Why do i feel so ill?

Whatever has caused my stomach to be in so much pain and my bowls to give me so much trouble is a mystery and no one quite knows what has gone on. What i do know for sure is that today is the first day i can honestly say is the first day i have actually started to feel better. I am still getting wind and pressure in the stomach causing me extreme pain and discomfort. I am still slightly constipated although my bowls have opened and i can now go to the toilet again. The pain in my sides is saw and feels like i am about to split but its not as painful as it has been over the last few days. I haven’t been able to go anywhere or do anything as i have been in constant pain. It looks like all the medication i was on has kicked of IBS (irritable bowl syndrome) and it wasn’t until i got the last lot of medication that i started to feel a bit better.

Not only the pain in the sides and the aches and pain gets to you as you also feel bloated, can’t eat or drink properly, feel out of breath all the time and the back gets so much pain shooting across your back muscles no matter what position you sit in your can’t get comfortable. I have been to the doctors 5 times, had 2 telephone consultations, been rushed into hospital twice and had to have enemas on both occasions including rectal examinations. I have never felt so embarrassed in my entire life.  Each day i have to battle with the feeling of my sides being so saw and my insides feel red raw. All my back muscles are constantly aching and just moving around the flat is hard work. All i can think of is i have infection somewhere inside my stomach. i know it sounds crazy but there's no explanation. There's no sign of infection when they test my urine and my blood testes were clear. yet i keep getting an infection in my tooth and the dentist won’t take it out till the end of the month but the infection keeps coming and going and making me feel rotten when it does show its face.

I have mentioned this to the doctors but its seems to have gone over there head. I don’t know what is going on or why it has flared up like this but i have been feeling really rotten now for 3 weeks and can’t wait for it to end. All i want to do is enjoy my holiday with my mother and step father at the end of the month. If i end up too ill then i will just have to cancel and not go as i don’t want to spoil it for them as they have been so looking forwards to this break. I am praying it doesn’t come to that and hope that what ever is doing this to me shifts soon and i start to feel better.

Woken by the Beast but still feeling better….

Again i was woken this morning by the call of the beast. Thankfully the injection kicked in straight away and i was able to fall back to sleep about half an hour after i had taken it. I then woke up at around 7am but with a sore neck and a feeling like i have a golf ball stuck in the base if the neck and sharp shooting pains up and down the spine. I sometimes forget just how painful these attacks and after effect can be. You would think after having so many attacks and being a chronic sufferer i would be used to them by now but i don’t think anyone ever gets used to having such painful attacks all the time.

Thankfully my stomach has gone down and is no longer swollen and my bowls have started to work again. I managed to go a toilet yesterday with no problems but have yet to go this morning but as i didn’t eat much yesterday i doubt i will need to go until later this afternoon. I am still getting pains in the muscles on both sides of my stomach and in my back where my kidneys are located, mainly on the right side again. After all the checks in hospital they put my mind at rest and assured me there wasn’t any problem with the kidney or any other part for that matter. Why i became so bunged up is only a guess but i think it is down to all the antibiotics and medication i have been taking.

As soon as this constipation clears, within the next few days i hope, i will be able to start the Verapamil tablets again and that should keep the beast from waking me in the mornings. When i started them before i saw an immediate improvement in the amount of attacks i was getting and thanks to the tablets they almost stopped completely with only one or two attacks happening during the week. There seems to be a lot of pain coming from my back lately and i am still waiting for the referral to the back specialist. I am starting to think that the specialists are right and that most of the pain i am experiencing is coming from a spine problem.

My mother suffers with osteoarthritis and has big problems when it comes to her back and joints and now has to use a wheelchair when moving around and going out places. I am hoping it won’t get to that stage and they are able to do something before what ever it is causing it becomes bad enough for me to end up in a wheel chair. I know i suffer with arthritis anyway and have major pain in my joints when the weather is cold or wet. I am just hoping it doesn’t get to the same stage as my mother and i end up having difficulties moving around. It does explain where all the pain in the back and spine is coming from but still doesn’t explain why my condition (CH) has been aggravated and made worst over the last couple of years.

Well today is another day of taking it easy and waiting for this constipation to slowly work its way out of the system. I am not in pain from the blockage anymore and as i mentioned the stomach is no longer swollen but i am still a little constipated so i have to be careful not to block myself up again so its a case of making sure i eat sensible and drink plenty of water and fluids. The weather has warmed up and shows it is now the start of Spring but the wet weather is about to hit us and we are in for a week of rain. At the moment i have been concentrating on getting everything ready for our holiday as it is now only 3 weeks away. Just to think 3 weeks from today i will be at the side of a lake fishing, absolute heaven! I am so looking forwards to this holiday as it is the first proper family holiday i have had in well over 10 years so no matter how i feel i will still be going. I wouldn’t miss this holiday for anything.

