Tumgik
kashleycoon · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
1 note · View note
kashleycoon · 2 years
Text
A New Diagnosis...
It never seems to end with me.
At the end of April, I got sick with a regular old flu. Lost my voice, had a pretty decent cough, yadda yadda... The illness lasted about 2 weeks and as I was coming out of it, I noticed my vision in my left eye seemed 'off'.
It was glittery, as if I was getting a migraine. There were lines of purple, green and white all through it and this stationary cloud that sat in the bottom of my central vision, taking on whatever colour was most dominant in the room.
I told my husband about it and took some tylenol. I had a little bit of a headache and assumed the two were related. The tylenol helped to dull the headache but didn't help with the visual anomalies I was seeing. I then assumed, perhaps, I had burnt my retina by spending too much time while I was sick, playing The Isle.
A couple more days passed and my vision wasn't getting any better. I also couldn't tell at the time, if it was getting any worse. My husband and my Mom strongly began to encourage me to speak with my doctor and so I gave him a call. My doctor referred me to see an ophthalmologist and got me into urgent care that evening.
The ophthalmologist validated that they could in fact see, that something was going on with my eye. However, they wouldn't tell me what they saw, and referred me for an MRI.
My doctor called me twice the week that we were waiting for the MRI results and asked if ophthalmology had gotten back to me, they hadn't, so he told me what they had found. Basically, optic neuritis.
Okay, not too scary. The MRI was just to confirm before we moved on to a medication to reduce the inflammation. -- or so I thought. The MRI was **actually** to confirm suspected Multiple Sclerosis. And unfortunately for me, it did.
My optic nerve is inflamed and I have lesions on my brain that are in line with what the doctors would expect to see in someone with MS. I just received another phone call as I am writing this out and my doctor said that his consult with the neurologist basically confirms what he suspected and that they will be moving forward with a treatment plan. At this point, I feel like my body is just playing a sick game of pokemon with illness. I have ADHD, CPTSD, Bipolar 2, Anxiety, Agoraphobia, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease which I'm due for my 6 month ultrasound to check up on so that's happening soon. PFPS, Borderline memory disorder, and now Multiple Sclerosis.
I have a horrible phobia of medications, and am very sensitive to them, so this whole thing makes me incredibly nervous.
0 notes
kashleycoon · 2 years
Text
So I stopped Saxenda...
After a whole three days on this "skinny pen" I stopped my injections. I was experiencing some side effects such as insomnia, constipation, nausea and some vomiting. My husband had gone to the pharmacy to refill another prescription and the pharmacist there mentioned that I should chat with my doctor. After a chat with my doctor, he left it to me to decide if I want to restart Saxenda, citing that the side effects I was experiencing were fairly common and that people do tend to return to "normal" a few weeks after starting the medication. For the time being, I've decided I'm going to push myself to really get serious about losing the weight. Ultimately, I can take the skinny pen at any time, but it kind of feels like cheating. And if I'm going to "cheat" my way to thin, then I'm just going to gain everything back again. I would rather make the changes and maintain them than bounce back and forth between heavy and not. To start, I've been walking almost every day and making a point to make sure my meals are nutritious and not just quick and filling. I recently even made the effort to make my own ravioli from scratch! It was delicious. When they say there's nothing like home made pasta, they aren't kidding. Currently my weight is up. I saw that 179 on the scale and then never again. This morning, I weighed in at 185. I'm trying to remind myself that muscle weighs more than fat, but it's hard to make myself believe that when the numbers are only going up. My goal right now is very small, I want only to see that 179 again.
2 notes · View notes
kashleycoon · 2 years
Text
This morning I weighed in at 181.4lbs.
The graph below shows my weight fluctuations over the past year until today. 😊
Tumblr media
3 notes · View notes
kashleycoon · 2 years
Text
Day 1, Saxenda.
