One of those days from hell.... count your blessings

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Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
Topic Author's Original Post - May 14, 2013 - 10:21pm PT
Layton and I often shared our various ailments. We commiserated during
his many phone calls to me, and we kept our tongues in our cheeks.
It's not as though to complain helps a lot, or that people are all
that sympathetic ultimately. So, in that spirit, I mean not to
complain but just rather to invite you all to count your blessings
and be grateful for your health. Today I had one of those "days
from hell," as they are called.

I have tremendous pain in my right eye. I had this once before,
and the eye doctor did every possible test at that time but
but found nothing. That pain finally subsided and, fortunately,
went away but now today returned with a vengeance, with no apparent
cause. It has been agony. I was trying to take a nap, sleep away
some of the pain, as it were, when suddenly it felt as though I
was going to perish where I lay. I got up and found my blood
glucose level had plummeted to almost 50, and was headed downward,
but at the moment about a point or two from "all she wrote."
I managed, at the limit of my ability and physical strength
to stuff some food down. I phoned a friend who ran over with
some orange juice, and I slowly started to recover, though with
the shakes and chills and so forth. Such a drop, called hypoglycemia,
takes a huge toll on the body, and I still feel as though a truck
hit me.

In and around these two events I was also having some very
painful cramps or spasms in my bladder, due to the infection I
have battled for two years now and not been able to shake. My
lady urologist does not want me to go on the Cipro, the
powerful antibiotic, unless I get really sick and have symptoms,
because I am going to build up an immunity to it. And it would
be of no effect if I really need it again. The cramps feel as
though you are being stabbed in your lowest stomach, bladder
area, so they're no fun at all.

When I have a day like this it makes me greatly appreciate the better
days. I wanted more than anything to work on some writing and some
music today and could do nothing.... It's good to read about
others and their adventures..., with squinting, straining eyes...
(the pain in the one eye almost produces sympathetic blindness
in the other). Forgive the typos, as I have to go mostly by feel.
Levy

Big Wall climber
So Cal
May 14, 2013 - 10:32pm PT
Pat, Sorry to hear of your difficult days. I sincerely hope you get the care you need & the doctors find a way to treat what is causing all of this.

I'll be sending some good thoughts your way.
snakefoot

climber
cali
May 14, 2013 - 10:34pm PT
endless battle it seems. it can destroy your body, but keep up the spirit and i wish you better days.
stilltrying

Trad climber
washington indiana
May 14, 2013 - 10:46pm PT
Wishing you happier days and relief from your ailments Mr. Ament.
Leggs

Sport climber
Is this a trick question?
May 14, 2013 - 10:51pm PT
Thank you for the reminder to count our blessings, Pat. Many forget ...

Healing vibes and energy to you from the desert of Tucson.


~peace
10b4me

Ice climber
Soon 2B Arizona
May 14, 2013 - 10:54pm PT
Pat, I hope you have better days, and I know you will
Jennie

Trad climber
Elk Creek, Idaho
May 14, 2013 - 10:55pm PT
Pat,

Keeping a few little bottles of Gatorade around might be beneficial. Gatorade works even faster than orange juice when you're in a hypoglycemic state...it's flavored with pure glucose.

Other common sports drinks are much slower because they're usually sucrose or fructose and take longer to digest and get into bloodstream.

Sadly, the more hypoglycemic incidents you have ...the less you're able to discern them coming on.

Sorry for the sermon...best wishes!
Jan

Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
May 14, 2013 - 11:14pm PT
Pat-

So sorry! I'll send a private email, but please, what Jenny said and your doctors. Your daughters and friends need you to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible. You still have so much creativity to give. If good wishes alone could heal, you'd be in perfect health by now.
Scrubber

climber
Straight outta Squampton
May 14, 2013 - 11:20pm PT
Wow, that sounds absolutely horrible. I wish you a speedy return to health, whatever it takes. Sh#t like this sure puts our petty little day to day wimperings into perspective...

Kris
Lynne Leichtfuss

Sport climber
moving thru
May 14, 2013 - 11:26pm PT
Prayers and Positive thoughts to you who is and has been a big part of this community. Having worked in the Healthcare Community for over 20 years it seems like you are seeking good help.