Starting to look forward to the holiday! Not long now….

After a couple of weeks investigation and a scary weekend ending up in being rushed into hospital twice by ambulance we now know where all the pain in the kidneys came from and why my stomach became so swollen it resembles a hot air balloon. Starting with the slight chest infection that developed into Pneumonia and caused me really bad pains in the back and the lungs also causing me to find it very difficult to breath. Then developing into sharp pains in the kidney and constipation like never seen before. Being put on 3 lots of antibiotics and different pain killers all contributed to my condition and slowly made me worst and worst as each day passed. The mixture of infection plus pain killers and antibiotics ended up in me developing constipation and being blocked up so badly that i thought my stomach and sides were ripping apart. This in turn was causing pressure in the colon and with a slightly swollen kidney as it was having to work vary hard due to the amount of tablets i was taking. I ended up having to be rushed into hospital and given an enema in order to shift the blocked and release the pressure in order to ease the pain. Not happy with having it done once and being so embarrassed i could just die i ended up having to be rushed back into hospital the next day and have another procedure. This has now left me very sore in the sides where my muscles have been put through the mincer with me trying to push and pass what i can only describe as a bowling ball through a whole the size of a 5 pence piece.

They did x-rays and scans to ensure there was nothing else going on and also checked the kidney for anything unusual such as kidney stoners and/or infection but thankfully all the sign's were clear. I am so happy it wasn’t something serious as i just had visions of my holiday being cancelled if i didn't get what ever it was causing me a problem sorted. It now explains all the strange things that were happening and why a tablet such as Verapamil, which shouldn't cause any side effects, was having such and influence on my stomach and causing me to be worst than i was. There was nothing in the side effects of the medication and no one had heard of such a thing but it clearly made my condition worst when it shouldn’t really have had any effect. It was down to the fact i was already constipated and starting to have problems as far back as three weeks ago. At least i now know as soon as the constipation is cleared i will be able to start to take the verapamil again and this will bring me even more relief when it comes to the head attacks i have been getting lately. The pain i am getting in the kidney area is in fact my muscles and not the kidney itself playing up so there is nothing to be worried about as this will ease as i slowly start to heal now that my bowls are moving again. I still have to take a laxative and make sure i keep drinking plenty of fluids as it will still be another week before my bowls will be back to normal.

The weather looks like it is finally starting to improve and the start of Spring is finally here, all be it a little late! The change in weather has seen a huge improvement on the attacks i have been getting and i am now down to 2 to 8 attacks a week  instead of daily. This with the new medication about to be re-started again should see my attacks become a thing of the past until the bad weather returns next winter. I am just hoping that my condition will go into remission by then and i won’t have to go through all the pain as i normally do when the cold weather returns. At the moment i am just thankful to start feeling better and can’t wait to put this nightmare behind me and concentrate on something other than my health all the time. It’s bad enough having to live with a condition such as CH with out making it worst with other things such as bad constipation.  It’s time for me to start concentrating on my fishing and get back into something i enjoy so much. Only 2 weeks to go now and we are off on holiday down in Cornwall and i just can’t wait. There are a couple of things i now have to chase up now that i am better in order to make sure we have everything ready for the fishing holiday and make sure we have all the gear we need.  Just can’t wait!

I wish all this pain would end soon!

Again woken by the beast this morning at 5am just to remind me that i have the condition CH. Not that i had forgotten how painful the condition is mind you! this time it was a massive attack that took almost an hour before it eased off. Again i tried using the injection to abort the attack but it just didn't seem to touch it. My eye became swollen on the left side and it just wouldn’t stop watering. My neck feels like it has a golf ball stuck inside it again and each time i massage the neck i keep getting shooting pains up and down the spine.

I was beginning to worry about being so constipated and all the pain i was getting in the right kidney area. I managed to speak with the doctor again yesterday and she has prescribed me some Senna tablets, laxatives, to help unblock what ever is causing the constipation. Using these tablets and Lactulose solution it should eventually sort out the problem. Thankfully i have started to go to toilet again and it is slowly coming out but only a little at a time at the moment so i am still feeling bloated and my stomach still gets pain. I don’t know what is going on but i know something isn’t quite right still. I am still getting pains in the right kidney area and this morning they are as strong as they were in day one.

I have been taking my antibiotics as instructed but they just don’t seem to help. This is now the 3rd lot of antibiotics i have been on and i am feeling better but the pain is always there. It is like a dull ache in the back constantly and a feeling like someone has there fist pushed into my kidney. Sometimes when it is really bad the left side also starts to hurt so i am a little worried as this has now been going on for 2 weeks and still no improvement. With our holiday due at the end of the month i am just praying it will be feeling better by then and all this pain will be history.

