Monday, October 25, 2010

New symptoms?

Okay, I posted the other day about my trip to the ER because of nosebleeds. Heh. I KNOW what to do to STOP nosebleeds; what I want is WHY DO I HAVE THEM, ANYWAY?
The teenage ENT doctor removed the packing, five days after the ER doc inserted it into my right nostril, and he told me the same thing....how to stop a nosebleed. Well, I really got annoyed that he probably hadn't even looked at the 4 pages of information I had filled out while waiting for him. My entire medical history, and that of most of my ancestors, too.
So he had no idea that I am a lupus patient, and wanted to know WHY I had nosebleeds in the first place. And, why didn't I just ask him? Heh again. He was in and out in a flash, and his demeanor suggested to me that he didn't want to talk to me other than tell me the ways to stop nosebleeds. Sigh.
He probably wouldn't have known, anyway. That's my rheumatologist's area of expertise. I think. Anyway, I have had so many weird symptoms lately that I've made an appointment with a neurologist. This was at the urging of my fellow LUPIES on the yahoo group of the same name. If you're not in that group, join. I get more information from this group of (mostly) women than I ever have had from a rheumy. If my lab tests "look good" to him, then I'm not experiencing a flare, I think his opinion must be.
However, when I go to see him on Nov. 11th, I'll certainly tell him of the latest round of strange events going on in my pain-wracked body. (My knees are hurting today; humid weather does that to my joints.)
Okay, besides the nosebleeds, which my LUPIES bunch told me is a sign of a flare, AND it could be neurological. This along with:
1. eyelid twitching --- nearly all day, nearly every day. For a while, I was spared that annoying symptom, but the nosebleed issue took its place, I think.
2. My painless migraines, or optical migraines, where I get a nice "halo" effect in one of my eyes. No headache, no uopset stomach or aversions to light or noise, just the aura. This could be dry eyes due to Sjogren's, and I use eye drops at least twice a day (even though I think I'm supposed to use them 4 times a day, but I doubt they would help, either.
3. Episodes of being dizzy, like I'm spinning, even when I'm seated. Scary to think I might faint, but I don't. And it goes away in a few seconds, but what if it happens when I'm driving? My eyes kind of hurt, or go out of focus a bit, like I'm going to have double vision any minute.
4. The nosebleeds were not just ordinary red spots that oozed from my nose....Nosireee, what I saw on the tissue was dark red, big chunks of blood, and that's scary. Trying to hold your nostrils shut is a daunting challenge, knowing that something very strange is going on. Sure, it finally stops,but a few minutes or a few hours pass, and there it is again.
To add insult to injury, I read on the Internet about nosebleeds that they're common to "elderly" persons. Elderly? Me? Well, yeah, I'm 72, but how old do you have to be to be classified as "elderly?" Probably 10 years older than I am, I pout.
So what to do? Just keep marking down my vague symptoms, wondering if these are anything significant to a lupus person, as in a flare?
I do know one thing....I'm keeping the appointment with the neurologist.

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