Sunday, November 18, 2007

Just Checking In After An Interesting Weekend

I'm not wild about going to the doctor. Nothing personal against the medical profession, I just prefer to look after my own body through proper diet, exercise, prayer, rest and treating whatever ails me with herbs and other natural remedies. Yesterday, however, I had to give in and make a trip to the Emergency Room.

Sabbath afternoon, I felt really, really tired and laid down for a nap before church. Couldn't lie on my left side, however, because of pain and pressure on that side of my face and head. I thought it was simply a headache coming on because I was tired and that it would clear up with a little nap. Well, 20 minutes or so later, I was up again and the pain was intensified. By this time, I'm thinking it's just a little sinus pressure and it will go away on its own. So Mr. Free and I head to church and I could barely sit still through the service as the pain was literally growing worse and worse by the second. I whispered to him that I needed to go to the hospital, but that I didn't want to go at that exact moment. I just didn't feel right running from church to the hospital. LOL Church was only an hour or so, but I swear it felt like 5 hours. I did my best to concentrate and pray over the pain, but it was difficult. I literally thought I was going to pass out as the entire left side of my face was aching something terrible and I had shooting pains deep in the inside of my ear. I cannot even describe to you how much it hurt!

Ok, so I get to the ER and why did the intake nurse immediately order an EKG?! Of course, I said my ear hurts, but I also said a lot of other stuff hurt and that I'd been having weird symptoms for days prior (I'd been smelling smoke that no one else could smell and have felt like a chemical of some sort was settled into the back of my throat...turns out it was all compliments of the residual effects of wildfires that had been raging around these parts a few weeks ago and was trapped in my sinus cavity...gross!). The nurse took all of this "odd" information to mean that I may be having a heart attack! See, this is part of the reason I don't do the Dr. thing too often. I went in with an ear/sinus issue and they were about to diagnose me with a heart condition. lol

So, after they scared the mess out of me with an EKG (which was fine, btw) and ushering me into the cardiology dept for further examination, I finally saw a real doctor. Although I'd told the 2 prior nurses that I suspected an ear infection, one (the one that ordered the EKG) didn't even bother to look inside of my ear and the second one looked inside, but said it looked perfectly fine. At last, a the very kind doctor assigned to me actually listened to my prognosis, took a real look inside (as opposed to one just to shut me up) and discovered I have a raging inner-ear infection which has been caused by an long-untreated sinus infection. She even asked me why I'd had an EKG to which I just looked at her like, "you're kidding, right?" I mean, it's not like I asked for one, lady. I was too grateful for her help and her bedside manner was impeccable, otherwise I may have been led to give her my mom's speech on how the medical profession is merely "practicing" medicine, and haven't quite gotten it right yet. lol

Though I don't like taking medications, ESPECIALLY antibiotics, I haven't the time or energy to research the best natural treatment for something so painful and so advanced on such short notice, so I've relented and am taking the meds as prescribed. Okay, not exactly as prescribed as I've only taken one of the pain pills and have decided that I don't need anymore. The pain has substantially subsided and those things knock me completely out. I literally slept from 1a Sunday morning until 8:30p Sunday night...only waking to take more meds...and that was off of just one pain pill (plus a decongestant which also makes me sleepy, but that the doctor says will work with the antibiotic to knock it completely out once and for all).

Anyway, it's 1:30a and I've just taken another round of meds. Not sure if I have anymore sleep left in me, lol, so I'm blogging and catching up on all of the blogs I've missed over the weekend.

Since I'm taking a little time off, I thought you might enjoy checking out a few entries that will surely bless you:

Better Than Love by Kerry at An Help Meet For Him blog

An Interesting Article on Christmas by EliYah

Also, a good discussion on Christmas on EliYah's forums

Lastly, an interesting take on new illegal immigration laws and how they may affect ministry efforts on Jim Wallis' blog, God's Politics, at BeliefNet.

Hope everyone has a blessed week and I'll be back soon.

~Free

2 comments:

Dana - W for Whatever said...

LaLa - you poor thing. And there I was telling you all about my illness not realising that you too were under the weather.

I hope you feel better. I'm on the way to recovery. About 70% better. I'll keep you in my prayers and I wish you better

FreeIndeed said...

I'm relieved to hear that you're edging toward the 100% mark!!! When you told me about your ordeal, I utterly forgot all about my own. ;) Thank you for the well-wishes and may we both be back in full stride soon.