What's happened since then? LOTS. lots of medical, lots of family. So let's start there!
FAMILY:
I'm now over 50. ugh!! 53 to be exact. Still very happily married to my amazing husband Brent. We still live in Grand Forks and in the summer we are in the seasonal camper in Red Lake Falls, MN all summer. Brent is working with Norby's work perks as an installer and LOVES his job. I'm still at Karriers Inc after 17 years. I LOVE my job but it doesn't do well for weight loss sitting at a desk all day. ;) I have dabbled in a few things in the recent years, an epoxy tumbler maker, permanent jewelry designer, Scentsy consultant, and after a health scare in November, I'm leaving it all behind until I get my health under control.
My son Paul is now 33 and married to his beautiful wife Lillian and they have 4 kids! Kael (13) Thea (5) Korra (2) and Lincoln (2 months). They moved to Myrtle Beach, SC but realized they were outnumbered and needed backup! So they are moving back here in the spring! We can't wait to have them back! Paul will be starting up his painting business again and is already doing tons of business planning so when they get up here, he can go do estimates and get painting right away! Lillian is in nursing and will be going back to school for her RN degree. She currently is an LPN.
My daughter Sky is now 26 and married to Casey. They just had a little girl a month ago, Daisy. Sky was a manager at Spencers gifts in Columbia Mall and Casey is a welder at Dynamic here in GF.
MEDICAL:
uff...where to start here?!
ASTHMA: I've had asthma my whole life. And most of the time it's very well controlled. I've got a great Dr who checks in on it every year. I'm on a steroid inhaler along with a fast acting for when needed. Luckily I don't need it that often!
CREST SYNDROME: what's CREST? Never heard of it? Neither had I until it was suddenly in my life. lol I went to the doctor about some joint pain at 40 years old and after tons of bloodwork, I was told about this and sent to a specialist. What is CREST? A less severe form of scleroderma is called limited scleroderma, or CREST syndrome. CREST syndrome is characterized by: Calcinosis: Calcium skin deposits Raynaud's phenomenon: A condition in which the blood vessels of the fingers and toes spasm when triggered by factors, such as cold, stress or illness. Cold, painful or numb fingers and toes result, which in severe cases may become gangrenous. Esophageal dysfunction: Problems with the esophagus Sclerodactyly: Skin damage on fingers Telangiectasia: Spider veins along with severe joint pain. Luckily for me, my symptoms are pretty mild minus the joint pain. I'm on a couple medications for that of course. I had a doctor I wasn't fond of for almost 2 years and in that 2 years, she tried SIX high dose prednisone tapers that messed me up big time!
TORN MENISCUS: late this summer I had sudden knee pain, could barely walk so I went to the Dr. After an MRI, I was told it's a torn meniscus. So surgery it was! It still has pain but not nearly as bad. And I'm trying to PT my way through that, so we'll wait and see how it ends up.
SEPTIC SHOCK: and of all things, I ended up with Septic Shock in November. I went to bed with what I thought was a typical cold. Thursday morning I woke up at 3am with the first signs of septic shock (although I didn't know). Woke up shaking and freezing (hypothermia) insanely bought temp (103.2), took some more Nyquil and went back to sleep figuring it was just this cold manifesting.
6am, I wake up since I was supposed to have an appointment in Fargo that day. No way could I drive so I canceled it on MyChart. Called my boss and told her I would most likely be out all day.
Brent left for work at 6:30. At 7:30, I sent him an innocent text asking him to stop home when he could. Well, in an hour he tried calling twice, and texting a couple times. At 8:30 when I still hadn't answered him, he ran home to check on me. I was completely out of it. Couldn't even stand up to get dressed on my own. So he made the judgement call to call the ambulance.
I remember a couple people in my room trying to ask questions. I remember going down the deck to get to the gurney. Don't remember getting in the ambulance or leaving. I remember the guy in back suddenly yelling to me, "Rochelle you gotta talk to me" then him telling the driver to go Code 1. I remember the lights and sirens going on and speeding up. I remember her asking back what's going on and he said my BP had dropped to 64 over 40.
I don't remember getting to the ER. I don't remember being wheeled in. I blank out until around 3. Brent said he walked in and there was about 15 people working on me. 1 nurse was FANTASTIC I guess about explaining everything to him. What meds there were doing and why, vitals every 5 minutes, what my MAP number is (45 needed to get to 65), where it needs to get to and that they were trying to fight off sepsis. (First time we heard that word I guess as far as my diagnosis) she did tell him it was a 50/50 if I pull out of this or not due to the nature of the infection and how I would react.
When they got me mostly leveled out, and had the hospital internist down and checking me into ICU, he mentioned they were still trying to get the BP more leveled out so I could go to PCU vs ICU. He said flat out, yes, your wife has a serious sepsis infection. Well apparently the BP thing worked as I ended up in PCU. I was still pretty out of it and remember very little of this.
So when we get to our room in PCU, we were met my our nurse, he was reading all the reports, etc. He sat down to talk to us, tell us the care plan and it was him that finally said, no, you were in Septic Shock. And explained the 3 stages of sepsis, etc, answered any questions. And went on about the care I would receive.
When Brent left that night, I had 3 IV machines going with 2 IVs in each one. Lots of high dose antibiotics, steroids, BP meds still and so much other stuff I don't even know. Blood draws every 3 hours to check lactic acid levels to check on the sepsis. Vitals every hour.
The next morning when he got here, I was a whole different person. I had eaten breakfast although I didn't have much of an appetite. I was joking with him that I don't remember that time of day yesterday. I was sitting in a chair vs the bed and started on a list of questions for the Dr. And it only went uphill from there. When he went home for a dog run, I had even been upgraded to GenMed floor when he got back.
I'm insanely lucky. This could have gone very differently. Very quickly. The Dr told us one time we were talking that if there is a patient in the ER with Septic Shock, they are by far the sickest patient in the hospital and by far the most critical. That was a little scary to hear.
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE??
Well, it seems to me that after the septic shock, I don't know if I got more vocal about my care of if the doctors suddenly started to realize I had been screaming for help for the last 3 years. I'm on 3 different meds that ALL say that weight gain is a side effect. I've hit menopause. All 3 doctors I have were all commenting though on how if I lose weight, this would get better and this would and this would. I had been working with a dietician for almost a year and STILL nothing was happening. And my primary care doc finally saw this. He put me on a Phentermine pill for 3 months only. But that 3 months will hopefully be enough to jump start my dead metabolism!! Restart those good habits, come up with workout routines DAILY, and just take back my life.
And that's what this blog will be about. My struggles, my accomplishments, products I've found I love, ones I don't. Humor, seriousness, rewards, goals, new recipes, weigh ins, and WHATEVER else happens on a 100 pound weight loss goal.
Who is this blog for?? Mostly me!! It's my form of accountability! However if my doctors want to see it, my dietician, or anyone else, that's fine also! Or anyone else! I would love input if anyone sees this! Tips, tricks, recipes, products or anything!
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