I need help/ideas

I was just wondering how all of you get to the doctor if you are feeling too sick to go.  I'm not sure what is going on with me, but my stomach problems and my diahrrea have gotten worse and I can only eat sherbet and popsicles.  My lupus symptoms are worse too, especially my joint pain, to the point where it is hard to walk.  I need to take a pain pill, but worry about how it will affect my stomach. I live out in the middle of nowhere and the closest doc I can get to is about 40 minutes away and there is no way I can drive myself.  I also can't think clearly right now and it's hard for me to figure out all the details like when to try to get to the doc when I have my two kids in school and I need to be home when they get home.  My son's arthritis is flaring now too and he has some appointments coming up so I need to save my energy for those.  Both my kids are supposed to have dentist appointments tomorrow which also entails a long drive and I've already canceled and rescheduled 3 times due to not feeling up to the drive.  I know I'm just rambling, but I can't figure any of this out.  Maybe I'll call my mom and see if she can drive tomorrow and then maybe I'll call the pcp I want to see and see if I can get in tomorrow on the way home from the kids' dentist appointments.  They'll probably end up missing a whole day of school, but at this point I really don't care. How do all of you get to the doc when you are feeling really sick?  My hubby works over an hour away from home, so he can't take me.  Sometimes living in a rural area really stinks.

Hi Hippi, I'm sorry you are having such a hard time. Are you on disability? If you are these have taxi's that will take you where you need to go without charge. Rosie is right you need to talk to your husband. He needs to know what you are dealing with and help out with the decision making. You know what the stress will do to you. I'm worried about you girl. You've been sick for a long time. Maybe if you scrambled up a couple of eggs with cheese that would help your tummy while you take your meds? or some soup? I'm having kind of a fog myself today so I know I'm not much help. I've been trying to really do stuff on my vacation and it is finally coming back to haunt me. I'm heading for my folks house today and all I really want to do is be home in my own bed and sleep.

I hope your mom can help you out tomorrow.

love ya

carol

Oh Hippi, I can tell that you're at the end of your rope. I agree with Rosie and would call on anyone I could think of to help. I wonder if you could get your mom to take you to the doctor and call on a friend to take the kids to the dentist. Don't try to do it all yourself hippi, you're too sick. I know that hydrocodone can cause queazyness but it call also tend to constipate you so maybe it won't add to your stomach problems. And it also might help you rest. Please call the doctor and tell them how bad things have gotten for you. I so wish I where there to help you. Rosie also brings up a good point about brainstorming with your hubby or even your mom because they are probably much more clear headed than you are.

Hang in there sweet friend. You can do this, but you don't have to do it alone. There are times when we have to reach out and ask for help.

My mother-in-law is a very strong woman who has never asked anyone for help but after having taken care of her 6'2" 200 pound husband who had alzeimer's and wandered around the house all night, went to the bathroom whenever and wherever he wanted, etc., she finally called her son and said, "I'm raising the white flag. I surrender." She went as long as she could without asking for help but finally could no longer handle him on her own.

You've done this by yourself long enough, hippi. You're raising a family, including a child with health problems, taking care of your home, going to all of their sporting events, dance lessons, vacations, etc. which would wear me out if I were healthy. No wonder you aren't getting better.

You're in my prayers, and I send you an extra big ((((hug))))

Hang in there and get some help. You deserve it.

Love you,

Pat

Thank you Rosie, Carol, Des and Pat. I can tell this is just getting to be too much for me - I'm sitting here getting teared up from your support. I did go ahead and make an appointment tomorrow afternoon with the pcp my rheumy recommended, so I'll see how things go with him and how I like him. I put in a call to my mom and left a message for her. I know that if she doesn't have too much going on tomorrow she will take me up with the kids for their appointment and then take me to my appointment. I'm not only worried about the diahrea and pain, I feel like I felt when I had protein in my urine. I don't know how to describe it, but I'm a little worried about it, so I'm going to ask to get my urine tested tomorrow. I probably will have to talk to my husband about all of this. It's just hard because he works 12-15 hour days and is also very supportive of me and tries to do what he can to help, especially around home. The other bad news is that he leaves for a business trip on SUnday and will be gone until late THursday night. I'm just going to go ahead and start looking for someone to help me take my son to his appointment next week. Carol, I don't know if you will get a chance to read this, but we really do seem to be on the same page with this food thing. I was trying to think of what to fix to eat with my noon meds and a I was actually thinking of making some scrambled eggs with cheese. Thanks again, my dear friends, for all of your support.

Hi hippimom,
I live on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere and have been in that boat many times. If you have to, have hubby take you to an ER fasttrack/urgent care during his off time. Diarrhea long term isn't good. Sometimes I just have to go, I try to go to the littler, less busy country hospital for this kind of thing as I can get in and out faster and they can handle something like this pretty well. You don't want to get a gi infection or if you have diverticulosis it could get infected so you need to be careful. If that doesn't work, I found that if you have some older neighbors they may be willing to drive you if you can give them some money. I've done that too. It works for them because they make some money which helps because they are poor and it helps me. Calling your mom is good too. If you are in pain and having bad diarrhea, the ER took care of that really well for me. I don't know if you have IBS but a medicine called dicyclomine or "bentyl" is an antispasmodic and good bowel pain reliever and constipates you so you don't have to take immodium all the time, which is not good. Tramadol should constipate you as well and masks pretty severe bowel pain, which is good and bad because I've been real sick and the tramadol covered it up and when I ran out I was really in bad shape. Hydrocodone will help too. I wouldn't feel bad about going to an ER or urgent care until you can see your PCP, or try to walk in and see. Also, maybe PCP can prescribe something over the phone if you explain your condition and order tests if she feels she should, then you just have to get to the tests and the pharmacy. I know mine is very good about that for something like diarrhea.