I was planning my start date for the 27th, but had read online that drinking while taking Saxenda can cause your sugar levels to drop and that is something I am not keen to experience. Yesterday, I prepped the needle and had everything ready to go for my first shot of this "skinny pen", and then broke down and had a panic attack instead. There's just no winning. I'm anxious about the side effects (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc). I think it's silly that I'm anxious about the effects of a medication that was approved by the FDA in 2014, but I am [now] perfectly fine about a vaccine that was approved in 2021. This line of thinking made me begin to question why I was comfortable with the Pfizer vaccine, but not with a prescribed medication. Through this line of self-analyzation I realized that studies had led to fairly conclusive evidence about side effects and what percentage of people experienced them. These studies and the presented data, is what gave me comfort in taking the vaccine, therefore, maybe the same would help me with taking Saxenda. I did a little googling and after finding that the most reported side effect was nausea, I decided that taking this medication likely wouldn't hurt me, and that IF I found I had side effects that made me uncomfortable, I would simply stop taking the medication. Afterall, I'm not that big, and this is just to help with getting some weight off me so that I can work out more comfortably and without adding stress to my joints. January 2nd, I bit the bullet. Decided that injecting my medication into my thigh would be the best course of action, and I went for it. My anxiety had me feeling very bizarre immediately after the injection. I had a weird, warm sensation up my ears and into my jaw, and felt a little numb for a moment. Because I felt anxious, I decided to go stand beside my husband until it went away. Just in case. It's been a few hours now, and aside from a little soreness in my thigh, I'm feeling absolutely fine. So here we go, I will weigh in at the end of the week and bring you along my weightloss journey with Saxenda.
1 note · View note
kashleycoon · 2 years
Text
Beginning a Weightloss Journey
I've gone for my ultrasound to check out the spot on my liver. It was determined to be a hemangioma, which is a cluster of blood vessels. My doctor will be keeping an eye on it and I have another ultrasound in 6 months to see if it's grown any. If it has, it will need to be removed. Aside from that, the ultrasound technician seems to have uncovered Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), and while the doctor isn't wildly concerned about it, I asked what sort of treatment plan we could follow. We talked briefly about my diet (pescetarian) and then about my weight (180.4lbs). It was determined that my diet closely resembles that of a NAFLD diet and therefore there were no additional restrictions added, and my doctor didn't have big concerns about my weight but I did ask if losing weight would help, he said yes, and with my knees bothering me the way they are (PFPS) we decided to go ahead and work on a treatment plan from a weightloss perspective. And thus... I was prescribed Saxenda. I have anxiety about medications and I thought this one would be different but it's becoming evident to me that the anxiety around taking medications is really high. Saxenda can make people feel really crummy so I'm hesitant to try it over the Christmas holidays with all these family dinners to go to, so we're thinking that the 27th of December will be my start date. I'm also really nervous that I'll have side effects... Now that I have the medication in my hands I feel hesitant and anxious, but it's such an expensive prescription that I feel I should really give it a shot, use it while I have it, and then perhaps stop using it and continue on my own. If anyone else has experience using Saxenda, I'd love to hear your stories. I could really use the reassurance.
0 notes
kashleycoon · 2 years
Text
Health Update:
So... the good news is, my CT and Echocardiogram came back and showed zero abnormalities with my heart, blood flow, lungs... Everything looks entirely and completely normal. Which is great! I can't possibly describe the relief I felt when my doctor told me that there is quite literally nothing wrong with my heart or lungs. The bad news is... I am STILL coughing -- and now we have no explanation as to why. It's really frustrating, I have been coughing for 18 months, it's painful. It causes headaches. And it irritates my throat further and just makes my cough worse and worse throughout the day. I'm being referred to a specialist to try and figure it out, as well as have another breathing test scheduled in 6 months, but my doctor says at this point it's about keeping me comfortable. Now on to what they DID find... Turns out, I have a mass that is believed to be a cyst in both my liver and the base of my neck. So my doctor is now on the hunt to make certain that these lumps aren't things to worry about. I have an MRI coming up to take a closer look.
Also - I got vaccinated! I think I feel more of a relief knowing I'm doing my best to protect myself and my family than I did when I wasn't vaccinated. I'm still perhaps more cautious than most other people within my circle, but having the vaccine certainly added another layer of relief. And that's pretty much it! I'm still unmedicated aside from my inhaler. I think my mental health right now is okay, I've been pretty productive and have kept busy with preparing for the cold weather. I've also lost 10lbs since July which I am very proud of myself for! I'm comfortable in my skin, but my joints would certainly benefit from another 50lbs off haha!