The last few days have been nice and sunny but its still freezing cold outside. this has to be the coldest April we have ever had in history i recon. They are forecasting that it will soon warm up and even a heat wave in the next month or so. I am so looking forwards to the nicer weather as it means i will be able to go fishing a lot more. I have noticed that i am finding it hard to eat and drink  at the moment and this is probably due to my stomach being so bloated all the time. i just wish it would end soon.

Off to get my bloods tested… I hate needles !

With the warmer weather and high pressure starting to arrive in the UK i have seen a huge difference in the amount of attacks i get during a days period. It has now dropped from 2 to 8 per day now i get 2 to 8 per week. Although i am still getting the attacks, because i stopped the Verapamil, it is still a huge improvement compared to what i was like last year and during the winter. As the summer starts to arrive i know i will get less and less attacks so i am looking forwards to the change in weather.

I woke up this morning feeling like a fat balloon as my stomach is swollen from all the food i have been eating and the wind building up. I still can’t go to the toilet and is starting to worry me slightly as this will be the fourth day with out going. I can pass urine no problem and have checked to see if there is any change in the colour but there is no difference. I still get pain in my right kidney area and sometimes when it is bad it spreads to the left one but only now and again. I am on antibiotics again, for the 3rd time, and i also think antibiotics can sometimes make you constipated so i am going to have to get hold of some laxatives just to help me go and get rid of some of the pressure in my stomach which will help to ease any aches and pains i am getting.

I am off over the doctors again this morning, this time it is to have my bloods taken so they can test and see what on earth is going on. Its bad enough being in pain but i am also frightened of needles so it should be an interesting visit. The doctor decided to refer me to the hospital so they can do an ultra sound scan and see what is going on inside me and my kidney. I will probably have to wait 2 weeks if not longer but i hope this problem is solved before then. I am off on holiday at the end of the month so they will have to make arrangements around the holiday as i am not missing it for no reason even if i have to go in a wheel chair i will be going.

Although i am still getting the aches and pain in the kidney area and i am bloated with air, which in turns makes you very uncomfortable and sometimes can hurt a lot, I am feeling a lot better than i was a week ago. I have been eating properly for the last few days and making sure i drink plenty of water to flush the kidney out. i am hoping with the help of medication and the things i am doing i should be able to put this problem to rest and forget about it. The last couple of weeks have been the strangest i have ever encountered. Going from one problem after the other and even the doctors were baffled as to what on earth was causing it all to play up.

I wish this pain and ache would just stop!

Tuesday Update:

After seeing 4 doctors in 2 weeks i have finally found out what could be causing the problem. The pain in my right kidney could be due to infection or due to the medication i am taking. When visiting the doctors on the last occasion she actually did a proper examination and laid me on the table and prodded around to find out where the ache and pain was coming from. The only thing that was hurting and causing pain was the right kidney and after testing my urine for the 3rd time it finally showed a small amount of blood in it. The doctor told me she would have to send me to hospital for a scan as it is so strange why it is playing up. I have been put on a 3rd lot of antibiotics just in case there is infection still and some liquid to help ease my stomach and help me to go to the toilet a lot easier.

It’s crazy how the body reacts to illness and pain and i can’t wait for this to be solved and for the pain and ache to stop. Even whilst i am typing this blog i have sharp pain every now and again like a knife stabbing you in the side. I personally think this all came from the abscess that i had 3 weeks ago. I believe that the infection had spread through my body due to me swallowing the poison that came out during the night whilst i slept. I think it spread through my system and upset some of the organs as it passed through. There are so many reasons why it could have started and now with the help of the hospital i should finally get to the bottom of it and hopefully put an end to this nightmare.

As the evening comes it always seems to get worst. i am sure its something to do with the food i eat and my bowls filling up. By the end of the day i have a full stomach and feel bloated. I can also feel bubbling in my stomach so i know there is something going on. Lets hope this new medication will help and ease the symptoms.

Wednesday update:

Again i have woken this morning with ache and pain in the right kidney and i am passing wind like there is no tomorrow. I have taken some pain killers and my medication but this takes time to work so i have to put up with the aches and pains for an hour before i start to get any relief. I have started to eat plenty of fruit and fibre and have changed my diet to make sure i get plenty of these foods every day and hopefully the bowls will calm down and i will be able to go to the toilet again normally.

I went for my x-ray yesterday afternoon. I was lucky as i turned up about an hour early but when i handed in my form she said sit and you will be called. About 10 minuets after i sat down a nurse came through and called my name and off i went. I was taken to a cubicle where i was told to take of al;l clothing on my top half and sit in the cubicle until my name was called. After another 10 minuets another nurse called my name and i went in for the x-ray. i had to stand with my back facing the camera and my chest pushed up against a plastic sheet. I was told to hold my breath and they took the x-ray. I was called back in about 5 minuets after leaving as they had not got a clear view of the bottom of the kidney so i had to stand whilst they did another x-ray and then it was all over. I was there for less than half an hour.

