Medical Update for the Month of April

I've been thinking about how I'm going to do medical updates and I've decided that breaking things down into catagories would be a good way to cover everything and keep from getting confused. So, here we go for the month of April!

Pain:
It's been pretty bad this month, I don't know where I'd scale it as far as the 1-10 system is concerned since I'm really bad at that, but it's not getting better and actually getting worse. I asked Dr.Lutt about it, but there's nothing he can really do for me aside from giving me more Vicodin which is actually a nice change from my old doctor who refused to give me any unless we fought him for hours and sometimes days.

Stability:
Still not too great, if I walk for more than an hour my legs will give out, I'll fall and not be able to walk for hours if not for the rest of the day. Also, I'm starting to randomly loose the ability to walk again, I'll feel perfectly fine, be walking along, and then my legs will give out and decide to not support me anymore. I asked Dr.Lutt about this and his only solution was to do more at home physical therapy....my physical therapist was thrilled about this, did a little dance in fact, because I rarely if ever do my homework.

My legs:
They've probably been giving me the most trouble lately. I've been dislocating my hips at least weekly if not more than that, my knees have been buckling and my legs have just been hurting me a lot, so I haven't gotten out of the house a ton this month.

My shoulder:
It's actually been behaving itself! I think I've dislocated it 3 times or so this month, which is a pretty good number, and it hasn't given me much pain and, when it does, the solution is easy; put it in a sling.

Medications:
I am currently on Humira and Vicodin as needed for pain....that's all folks.

Blood-work:
All good news! My swelling is still down and all my organs are just fine =)
I'll need to have blood work done regularly, though, because my swelling is all internal for some reason, so my joints may look normal and be cool to the touch and be extremely swollen. No real cause for alarm, getting so much blood work, Dr.Lutt just likes to keep on top of things.

Sleep:
I'm not really getting much of it these days. I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep, I'll wake up during the night, but as soon as morning rolls around I'm pretty much impossible to wake up and get out of bed. I'll have full conversations with you in my sleep and even sit up without waking up...it's annoying if I want to go somewhere or do something in the morning.

Other stuff worth mentioning:

• I've been having strange heart issues. My heart will palpitate, pound, feel sluggish, and then go back to normal. These episodes can last anywhere from 10 minutes to days on end. I've gone into my main doctor, Brad, about it, got an EKG and there seems to be nothing wrong. The running theory right now is that I have some sort of strange virus or something like that.
• I've also been having chest pains and troubles breathing. It feels like someone's wrapped something around my cheat and will pull it tight, squishing me and making it really difficult to breathe. I asked Brad about it when I went in about my heart andgot a chest x-ray that turned up normal. Since this always happens the same time as my heart troubles, he thinks it's another symptom of the virus
• My stomach has given me a ton of trouble this month. I wake up feeling really sick and it takes an hour or more for me to be able to move without throwing up. The nausea stays with me all day, so I haven't been able to eat much and when I eat it's always a fight to keep it down. It's also hurting really badly for long periods of time, sometimes all night. I'm in the process of getting with Brad to see about it. My theory is it's another stomach ulcer, so I've started calling it "Thing 2"

There you have it, folks! If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment and I'll get back to you ASAP. =)