Jackie's Journey

On Tuesday I went to see my Endocrinologist because my Primary Care doctor was concerned about my thyroid functions and my weight.  I booked an appointment at The Endocrine Center in Katy (about an hour south from Conroe) to see Dr. Daniel Tung.  In his bio from the website he specializes in hypothyroidism (which is what I have) and weight management....perfect!!

After waiting for a while, we finally got back to see the doctor.  He was very thorough with his questions asking about my major complaints, my eating habits, thyroid symptoms, and more.  He told me that he was going to increase my thyroid medicine as my labs showed that it needed to be increased, and he put me on a strict diet plan to help lose weight.

My diet is based on eating 4 major groups: meats, veggies, eggs, and nuts.  Dr. Tung said I could have any type of these categories, whether it is steak, pork, chicken, fried chicken (YES,he said i could eat fried chicken), barbeque, all types of veggies, eggs any way, and nuts of all varieties.  For beverages, I can only drink water, unsweet tea, and black coffee.  I have been enjoying drinking unsweet tea, which isn't that bad, and water with flavoring.

Everything else that is not encompassed in that list is pretty much a no-go.  I am not allowed to have pasta, rice, potatoes, cereal, milk, soda, sugary snacks, and anything that is high carb and high fat.  Jonathan and I have cleaned out the pantry and cabinets so that I am not tempted to sneak anything.  I have had a hard time finding something that is sweet to eat.  My sweet tooth is STARVING, but I usually just make some ice water with some flavoring, and it helps.

So far I have lost 4 pounds!!  I made a chart that I put in the bathroom to help keep track of my progress. Every day I weight myself and then mark it on the chart.  Dr. Tung said that he would like to see me at 170 lbs and he talked about making long term changes so that I don't relapse back.  My goal is to get to 170 lbs, but then go a little lower, maybe to 160 lbs or 150 lbs.

 

Skin Testing

Jonathan had a rough night last night.  He did not sleep at all, maybe a total of 2-3 hours.  He was really anxious and nervous about the testing today.  I was glad we made it to the testing day so we could finally get some answers, hopefully!!

We got to the appointment and talked to the nurse who took vitals and all the normal stuff.  They came in and did a control test to see if the Benadryl he took in the ER on Tuesday had worked itself out of his system.  The first picture is of his back before testing.  The second is the control test....he passed!!  We could continue with the full testing.

 

  

The nurse came in and did a total of 133 skin pricks on his back.  It breaks down to 77 food allergines and 56 environmental re-tests.  Here are some pictures of all the pricks and the slight reactions.

 

 

 Here the list of what they tested him for:

TREES:

Red Cedar   |   Virginia Oak   |   Pecan Tree   |   Arizona Ash

American Elm   |   Red Mulberry   |   Box Elder   |   American Sycamore

Alder White   |   Acacia   |   Pine Mix   |   Sweet Gum

Bayberry/Wax Myrtle   |   Queen Palm

Eastern Cottonwood ----- Reaction

GRASS:

Bahia Grass

Bermuda

Johnson Grass

Timothy ----- Reaction

WEEDS:

Marsh Elder   |   Ragweek Mix

Sheep/Red Sorrel   |   Russian Thistle

Careless Weed   |   Sagebrush

English Plaintain ----- Reaction

MOLDS:

Penicillium Mix   |   Bipolaris   |   Cladosporium   |   Aspergillus Mix

Alternaria   |   Fusarium Mix   |   Drechsiera   |   Epicoccum

Stemphylium   |   Aureobasidium   |   Trichophyton   |   Botrytis Cinerea

Paecilomyces   |   Phoma   |   Rhizopus   |   Candida

Corn Smut   |   Rhodotoruia   |   Mucor Mix   |   Trichoderma

Chaetomium

OTHERS:

Cat

Dog

Dust Mites

Cockroach

House Dust

Mouse

FOODS:

