How I See It: Reflections on spirituality, technology, and the art of everyday life

Just another day in the ER! For some time now, I have been wanting to make a post about how I am doing since I started my IVIG treatments, so I will do that here and bring you up to speed on what happened today as well. Monday, August 15, at 6:30 AM, I found myself in the ER of my local hospital. I was there primarily because I was having a very difficult time breathing. This had all started last Thursday when I noticed that I was having trouble speaking. My voice was hoarse; for the last year I had been having bouts of hoarseness, so I was not overly worried. Friday, I was still hoarse and noticed that I was having problems breathing—nothing major, just that it took more effort than normal to breathe. Again, this was something I had been dealing with for several years, so I noted it but did not do anything about it. Saturday, I was feeling worse and having a very hard time talking. Sunday, it got very bad; I noticed that when talking or eating, I would get very short of breat...

A Scary Night Last night I was lying in bed reading when I felt a pop in my head (on the left side). Suddenly the foot of my bed sprang into the air while the head sank into the ground. It took all my considerable powers of concentration to convince myself that my bed was not spinning through the air and that this was some new symptom of my condition. When my bed landed, I found that it was still slowly spinning and my limbs were all numb and very weak. I just lay there for half an hour while my book continued to play, and I thought about calling an ambulance. But I knew there was nothing they would do except charge me a large amount of money. So I lay there until I felt strong enough to get up and update my contact list’s ICE (In Case of Emergency) entry. It is now a little over a week since I returned from the Mayo Clinic and nine weeks since my last steroid treatment. My condition is getting worse by the day. I met wi...