Slowly but surely.
1 note · View note
kashleycoon · 2 years
Text
Worked on this piece today 🥰
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
0 notes
kashleycoon · 3 years
Text
Update: My Health
On September 24th, I got in contact with my doctor regarding the next steps we'll be taking to determine what's going on with my lungs and how best to treat them. During this discussion, I disclosed the information I had found online that I thought would be helpful (Pulmonary Sarcoidosis) and also remembered to tell him that as an infant, I was born with a heart murmur, however, nothing of it was ever mentioned again and it's thought I grew out of it. My doctor said the likelihood of my ongoing issues being related to Pulmonary Sarcoidosis was slim but not impossible and that it's something he is also looking into. Additionally, the information about the potential murmur was important and would make sense for what is going on. If it's still something I have, they'll likely see it on my echo and will be able to address it then.
Our conversation continued, addressing various concerns I had as well as updating my prescription for renewal. As the appointment drew to a close, I asked my doctor if he had a specific diagnosis in mind and what that might be. He said yes, and offered four additional possibilities alongside Pulmonary Sarcoidosis. In no particular order, they were Pulmonary Hypertension, Interstitial Lung Disease, Abnormal blood flow or blood clots. I thanked him for his time and at that moment, felt pretty good about how our conversation had gone. Having previously looked into Pulmonary Sarcoidosis as a possibility and having been told that it was something they were ruling out, I decided to look into the other potential diagnoses using Google.
What a mistake.
I typed Interstitial Lung Disease into the search bar and felt immediately overwhelmed by the flood of information that followed. None of it reassuring, and all of it telling me I had 3-5 years left to live.
I couldn't close Google fast enough. The floodgates were open and I was consumed with anxiety. Tears streamed down my cheeks faster than I could wipe them away, and as I lay on the couch, heart racing, trying to catch my breath, I thought to myself... "Maybe this isn't as scary as it seems. Maybe I just need to know more information. Clearly, I'm uninformed."
I decided to take a break from ILD and see what Google had to say about Pulmonary Hypertension. Surely, that wouldn't be anywhere near as scary. Another mistake. I scrolled through Google and found article after article about how short my lifespan would be with this diagnosis. I could feel myself spiralling. Absolutely consumed with fear, I trembled, trying desperately to catch my breath. The wind knocked out of me at the mere thought of leaving my family before the age of 40. My husband came home from work to find me paralyzed in a cocoon of blankets on the couch, looking an absolute mess. I had spent over an hour crying and was having panic attacks every 10-15 minutes. He hugged me tightly and threw some box pizza in the oven for dinner in order to stay with me while I, effectively, lost my shit.
The persistent panic attacks continued and that evening, when I took my newly renewed, prescribed puffer, which had the dose increased, I had racing heart palpitations all night. As a result, I didn't sleep. Instead, I cried - watched Lucifer, had a number of panic attacks during the show, assumed it was the show itself in combination with the heart palpitations I was feeling and changed the channel to The Great Canadian Bake Off -- which I watched until 5:30am when I finally fell asleep until my husband got up for work. My day went as expected. More panic attacks. I couldn't look at myself in the mirror. Crying uncontrollably. Loss of appetite and anxiety poops. Naturally. Luckily, it was a Saturday so I was free to live in misery in my bed, under a weighted blanket and about 6 others. Now I realize this all sounds very dramatic and I assure you, it absolutely was. It was probably the most dramatic my anxiety has gotten so far -- apart from when I was locked in my room for two weeks with COVID. It was not a good time. My inner voices were having an all-out war. I spent every bathroom visit looking at myself in the mirror and saying "Kash! Snap out of this! You're literally fine! Deep breath, see? You can breathe, you are breathing. You had 100% oxygen levels at your last test, you've had your heart monitored twice for a month straight, if there was anything wrong they would have seen it. Stop. You need to stop."
Somehow, my logical monologue, inner or outer, was not enough to calm down the anxiety which consumed me. That evening, my husband came to bed shortly after getting the kids into theirs. He brought with him a Nintendo switch and settled down for an evening of Smash Bros with a few of our friends while he spoke with me about how I was feeling. We spoke for a while before I finally began to drift off. I awoke the next day feeling much better rested and thinking that because I've now slept properly, the anxiety would be more under control and I'd be less of an emotional wreck.