Peanut   |   Soybean   |   Whole Wheat   |   Pecan

Corn    |   Crab    |   Lobster    |   Sesame Seed 

Mustard   |   Cottonseed   |   Sunflower Seed   |   Poppy Seed

Almond   |   Cashew   |   Black Walnut   |   Hazelnut

Brazil Nut   |   Tuna   |   Salmon   |   Oyster

Scallop   |   Clam   |   Banana   |   Avocado

White Potato   |   Celery   |   White Grape   |   Rye

Oat   |   Barley   |   Rice   |   Navy Bean

Lima Bean   |   Green Pea   |   Black Pepper   |   Cinnamon

Nutmeg   |   Vanilla   |   Basil   |   Milk

Shrimp   |   Codfish   |   Egg Whites   |   Clove 

Parsley   |   Sill   |   Cumin   |   Oregano

Thyme   |   Caraway   |   Ginger   |   Garlic

Onion   |   Coffee   |   Chocolate   |   Carrot

Pear   |   Apple   |   Peach   |   Strawberry

Cherry   |   Orange   |   Tomato   |   Watermelon

Cantaloupe   |   Spinach   |   Lettuce   |   Cabbage

Cucumber   |  Pineapple   |   Coconut   |   Pork

Beef   |   Chicken   |   Baker's Yeast

Jonathan only reacted to 3 of the environmental allergines.  He reacted to none of the food allergines.  The doctor then came and talked to us instead of scheduling a follow-up.  He brought in Jonathan's allergy skin tests from last year and compared it to this year.  It was night and day difference; many of the allergines that were the highest last year were 0 today, which proves that the allergy shots are working extremely well!  He was allergic to over 40 allergines before....what an improvement!!!   :-)

Unfortunately, this doesn't really explain why Jonathan was having the reactions that put him in the ER.  He called it "Idiopathic Anaphalyxsis".  They are going to continue with the allergy shots and have given Jonathan permission to start taking his normal meds again.  They said to not take NSAIDs or Aspirin, but he is allowed to take Tylenol.  They gave him some antihistamines in the office before leaving (he said that he felt so much better 10 minutes after they gave him the antihistamine).  They also have prescribed that he take Zantac twice a day as it acts as another antihistamine and an acid controller.

Jonathan has a physical scheduled on Thursday with his Primary Care doctor for some blood work and to see if his reactions are something other than his allergies.

Jonathan Update

Yesterday was an interesting day.  Jonathan woke up fine but progressively got worse throughout the day.  He developed a migraine headache and started vomiting around lunch time and stayed with him for a couple of hours.  He then started getting the chest tightness and he described his throat as "somebody swallowing with a finger in your mouth".  He had difficulty swallowing and talking for the rest of the day.  It never got bad enough to go to the ER but he was in a substantial amount of pain for the whole day.  He eventually got rid of his headache but still had the chest/throat symptoms.

I was in contact with Jonathan's allergist all day.  They decided to take him off of all the meds that he was currently taking (Prednisone and antibiotic) just in case he is allergic to the meds.  They put him on a dose of Prevacid just in case it is acid reflux.

I had to run church choir practice yesterday night and I gave him the decision whether or not to stay at home or come with me.  He decided he wanted to come with me but just to observe.  Driving home he still didn't feel good, so I dropped him off at home to let him rest so I could run some errands that I needed to do.  When I got home, I checked his blood pressure and pulse which was considerably high on both numbers.  I gave him an Ativan to help calm him down and about 30 mins later he was relaxed and falling asleep on the couch.

 

This morning I made Jonathan breakfast in bed.  I got to use my Orgreenic pan that I got for Valentines Day this year (yes....I asked for it!)  I made omelets and cinnamon rolls.  Jonathan has felt considerably better.  He complained of a small headache but as of 1:30 this afternoon he said that it was gone.  He has had no chest or throat problems today, knock on wood, and hopefully it will stay that way.

He has his skin testing tomorrow at 9:30 AM.  We will hopefully know more tomorrow at least by his skin reactions then we will go back for a follow-up with the doctor to review the results.

More will be posted tomorrow....keep the prayers coming!!

Jonathan in the ER

Today was another day in the ER.  Jonathan was suppose to have his skin testing done today but he got sick, probably from not being on his normal antihistamines.  He might have a sinus infection.  His ears were plugged and pressurized along with swollen and puffy sinuses under his eyes.  He also had a low-grade fever and was vomiting the whole afternoon.  He was severely dizzy all day and was in lots of pain.  The allergist wanted us to reschedule his skin testing for when he was feeling better.

