As many of you know, I’ve been having quite the problem with my health since the end of March. It started out with a misdiagnosis from St. Joseph’s (April 1st), which turned into almost a week stay in Selby General 7 days later (April 8th). While I was in the hospital, my doctor diagnosed me with a pulled rib because of a sharp pain right below my right shoulder blade. Needless to say the pain was so severe that three rounds of Demerol didn’t even work.
While I was trying to recover from my illness and rib injury I was on medical leave from work. When I finally got to go back to work one month later, I was still struggling with the pulled rib and my right arm going numb. I was only back to work for FOUR workdays before I was on the floor on a Wednesday night (May 6th) when I picked up a coffee pot and my right arm went completely numb before sending what felt like a shock of electricity from the bottom of my right shoulder blade all the way down my arm. This prompted me to say that I needed to go to the ER, NOW! I handed over my book with the receipts for my customers and drove as far as I could, which was only about a mile before the pain/nausea was so bad I had to call Nate to come get me and take me the rest of the way to the ER.
When I got to the ER, I was diagnosed with Thoracic Myositis- which is an auto-immune disease. They came to this diagnosis without running any tests. At the time I had assumed they just looked back on all the tests ran the previous month while I was in the hospital. The ER doctor pointed out a website for me to get information about this disease. (I DO NOT IN ANYWAY believe in the practice by doctors, we pay them enough they should thoroughly explain EVERYTHING, not just hand you a paper with a website to scare you senseless!) I was told to use heat and take Naprosyn to ease the inflammation. I was written off of work (again!) until after Mother’s Day.
I got home and immediately searched up www.myositis.org and scared myself badly. Reading all of that information on my own just about sent me into a nervous breakdown. But after reading how most people get diagnosed, I started wondering if I was even diagnosed properly. But I was so stressed over the ordeal and in so much pain that I let it slide for about a week thinking I would go into remission from the disease. No such luck, but back to the time-line of this blog.
On May 7th, I called Bob Evans and talked to a manager- who by the way is one of the best personable managers that store has seen in a while, and he informed me that I probably didn’t have a job any longer because of the new Zero Tolerance policy. Which I understand, but I had written documentation that I was at the ER immediately following my absence at Bob Evans, and a diagnosis, and a written work excuse. So this is where it starts to get muddled. I spent the entire day trying to get my job back, even though I would no longer be able to “lift over 0 pounds” indefinitely. I would’ve been happy being a hostess; anything to keep me at this job that I really did love so much. Alas, that just could not be the case. I was unceremoniously fired as of May 7th, 2009. I’m still tossing around the idea of talking to a lawyer and the unemployment office, but I do not want to be the person that makes life at work harder for the remaining employees, including my husband. And I’m sure with how some things work at that store, my causing a stir would then in turn cause much trouble for all of those acquainted with me.
After moping at home for a few days, I started making phone calls as to what I could do about my situation, and I did find some help, thank goodness. But the pain was too much to bear even doing as little as I was. So on May 28th, I went to Med Express as a last resort because I couldn’t get into see a doctor. They started a steroid treatment and told me they were as confused as I was about my diagnosis. They also referred me to Physical Therapy. I chose Mountain River Physical Therapy.
Nikki Arnold is my PT, and she has taken the time to explain everything to me, and even took some of her off time to research the disease that I was diagnosed with and some other possible conditions that it might be. She seemed to agree with a pulled rib diagnosis but with a greater underlining cause. We both assume that I have had some condition all my life which has caused all the migraines and weak joints.
When I finally found a PCP to take my case, the receptionist must not have passed the information about my diagnosis on to my doctor. How do I know this, you ask? Well because, my doctor doesn’t treat chronic pain or prescribe pain pills to help with my pain. Just my luck. He did order many lab tests and x-rays to see if we can find out what was going on, though.
I had to go to WVUP and take my placement tests for college while waiting for my lab appointment. On June 9th, I took those tests, applied for college, and received my college schedule! My schedule is as follows:
M-Journalism/Photography 7:00-9:45 pm
T-Pre-College Writing 7:00-9:45pm
W-Art III/Drawing I 4:00-6:45
TBA-CS101-online class
I am so very excited to be having the opportunity to go back to school! Every dark cloud has a silver lining, being misdiagnosed, possibly again and again leading to the loss of my job turned into the furthering of my education and the possibility of finding the job of my dreams!
On June 10th, I went to St. Joseph’s Outpatient Lab and Radiology to get these tests run. It was a very time consuming process, but I was more than happy to wait. I just kept thinking, maybe I’ll find out what is wrong with me! I was told after my blood work was finished that I could pick up the results the next day.
On June 11th, I picked up said results and went to Job Rehabilitation to see about getting some more help going to school. After coming home, I searched up what the results meant. Essentially they meant I was just fine, with the exception of slightly high cholesterol. Well, for the tests that they ran anyway. The best thing is, I DO NOT have the factors for auto-immune diseases and I tested negative for the rheumatoid arthritis factor. But at the same time I felt relief by knowing I didn’t have these diseases, I went into panic mode. This means that I was misdiagnosed yet again, and I feel- no I KNOW- that there is something wrong with me- my right arm is immobile for goodness sake! I’m in severe pain all the time, my knees and hips are starting to give out, my back is always throbbing. I just want to sit, cry and hide in a dark hole somewhere and pretend none of this is happening! I have second guessed myself several times within the last 24 hours, almost convincing myself that it’s all in my head: I’m not feeling any pain in real life, but I’ve convinced myself, and then another shockwave of pain bursts through my body and I quickly change my mind again.
I guess I needed to get some of this off of my chest, but to anyone that reads this, thanks for taking the time to. I’m not always like this, I promise.
