Not So Beautiful Disaster

It's not really severe right now, and he's really himself in every other way, so I feel like it's a little soon for a vet visit. He wants to play, he's doing everything else normally, going to the bathroom, running around, crying for us because we've confined him to the kitchen so he won't puke anywhere to hard for us to clean up... everything totally normal. He even REALLY wants to eat his breakfast now. And he only threw up once so far, but he's had a couple of dry heaving spells because it's early and he hadn't eaten yet. So is there anything I can do for him to make him more comfortable or anything I shouldn't do? Should I go ahead take him to the vet anyway even though it was an isolated incident and he's not acting differently than normal?

The other day I was left with no choice but to go to the ER for a migraine, because there was no where else open and it was unbearable, I had nothing that would touch it. That was unpleasant. =/ As always. But they always prescribe me Lortab to "get by" which contains acetaminophen. I'm thinking I could have possible liver issues (I checked back through bloodwork last night and apparently... no one has tested for such things, even though I thought that was pretty basic), because every time I take something with tylenol in it, I get sick. I've read about people doing cold water extractions for recreational use of the stuff, and more recently even therapeutic use, to filter out the APAP since it does such a number on the liver, and it seems all low-level narcotic painkillers are bound with it. I don't think asking for something stronger JUST so it doesn't have acetaminophen in it would work, and I'm pursuing a non-narcotic alternative, but I'm chronically ill, with NSAIDs, I cannot take them orally, they make me violently ill even with foods and anti-emetics because my stomach is so badly torn up, so I'm going to speak with my neurologist about self injections, but I'm having to wait a long time for that appointment, a few weeks. I may not even get a headache in that period of time, but I'd like to be prepared, because with how often the ER and minor meds screw up, I don't wanna have to go back if it's avoidable... are cold water extractions safe if you use it on the recommended dosage of the medication and take no more than that amount? Logically, I would assume it would be, but then, it's a bit of an odd subject, and as it's commonly associated with abuse, I know it'd be frowned upon. I imagine I'll probably maximum have two migraines before my next neurologists appointment, so it wouldn't be constant, but just something to get me by. Otherwise I may have to risk the ER again and let them almost kill me, or KNOWINGLY make myself sick by taking the Lortab anyway, and knowing the tylenol will have me puking every ten minutes for several hours, so... not an ideal situation. So would it be safe to do at all? If so, is there a specific way it has to be done to be safe, or is it hard to eff up? If it's not safe, any suggestions for what to do to get less ill with it? Anyone else had similar problems?

Last night I went into the ER with a migraine (because there was no place else open, and nothing I had would touch it) and cutting to the chase, they gave me IV prometh and dilaudid. I at first felt totally fine, then SLIGHTLY nauseous, but just normal opiod painkiller type nausea, and then really nauseous, so they gave me a zofran, the kind you dissolve under the tongue, and I was discharged almost immediately afterwards. About ten minutes later, the nausea was ten times worse, and I WAS vomiting as well as I had the worst stomach pain I ever felt. This was a good 45 minutes after I was given anything in IV, so while I assumed it was a reaction to the dilaudid, thinking back now, it seems odd it wouldn't have been instant if it was. This continued for several hours, and once my stomach was emptied of anything that would add color, where it would have normally been yellowish bile (I'm chronically ill, and know my vomitting patterns too well), it was black instead, but still smelled just like bile.

Today, I was feeling sort of bad, but I tried to wait it out. I decided feeling nauseous a little later on that I'd take some of the zofran they had prescribed, only after I'd taken it did it dawn on me it would seem more logical that I'd reacted to that and not the dilaudid.

Anyway, I am now not actually vomitting, but I am having the WORST stomach pain I've ever had in my life, along with some chest pain and trouble breathing (though that may just be anxiety). My parents are VERY upset about being woken up to go to the emergency room and in the end, just wouldn't help me without any evidence as to what it was. So I guess I'm just wondering... could this be a reaction to zofran? Could it be something SERIOUS? Like a liver problem? Or is it REALLY nothing?

I got them to call the ER doctor, but not wanting to go out there, they drastically downplayed my symptoms, and he said it was just the contractions from vomiting so much. Which being chronically ill, I know what that feels like too. And it's not like this. So I'm afraid it's something more serious. The zofran only lasts 4 hours... and it's been four hours... and the pain isn't going away.

Anyone have any ideas what's going on?

