My week has been sucky as all hell

 Well, that darned bug has got me still kinda out of it. The hospital didn't do much of anything for me Friday afternoon when I was there in the ER. Blew out veins THREE times trying to start an IV. I've got the bruises to prove it. Only used the thing to put in the contrast for the CT scan and some medication after the scan. I'm dehydrated and they didn't hang a saline drip. The one paramedic in training on a clinical rotation came in with one after they'd already started discharge paperwork, so I just refused it because why bother?

Had so much pain and bloating and didn't get anything for that. I did get medication for nausea and vomiting, which I wasn't even doing! Also a scrip for same which I didn't fill...because I'm not having that issue! And a scrip for prednisone which I did fill and am taking. It does help some. So does a lot of Tylenol and antacids, and liquids and eating small bits at a time.

My blood pressure was popping at stroke/heart attack range the whole time. The highest was 208/173. What did they do? Just turned off the alarm at the nurses station after a few minutes and never once checked on me. No dizziness, just a headache? Oh, ok, you're fine then. How about something to bring the ole ticker back down to normal, eh?

Finally managed to eat a decent meal last night, and right afterwards, back to bloating and pain and general yuck. Couldn't get to sleep even though I was exhausted.

The ER doc said that the CT scan shows "terminal ilietus" bit I "probably have Crohn's disease." I looked it up yesterday when I felt up to it. Crohn's normally starts by the time you're 30 to 35 at the latest. At 54, I think I'm about 30 years too late for that. And my symptoms are more likely my IBS, which I have had for 30 years, having a really bad flare up after the stomach flu I had last weekend. So not likely Crohn's, more likely my IBS. Which, I should add, the ER doc didn't even listen to me saying I had THAT, any more than I got care for the bloating, pain from the bloating, and the high BP. Eating a lot of very small portions seems to be helping more than anything else, so I'll just keep on with that for now.

Sometimes, I think calling it the "practice of medicine" means I'm getting the short end of the stick in care. And yet, people wonder why, unless I'm really, REALLY in bad shape, I won't see a doctor. I'm usually better off managing my health myself than dealing with those quacks.

So since I've had a small snack (very thin cheddar cheese slices and mild pepperoni) to get some energy in me, and give it half an hour or so to settle well, I'm going to throw clothes on and go see about dashing a bit for some easy money. Financially, this is a crap week from being sick, but I just have to keep on managing my IBS as always.

You want to know what's funny about last night's little relapse for me? Went to McDonald's for a snack when out for groceries and it went down fine with no issues after! I made dinner of burger and rice (drained the burger really well so as to avoid too much grease, that stuff is killer with intestinal issues), and didn't even eat that much, but it set me off again! Usually, it's the fast food does me in and my own cooking I'm perfectly fine with.

Anyhow, managing my IBS. Mostly it's just avoiding certain foods or limiting how much and how often I eat it. For example, super spicy foods I avoid. Same with hot dogs. BIG red flags with those. Most fast food. Having to start avoiding granola bars - I do like those chewy ones as they are easy to eat, but not whole grains like that, which are not fully cooked, are what apparently started this round off. I'd been snacking on them a lot while dashing. Woops. I also limit certain fruits because of all the small seeds - like strawberries, which I love. A few here and there and that is it. I can make a box of them last weeks. Apples and such have to be peeled so I can eat them. Stone fruits and pineapple are fine. Blueberries are fine in moderation. Grapes and the like, fresh or dried are fine. And so on. Chicken and fish I can eat all I want as they are low fat. Pasta and well-cooked rice are ok even on a daily basis, in moderation. You can guess I eat a lot of fruit and veggies, lol.

Managing something like this takes work and forethought. You get used to doing it so it's normal and natural for you. You learn to read menus when you go out and ask nicely for modifications to dishes to help you have yummy food without issues. I've been doing it for 30 years, and I can tell you that the first few months were the absolute worst for craving things like crazy that I loved (strawberries!) but you get used to not eating them and your eyes just slide ride past them at the store. Good thing I'm not a picky eater overall, lol.

Anyhow, time to check emails and get clothes on to see if I can handle doing a bit of dashing. I'm not going to push it, and if I start to feel off, I'm stopping immediately. I like making money but I won't put my life at risk for it.

Adding - I made a whole $33 for the night. Buggrit. And I'm out of my first two weeks with the free top dasher to start, so now I have to schedule and work my butt off more than ever. I'm not happy. Though if for some reason the app lets me still dash along the way as a top dasher, I'll pull things up and get back there and do what I can to stay there for the ease of earning on my own time choice. Lunch and dinner rush are pretty good for money and I need to earn dough to make the rent and bills.

But at least I am feeling much better physically. I'm working on the shop which is doing absolutely nothing. I'd like to move back to Etsy for traffic despite the darn fees and all that I hate about it, BUT I'd halve my profits and that just won't work for me. So I'll just keep struggling. Eventually traffic will come along, just by adding a bazillion more mugs. When the plan is to have a all the AKC and CFA breeds in as breed mom/dad and a bunch of various sayings for the breeds, that's around 75K mugs anyhow. Times at least two mugs per thing (white, black, or metallic coated gold/silver), that is a LOT of mugs. Plus all the dog bandanas and cat toys. Eventually, things will work out. I just gotta keep chugging along. Tomorrow is another day after all.

On to pictures!