I was wrong.
My emotions continued to spiral and the anxiety consumed me once more. The heart palpitations had come back and I spent that day in tears as well having full-blown panic attacks every 20 minutes. Things got so bad that I began vomiting and I told my husband that there was no way I could continue like this. I ended up scheduling an appointment with my doctor for his earliest availability. It was the first time I'd ever reached out for something like this and that, too, made me nervous.
The following Monday, after another night of no sleep, I decided to weigh myself and found that I had lost 5lbs over the weekend due to my constant stressed-out state. Additionally, I'd caused my period to start a week early and was in excruciating pain. I sobbed from the bathroom, begging my husband to stay home from work.
Unfortunately, nobody was available to cover the shift and so I had to put on my big girl panties and push through the day as a Mom, Housewife and Homeschool Teacher for my kids.
It was a really tough day and I was absolutely exhausted.
Finally, Tuesday arrived and luckily my appointment was for late morning. As the appointment time arrived I could feel the phone anxiety creeping up on me.
Because that's what I needed. More anxiety.
It got so bad that I began to feel really hot, so I moved to the basement. I paced around the room, my heart racing and palms sweating. I thought for a moment I might faint and so I leaned against the freezer and took a couple deep breaths. Feeling dizzy I slumped into a nearby seat before finally choosing to lay on the floor. Breathing rhythmically to a count of 4, I tried to calm myself.
Finally, the phone rang. "Hello?" I answered, "Hi there, this is Doc, I'm calling for Kash?"
My voice cracked and I began to lose composure. "spea-speaking" I choked on the single word and followed up by clearing my throat. I told him how the weekend had gone, how I'd barely slept and lost weight. That there wasn't a single moment over those 4 days that I could think of where my cheeks weren't wet with tears.
He offered reassurance and asked if I had begun taking Lamotrigine - the newer medication he had prescribed for bipolar. I told him no, that I am unmedicated with the exception of the inhaler and multi-vitamins. After some discussion, I agreed to try Clonazepam, and had my husband pick up the prescription on his way home from work.
That evening, I decided to try the new medication. One of the side effects was sleepiness and my doctor had joked that this wouldn't be such a bad thing if my anxiety was keeping me up at night. Being nervous about taking medications, I decided I would take this around 6:30pm, that way there was at least 3 hours before my husband and I would normally go to bed, that he could watch me and make sure I was okay.
Unfortunately, my anxiety being as high as it was initially, increased my medication anxiety, and that caused me to feel as though I couldn't breathe within mere moments after taking the 1/2 dose. I tried to reason with myself that anaphylaxis is more of an immediate reaction, not something that takes 30 minutes to kick in, but unfortunately, my anxiety brain doesn't conform to logical ideals and I wound up panicking until I threw up, at which point I immediately felt better and had no further issues with my breathing.
Because, obviously, I wasn't anaphylactic...
Also, can I just clarify that I have literally never experienced anaphylaxis in my life and I have no idea why this particular thing has taken on the form of extreme medication anxiety?
Anyway... I never did end up trying to take the clonazepam again, and have since remained unmedicated except for my inhaler, despite knowing that my anxiety is definitely extreme.
In regards to everything else, I am meant to follow up with my doctor on the 19th of this month, and have my CT and Echo on the 22nd. Fingers crossed everything comes out okay.
4 notes · View notes
kashleycoon · 3 years
Text
Tumblr media
So pleased with how my squirrel turned out! 😍
32 notes · View notes
kashleycoon · 3 years
Text
Every autumn equinox, I open myself up to the public and offer tarot readings for a mere $5.00 until Samhain. Happy Autumn Equinox 🍂 (Sept 22)
Tumblr media
0 notes
kashleycoon · 3 years
Text
The Aftermath, COVID 2020
  I would continue to be hooked up to heartrate monitors for the following two months after my brush with confirmed COVID, and while I definitely didn’t have the virus as severely as others, it seems it has left long term effects.  In late 2020, my doctor was concerned that I was still coughing. I was sent for lung x-ray, the x-ray showed multiple white dots all throughout my lungs which the pulmonologist referred to as points of inflammation. The running theory was that my lungs were inflamed from having had COVID and that perhaps I had asthma. I was then prescribed Symbicort for dyspnea and told to take it when needed for shortness of breath (usually caused by exercising or walking up a flight of stairs).