They have done an x-ray to ensure there is no residual infection left in the lung and they are missing it when they are examining me. i know its going to be clear as it wasn’t the lung that was causing the problem. i did try and explain this to the first doctor i saw but she was adamant that it was a lung infection even though my chest was clear, i had no cough and no breathing problems.(apart from one day where my chest tightened so much i thought i was going to die, thank god for having an oxygen tank at home). I think the chest tightened due to either an allergic reaction to something the Verapamil tablets are made of or they were just aggravating my condition and making it worst. It wasn’t until i stopped the medication it started to get better.

I have to say my luck with my health just lately is really bad. I have gone from being diagnosed with just CH (cluster headaches) and Mild Bi-Polar disorder to now include Pneumonia and Kidney problems. The pneumonia has cleared up, thankfully, but i am now left with a strong ache and sometimes sharp stabbing pains in the right kidney. I am also getting pains under the arm pit on the right side and my stomach constantly feels bloated. I am doing everything i have been told to do. Stopped any junk food or sweets and added fibre into my diet with plenty of fruit and veg. I am taking my medication religiously and following the instructions to the letter but it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. In fact i feel as if its getting worst.

I was told by the doctor if i get blood in my urine so it is noticeable or even in my stool then i shouldn’t hesitate and go straight to hospital or contact my surgery and they will admit me. I am keeping an eye on everything but there is no sign of anything else apart from a lot of wind. i know wind can be painful and especially if you get colic. When wind traps around the organs and under the chest it is the most painful and uncomfortable feeling you could imagine. Now i know why they say it is so important when feeding a baby not to allow wind bubbles in there food as it will give them colic and then they will be in agony. Well for now there is not a lot more i can do except relax and wait till i get better. If it does get worst then it will be a hospital visit for me, something i don’t want and am not looking forwards to if it does happen.

Strange going on’s, what on earth is wrong with me?

My luck with my health just lately is really bad. After 2 courses of antibiotics treating me for one of the strangest infections i have ever known and forcing me to take a step backwards with regards to my CH treatment i am now back to the beginning with the same pain that i first complained about. I keep getting small stabbing pains in the area of my right kidney with a constant ache feeling like it is under pressure or about to pop. The ache only stops if i lay flat on the bed and there are no other signs of a problem.

I am now constipated and have a lot of wind so i am hoping it is the wind that is making me feel like this or something to do with the bowls as we have checked for everything else. I have been tested for kidney infection twice and even taken a second course of antibiotics just in case there was infection. The pain isn’t all the time and the feeling is strange. It sometimes spreads to the other side and the left kidney joins in with the ache but no sharp pain. It feels like when i had a kidney infection years ago and when i went to the loo my wee was almost black but this time there is nothing. I don’t get any fever unless i try walking to the shop and back and then i will suddenly break out in sweats and my temperature shoots up.

I have rung the NHS Wales Direct number and asked their advice on what i should do as what ever it is doesn’t seem to want to ease of or heal itself so they have advised me to go back to the doctors again and also attend the hospital for my X-Ray on Tuesday at 4pm. So yet again i have to make an emergency appointment with the doctor and see if we can get to the bottom of all this. If it is a kidney infection then all i know is i have to drink loads of fresh water and try and flush this out but i have tried and i don’t seem to want to go to the toilet as much as i normally do. I can still pass urine but have to force it out and i am constipated at the same time so i know there is a problem but what is causing it i am completely lost. It has driven me completely mad the last 2 weeks as it has been non stop ache and agony.

Update:

When i wake up in the morning the ache is almost gone and just a small feeling of pressure on the right hand side in the location of the kidney. As the morning progresses the feeling will slowly become stronger and stronger. If i eat anything i tend to bloat in the stomach and then the ache and stabbing pain will appear to be strong and i then start having troubles going to the toilet. If i decide to ignore the ache and continue to eat as normal i will then end up full, bloated and in absolute agony for a while until i can pass some of the wind that has built up in my stomach. Later in the morning the other side will also start to experience problems and the feeling of pressure and become aching just like the right hand side. I don’t know what is going on but it is really strange as there are no other  signs of illness apart from constipation and the aches in both kidneys (or the same area of the kidneys).

I am making another emergency appointment with the doctor again today (Tuesday)as there is definitely something going on. It has been getting worst and worst over the last couple of weeks and now its at the stage where i am constantly uncomfortable and worried about the ache and not being able to go to the toilet. I decided not to eat anything today and only drink water. to my surprise i am again bloated and getting the ache and pain in the right side very strong. I would have thought water would have been ok to drink but it seems it gives me exactly the same problem as when i eat. I am just hoping the doctor will be able to get to the bottom of the problem and tell me what on earth is going on. Fingers crossed!