Doctors, I feel unclean... Options

[artist.unknown]

I just spent the last three days at various medical facilities getting my heart checked and blood drawn. No, I'm not some old pervertman; I'm just young and sickly. ^^ And by that I mean in the past year I've had mono, anemia (which is a mystery. why am I anemic? there is no reason. the world may never know...), possible thyroid issues, vaso vagal episodes (which basically means, for those of you who don't know, that I faint a lot. not that I told anyone for years. sounds sissy.) and other joy. I am also such a masochist that I refuse to stay home and recooperate. So the problems multiply and the stress makes my OCD worse.

anyway, it's actually kind of a funny thing. I had to wear a heart moniter, which really makes you look a bit like an android with all those wires hanging about. Now it's off but my tee keeps sticking to me because of the glue.

Of course I got the lecture from assorted doctors on taking care of myself. Now, okay, I agree, I'm a lazy arse when it comes to my bodily needs. I'm really rather horrible, actually. I mean, three months after finding out I was anemic, I stopped eating meat. Maybe I'm an extreme case...maybe not? Are my health issues unique? Does everyone else do a crap job of caring for themselves?

*tears tee shirt off skin*

[gothictheysay]

and the stress makes my OCD worse.

I feel your pain. Deeply. I pity you. I have to stop pitying myself for OCD. Nasty terrible affliction is that.

I'm not anemic, but you sound like me with that...if I don't get enough iron, I get sleepy. Then I get insomnia while I'm dead tired. Of course I never get enough iron naturally, but I don't like taking my vitamins cause they taste icky and they're more things to swallow (we're going shopping for some tasty chewy ones sometime this weekend, mmm flintstones) and I have enough to swallow already. So I can drink Coke and still fall asleep easily. During the day, that is. I can hardly ever sleep at night. Getting blood drawn sucks, I sympathize. I had lyme disease when I was four and all I remember are trips to the doctor's, sitting with my lunch box when I was six in the car and Mommy took me out of school to get one of those nasty 62-second blood tests or whatever. I remember staring horrificly up at them as they held me down, stuck something in the inside of my elbow and slowly counted to 62. *shudders* I hope you feel better, though. I fainted once - right after getting blood drawn. I felt lightheaded for two days afterward. *gives, oh wait, what do I give? I have no trademark! oh well. sympathy. there ya go*

[artist.unknown]

if I don't get enough iron, I get sleepy. Then I get insomnia while I'm dead tired.

Yes, it always seems like I'm at my most tired when I'm supposed to be working at something or listening, and least sleepy when there's a bed in sight.

I have to stop pitying myself for OCD. Nasty terrible affliction is that.

I spent the day I wore the heart moniter not worrying about my health, oh no; I was poking at the sticky bits that held the wires because I was afraid they would come off (of course I didn't need to worry, two days and showers later the sicky crap is still not off). Poke, poke...two mintues later: poke, poke...really I'm not daft, doc, I just line things up and pile them! ...and eat all my food in a certain order...and compulsively close doors...and...aw, crap.

[gothictheysay]

Do you take any medication for it? Luckily my Zoloft manages to snatch away most of my OCD problems while taking on a bit of relieving my depression. My sister takes a lot, you sound like her somewhat. I have a friend who absolutely has to straighten things, my sister does that too.

[porcelainwarrior]

sorry to hear you're having problems...i'm another OCD sufferer and have to agree that dstress is very bad for the blighterous thing that it is.

luckily (for me at least) i haven't had any major health problems for a while but i did have pluerisy (which the doctors promised was just a bad cold!) when i was young and had to have fluid drained off my lungs (having foot-long, hollow, steel needles stabbed into your lungs is not an uplifting experience i assure you). the upshot of that was that my immune system got pretty screwed over

i hope all your tests etc go...well...as well as these things can

many huggings and assorted rainbow-type get bettery things!

[artist.unknown]

On the bright side, there's not much wrong with my heart--just some blood pressure and vagal tone issues (don't ask, I don't know either). On the less bright side, I had my blood tests come back funny and now have to see MORE doctors...oh, joy. Also, there is still sticky crap on my ribs. Grr. Thanks for the support, it's muchly appreciated. ^^

OCD is a pain, but I'm very anti-medication. I guess the way I feel is, I am who I am, right? And if that means I have to scurry around checking that all the lights are off five times before I can leave the house or must arrange my bookshelf according to genre and colour, that's fine. It's still inconvient and annoying, but the patterns -keeps me sane. -.-;;

[Twitching]

you should put bandaids over the sticky stuff- then it won't stick to your clothes. I think.

