mints,
i'm not a doctor, but i do have an extensive background in my studies related to medical trascription and social work. what are some of the symptoms you've been having? (if you'd rather not answer, that's perfectly fine -- otherwise you can answer me here or via pm).
Well there is one symptom that just seems inappropriate to be posting here, but I'll try to remember the rest. However, after years of House, I know better than to leave out a symptom even if I think it's unrelated to the problem, though I haven't dismissed the possibility that I have multiple unrelated problems by coincidence. I'll see what I can do. The lost symptom can be found between my legs, and involves a great deal of unprovoked pain, and no visual presentation, and evidently no tactile presentation considering the number of doctors who have attempted tactile analysis. This has been going on since I hit puberty, and has never stopped. I've seen countless doctors about it, and they all think I'm insane. Other than that, lots of pain in my back, thighs, and shins, but not in the knee joints. Intermittent weakness in my knees, or more often, my ankles. They tend to simply stop working at random, and become limp without warning, causing me to stumble or fall to the floor. The muscles in my left leg have become unreliable, and I have had to trade in my favourite car for an automatic because I can no longer reliably operate the clutch. I have loads of pain in both my ears. I've been diagnosed with Meniere's Disease by the same doctor who told me that I would never hear again, and yet I can hear now. I could swear there is something in my ears, but doctors have looked and found nothing but ear infections. I have ear infections almost every month. I've had countless URIs over the past 13 months, but my white cell count is fine. I guess I should include the fact that my entire GI tract was completely ulcerated and infected, which lead to my hospitalisation with massive rectal bleeding, where my heart stopped for no apparent reason, and had to be restarted. They tell me my heart is healthy, and it shouldn't have stopped. I've been very forgetful lately, and I feel like I'm losing my intelligence. I used to have an IQ of 146. This could be due to the medication I've been on. Oh, one more thing. For about a month after I was discharged from hospital, I had no appetite at all. I had to eat by the clock, or I wouldn't bother to eat. Suddenly these past couple of weeks, I have a never-ending hunger that persists even when I can physically feel that I'm full. This is unrelated to protein since I'm under the guidance of a dietitian who is aware of this problem, and has altered my diet to provide the needed protein. There's actually one more thing. Everything that has any emotional impact on me makes me cry. Before 2008, I hadn't cried in something like 20 years, no kidding. People treat me like I'm emotionally unstable when I'm not experiencing that much emotional distress, and I have no idea why I'm crying. All I can say is I'm crying because I saw a rainbow or because that pony looked at me. These are lame reasons to cry. The man and the woman on TV kissed each other. Well, okay, but I don't even know who they are! Oh, and my face seems to be excessively flaky. And I sweat in bed when I'm not even comfortably warm, much less hot, though being excessively cool prevents the sweating, but I hate being cold. I've had a colonoscopy with two biopsies of the colon, where they found it swollen, ulcerated, and infected as I described before. I've had an endoscopic biopsy and blood test which showed that I have Celiac Disease. Um, and I have an allergy to sagebrush, confirmed by blood test and skin test. And I wear glasses and hearing aids to help me see and hear respectively. Hmmm, I can't seem to think of anything else. That's probably more than enough though. Uh, it's 23 degrees C in here, and my fingers are freezing. That might be normal. I'm not sure. Whatever.
This isn't a rant, and I'm not trying to make it sound worse than it is. I'm just trying to be thorough. I've probably forgotten some things, but I've done my best.
I'm planning to get an exercise bike as soon as possible, and I look forward to using it! I used to have a membership at a recreational centre when I lived in the city, but it's much too far to drive from here, and the winter conditions prevent me from normal out-door exercise. When I exercised at the rec centre, I enjoyed how it made me feel, and I faithfully worked out three times per week. I know I can do that again. I chose the exercise bike because if my leg goes out while I'm on it, I won't fall.
