Don't Get On The Crazy Train....

     As summer is in full swing I have been enjoying spending time with family and friends. Catching up with old acquaintances and doing things around the house. I had a milestone of getting to ride the riding mower. Ordinarily cutting the grass wouldn't sound fun, but I haven't done it in over 5 years. It gave me back a sense of "normal."

      About a month ago I noticed a rash on my back. It was annoyingly itchy at night. I attributed it to the heating pad we were using when I went to physical therapy. We stopped using it, but it still bothered me so I decided trial and error were the way to go. I stripped the bed, bought new pajamas, changed soap....nothing worked. I also noticed my eyes were swollen in the mornings and it seemed like allergies. With the yard in full bloom I attributed a lot of this to seasonal things. I went for my check up and we talked about it and decided to do some additional blood work but we didn't seem to think much about it.

     The rash on my back subsided, but I woke up one morning with red blotches on my face!  I spoke to the Doctor about that and the blood work results we found that my liver enzymes were elevated ever so slightly. This is when it is so easy to jump on the "crazy train," I immediately thought of 100 different things and none of them were good. I was

thinking all the treatments caught up to my liver and it was doomed. I was thinking liver transplant and next my kidneys would be affected. How did this happen? Things were going so smoothly.....well, fortunately I stepped away from the crazy train and took a deep breath. 

     The Doctor simply said  "I am just going to put you on a steroid and we will just monitor

things a little closely." She is thinking this is just a slight case of chronic graft vs host which is what they wanted me to have. That way it shows that my body has the ability to fight off infection on its own.  So that's it in a nutshell....I have to go back on some small doses of meds that I have taken before. I was making myself crazy for something that is so fixable.

I am glad I didn't spend a lot of time fixating on it and within a day or two we had a plan of action that seems to be working already. 

    I don't want to live in fear of something bad coming up. That's no way to live and I was never like that before so I don't want to start it now. We just have to learn to pay attention to whats going on and be diligent but don't go off the deep end. Get you facts, take a deep breath and stay off the train platform unless you are going on a wonderful sightseeing 

adventure.

    Have a great summer!

 Sally