 Into 2021 I noticed my coughing was not letting up, and while we began working on my mental health, I casually mentioned that I was concerned about taking my puffer as well as my prescribed medication. After some reassurance, my doctor advised I take my puffer twice daily for a few weeks to see if it would help. He suggested that by taking the puffer we could rule out allergies and that if my coughing ceased then I likely did have asthma. 
 A few weeks later, I was no longer coughing and continued to take my puffer twice daily.  My doctor suggested I repeat the diffusion testing to see whether or not my lung function had improved, and unfortunately the results showed little to no improvement. Asthma was ruled out and the potential for anemia, lung disease, or a blood clot was brought forward as possibilities for my ongoing cough - which resumed after testing, having not taken the puffer for 2 days as requested prior to test completion.   My bloodwork, however, came back with iron and b12 deficiency which didn’t surprise me as I’ve always had trouble with those ones, what did surprise me is that I wasn’t anemic. And that means we’re looking at lung disease or a possible blood clot as the cause of my problems with my lungs.   My doctor assured me that the likelihood of a disease such as lung cancer or tuberculosis being the cause of my ongoing issues is very minimal and that in fact we could probably rule them out altogether.   And that pretty much brings you up to speed... I still take my puffer twice daily, I still cough until I gag and then cough some more. I still cannot work due to the ongoing pandemic and my health. And I’m still waiting for answers....   Today I looked up what lung diseases could potentially cause my ongoing issues and found some very interesting overlap between myself and a lung disease called Pulmonary Sarcoidosis. I will be bringing this up with my doctor in the near future.
2 notes · View notes
kashleycoon · 3 years
Text
My COVID Experience... 2020
  Firstly, I haven’t yet filled that new prescription. I’m feeling pretty good so far and haven’t seen a need to start a new medication when my moods have been pretty balanced. I’ve done some reading and apparently there’s quite a bit of overlap between ADHD and bipolar disorder which makes sense as to why I often feel that maybe I don’t actually have bipolar, but instead it’s just my ADHD. Although I was diagnosed by multiple professionals and I should probably just trust that they’re professionals for a reason. 
Moving on... 
 January 2020, I suspect COVID-19 hit my household. It started when my youngest child came home from school feeling unwell. They were fevered, had little to no appetite and slept for what felt like a solid 3 days. Their fever remained within a safe zone and they displayed no other symptoms, though I did feel worried and had told my husband that on the 4th day if they were still unwell, I planned to take them to see the doctor. Luckily, the morning of the 4th day, my little one came bounding down the stairs with all the energy in the world, no fever and behaved as though nothing had taken place at all. My middle child on the other hand.... came down the stairs at a sluggish pace and knocked out on the couch before breakfast. The sickness only lasted about 2 days in my middle child before moving on to my eldest, who was pale and complained of a headache but was perfectly fine by the following day.  My husband was hit similarly, looking very pale with chills and a headache. He too, was over it in a day.  Unfortunately it was then my turn. and the virus was not so nice to me. I experienced a migraine worse than any I’d ever had, and a sensation within my lungs that felt as though I was drowning. I would cough until I was gagging. I would lose my breath just standing. My sinuses were on fire and would begin bleeding every time I blew my nose. I remember laying on the couch on my birthday feeling as though I was dying and crying to my husband that I needed some kind of relief... At the time, he thought I was just being dramatic. 
