Karma'a Prizefight-Part tres

Recap-The year 2021 I land a job. I experience a host of troubling symptoms. I go on a quest for answers to my puzzling symptoms. Karma continues to throw punches my way as I take hit after hit. I didn't know it yet but karma was really looking for the ultimate boss fight.

Round 8........

Karma's one, two punch

Things were going along swimmingly at work and things were semi-normal in everyday life until as karma would have it hubs begins to feel under the weather and decides a trip to the Doctor's office is warranted, hubs is not a complainer so him saying he needed to go to the Dr.'s was some cause for concern. I was working when he called me to tell me that he had tested postive for covid. My mind was working overtime thinking of all the things I needed to do starting with announcing to the whole office that I had been exposed. The secretary came out of her office all masked and gloved up armed with a  can of santinzing spray and a continer of santinzing wipes  she begin to wipe and spray down my desk,the phone and me escorting me out the door along the way. I immediately head to the drive thru clinic to be tested I was informed that they were doing the regular test and not the rapid test so they call me within 3 days with results. Our son and daughter are also tested.

We prepare to hunker down I receive a phone call from the CDC telling me I have tested postive. My son and daughter receive a phone call that they have tested negative. Hubs is feeling a bit better by day 3 until that evening when he begin to get sick to his stomach and experienced some shortness of breath I was totally freaked out but cooler heads prevailed and my daughter stated she would be driving hubs promptly to the ER. There a few test were run and he was found to have some blood clots in his lungs it was decided that he would be sent via ambulance to a bigger hospital in Little Rock. I was very worried put the on-call Dr. spoke with me to let me know Hubs was given blood thinners for the trip to Little Rock and the hospital there was ready and waiting for him. Hubs called me as soon as he arrived and was settled into his hospital room to tell me he was feeling ok except for being the bumpest ride of his life. He called me daily with updates assuring me he was doing ok just a bruised stomach from the daily injections of blood thinners. By the 3rd day he was being released with a prescription to continue on blood thinners for 6 months. My mom and sister go to retrive him.

The four of us continued to quarantine and check our temperatures plus our pulse ox daily. As karma would have it hubs was home two full days when I begin to run a low grade fever I did not want to alarm him or the kids but my pulse ox was also a little on the low side I have asthma so it usually runs about 96-94 most days anyway I leaned back in the recliner to rest when around supper time I couldn't hide it anymore I was feeling lousy and also begin to feel faint I told hubs and the kids I didn't feel so good, my daughter took my temp and pulse ox which was 82 my son said I should be taken to the ER my daughter had to help me to the car I was feeling so weak and short of breath. Once we arrived at the hospital my daughter helped me inside the first set of doors got me seated and called for someone to check me over. A dude appeared but as karma would have it he was the chatty type and asked my daughter aren't you so and so didn't I go to school with you she shut him down quick by announcing that I had covid and was feeling unwell. Two nurse's appeared fully gowned,gloved and masked all I could see was their eyes I felt like their own little outbreak monkey.

I am wheeled to a room where my vitals are taken and blood is drawn I am started on oxygen it is just a relief to take in breaths of the oxygen. After more test I am told I have covid releated pneumonia I am then wheeled to an isolation room which contains a large air conditoner like device whose soul purpose I guess is to suck out the bad covid air and release it into space. The two nurse's make quick work of starting an IV, striping me of my clothes,putting me in a gown and in the lumpy bed this will be my home for the next 5 days.

On day 3 I am told I can take a shower I get excited I guess I got a little to excited because my blood pressure goes way up and I begin to experience waves of nausea along with um unnamely tummy troubles. I request something for nausea, my IV site also blows the nurse  rushes in and out of my room several times, changing my IV site and giving me different meds my mom calls me during this time I guess I didn't sound like my usual self and have to explain to her the troubles I seem be having,this seems to worry her because she  hangs up from talking to me unbeknowest to me she calls hubs,he in turn calls our regular Dr who calls the on call Dr and next thing I know my oxygen is turned up a couple more nurse'e appear one gives me a shot for my high blood pressure another takes my vitals again and the on-call Dr. appears he calmly tells me that I will be ok as long as my blood pressure goes back down to give the meds time to work that if he feels like things are getting out of control he may have to send me to a bigger hospital but for now things are in control. My vitals are checked again my blood pressure is slowly going back to normal. The room clears out I lean back on the lumpy bed and think well I guess I am not getting a shower tonight.

The next day I get to take a shower and put on a clean gown, my bed is made up with fresh sheets and my IV site blows the nurse comes to change the site but can't find a good vein,my arms are covered with little band-aids I wonder if like a cartoon character will I leak like a sieve if I drink any water. With no luck in finding a vein the nurse leaves to go get another nurse who can't find a vein either so they call another nurse who enters the room with a determind expression and a wand like device that looks like something TSA would use to do a body scan with. Wand nurse takes my left arm and waves her magic wand over it hey cool you can see my veins, shakes her head grabs my right arm waves her magic wand over it slower than before finally she finds my one good vein and goes after it with a vengeance with her needle they start my IV and leave as a group, boy that was tiring I need a nap. On friday they tell its fish day for lunch and even better news I can go home but it will be on oxygen I am not to happy about that last part but hey I am going home.

Round 9.......

In which karma has me against the ropes.

