22 May 2013

An Up- (and 1/2 inch down-) -date

For the past year or so I have noticed that my right eye droops a bit.  It's not noticeable, and even after I pointed it out to Dan the first few times he said he couldn't really see it.  But it's been getting worse in the past month or two and today the whole upper right quadrant of my face slid down about a quarter to half inch.  

My vision is slightly affected and my right eyebrow is now a good quarter to half inch lower than my left.  Everyone has asymmetry in their faces, but this is a little more than that.  N said she couldn't see it when I was lying down, so I have that going for me, but if there is gravity involved, the right side of my forehead looks like it's had a shot of Botox.  

My doc said she hadn't seen a case of Bell's Palsy in about three years,  but she's had four cases in the past two weeks, leading her to believe that a weird trigger virus is present in the community.  I was sick last week, so it's possible it was this mystery virus.  My doc also serves a mostly elderly clientele, which would make sense that this somewhat compromised segment fell prey to it.  My kids and Dan did not get the same thing that I did, and I'm still fighting it, (although it could arguably be allergies.)  But having googled the Bell's Palsy/Chemotherapy link, as well as knowing I'm still somewhat compromised myself, I'm on board with my doc's theory that I have a mild case of Bell's Palsy happening.

Now I'm glad my eyebrows never really returned.  Because they would look really stupid being a half inch off kilter.

I also talked to my doc about the weird muscle spasms I've been getting and she says it's totally the Tamoxifen.  Only three and a half more years of that.....

I started Crossfit again a couple of weeks ago and it is helping me sleep a little more.  I'm still hovering about six hours on a good night, but I can do that without an Ambien now, instead of three or four hours. 

Just for giggles Dan and I plugged in all of my meds to the drug interaction checker and we now know that the reason I black out like I'm on a bad bender when I take Ambien is the Effexor.  Dan says the other night he had to push me over like a sack of potatoes when I encroached on his bed territory and although he moved my butt, head and feet separately and contorted me in the process, I barely woke up, grinned at him and went right back to sawing logs.  I lose consciousness before I fall asleep and can't remember anything from about thirty minutes after I take the pill until I wake up five or six hours later.  Nice.

I start school next week.  The kids finish school the first week of June.  Not sure how THAT'S gonna work....