Just finished my last school session of high school, and I'm a little panicked, which I guess is the normal thing that happens. I've struggled all this year because ALL I had was school, because I'm incredibly sick, my illness sort of took what little else I did enjoy doing, like actually GOING to school (I was on homebound study, so it wasn't great, but the work was SOMETHING), my friends (as they were either unable to understand or unable to deal with the complications that come with having a friend this sick), my mobility and therefore the sports and even moderately active things I liked to do, and also on some level has eaten away at different bits of my mental capacity, so activities like reading novels have become a chore because of my short attention span, and sometimes short term memory loss (memory loss seems to be a problem for me mainly only in the short term, and the shorter the period, as odd as it is, the less likely I am to recall some detailed piece of information, which is apparently a key part of reading and comprehending novels, so it becomes a difficult or impossible task to continually go back and find the things I missed to understand where I'm at and eventually I have no idea what I'm doing and it all makes no sense... reading is a task I honestly didn't think you really lost until you lost all your mental abilities almost, but I was wrong on some level there). Some of my anxiety is likely not warranted, and some is normal for the situation, but some comes from the fact I have no clue what to do with myself this summer. I've spent a few summers sick, but not quite this bad off yet, so I could do a bit more, and then I also knew what there was ahead, sort of. I'm taking college courses here in the fall, but I'm afraid it may be too much to handle by then, or not enjoyable at all, so it's nothing I can look forward to with excitement. So I'm gonna lose my grip if I don't get some sort of seriously involved hobby or something REALLY soon.

Shorter version: Just finished high school type stuff, nothing to do, the internet causes me more anxiety than it does help it. Due to different symptoms of my illness, I can't really go many places, do anything that requires being active, and some other smaller stuff too. Also basically have no friends and haven't for a while, due to my situation, but they'd all be leaving soon anyway, so I have no issue with attempting to make new friends somehow, just has to be something doable for me. But mainly I'm just looking for a hobby or activity or a few that can keep someone interested, entertained, and involved for a long time and could work for me.

I seriously just need a little help getting some ideas here, because just knowing there is SOMETHING that could fill the space or work out for me would help A LOT. I'm seeing my psychologist next week, it's on the agenda, my doctor's don't give a rat's behind about how I feel emotionally, really, so that much is covered. Just trying to get to that point, or push past this wall now, because I've had anxiety issues since I was little and I always "comforted" myself in a way even at like five years of age and younger by promising myself I'd just kill myself when I finished high school. So I always had this fear, and then with my current situation it's that much harder. Not to mention, I sort of have to do it all on my own since my friend's couldn't handle it, and I've been doing it all on my own for a while now. Sometimes it gets to a point like this where you just can't. So it's a combination of things that sort of put me in a particularly bad place tonight, and helping me figure out possible solutions would SERIOUSLY help me out right now. I'd appreciate it more than you would ever know...

So my mom came in here asking me to remove a skin tag for her with nail clippers. (I reminded her of my hand tremors though, and it quickly put her off the idea because it was pretty small, there was no way my hands were steady enough to do that.) And it made me think about it more, as I've seen people on youtube remove skin tags the same way, with nail clippers. Painful, but effective enough, it seems. I was wondering what causes skin tags and if this is a decent removal method or if there is something else you should be doing when you get one of these things?

I'm on my first period since starting seasonique and it is... uh... brutal is putting it mildly. I suffer chronic severe pain, and every time I cramped during my school session, I must have looked terrible, because my teacher kept asking in this alarming voice if I was okay. And normally she's used to me looking and feeling sick and can ignore it... so it's bad. So while I've been fantasizing about having a hysterectomy all day, I decide I should at least ask about options that might be things that could happen for me. Seasoniques whole campaign is who says you have to have a period every month, well, who says you have to have them ever? I was wondering theoretically, if you skipped the placebos and just started the next set if you'd continue to not have your period. That's just in theory though, because I wouldn't do that, as there are obviously reasons my doctor hasn't told me to do that. But I wondered if it would in theory. And secondly, is there any form of birth control that is continuous and doesn't have the placebos and therefore doesn't trigger a period? Or is that something any company is testing? I would pay so much for that. I realize the whole thing about stopping a period completely is it could cause fertility issues, but there is almost no way I'm gonna be able to live long enough to have a kid anyway, because doctors are simply going to just let me die since they can refuse to see, test, diagnose, and treat me on the grounds I'm a pediatric patient and I have a progressive undiagnosed illness which is quickly ripping my body to shreds(I wish it would have ripped up my uterus first). So since I'm going to die unless there is some kind of freakin' miracle, I won't have the chance to have a kid, so fertility isn't an issue for me. So... anything like that out there?