I have a follow up appointment with my Dr. a week after I get home I have weaned myself from the oxygen and am declared covid free by the Dr. I have my nerve conduction study scheduled for 2 days later. Hubs takes me to my appoinment I have taken to holding his hand so I keep my balance and to prevent me from falling. We arrive at my appointment and check in, the check in girl sees my odd gait and the way I grip hubs and states that she will call transport someone with a wheelchair appears and whisks us down several hallways to our destination were we are dropped off I am led to a room, change into shorts, unsteadly climb up on the exam table. The tech comes in and explains to me that she is about to attach electrodes to varies parts of my legs and shoot electricity thru them (yikes) I hear the click of a computer keyboard and the turn of dials and then zap a tiny buzz like shock "Oh," I say "It's sort of like the buzz of a tattoo gun" not bad at all some shocks are not as strong as others. The place is basically peaceful when that peace is broken by a blood curdling scream coming from the room next to mine the tech peers out of the room to make sure no one is being murdered and comes back to finish my test despite the shrieks that pierce the room. All done she tells me now the Dr.will come stick a needle in different parts of your leg and then she will give you the results. I ask how big the needle will be and will it hurt? I am told the needle is the smallest one they make. The Dr. arrives does the needle thing, studies my test results and tells me I scored 35 and usually she likes to see a score of at least 50 or higher so she tells that I have peripheral neuropathy that the cause is unkown for now and that I need more blood work.I join hubs in the waiting area he grins at me  and ask "Was that you doing all that hollaring" "No,you know I am made of tougher stuff then that." I answer back." 

My chariot arrives we are taken down the hall to another area to have blood drawn,I am taken to the back room where the tech tells me to roll up my sleeve. But as karma would have it the tech seems to be in a bad mood because as I roll up my sleeve and show her my big blue, juicy vein the one in the crook of my left arm that has easy acess and you can see very clearly. She frowns at me and chooses the tiny shriveled up barely visable vein beside it and roughly shoves the needle in she sticks it in me like a spear or something youch, that smarts but I won't give her the satisfaction of seeing me grimace so I set my face to bitchy resting face mode. There are several empty vials laying out and wonder if they are all for me as the tech fills up vial after vial I stop counting after 13 and decided the answer to that question is yes they are all for me. I am then given a speciman cup showed the bathroom and told to fill the cup as karma would have it for the first time in my life my bladder seems to be empty I even try the old running the water trick. I am then given a gas can sized jug and told to collect my urine for 24 hours and bring it back the next day. Hubs goes to fetch the Jeep. Transport arrives to take me to the front door my transport driver must have been late for his break or a date because he zips me down the hall taking the turns on two wheels.We get to the front door and for every car that pulls up he keeps asking me if thats my ride,the Jeep finally pulls up and I am pushed outside quickly and dumped out of the wheelchair where I promptly trip over the curb and fall halfway into the Jeep.

We are all cleared to go back to work the following week and I patiently or mostly impatiently await my test results. I notice a new symptom a slight unsteadiness or even a tremor in my hands and my handwriting once neat,tidy and legible now looks sloppy and more like that of a 1st grader I am going into work one morning and take a header in the parking lot I am slightly scrapped up but mostly embaressed because a co-worker witnessed the fall. At the end of April the neruologist office calls to set up an appointment because my test results are back.

Round 10......

Karma's has me down but not out.

Hubs and I go to my neruolgist appointment. She goes over all my test results ask more questions about my symptoms has me walk down the hall and back several times, checks the steadiness of my hands.Has me do varies task, ask how many falls I had and what I was doing when I fell. She checks some notes from my previous visits. You have Parkisons she tells me time seemed to stand still she says other things but I don't hear I tell myself to focus so I can listen to what is being said. She tells me she is going to start me on a drug called carbidopa/levodopa starting with the lowest dose. I think she list the side effects. I try to listen but am left reeling, I feel relief in a way that all those symptoms weren't just in my head. But at the same time I feel like karma is going to win this prizefight. She goes over more things like the need for me to now use a walker before I seriously injure myself and what to expect from the meds. I have queations but they won't come to the surface of my brain so I can ask them. I am given a perscription for a walker and a sheet of paper stating I qualify for a handicap license plate.( Well as least I get to park in the good spots) 

I refuse to even think about using the walker at first but after a series of falls I am tired of being picked up off the floor so I use it at home I try for a month and half to work but it gets harder everyday my job requires me to get up and down from my desk to wait on clients,and make copies for the clients,and do a lot of running back and forth I never know when the tremors are going to happen and a new symptom appears one day when I go to take a step my foot will refuse to budge I take to glaring at the offending foot and thinking at it real hard to move this makes work even harder because I never know when this will happen and when clients are waiting to be seen it can be aweful waiting for my body to mind before I can make it move all the while having more and more people stacked outside the door watching me through the door struggle to make my body obey. I have more falls happen at work.

I go to moms for lunch everyday during my lunch hour and fall there one minute I am standing by the table next thing I know I hit the floor. She helps me up but tells me I can't go on like this but I say the Jeep how will we keep making payments she says she will have to think on it come by her job after I get off work. I go back to work with a lot on my mind and a heavy heart. I go see mom after work and my younger sister is there as well we brain storm ways to make it work I am nearly in tears because I know that night hubs and I will have to have a serious talk. 

Hubs and I have always been good communicators when its comes to our marriage but this time I can't bring myself to tell him how hard its getting at work and what to expect for our future. But he seems to have thought a lot about what my mom and my sister said because he tells me that he will get with the bank the next day and we will go from there, it takes the bank 2 more weeks to get back to us about refincing the Jeep he calls me at work that afternoon and tells me that I should go ahead and quite this is not something I take lightly because I have worked my whole life since I was 15 so work is all I know, also I am getting to know my co-workers and starting to like working with them. I think long and hard before I comment to writting out my notice. 

As I sit here looking at this blinking curser I am trying to think of what karma holds for me next I guess its safe to say that it feels like she has me down but don't count me out just yet because like a prize fighter I am getting to my knees and stumbling to my feet I will go on to fight another day.