Hope the doctors don't poke you too much.

[Alaric]

When i was born i had spinalminajitus(sp?) and in October i had to had surgery on my chest(broken ribs/sternum) it was compresssing my heart and lungs, i was using maybe 1/3 of my lungs, so yeah.. not good. Plus i'm in marching band... that was fun. Anyway, after getting out of the hospital(5 nights 6 days of it) about 3 days afterwards i get pnemonia... a bad case of it.. one so painful i thought i was gonna die. Well two lortabs took care of the pain.. got a shot in my hip(which sucked) then in Dec i got the Flu(another bad case of it) that sucked too.. and now i think i may be getting another cold/something.

[artist.unknown]

Well, Alaric, good to know I'm not the only sickly one here. ^^;; It's not fun to feel frail all the time, or all stuck full of tubes and wires (I felt like Serial Experiments Ar.un...). I've got at least three (or five...or ten...) more poke-and-prod appointments to go until Freedom, so from one sickly person to another, hope you feel better, too...

Over one week later and the sticky stuff IS STILL THERE. You're right, Twitching, this calls for the heavy artillery. Bandaids it is.

[gothictheysay]

I just got off a heart rate monitor...well actually, late Wednesday night . The crap is still there, it doesn't stick to my clothes though. When they drew blood when I was in the hospital, stupid guy left me a large bruise on my hand/wrist because he hit the vein wrong...

[artist.unknown]

I just got off a heart rate monitor...well actually, late Wednesday night . The crap is still there, it doesn't stick to my clothes though.

Yes, eventually it just gets crusty with fuzziness and doesn't stick to your shirts. (eyegh). I got most of it off this morning by scrubbing with soap and water and then scraping it off with pointy things. Hope your heart moniter results come (came?) back alright too: sounds like you're having some stressful doctoring yourself. I feel your pain. Much sympathy!

It didn't occur to me until to-day that spending four hours cleaning one room is probably not 'Spring Cleaning'. It is OCD. ^^;;

[gothictheysay]

*picks at the nasty stuff* I'll make sure to scrub more when I take a shower...we could write an article on this: Adventures and Effects of Sticky Heart Rate Monitors on Normal Human Skin.

Yikes...I could never spend that much time cleaning. My OCD is usually repetition type stuff: you will yank the soap bottle eight times with each hand...have to touch the doorknob with both hands...any action you do with one hand, repeat with the other...flip the light switch up and down eight times with each hand... Not fun, not fun at all, and yours doesn't sound any better. ::love:: To get you through your nasty bouts of it.

[the lil' pie...]

urgh. sticky stuff sounds like the residue from zinc oxide tape. that wouldn't come off my ankles even with pointy stuff and hot water
i'm not that sickly, but i used to get sooo ill in winter, until at 7 they took my tonsils and adenoids out, and now i just have a really bad constant cold all winter.
on the subject of past illness, i used to have sleep apnea as well, which meant for whatever amount of time (ie a minute, 30 seconds, whatever) i would stop breathing in my sleep. scared my mum to death
and i used to sleepwalk. a lot. anyone else have the sleep apnea thing?

[artist.unknown]

yes, sleep apnea is among the inglorious march of ills I have had (scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, surgury and now this new bunch). Funny thing about sleep apnea is that at the time, you don't know you have it 'cos, by definition, you can't hear yourself. So you only frighten other people. ^^

Gothic: no, I don't repeat things, I just like them in a certain way. (Except checking things. Like counting my change over and over, or checking the same spot for something I've lost.) I have to do some things in a certain order; my food can't touch; and I line things up and pile them. And I don't like to be touched. Stuff like that. (Of course, Asperger's also runs in the family, if any of you have ever read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time ,so I don't know how much of that is from Asperger's). Repitition doesn't sound like any more fun. We can be sticky moniter crap and OCD buddies! huzzah!

[mooooooooooopo]

I think I have the nasty repetition type OCD...walking along and my left foot lands on a bit of pavement with shadow on the front 2/3 of the foot and light on the back third then the right foot has to land in exactly the same situation, same with cracks between tiles and yellow lines and stuff. Also touching/pressing/sipping/looking at/anything things in certain patterns: either once or three times then once then three times or nine times then three times then once then three times then nine times etc or just doing stuff an even number of times...really annoying but fortunately it seems to come and go and not be there all the time.