I’m 57 years old and my one adult child, Dylan, and I share a living space. We moved from Metro Detroit to Mid-Michigan with the goal of buying property even further north than where we are. The initial goal was to be here for just a year but life happened and the timeline changed. We like it where we are so it wasn’t a big disappointment but when you want property to garden and raise animals, it’s frustrating.
In 2000, I had a right hemi-colectomy which simply means that the internal parts of my large and small intestines were joined (or anastomosed) after they removed about 15″ due to a mass.
After trying to get someone to take my exhaustion and myriad issues seriously at the health system where I worked for a decade, I switched to a different health system in the same city and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2018.
When the world shut down in 2020, I had been ill for what seemed like forever and I went to urgent care and asked for a test. It was negative but they didn’t really tell me anything other than it wasn’t COVID. Several days later I lost hearing in my left ear and went to the emergency room. I received a chest x-ray (I was there for my ear!) and then given a nasal swab to test for COVID yet again. This swab was so aggressive (and also negative) that I had an immediate nose bleed but was initially able to get it to clot. But every night for the next 3 nights it would bleed for absolutely no reason. On the third night it wouldn’t stop. Seriously, I could not get it to clot so I went to a different emergency room where I was given rhino-rockets (ladies, think heavy flow tampons stuffed in BOTH your sinuses) and admitted to the ICU. I had surgery to have copper coils placed in both sphenopalatine arteries (above the sinuses on both sides) to stop the bleeding.
I was discharged directly to ENT (otolaryngology) and audiology. I had lost approximately 80% of frequencies in my left ear and 20% in my right as my presenting issue at the first emergency department was never addressed.
This brings my history to the reason for starting this blog in the first place.
Mammaries and Beyond 