Onliest other thing I can recommend is to find time to be at peace with your soul. Find a quiet, beautiful place and put aside all the things that pull at your peace and joy....and there are lots of those in our lives. Forgive, love those that are almost an enemy in our lives and enjoy just this one day. I'ts all we have, really.

When I was at crisis after Dan died I began to live
One day at a time
one step at a time
with Peace, Patience and Perseverance.....Later with Joy included.

Five plus years out it has worked.

Peace Dude, lynnie
Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
Topic Author's Reply - May 14, 2013 - 11:44pm PT
Thanks everyone. I don't mean to be a pain. Just sounding
off again.... as is my nature.
Lynne Leichtfuss

Sport climber
moving thru
May 14, 2013 - 11:49pm PT
People aren't "pains" Patrick. We are all humans, living the human condition. We all, each and everyone of us, have sweet, easy parts of life and then perhaps difficult challenges that are like climbing up your first lead and you're run out.

It's a good thing to hear from you. Life is challenging but after the crux you will live and grow. lynnie
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
May 15, 2013 - 09:29am PT
Your prose suffers when you are like that...it is easy to tell. You aren't able to give it your usual vigorous re-writing or it would be different phrasing. Just the casual obsevation, Pat. You are terribly distracted.

When I have bouts of fighting to bring up sticky mucous so that I can get a full breath, I get drenched in sweat. I just experienced this from five a.m. till sixish. It often takes longer, but this one seemed desperate. You NEED to breathe, even if it is simply in order to be able to think well. Also, I find I cannot concentrate and so I hang it up until I can at least breathe without extra effort, and then I sit for fifteen and enjoy the feeling, knowing it's coming again, but knowing also there are others like me.

Visiting my old Flames buddy Jeff, his lady, Denice (Denny), told me of her allergies and how she fights it constantly. It is daily hell with asthma. I find my spirit wants so badly to go climb or simply walk up to the base of the Cookie Cliff or the simple approach to LL--and my old body is dying slowly and can't support vigorous activity, not even this very limited approach. This makes it true hell, denial of what we think we might use, having earned it through living, to bring us some bit of happiness before the final curtain.

Whine completed, there are blessings, and the biggest is the realization that I haven't used my time until recently at all well. I am being forced into a corner and made to surrender these ideas and expressions of my self, like it or not that my time can't be spent frivolously, as was my wont before the onset of this disease. I used to have so much of it, too.


Jan

Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
May 15, 2013 - 10:07am PT
Mouse, I used to have terrible respiratory problems also (15 years' worth) which were diagnosed as asthma. I was in the ER at least twice every year and struggled so hard to breath, I've pushed part of my diaphragm from my abdominal cavity up into my chest cavity. I took buckets of steroids and had all the side effects. Eventually I went to National Jewish Hospital in Denver, #1 respiratory hospital in the world, and discovered I had sinus and vocal cord problems, not true asthma. The treatment is entirely different and I've been ok ever since, so you might consider a second opinion from the very best.
Kalimon

Social climber
Ridgway, CO
May 15, 2013 - 11:24am PT
Sound off all you want brother . . . we are all here to listen.

Sending the best of thoughts.

Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
Topic Author's Reply - May 15, 2013 - 04:52pm PT
Not sure what writing recently of mine fell short for you, Mouse.
I don't think my writing really has any problem, just my
body.
Fossil climber

Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
May 15, 2013 - 06:23pm PT
Hang in there, buddy. Amazing what you can come back from, even if it takes some time.
Fossil climber

Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
May 15, 2013 - 06:24pm PT
Hang in there, buddy. Amazing what you can come back from.
Michelle

Social climber
1187 Hunterwasser
May 15, 2013 - 07:06pm PT
Sending the happy vibes your way!
crunch

Social climber
CO
May 15, 2013 - 07:12pm PT
Glucose works much faster than other sugars and carbs (like OJ) because your body spends a few minutes converting these other sugars into glucose. Cut out the middle man! Try to always have some of these with you:

http://www.walgreens.com/q/oral-glucose-tablets

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