Well I hope you feel better soon and get to the doctor soon. I just had a prometheus blood test for celiac, which is this state of the art blood test my liver doc ran and he felt that it was certainly the right thing to do to get this situation checked out, esp if you could have celiac or pancreas issues or gi. I had a polyp one time, so you should go. Please let us know what happens. I will be thinking of you and praying that you get better and get to the doc.

Darlene . . . you are so RIGHT!!! Our church would do the same and I've attended a couple other churches, each of which would be happy to help out.

Hang in there Hippi!!! There really are people who want to help. I think the ER really is the fast track you need right now. I'm like you and it would have been the last thing I'd thought of.

Post when you are up to it.

Blessings!

Marji, Darlene, Rosie, and Sharen, thanks so much for the ideas and all of the support and caring words. Darlene, I had thought about you and your c-diff and wondered if I might have it, but was relieved to find out that there doesn't seem to be an infection. I had never thought of calling a church even if you don't belong to it. I have wanted to find a church somewhere around us, but just haven't, although I do know some people at a few churches around here who I know would try to find help for me. I also forgot that our local, rural hospital has a retired senior volunteer program and they have volunteers who take people to appointments who aren't able to drive. Fortunately my good friend was able to take my kids to their dentist appointment and my mom took me to see the pcp yesterday. I liked the pcp my rheumy recommended and I think I'll continue to go to him. He was really thorough and asked lots of questions and listened to everything I said. I didn't feel rushed or brushed off about anything which are all good signs. I just need to get over some of my discomfort with male docs, which is my own issue and had nothing to do with the quality of this doc. He ran some test and I had some x-rays of my abdomen. Nothing pointed to an infection, so he said the diarrhea is most likely viral and there has been a lot of it going around and that it has been hanging on for a long time for some people. He thinks that having a virus has probably caused my lupus symptoms to flare which would make sense, since the virus would be hard on my body. He gave me phenergan to help with the stomach discomfort and nausea. It has already helped a lot and I am able to eat a little more and more things are starting to sound good to me. THis doc wants me to contact my rheumy if my joint pain and other lupus symptoms don't get any better, so I'll call Monday if the joint pain is still bad. I did have some white blood cells in my urine, but no protein, so that's good. There wasn't a huge number of white blood cells in there, but he told me to come back in if I had any symptoms of a UTI. The phenergan and the pain meds are making me pretty drowsy and sleepy, but that's not neccessarily a bad thing - it will make me get the rest I need. My hubby leaves to go on a business trip tomorrow, so we are trying to figure out how to make this week as easy as possible. We stocked up on some convenience foods, which I don't usually have around, but while I'm feeling sickk, it's nice to have stuff the kids can get out and fix for themselves. My mom said she would drive me and the kids to my son's pediatric appointment on Wednesday, so that's a relief. I think I'll go and take a nap now. Thank you so much for all of your caring and support. Going through all of this without all of you would be terribly hard.

Hi Hippi,

I am so glad you were able to make arrangements to get to the doctors. Hopefully the virus will be short lived and you will be feeling better soon. I know nausea and diarrhea are no fun, but phenergan usually helps me. Please take it easy and try not to feel guilty about letting your kids fend for themselves; it teaches them responsibility and probably makes them feel important because they are helping mommy out. Let us know how you are feeling when you are able, but in the meantime rest as much as you can.

     Pat,               Thanks for the reminder about the flu shot!

Sandy

Hi, Hippi. You're sounding much better now. That's great you felt good with this new doc, I prayed that you would. I know that alone can give some relief! I do hope you get a full recovery from the virus/stomach junk with the meds he gave you. I hope you start seeing improvements all the way around and maybe there will be no need to contact your rheumy. Rest all you can. I hope you have an easy week while the hubby is gone. Take care,

Hi Hippie,
just letting you know you are in my thoughts and prayers and I hope your gi issue clears up soon. If not, consider the celiac disease. There is a new blood test for it so you don't have to get the endoscopy, at least I don't thik you do. I hope its just a virus and it goes away!

Hippi, The big D can be very serious because it will dehydrate you. Its already been a couple days since you saw the doc. Call the docs office and ask how long you should wait before coming back in or getting a referral. Have you tried the BRAT diet??? It is what we did with the kids when they got the big D . . . it rests the intestines w/o fasting. Bananas, white Rice, unsweetened Applesauce and plain, dry Toast - the foursome fighters of diarrhea. All are easy on the stomach, as well as the intestines. Applesauce sounds contradictory, but it is really easy to digest and therefore rests the intestines. (Oh *Rosie whispers* don't forget that baby-wipes are a really nice way to treat your bum with all that torture happening down there . . . just remember not to flush them) Don't wait all week to talk to the doc's office. Some hot tea for you sis!! Blessings!

Hi, Hippi. I was really hoping you would have started to feel better and be getting some relief from the diarrhea. I agree that it was just a virus, I would think it would be letting up. Please check back with your doc and don't forget to drink more water! Good luck,