I gave him some Excedrin to see if he had a migraine which is common for him.  He started feeling much better after an hour or two.  After about 2 hours after taking the Excedrin he felt his chest tighten and found it was hard to swallow.  I grabbed his EpiPen from the bedroom, but by the time I got back he couldn't swallow any liquids anymore.  I looked at his tongue and it was about the size of a clementine.  I gave him his EpiPen and we sped off to the ER.

 

I don't especially like Conroe Regional Hospital so we went to Physician's ER, a free-standing ER over by our movie theater at 6 PM.  They took him right back while I filled out all the paperwork.  They gave him the allergy trifecta (steroids-pepcid-benadryl) and let him rest a little bit.  He started feeling better and his throat swelling was starting to come down.  They later gave him some Ativan because he had a high pulse and blood pressure; once they gave him that he started to fall asleep.  An hour later they discharged him with some more prescriptions.  We dropped off the scripts at Walgreens and grabbed some grub because we were both starving, and got home at 9:30 PM.

While Jonathan was talking to the doctors I called his allergist and had a very frank discussion with the head nurse on call and the allergist.  We discussed his symptoms he had today.  The nurse said that all his symptoms he had earlier are factors of having an allergic reaction, but since they are so non-specific they could be confused for an infection.  They called in an antibiotic for him to take just in case.  After that we discussed the rescheduling of his skin testing.  I was making sure to reiterate to the nurse that I did not want to have Jonathan be off his antihistamines for another 5 days and have this same thing happen all over again.  She got the doctor on the line and we discussed the possibility of doing a blood test for allergines but he does not prefer that.  We rescheduled his skin testing for this Friday at 9:30 AM.  He will have to be on Prednisone for the next couple of days, not being able to take antihistamines still.  They are going to do a control skin test first to make sure that the antihistamines the ER gave him are out of his system; once he passes that test they will either do or not do the skin testing.

This will be reaction number 3 in the past 3 weeks.  It has been completely frustrating not knowing answers or anything.  Jonathan will now have missed a week's worth of work.  He is hopefully going to be getting off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  We are still praying for answers and to not get frustrated with the puzzle solving process.  The medical bills are certainly climbing after 3 ER visits, 4 Allergist visits, 1 Ambulance, plus my medical visits this past month added in.  It will be a rough month or two for the income, and it doesn't help that since its the summer I don't receive paychecks from SHSU until school starts.  Oh brother......

We are a little overwhelmed, concerned, and will continue to pray for Jonathan's health and wellness.  I'm pretty sure that Walgreens is tired of seeing my face picking up prescriptions....they know my last name now when I walk up!

Keep your prayers coming!!

Jonathan Update Day 2

Today I called Jonathan's allergist, Dr. Quintero, right away when the office opened to see if there was an appointment available.  Luckily, there was a cancellation today so we had an appointment at 1:30 pm.  Before the appointment we ran some errands: picking up prescriptions, go to Huntsville and drop off library books, pick up my paycheck at church, and get retested to check that my infection was gone.

After running around for about 2 hours, we grabbed some quick lunch and went to his allergist.  Dr. Quintero asked a bunch of questions to really understand what happened.  He believes that Jonathan's reaction was not the fault of his allergy shot.  Jonathan got his routine allergy shot on that Wednesday morning at 8 am.  Since the reaction was over 8 hours after his shot Dr. Quintero was very sure that it was not the shot's fault (as I had predicted).  He believes that it is probably an environmental allergy.  Jonathan was tested for these allergy with skin testing a year ago.

The plan of action that Dr. Quintero put in place is to retest Jonathan for some more environmental allergies and add some more.  He is also going to include the extensive food allergy testing as well.  In total, he will be getting over 100 skin pricks in one afternoon.  We are going in for this testing on Tuesday; this means that he will have to be off of his antihistamines for 5 days (Friday-Tuesday).  He will be substituting his antihistamines for a tapered dose of Prednisone steroids.  He can't be on antihistamines because it will skew the results of the allergy testing.  He will then have a follow-up appointment the next day to review the results of the skin testing with Dr. Quintero to help find some answers.

