Things have been a little crazy here. Back in September, we took a 12 nt Princess cruise to the British Isles and France for our 30th anniversary. Our friends joined us and it was a great trip. Unfortunately, about a month before the cruise, I started having pangs of nausea every now and then. It gradually increased to occasional vomiting. Well, that increased too. Even just sitting in a restaurant, I'd have to quick jump up and find a rest room.
I noticed too while washing my hair (arms raised over my head and moving) that my heart would beat faster and pounding sometimes. I also felt strangely exhausted even though a lot of our excursions weren't any more walking than what I'd do for a day at work. I certainly didn't feel as if I was doing anything strenuous. I also was having more and more tremors in my hands and legs.
By the time we flew home from London, the vomiting was more frequent so I made a dr appt. (It was a miralce to not puke on the plane.) Without doing a single test or labs, he says it's excess stomach acid. I'm not sure if I told him my heart pounded occasionally and the occasional tremors but still stomach acid sounded like BS to me but I'll give him a chance. So he gives me Pepcid and Zofran and within a few days I couldn't even keep anything down. He tells me to see a GI specialist.
In the meantime I went back to work post vacation and felt really weak & fatigued. I worked 2 days and called out again and applied for FMLA. Luckily I could get in the next day with a nurse practitioner. She agreed it doesn't sound like stomach acid and recommends upper & lower endoscopy. That is scheduled for later this month and I'm due for a colonoscopy anyway. (By now I'm convinced it's some horrible cancer.) She ordered lots of bloodwork and called me the next day as I'm reading it on my portal, that my thyroid level is crazy high. She says I need to go to the ER. (On a Friday afternoon? No way) So I went early the next morning. My heart rate was 130 just sitting. They joked and asked if I was just mountain climbing.
So they repeat all the labs and checked for a heart attack too which was all good. It still showed my thyroid crazy high. They gave me a month supply of meds to lower my thyroid and also a heart med to slow it down and now it's not pounding right out of my chest. They said to see an endocrinologist which I have an appt on Wednesday. I googled how long it takes for the meds to make you feel normal again. It says 2-4 weeks to see a change, but 6-8 to see significant changes.
So I've been on the meds since Oct 11 and I'm finally not feeling like a jellyfish anymore. At my worst, it would take 3 days to get laundry done. I'm down to one long day. yay! I think there were some days when I would shower but just put a clean nightgown on. lol. My calcium level was also high which also causes muscle fatigue. Crazy stuff.
The kicker is that our big Sept cruise, along with taking off a week in August for my niece to take a break from caring for my dad, has used up every bit of time off in my bank. I've also applied for short-term disability and they keep asking for more documentation. They are really dragging their feet with approving it which is so annoying. I've only been paid for Oct 2 & 3 and that's it. Thankfully, I have savings to cover my lack of paychecks but I hate to have to tap into it. Oh well.
We have a cruise on the Treause in April that I will likely have to cancel. While I'm out of work I'm not accruing more time off and I've already promised my niece a week off in May. I don't know when I'll be back to work but the final payment due date for the cruise is Dec 26. I'm glad I finished our Christmas fund over the summer so that won't be affected.
I'm likely going to need some follow up doctor visits so that will be more time I'll need to take off over the coming months.
I'm looking forward to my endocrinologist appt, getting some answers, and hoping I will be feeling like my old self soon.