The worst of it lasted about two weeks before the migraine finally let up and my coughing began to work to move the build up of fluid out of my lungs. I continued coughing until the following April when I finally felt as though I was mostly back to normal.  Unfortunately, the following May, I had a vertigo attack. At first I thought it was just my eyes. Things seemed blurry and out of focus, sometimes I would see double. My grandmother asked if I would like to see her optometrist and try to figure this out, and so I did. We did find that I have an astigmatism in one eye, but not so severely that I’d need glasses. Beyond that, he informed me that my eyes were perfectly healthy.   My vertigo continued to get worse and my friend told me that dizziness can be a symptom of COVID-19. I expressed that I was certain we had already had the virus but told her I would call my doctor, then did exactly that. He advised me to get tested and to my surprise the test came back positive. My family got tested after me and each of them came back negative.  Unfortunately, while I was experiencing vertigo and prior to my getting tested or even thinking I needed to, my Mother-in-law brought over my brother-in-laws children to play with my children. Once my doctor advised I be tested, I sent a message to my brother-in-laws girlfriend to let her know what was going on and everything seemed to erupt into chaos from there. She accused me of doing this for attention, told me I needed to ‘get help’, and acted as though I had purposefully interrupted her life by getting sick.  At the time, she was studying to be a nurse, but her reaction was anything but one of concern for anyone beyond herself. I don’t blame her for being concerned for her family, I was concerned about them too and I wish she had seen me coming to her from that angle rather than painting me in such a negative light.   Under the weight of my own anxiety regarding the virus and the additional pressure of causing disruption to family members work lives and households, her blowing up at me caused me further distress and frequent panic attacks.    And so began my quarantine. I carried around a bottle of bleach spray and vigilantly sprayed anything I touched outside of my bedroom on my way to and from the bathroom. My husband kindly brought up my computer and desk so I could pass the time with something, and in that time I taught myself to crochet.   My COVID experience this time around wasn’t anything like having been sick in January. I didn’t develop a fever, nor headaches, and didn’t begin coughing until the end of my quarantine period. My biggest issue within quarantine was my heart rate and mental health. I experienced panic attacks daily. I couldn’t watch the news or read any articles about COVID without spurring on another and when my husband told me he’d tried to speak with his brothers girlfriend about the ordeal, that caused me anxiety as well.   When my quarantine was over, I came out of it with a freshly crocheted little goldfish and a heartrate and oxygen monitor which would stay with me for another month. 
 And that cough I developed after quarantine? Has been with me since. to be continued....  
1 note · View note
kashleycoon · 3 years
Text
Such a beautiful evening on the beach
Tumblr media
0 notes
kashleycoon · 3 years
Text
I've officially weaned myself off of Quetiapine and after a lot of hesitation and concern about this other medication, I've decided to see how things go for the next little while.
So far so good! Since getting off my meds, I've been able to take my dog for walks, go to the beach.. I've visited a crystal shop in Port Burwell and have plans this weekend. I'm living again.
I know things will get bad again, they always do but I'm going to enjoy myself while it's good, and take advantage of how I'm feeling in this moment. I can always see my pharmacist about filling this new prescription when I'm ready for it.
Tumblr media
1 note · View note
kashleycoon · 3 years
Text
Quetiapine Update
Doc has decided that the medication isn’t doing as it should for me, and so I am being weaned off and switched to another medication.  I have a lot of anxiety about this new medication.... 
6 notes · View notes
kashleycoon · 3 years
Text
Ko’Daro looked toward M’feral, a smirk creeping up her muzzle. The pair were sat in a cell, side by side, their backs to the stone wall. A beam of light casting the reminder of their capture across their legs and shimmering in the slow-growing pool of blood on the floor.  Her voice lowered, Ko’Daro spoke in an excited whisper “to be honest, trevan, this is going a lot better than this one expected”. M’feral looked to her, his face scrunched with a look of simultaneous concern and confusion. “This looks as though things went according to plan!?” he growled, gesturing aggressively toward his wound and the room around them.  “Well..” Ko’Daro began, before being cut off. “This was not the plan to tsin'ra!” M’feral hissed. “We’re prisoners on purpose this time, that’s an improvement” she offered. “And the fact that this ones blood now stains the floor of a cell? Was that trun di naqith” M’feral glared at Ko’Daro as the words left his lips like daggers. Ko’Daro simply shrugged “you were bound to be stabbed sooner or later, ahziss ari” 
Dialogue Prompt
"Ok, to be honest, this is going a lot better than I expected."
"Did you miss the part about me being stabbed and us being prisoners?"
"We're prisoners on purpose this time, that's an improvement."
"And the stabbing?"
"Eh, you were going to get stabbed sooner or later."
-Mod Vienna @see-through-stars
104 notes · View notes