{peek in}

I've gone quiet again, haven't I? Sorry about that. I seem to have developed an odd, rhythmic spasm in my chest. Depending on intensity, speed, and such, it may feel like quivering, fluttering, or pounding. Fortunately, there's no pain involved, and I can detect my heartbeat's pairs of beats slower and steady under the more evenly spaced spasms if I remember to check.

My doctor doesn't know what it is, but he doesn't think it's life threatening. Not when I can find my pulse, and when there's no pain involved. However, he doesn't know whether it's cardiac, respirational, or muscular. So he's sending me to a cardiologist on the 22nd to see if he can figure out anything more specific.

I can hardly wait. It is good to know  they're probably not life-threatening, but they can still be quite debilitating. So I'd like to know what they are and how to manage them. Then maybe I can get my life back again, at least until the next crazy health incident crops up, as they do a few times a decade. {lop-sided smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

I hope I’m back

{peek in} Anyone still here? I do hope so! {tentative smile}

I’m very sorry that I disappeared for so long. {bite lips} I kind of fell sick last summer, and only got well again last month. Oh, I wasn’t sick with the same thing the whole time. At least four illnesses managed to overlap in a way that I wasn’t well for entirely too long. {apologetic smile}

Anyway, I am better now. So I’m trying to rebuild my life without taking on too much at once. I’m probably being too careful about taking things slowly, but I’d rather fight some frustration and boredom than risk a relapse. {wry smile}

Anyway, I’m now trying to get back to reading my friends’ blogs, and at least occasionally writing in my own. I do hope this works, because I’ve missed everyone quite a bit. {Hopeful Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

{RELIEVED SIGH}

Well, the switch to time-release niacin worked. I've officially made it
thru a period without a nasty flush. {relieved sigh, smile}

Thank you, God! I needed that so badly. {Relieved Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Hope.

Well, it's been about two and a half weeks since I stopped taking the non-time-release niacin. I haven't had a nasty flush since. Oh, I've gotten overheated once or twice, but there's been no attack with burning sensations, pain, or threat of blacking out. {relieved smile}

I have real hope that we found the worst problem. I won't feel sure until I've been thru my next menses without incident, since the flushing seemed worst during the last set. However, this looks promising. {hopeful smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Hope?

Well, we haven't called the doctor. This is not a bad thing. {smile}

On Sunday around bedtime, Dad brought up something he remembered about his older sister, my aunt Kitty, having trouble with flushing when she was taking niacin. I am taking niacin for my balance, so he thought that might be involved.

One thing led to another, and we discovered that I am not taking 250mg of time-release niacin like one of my doctors suggested. The current bottle is not time-release; it's all at once. I'm pretty sure I remember that my doctor specified time-release to reduce trouble with flushing and burning sensations, as well as to improve it's effects on my balance.

I found some time-release niacin like I'm supposed to take. I haven't taken it yet. Monday I didn't take any niacin beyond that found in my vitamins. I wanted to give my system a chance to calm down. It didn't get a long chance. I started having balance trouble after 10pm on Tuesday, so I took one time-release niacin pill just now. I do hope it works, and doesn't cause any flushing. We'll have to see what happens. If necessary, the flushing was worse than the balance. However, I don't think time-release niacin caused flushing before. {cross fingers hopefully, {smile}

So far I haven't had any flushes since I stopped the other niacin. However, it's only two days; that's too soon to tell. Last week I don't remember what happened Sunday and Monday. However, I do know I had one Tuesday morning, one Saturday morning, and no bad ones in between. That's longer than I've been off niacin so far. {resigned smile}

I'm hopeful - much more hopeful than I was when my doctor prescribed vitamin D. This might not be the full story. I am beginning to near the expected age for menopause, after all. Still, this looks promising. Even if it just cuts out the painfully burning flushes, that would be such and improvement! I hope I'd get my life back if I got rid of those. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

{steadying sigh}

Well, yesterday Dad managed to get the test results out of a nurse at my doctor's office.

Thyroid: normal
Pituitary hormones: normal
Vitamin B12: normal
Vitamin D: LOW

So my doctor wants to put me on theraputic levels of vitamin D, and run another test in a few weeks.

I know that Vitamin D deficiency can be a serious problem. I'm too old for rickets, but it can increase tendencies for osteoporosis and other bone trouble. I don't want that. However, I don't think Vitamin D affects hot flushes/flashes much. I can't find anything that claims it does, and Dad doesn't know of any connection, either. {half-smile}

I had another nasty hot flush yesterday morning. I couldn't go to the air conditioned room a few rooms away. I couldn't clear the table. I couldn't even get up to turn on a fan, or pour a glass of ice water. I had to wait for my parents to get those to help me cool down.

Mom picked up the Vitamin D this morning. I've taken two pills today, and will continue to do so. However... if I have another bad flush, my doctor will get a call that hopefully will make it clear that waiting a few weeks to do anything more for the flushes is unacceptable. {grimace} I don't feel I can take on any new projects until they're fixed somehow. That includes applying for a librarian position that's come up at the university. The deadline is in November, so I can't expect them to get
fixed in time. My health is just too unreliable when a single flush knocks out a whole morning, or a whole evening. {resigned look}

I just want my life back. {Sigh}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

{peek in}

{peek in} Hello. {smile}

I'm sorry I've been neglecting my blog recently. I'm afraid this summer has been all too interesting on the medical front, as some of you already know. {rueful smile}

I had a really nasty reaction to a medication in July; it took me half a week to identify, and three weeks after going off to feel reasonably like myself again. Then in the first week of August, I had a panting-and-coughing-up-pink-mucous attack that was diagnosed as a panic attack, but followed by a similar attack without the worry.

The week after that, I had a really nasty hot flush, during which I blacked out. My doctor noticed that my diabetes was acting up. so she decided to treat that as the most likely cause of hot flashes. Well, the blood sugar levels responded favorably to the insulin she prescribed. The hot flushes did not. I've had a few near black-out since.

So my doctor is now beginning to look into the flushes. I'm... not handling waiting for test results as well as I'd like. {half-smile} I've caught myself being far too sensitive this weekend. I just hope my friends will understand. {tentative smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin