You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Health’ category.
Last year, I told you about a brain tumor I have, that the doctors found after trying to determine the cause of my Bells Palsy. The tumor and the Bells Palsy were completely unrelated; I do feel grateful that I even got Bells Palsy to begin with – otherwise, I would have had no idea about the tumor. I have to have a yearly MRI for a while to make sure that the tumor isn’t growing. I had my appointment with the neurologist yesterday, who gave me great news: the tumor has NOT grown and it is NOT pressing on my optical nerves. I feel so happy. And relieved. Obviously. Hooray!
There is nothing like having a brain tumor to put things into perspective.
****************
I got injured again during a practice at the beginning of June, to my other knee. The trauma to the knee caused my bursa sac to rupture and blood poured in, then clotted. It’s still swollen a bit, and still very sore. It’s slowly getting better. Emphasis on the slow. (I can’t WAIT to get back on skates and start hitting the ladies again. It is so theraputic.) To combat my time off of skates, I’ve been attacking the pile of books that I’ve been wanting to read. Anyone have any recommendations?
****************
We have busy weekends ahead of us. I wish our summers weren’t crammed into such a short period of time. This weekend, my friend from high school is getting married, so we’re headed back to Jersey for that. I love gettin’ fancy every now and then. We’re also trying to plan a weekend trip to Mehoopany for sometime in August or September. And another camping trip. And another trip to the beach would be awesome. And a weekend at home with not much to do would also be wonderful. Ahh, the possibilities.
Thanks for all of your supportive comments from my last post. They really do help.
Health stuff update: In order to possibly determine the cause of the bells palsy, they took blood (to rule out lyme’s disease), scheduled an MRI (to rule out a tumor as the cause of BP), and put me on steroids and anti-virals (to attack a virus, if it was that). The blood work came back negative for lyme’s disease, and the MRI showed that a tumor wasn’t causing the BP, but it did show that I had a tumor on my pituitary.
Oh.
At least that rules out everything else for the BP. Looks like it is viral. So now, we just wait it out and hope it goes away. Please go away.
So, tumor. I had to wait about 5 days, which felt like an eternity, to see a neurologist, who would tell me what kind of tumor it is, and what I have to do about it. I cried the night I came home – big, sopping tears – about how I didn’t want to die because I wasn’t ready and I was too young. I just kept thinking, “Holy shit, I might have cancer in my brain.” I know it’s not the most positive thing to be thinking, seriously – but WTF. I couldn’t help it. After the night of crying I just tried to act normal and calm for everyone else’s sake, but I really didn’t feel that way at all.
The neurologist literally said at some point during the conversation, “If you’re going to have a tumor, this is a good one to have.” I laughed. YES. WINNING. That’s me.
Anyway, he confirmed it is a tumor, but pituitary tumors are benign. YAY FOR NO CANCER. At least, I’m 90% sure I believe him. (Ugh, doctors). So next step is blood work and a 24 hour urine test (which I’m doing today, as a matter of fact [how exciting]) to find out if it’s a secreting tumor or a non-secreting tumor. Depending on what kind of tumor depends on the next step. So hopefully it comes back as a non-secreting tumor, because they are the best kinds.
Isn’t it crazy that I’m talking about tumors? Like it isn’t bad enough that half of my fucking face is paralyzed from swelled nerves which produces intense pain, all day everyday. Ahhh!
Anyway, I’m trying to get a grip of everything and just keep on living. Time helps those things. Plus, it could be worse. I always keep thinking that. Really, truly, it could be worse and there are lots of people out there who aren’t doing as well as me. So, perspective.
Otherwise, things are going pretty well.
- I gave myself this iTunes project some time ago to get rid of all of the songs I don’t like or don’t listen to. I had over 4,000 songs I think, and it’s been a long, stupid process. But I think I’m done. I’m left with 1444 songs. I’ll never again think it’s a good idea to take out whole albums from the library and download all of the songs and make future plans to listen to the whole album… because really, it’s not going to happen. Anyway, I’m glad to have accomplished that. Ahhh.
- I upgraded my camera, so therefore selling my old camera in order to pay for the new one. I haven’t sold it yet but I’m hopeful that it will sell soon. And also selling anything else around the house that I’m not using. I’ve sold two camcorders (one on craigslist and one on ebay) and I have two books online for sale too. Getting sick just made me realize how important it is to do things that you love, so I’m going to try not to put my photography aside if I can help it.
- I’m also in the middle of applying to grad school. Again. This time I’m going for something job related, since I have to in order to receive tuition reimbursement. I’m excited. I love what I do and it’ll be an amazing educational journey if I get accepted.
- The sun’s been coming out in between the very rainy days.
- The windows are open to let the air in.
- I’m in love.
- Got a great job.
- Flip-flop weather.
I’ll be OK. Right? Right.
The Others Have Spoken