Reply to my new "family"

Hi folks,
Thanks everyone, for your kind and understanding words. I’m not feeling well right now, headache all night, dizziness and sore eyes right now. To answer a few of your questions:

1. I live in Canada. I don’t have access or transportation to the kind of health care you do. My own doctor has offered no diagnosis or treatment. I searched for information on the internet, starting in December when I knew I was very ill. I got sick 2 days after the flu shot, and every part of my body was affected over a period of several months. I fought to gain control over every cramp 24 hours a day, so the crippling wouldn’t be worse.

2. Although it forced me to make out my will at the time, I decided not to die, and since that was God’s will too, I’m still alive now.

3. I did some things right, which have helped me to get better. They were/are:
– sleeping on a foam mattress helped me to cope with the icy cold in my body, especially my feet; a warmer body and bones helped me to heal
– drinking 2 gallons of milk every week, eating lean ground beef, lots of nuts and seeds aided the muscles; I have a constant craving for protein
– I drink a lot of coffee whenever the headaches are really bad; it acts as a diruretic and removes some of the excess fluid in my system, making the head pain diminish and making it easier to sleep
– I still do my housework and errands; I have no vehicle, and I gave up my license this winter because it was too hopeless to try to keep it in my condition; so I have to walk everywhere I go, getting water and groceries, etc., but I have the rollator now, so it acts as a cart too.
– When I get enough sleep at night, I feel better, but if I miss a few hours sleep, my nerves tingle more, and I have more muscle pain and uncoordination
– I had to take very good care of my feet: more padding in my boots and shoes, a tent over my feet while sleeping, in order to keep them warm and have less burning in the nerves. I still have foot-drop, but I am trying to concentrate more on lifting each foot correctly with each step I take.
– I still have trouble swallowing, the right side of my mouth still droops down, and sitting upright for more than a few minutes makes me slump, more so when I’m tired. Also whenever the town is spraying pesticides and herbicides, I have another relapse and lose the improvements I fought so hard to gain.
-My vision is an ongoing problem, with large white circles bobbing in the left-side of my peripheral vision; my hearing came back, though I lost it for a time (constant ringing and buzzing)
– For a few weeks, I had no knee-jerk when tapped, but that has returned to close to normal
– My veins have collapsed, so the medical staff had to take my blood tests from my upper elbow, and it hurt badly for weeks afterwards.

4. Not this, or anything else, is going to prevent me from living as full a life as I can. I am more interested in discussing fishing, or nature, or my other hobbies, than I am in discussing doctors and how they’ve failed me, and meds, etc. etc. Please don’t be offended; if you want to discuss these things, I don’t mind; I know it’s necessary.

5. Finally, those medical people who’ve dealt with me this way will have to deal with God some day, and so I leave them to it. That’s the way things are in my little town. We all know there are all kinds of doctors, like all kinds of people, and the world is not getting any better that way.

6. Last but not least, please don’t blame me or my country, Canada, for the state of my health, or the health care system. Other groups I’ve been on have done this, and it upset me so blastedly much that I quit them.

Anyhow, thanks for being there! I’ll write again. Sorry for my headache-induced grouchiness! This is my snarly side.
–Donna