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MGH Round 2

Hi all,

I've been pretty absent from blogging/life activities over the last month or two because my whole life seems to be consumed again by illness and complications from Adrenal Insufficiency.  Right now, I'm typing from my private room at Mass General, where I have been since Saturday.  Before that, I was at a local hospital for a few nights.

After being discharged with no answers for my shortness of breath in January, and then refusing further treatment for Lupus related hemolytic anemia, I went back to work and tried to continue on as normal.  This worked for a while, but then enlarged lymph nodes started popping up all over my neck.  I was seen a few times at my PCP's office, and at first thought it might be the start of a virus, but when they didn't disappear after a few weeks, I had an ultrasound to see if we could find a cause.  It turns out, aside from multiple slightly enlarged lymph nodes, I had one whopper lymph node on the left side of my neck, which we made a plan to have biopsied.

Then, I had pneumonia.  No hospital stay, IVs, blood draws, X-rays, just a prescription for my favorite strong antibiotic of choice, levaquin.

Last week, I felt like my voice was froggy and my throat felt closed, like I had big tonsils, but I don't have tonsils, so back to the doctor's office for mono and strep tests which were negative.  Tuesday morning, I woke up and could barely swallow my throat was so swollen, and I was jittery and nauseated, so I went back to the local ER for what I thought may be an allergy to the antibiotic I was on previously.  They treated me with steroids as usual, fluids, and some benadryl.  No big deal.

I tried to go back to work this past Friday for the day, but only made it from 9:30am - 11am before calling it quits, much to the disappointment of my supervisors, I'm sure.

Saturday I started to feel worse.  I needed to go have a bridesmaids dress let out due to the excessive steroids over the last few weeks, so I did that, then passed out on the couch for the afternoon.  I had a fever, and my mom was away so decided to ask relatives to take me back to the ER.  Instead of going to the local one, they took me here, to Mass General, thank god, where I am being treated for pneumonia, again.  I'm waiting on Infectious Disease to try and come up with an IV antibiotic alternative so I can go home and be in this wedding, and feel well enough to do so.

So, hopefully this will be the last hospital stay for a while.  I'll have my lymph node biopsied next week, which will take some weight  and worry off my shoulders.
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