What do you do when everything happens at once?

Hi guys,

So for some reason I seem to be having a really rough go. I've never had THIS many health issues at the same time before. And since I have a newish job on top of it, it's been kind of scary. Anyways, I've taken 4 days off of work this month, which is actually the most I've ever taken. I wasn't allowed to take sick days as a child, even though I probably should have, and due to paranoia about keeping my job, probably work sick a lot. This isn't to say I've always been able to work, as I had a long period in 2010-11 where I lost a job due to a 9 month asthma attack, and then had heart surgery which was a 3-4 month recovery.

Anyways...here there was a hurricane, bad asthma attack due to mold, then I got a bad sinus infection and bronchitis (with talk a sinus surgery and other fun things). Then all the nebs. triggered my arrhythmias, and oral pred. is also making my heart medication not work so great. I have a congenital heart defect too. So end of last week I called my cardiologist for like the 5th. time and his nurse practitioner was like ""don't you think you need to come in??"" LOL. Well yes, but that is a day off of work, as I have to take a two hour train ride into New York City. Which I knew I couldn't due all that walking as I actually did it two weeks ago to get my pacemaker checked, and barely made it!

And then...last Friday I called my rheumatologist (as I also have psoriatic arthritis and officially he is the doctor who still has me on pred.). And was like ""you know I've had this rather minor nose bleed since the hurricane in Oct., and my ENT (otolaryngologist) thinks the pred. is making it heal slower...and then I'm on aspirin and meloxicam for the arthritis...can I change anything??"" His office said I called too late in the day or something, and they would get back to me on Mon.

So then...I leave work at 6 p.m. Get in my car. And blood starts pouring out of my nose! I've never really had a bad nose bleed before, and as this has been brewing for months, and I'm on aspirin. I walked back into work (I work in a hospital), and walked myself right over to the emergency department. What fun. I was there for 4 hours while they tried to get the bleeding to stop. They cauterized it. Didn't work. It was awful to make a long story short. They had to pack the rt. side of my nose, which led to four more days of bad pain, getting a prescription for some major pain killers, and one more day out of work.

And now I have strict instructions not to bend/lift/ or blow the rt. side of my nose indefinitely ""until it heals."" This went pretty well for a few days, but then the mucus started going down the back of my throat...and you guessed it! Triggered my asthma again.

So I took a massive amount of inhalers today, which didn't work so well, so pulled out my neb. again which did work...but which triggered my arrhythmias...again.

And yes, I did go see my cardiologist on Tues. Who was really helpful. Luckily I found a friend from church, who was terrific, and drove me into the city. I couldn't have done it without him. So I got an echo, an EKG, they adjusted my meds, and I'm supposed to get a month long holter in the next week or so. I've done about three of these, and am between ""maybe they'll catch something useful"" and ""I have to wear one of those again??"" They are a bit interesting to explain at work! I find I think a holter is kind of comforting, but they tend to freak other people out.

So there you have it. That and the pred. has so fried my brain (I guess due to interesting sleep patterns?) that I can't seem to think at all anymore. Or to do anything fast at least! If you've had to take long term pred., how do you deal with this side effect? It's kind of awful because I know I'm a bit loopy, and luckily people are surprisingly nice about it, but my pharmacist yelled at me today for not picking up some medications I had filled...and honestly I don't remember filling them! I felt pretty stupid (especially since I yelled back!) I was nice about it, but seriously, I lack editing to my words too sometimes :(.

Bee

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Oh my goodness, that really is a lot to deal with. I hope all things settle very soon. xx