My health sucks.

Ha. Well, this is my first blog, and, I probably should have started it this February, or in April, but I've started it. My problems are not horrible, by any means, they're just incredibly annoying and constant and they definitely affect my quality of life.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we? I was born August 11, 1988, about 4 weeks early, due to a minor fender-bender. I was a healthy baby and a healthy child. My first problem was dental, so it doesn't count for this. When I was nine, we discovered I had allergies. To everything. Oh, and this was about 3 years after moving to Tennessee from Iceland. I don't do well in heat. (I also tend to ramble. Sorry.)

So, skin allergies to tons of things at nine, followed by chicken pox! One of my big allergies is dogs, and the summer prior to the diagnosis, I got my first puppy. She's passed out on the couch right now.

Anyway, we tried shots for a while. They didn't work so well. We tired Zyrtec. Not so good. In the end, though, I got a good dermatologist and took benadryl if it got upset.

That's childhood.

Puberty, now. I got my first period at 11. I had terrible headaches at 12, and by 13 and one month, the headaches were horrible, I'd lost tons of weight, I was exhausted all the time, my pulse was racing when I half-asleep, I had a hyperactive thyroid. This was diagnosed in a roundabout way, of course. I took a medication for the headaches. It gave me heart palpitations. Went off the meds, my heart was still funky. So we went to a cardiologist. He did alot of tests, including the first of many blood tests. That's when the naughty thyroid was found.

So we experimented with medication from about November 2001 to August 2002. Nothing was working long term. Now in August, I went in for the radioactive treatment. What fun that was. "Here, put this in your mouth," from people wearing lead gloves. That really made me feel confident.

It couldn't be done, there were nodules or growths, or something. This was at the beginning of my freshman year of high school, a year I missed because of the thyroid.

So in February, surgery was the option. I had my thyroid and parathyroids removed on February 22, 2003. The paras were removed because they were too tiny to function. I also got this disgusting drainage bulb to wear for a week, hanging out of my neck.

Of course, just because it was out didn't mean we were done. We had to figure out the synthroid dose. That was easy. What wasn't easy was the calcium. I ended up in the ER in April because the tingling was out of control and I needed an IV.

Finally, it got sorted out, and everything seemed hunky-dory. I went off to visit rich California relatives that summer for a grand total of two full days, and I was ready for my sophomore year.

However, it wasn't ready for me.

It started bad. My sister's puppy died the second day of school. Bad enough, of course, but our oldest dog had died that January as well, along with my paternal grandfather. Yuck.

But I did okay, until, let's say Thanksgiving, because I have a definite memory of going to somebody's house over the break and being in exquisite pain.

My skin was back. Back on homebound I go until after spring break. What happened? Beats me. The eczema on my legs got infected. I literally could not move without 2 Lortab in me. It was hideous. It would not go away. We tried steroids and cremes and whirlpool baths. Finally, towards the end of January, something clicked, and it began to fade away.

What a relief. So back to school I go, hey Jasmine, how's it going?

This string of good luck continues through my junior year, where I aced my classes easily and begged for AP courses for my senior year. I was so excited. A senior! Me!

About September of last year, though, the skin came back. Not quite as bad, but it was getting there. I started Raptiva last fall despite being underage and not having psoriasis. I knew it didn't work early on, but the doctor kept pushing it. By the time we stopped, I had such a low tolerance for pain, I couldn't even inject it anymore.

Oh, also in September, the calcium came back in the form of crippling, get me out of school, I will throw up on you pain. So we went to the ER again. After about 3 weeks of waiting, they see us. After I'm drugged, imaging is done. Kidney stones. Caused by? Unabsorbed calcium. *bonk bonk bonk*

The kidney stone passed a week later with little pain. I still have one in the right kidney, and I am now on a diuretic for that.

So, skin's behaving, in January, I'm going back, my health won't keep me down.

But no. Abdominal pain. Pelvic pain. It's not like the kidney stone, but it hurts so bad. More tests done. Ovarian cysts!

Well, I'm put on birth control. No relief.

So we do a laprascopy on Valentine's day. "Lalalala, what have we here... polyp on the bladder, endometriosis, and the cysts are deflated."

Endometriosis? This isn't fair! Sigh. So I go back to school after getting the stitches out, only to discover that if I miss one more day, I don't get to graduate. They can't do that, of course, but they think they can. And it's easier to go homebound again, we don't want to jeopardize my senior year.

Oh, I was mad. How dare they! I fell fine, they are such losers, who needs them anyway?

Well, that was premature. I've been in almost constant pain since about March 15th, at least. Oh, and I've had a bladder infection, on and off.

I also have ulcers, because my gynecologist wanted to rule out everything else in the abdomen so we did a scope where a camera went down my throat while another went up the butt. I was mercifully out of it. What'd they find? Ulcers. So now I'm on Nexium and Mylanta. Never had an ulcer symptom.

Now we've got another gynecologist. We're going to start Lupron next month and see what happens from there.



And also, in about a month (April 12th to May24th), I lost 12 pounds and I don't know how. Yes, I had to do a course of laxatives for the IVP to make sure there were no bladder issues, but that can't be it.

Thanks for reading. I'll try to update by Tuesday. (Holiday weekend and all)

Graduation Saturday!




Edit on January 3, 2007 - 'My Health Sucks' was the name of the blog originally.