Saturday, July 07, 2007

Still Not "X-Ray" Vision, But Improving...

I spent another day off work at home today, looking through a left eye that sees somewhat like this:
Of course, if you review my artist's rendition of my visual disturbance yesterday, you WILL note at least now there is a clear spot in the middle of my visual field! And that, my friends, is a definite improvement!


I woke up early this morning to check my temperature and do the "see how I feel" diagnosis...fortunately, I think my fever broke in the night and I was staring at a normal 98.2 on the thermometer (I know, I know...*normal* for most people is 98.6...whatever! LOL)...unfortunately, the left side of my vision in my left eye was a blur! I sat for several minutes doing the stoopid human trick of trying to LOOK directly out of the left side of my eye before I recalled my basic anatomy training...wherever my right eye goes, my left follows and visa versa...duh...


I did a quick body scan and realized my joints were aching pretty much all over, but not horribly and my lovely calves were mooing their typical morning song..."Sssssssttreeeeettccchhh Meeeee". I stretched out my tightly wrapped hamstrings (good thing SOMETHING is tightly wrapped on me, I guess LOL) and also came to the conclusion I was still physically tired. I vaguely recalled getting up in the night to take another dose of Advil because a pain in my ear woke me up.


After calling my boss to let her know I would not be in attendance once again today, I came to the expertly deduced conclusion that I HAVE A VIRUS...plain and simple...this is NOT the beginning of a relapse. I feel like crap because I CAUGHT somebody's crap! Somehow I believe this is a "good thing".


On the one hand, it means my over-active immune system isn't all that it's cracked up to be and my guard has been down long enough to catch somebody else's crud. This effect is actually what the Novantrone is SUPPOSED to do...knock out my white blood cells and keep the over-abundance and mutated little buggers from crossing my blood brain barrier and killing/inflaming my precious brain tissue.


On the other hand, my weakened immune system now makes me vulnerable to viruses and sickness bugs, much like a chicken in an alligator swamp...there's always SOMETHING snapping at my arse!


I'm pretty fortunate really...I don't often GET sick or "catch" things because my immune system has been doing double time for the past 5 years. I guess if there is one benefit from having Multiple Sclerosis, *that* would be about it...less common sickness. But there IS that horrible trade off of MS SICKNESSES/SYMPTOMS, so have I *really* been ahead all these years?!?


I suppose I'm always looking for that silver lining or pot of gold at the end of a rainbow when it comes to MS...but today, that rainbow remains a bit BLURRED and distorted...kind of like MY MS...LOL...

4 comments:

Peej said...

Well, even we get sick occasionally... just not all the time like those "unfortunates" who don't have paranoid schizophrenics for an immune system. Not getting colds and flu is our one and ONLY benefit in having this illness IMO. Your opinion may vary. ;)

Oh, and I also run low... 97.6 in my case. Doctors should really consider this when they decide what is a "fever" and what isn't. It annoys me no end when they practice cookie cutter medicine. It's so lazy on their part and kind of dangerous on ours!

Hope you're up and online soon! I'm lonely out there :)

Peej

BRAINCHEESE said...

PEEJ:

I'll be on "vacation" AKA getting Novantrone by the end of this week...you'll probably get SICK of me pestering YOU on line by the end of next week!

LD

Sara said...

glad to hear you're slightly better, i'll do the A to Z post in a bit, since I'm at home sick today with not much else to do but sleep!

Steve said...

Well, from where I'm sitting, there's only one thing to do. Disney's Fantasia, followed by a double dose of Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

If you're going to trip, you may as well pretend it's on purpose.