I don't know if that makes sense, but I hope it makes enough sense. And I don't know if it differs by state either. I'm not incredibly informed about laws. While I know a fair bit about medicine, when it comes to the legal bits, I know nothing. I couldn't type something clear enough into google to find a clear answer. And I've talked to people online in my same health position, some with all my same problems, who had NO trouble getting in with specialists in different states, and they were not pediatric doctors (as there are very few pediatric specilists in some places in areas like rheumatology or sleep specialities). But I am constantly being denied by specialists I really, really need to see because they say I'm a "pediatric patient" and those doctors don't see pediatric patients. Fair enough. Most of them always said call back when I was almost eighteen. Two months until my birthday now and this morning my grandmother was attempting to schedule and appointment with a sleep specialist for a sleep study. There are more details to it, but in short, they person on the phone stated that I would be considered a pediatric patient until NINETEEN. Which is disheartening, because without the ability to get in with these specialists I was needing to get into once I turned eighteen, I likely can't make it to nineteen at all, my condition is undiagnosed, but is tearing me up, doing organ damage, and progressing quickly. But they told us for so long it was eighteen. And now they say it's nineteen. Why did they change their story now? Why is it such a high age limit in Tennessee? Is it different in other states? If so are there any states bordering Tennessee with a lower age range, so that I'd be considered an adult patient there, and may be able to commute to doctors there instead? It's obviously a pretty frustrating thing for me because I'm absolutely miserable in countless ways and I'm pretty much staring death in the face at only seventeen and STILL no one wants to work with me...

Apparently here most specialists will not take pediatric patients, and there are no pediatric specialists in a lot of medical fields. I'm very sick. Been diagnosed for years, I'm miserable, and don't have a lot of time to wait. I have two months until I'm eighteen, so I thought I was gonna be good. But no. Apparently here somehow they consider you a pediatric patient until NINETEEN years of age. I NEED to have more options as far as doctors go. For one, I need to see a pain specialist because no one else will deal with my pain which is LITERALLY crippling me. There is only one sleep specialist in the city who accepts pediatric patients and he didn't work for me. So far no rheumatologist will help me. I live in Tennessee. I need some help here. This can't be legal, there must be some way around it. I can't allow my condition to deteriorate one more full year just because they're picky about taking me. Do I need to get a lawyer? Is there something I can say to make them see that they HAVE to take me? Please help me out. I don't know much about the law, but this seriously can't be right...

It may sounds strange, but with allergies or any sinus problems my teeth become TERRIBLY sensitive. I don't even know if it makes sense. I've been told it's because of the pressure it puts on the nerves or something. I don't understand that, I won't pretend I do, but apparently it happens. I have attempted all allergy season to keep this terrible symptom from rearing it's ugly head.(Though I have much more severe symptoms, so it's not just this.) Masks, antihistamines, decongestants, the whole nine yards. But today, it has happened. And it is killing me. Sort of literally in a way. The pain is excruciating if anything touches my teeth, particularly liquid, and that's really almost all that goes in my mouth. And it's pertinent to my survival. It hurts terribly. I've tried to do it little by little anyway, but it's just so painful. I'm getting dehydrated because of this, and with all my other problems, oh I do not need that. So anyone know what I can do. Does sensodyne toothpaste and that sort of stuff work if the sensitivity is due to sinus pressure or only when it's caused by wearing down of enamel? Is there anything I can do to make this less painful. Because I REALLY need to get some fluids in me before I go to bed.

I am chronically and apparently progressively ill and undiagnosed, going to MANY different doctors constantly, on and off all sorts of drugs. And lately I have noticed either their all misinformed about medication, or they ALL disagree on what counts as a narcotic. I was prescribed fioricet a while back assured it was non-narcotic, another doctor seemed to back that only for a doctor to point out it IS a narcotic and apparently highly addictive. Which bothers me, not because I assume at my stage of illness I can AVOID narcotic use, but because a narcotic obviously warrants very special attention when you're using it, and definitely needs to be used with discretion.

So I was wondering first off, what the set definition of "narcotic" is, and secondly, if there is some sort of official list of medications which count as narcotics. I apparently can't trust doctors to really know those things, or be honest about it, so I was hoping there was an easier way to do it myself. I appreciate any good information you can give me for future reference on this topic.

http://i51.tinypic.com/359mhxj.jpg

It was the only picture I got that came out quite like this, while I did get other strange pictures from that same cemetery, none of the hundreds of pictures I took came out ANYTHING like this. I was riding in one of the ghost tour trains. The people are a walking tour group, there was absolutely nothing between me and that tour group, not even windows as these buses are windowless, yet somehow the anomalies seem to appear to be between us as they block out parts of these people's bodies, almost completely. My camera was a digital one, from the canon powershot series. I've been using it a long time and never picked up anything like this before or after despite having taken thousands of pictures with that camera.

While I believe in paranormal phenomena, I try to remain skeptical enough to actual be a decent investigator in the field, and I go to every extreme to DEBUNK any potential evidence before I consider it possibly paranormal. With many other photos I took, I found possible natural explanations for the phenomena, but this is the one that has kept me stumped all this time. I'm not incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to photography, so while I've looked at different times of camera malfunctions and lens flares that can occur, I have never been able to find anything quite like this. I'm hoping that someone can give me an idea of what could have occurred to make this picture come out as it did. Any suggestions or explanations of what it could be are appreciated.