Health Issues Galore!

I’ve been called the queen of health issues and that isn’t a title I’m proud of but, there is truth to it. My story of health problems began when I was 16 years old it was the Summer before the start of my Junior year of high school.  I was away on a mission trip part of ASP (Appalachia Service Project) on my way down to West Virginia to help make homes warmer, safer, and dryer.  We were almost at the school where would be staying and we had stopped at a Dairy Queen it was my first time visiting one.  Next thing I knew I was having the most painful stomach problems and issues I had ever experienced.  After two years of numerous doctors, pretty much missing my entire Junior year but still pushed through to graduate with my class from high school in 2008 I was labeled with IBS however, no medications, doctors made a difference to help.  I will say it’s not as bad as it was when I was 16 years old now 16 years later but, my story of health issues doesn’t start and end there.  After two years of not knowing what was wrong, at times undergoing serious testing for cancer and such that eventually gets to a person and from my health issues stemmed a whole knew set of challenges: anxiety and depression.  When I got sick I was experiencing loss, I had to give up dance, going to youth group and volunteering, lost friends who I now can look back and say they weren’t real friends to begin with if they couldn’t stand by and support me when I was sick but when you’re 16 years old that is a hard concept to grasp and accept.  At the same time, I wasn’t in the mood to see or speak to anyone.  I vividly remember being so embarrassed and ashamed at one point I through my cell phone because I was angry, upset, and never had I ever felt so alone.  It impacted me severely I got scared to get in a car and go anywhere because for starters it was rare I could make it from walking out of the house to the car without an issue.  I was bullied, teased, and harshly judged by people who had no business to judge because they didn’t know what was going on they didn’t and in my eyes couldn’t begin to understand how hard life had become for me literally in less than 5 minutes.

Life goes on and I’ve accepted that while I don’t think it’s IBS that I have symptoms aren’t as frequent and uncontrolled so I carry on living life to the best of my ability and am so grateful my fiancé has never once judged me for it or held it against me!  Another reason to brag about my fiancé though is that if you have health issues or if you’re someone who is related to whether it’s family, spouse, friend who deals with this it’s not easy being on the other side of the situation. Going back 2 almost 3 years at this point I started having severe migraines and vertigo but this wasn’t your typical no big deal vertigo you may get from motion sickness being on a boat or plane.  This was everything is spinning, I would collapse fall over type of situation.  I remember the day and minute I knew this was a major issue and not something that could be swept under the rug.  I was driving to yet another doctor’s appoint this was before I met my now fiancé and I was living in CT not NY with my parents.  No one was available to drive me and that morning had been a decent morning, no vertigo symptoms no dizziness so I got in my little red Hyundai and drove which entailed going on the highway. It hit me like lightening. It seemed like everything around me was spinning, things got blurry but, there was nowhere to pull over to, traffic was bad and piled up so I couldn’t even pull off to the right I had to keep moving forward or I would cause an accident but, the alternative was me crashing and not surviving.  What do you do?  If you were me in that moment what do you do.  I remember I froze and did the only thing I could think of at the time while now having a panic attack which was pray.  I asked God to get me to and from this doctor’s appointment and home safely and I promised to never get behind the wheel of a vehicle again until I knew why this was happening to me. I was blessed in so many ways that day but the biggest blessing was I survived that day!

What’s my diagnosis, to this day I don’t know.  I feel like doctors are clueless and they get to a point when they’re stumped they just through whatever diagnosis they think they can pass off to you.  The diagnosis I was told is vestibular disorder (AKA really bad and intense vertigo) and severe migraines.  I am on medication but, I don’t know it is making a difference.  I went through every pill possible and when none of those helped and a majority of the time led to me having reactions that landed me in the ER I tried injections.  I now have to jab myself once a month which my fiancé does for me since I don’t do well with needles.  When the vertigo acts up I take Bonine because nothing else works.  I guess in this entry I’m looking for support and tips.  I love to drive but, can’t and it definitely puts a strain on my fiancé when he has to drive me everyone and a majority of his days off are spent driving and taking me to appointments.  He does it without complaint but, I know him well to know it’s asking a lot.