Dr. Quintero advised us that even though we don't have answers now that we will hopefully get closer to answers after the skin testing.  He said that it's a puzzle that we are going to need a little bit of time to figure out.  I'm taking his advise and not getting frustrated or angry with the process; Jonathan and I both know that this will take some time to figure out.  We can't worry about what we don't know yet, that's our motto!

Overall today, Jonathan has felt better.  This afternoon he said he felt his heart really racing and lots of mucus going down his throat and into his lungs.  I told him it was probably because of all the antihistamines he was given in the hospital and that he took today, and the heart racing was probably related to the Prednisone steroid as it amps up the body's metabolism.  Other than that he hasn't had any breathing problems or throat issues.  He did call his boss and he is going to take off from work Friday because his body is just wiped from all the trauma and we both didn't sleep well last night.

Thank you to our families and friends that have been supporting us with love and prayers.  Prayers would still be appreciated over the next couple of days for no attacks since he will be off his normal meds for skin testing, and for patience with the process, and for our emotions....we have both had some scary moments these past two weeks which is a lot for the body to take.  But, we keep trusting in God which holds us together.

Look for another update Tuesday and Wednesday on testing and results....and hopefully ANSWERS!!

Jonathan in the Hospital....Again

I had received a phone call at 4:30 pm this afternoon from Jonathan's co-worker Simone saying that Jonathan was having another severe allergic reaction and that they were going to take him to the hospital.  They told me that he took his EpiPen and Benadryl.  I told Simone I would meet them at the hospital in The Woodlands.

I arrived at St. Luke's Hospital in The Woodlands before Jonathan did to tell the ER staff that my husband would be coming in and his symptoms.  They were the same symptoms he had on his last attack: wheezing, shortness of breath, and throat and tongue swelling.  Jonathan arrived a couple minutes after and they immediately took him back to the ER rooms.

Once they got him back it was a slew of activity.  The doctor was in, two nurses, and a registration lady.  They got him some meds: benadryl, pepcid, and steroids.  They kept him on an EKG, blood pressure, and pulse ox.  His pulse was pretty high (due to the EpiPen which is adrenaline) and his blood pressure was elevated but eventually came down a little bit.

We stayed for 4 hours where they kept him under observation.  They said that the reaction was due to getting his allergy shot that morning.  I am leery and questionable about this diagnosis.  He has never had any problems with his allergy shots.  It was not anything he ate; his lunch was the normal lunch he has packed for 2 years.  I did realized something today: on both days that he has had his allergic reactions there has been a strong wind blowing from the South....I still think it might be an air allergen.

We are going to call his allergist in the morning to set up a follow-up appointment because of his attack.  Hopefully we will be able to get in tomorrow.

Prayers would be certainly appreciated to help figure out this situation and find some answers.  Also, anybody who would like to contribute to the "Keep Jonathan out of the ER" fund or "Help pay Jonathan's medical bills" fund would be lovely!!

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend Jonathan and I had some visitors for our Memorial Day weekend.  Jonathan's parents came down to visit from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon.  They got here around 3 PM, chatted for a little bit then headed to McKenzie's BBQ for an early dinner.

After dinner we headed into Houston to go to a Houston Astros game.  We got front row seats in the season ticket holder section.  The game ended in a tragic loss, but the experience was well worth it. We got back into town around 10:30 that night and headed to DQ for an ice cream fix.  After a "scooby snack" we drove home and headed to bed.

In the morning I left for church and Jonathan brought his parents a little later during my rehearsal.  I met with them just before church started to make sure they got a good seat to see Jonathan and I in the choir.  After church we headed to Chili's for some lunch then back home.  His parents hit the road a little later that afternoon.  We watched a movie later that evening, "Stand Up Guys", with Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, and Christopher Walken.

On Monday, Jonathan got the day off so we enjoyed sleeping in and resting up.  We made Monkey Bread for breakfast then played Life and Clue on the Nintendo Wii.  We were going to play Monopoly but I got a splitting headache from taking my antibiotics so I took a nap instead.  We watched some of our latest episodes on Hulu that we missed watching on TV.  After that I made dinner, which consisted of Hamburgers, Corn on the Cob, and Mac n' Cheese.