Ahhhh, Wouldn't You Know It, Life is Just Not Always Easy.

For those of you who don't follow facebook at all I have been enjoying some quality time in the Emergency Room as of late. Yes I know, usually once Jaesen leaves the washing machine breaks, a kid breaks an arm or needs stitches, dogs throw up on the carpet. This time it is me. I developed this rash on my lower legs last Thursday and thought to myself, "What a dork, can't I shave without giving myself razor burn?" As the day wore on the rash got more intense and started creeping up to my knees, by the time I went to bed at 10 my ankles hurt so bad I couldn't rotate them and the rash was mid thigh. By morning my knees ached along with my elbows and hands. Of course it was Good Friday and all the kids were home so I had to find someone last minute to watch the kids while I trekked to the ER. Thank goodness for our German neighbors down the street who took on my 3, plus their 2 for 6 hours. I was diagnosed with vasculitis, which is an inflammation of the blood vessels. I was given steroids and told to come back the next day because my blood work was quirky. By this time it was moving to my lower back and was painful as the capillaries started exploding leaving mass quantities of blood under the skin, fortunately it was not itchy!!!! I got a sitter the next day and headed back to the ER where my blood work was still not great and they wanted to admit me for IV steroids. Well let's see, I thought, husband just left on Monday, 3 kids at home, no family in the area, nope guess I can't do that, give me the oral steroids. They have been helping, no pain, the rash is starting to subside, my joints are not painful anymore and I had another blood draw yesterday that shows my levels finally coming back towards normal. So there will be several more follow on visits for me, to make sure the blood tests return to normal and to figure out why I got this. It is an immune system disorder so can be quite serious, causing kidney failure, aneurysms, hopefully I just had the dermatological type and I just get to look like a leper. I'd rather look like a leper than have kidney, heart or brain issues though, so bring on leperdom!! I have to say that it is much harder to deal with the cruise emergencies when it is you, I am much better at dealing with the kids, dogs and appliances, I have to many other things to take care of for me to be sick. My little secret though is I have nothing to do this week other than take naps, scrapbook and prepare for my new job, so relaxation is on my plate.