's office was closed when I got the chance to call...so bah humbug.
To make my evening that much snazzier, I got an email from a local community college that offers dual-enrollment courses on our campus that they were cancelling them. Due to changes they decided to make in October (nevermind that these kids were scheduled for the courses in June) I did not have enough qualifying students enrolled for the classes to make. This is after I spent 12 hours last week working with students helping them apply and complete the dual-enrollment grant and changing their schedules to try to make the classes work out and had everything done a day ahead of schedule (all the while, clearly not aware of the new requirements that I was supposedly told over a phone call I don't remember having).
So now I was physically miserable, and now totally sucked at my job which was the one thing I had going for me. So basically, I felt like everything I was touching was turning to shit. I killed my baby, I screwed up 37 children's schedules, and I can't turn my head or sit up from a lying position. So yeah, tell me how I don't suck at life? I spent the evening crying to my mother who was staying with me while BJ went to Jackson, TN. I took a cocktail of meds and got into bed. I woke up, and it was like effing Ground Hogs' Day. I can't move, I hurt like hell and feel like my head is going to fall off.
On my way to work, my dentist called and asked me to come in. They determined that yes I was in pain and that I needed to be taking antibiotics and Loratab and to come back in the evening to determine if I needed dental surgery because they had done all they could do for this tooth with previous dental work. (I have crappy English teeth that I got from my crappy English ancestors but my gums are super-healthy!) So at least some things were being treated. At work, I was told that we could have one of the dual-enrollment classes because even in East Tennessee 17 children minus 2 who don't qualify = 15, the magic number to hold the class. So that made me feel somewhat better about my job...well that and the pain medication. However, at 4:00pm once again I was told that the class was cancelled...apparently 15 at Gibbs does not equal 15 at other places in Knox County...WHAT-THE-HELL-EVER...
My husband came home and took me to the dentist. I took another dose of pain meds thinking it would help my neck, too, so I did not drive. We made it to the dentists office without me getting carsick, but I wanted to. My dentist did not think I had an abscess because I had been on antibiotics and I was still in a bunch of pain. He though I had an occlusion injury which basically means I sprained my face. It could have been caused by a crown being too large for my mouth even though I didn't feel like it was too big. He filed my crown down and said I would hopefully see improvement the next day. He also gave me a new prescription for Tyelenol 3. While still making me nauseous, it knocks me out...I don't care about being nauseous if I'm asleep.
So now I thought, 'OK I'm going to be in less pain and get a good nights sleep and everything will be better.' That evening I started getting a bad sinus headache...one of those leather band tied around your eyes kind of headaches. I was also really cold, but again, I always am. The Tylenol 3 did it's job, and I fell asleep pretty quickly. I once again woke up in terrible pain and not able to sit up without holding my head on so it didn't snap off. My mouth was still sore as the anesthetic had worn off, my headache was still there, and my uterus decided it was not getting enough attention. In other words, I was miserable. I cried to my mother who told me I could go to work, or go to the ER. I hate most doctors as they tend to be arrogant assholes up to and including my grandfather, but I loved him so I actually enjoyed his arrogant assholism. Plus he had the added benefit of never being my doctor. Anyway, I'm specifically thinking about the three doctors that let me be miserable for 14 years because it was "just part of being a woman." So I went to work since my mother was yelling at me for being a pansy, but I did make an appointment with a Nurse Practitioner at a clinic close to my school. I'm thinking if pain-relief isn't helping my neck, maybe a muscle relaxant would help me, and unfortunately I don't have any of those lying around so I must depend on a medical-type.
So 2 o'clock came around, and I waited and waited and waited and almost walked out, but they called me back before I had the nerve to walk out. I swore to myself that I would not mention the headache, it was just sinus afterall, because I figured they would say, "Sounds like you're a woman with stress. Try ibuprofen." However, they would not be fooled as I was holding my head up by the bridge of my nose. So I got the whole ordeal including taking my temperature. The nurse looked at me and said, "Did you know you had a fever?" I responded, "No, I did not." She said, "Well, you do."
OK, so in addition to losing 18 lbs in two weeks due to recurrent nausea. I have torticullis, an ear and sinus infection with a fever, a bad hair day, sprained face, a job assignment that requires other people being capable of counting to 15 when they can't, anxiety and adjustment disorder. No wonder I feel like shit. I'm actually sick. Who knew? So in addition to muscle relaxers, I got a shot of Toradol which is an anti-inflammatory, a shot of steroids (hurt like hell by the way, and I'm no needle-phobe), a prescription for a stronger antibiotic, and more steroids in pill-form.
So this brings me to this evening. With some home-made chicken stew (THANKS MOM, [even though you tried to kill me and made me go to school today with a fever]) and enough drugs to have a really good time tonight, I'm hoping to feel much better from the neck up really soon. From the neck down...Oy vey...
*WARNING: If bureaucratic bullshit upsets you, don't continue reading.*
On the Lupron front so my uterus will shut the hell up, I received a letter from my prescription insurance saying your prior authorization has been approved. "Call this number for assistance with getting the prescription filled." So I called the number, and was told that I needed to actually call another number. So I called the other number and was told that my insurance had not approved the medication for me yet. I'm all like, "but I have this letter," and they are like, "but it doesn't mean anything," and I'm like, "but it says it's approved," and they are all like, "It IS approved by the prior authorization department, but it has not been approved for dispensing to you" and, I'm all like, "That makes no sense. What the hell language are you speaking?", and they are all like, "We need information about why it was prescribed for you." and I'm all like, "That was what was on the prior authorization, no?" and they are like, "it did not have enough information," and I'm all like, "Well, what the hell more information do you need?" And they are all like, "We need to know WHY it was prescribed," And I respond, "Because I have endometriosis, which is what the prior authorization that has been approved said," and they reminded me, "We are not the prior authorization department," and I nicely asked that since I was diagnosed with a condition that causes pain and currently in pain caused by the said condition if there was any chance I could get the medicine in the year 2011...and they responded, "Not if it takes that long to verify the prescription and diagnosis....At this point, I may or may not have said, "Go to hell you imbecile" and hung up. You'll never know...
So this is a week in the life of the unfortunate infertile, the losing 15% that didn't get pregnant in two rounds of IVF. The sad thing is, I'm really trying hard to be better...
Peace, Love, and prescription narcotics,
MK
