Summertime

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Summer has settled in here in the Midwest. We have been running our AC for weeks now. (And we are so fortunate to have an air conditioner).

My last blog post was in February, and I had been knocked sideways by a case of shingles. This case of shingles involved two trips to the ER and an overnight stay in the hospital. While I was battling the worst of it, I had to pause all my immunosuppressant medication that we use to keep my Takayasu's Arteritis under control. While I was off those medications I started exhibiting symptoms of inflammation in my left eye. Inflammation in my eye is a very visible symptom and often occurs before inflammation gets out of control in my body. I was able to go back on my immunosuppressants, but my eye inflammation was hard to get back under control. I was put on an increased dose of steroids, had MANY appointments with the eye doctor and cornea specialist, and was prescribed a steroid eye drop. I was finally done with treatment for the eye inflammation at the end of April. Did I mention I had cataract surgery on my right eye in March - which was a breeze. Then the beginning of June I had a subconjunctival hemorrhage in my left eye - it was horrible, my eye was bulging and I couldn't close my eyelids over it. Unfortunately, this was a situation where I just had to wait for it to dissipate - about two weeks, otherwise everything with my eye & vision was fine. Then, just as it was almost gone, it happened AGAIN in my left eye. Not has horrible as the first time, but still not great. Think broken blood vessel, but to the extreme - the blood actually pools under the surface of the eye. That is almost gone now, but the right eye had a smaller version of this happen as well. Apparently being on steroids (which thins everything out/makes skin & membranes more fragile) and being on baby aspirin make me more susceptible to this happening. Eye - eye - eye. Enough already.

Aside from my eye drama, things are pretty stable. My blood pressure was trending up (130/90) so we made some minor medication adjustments. I still get dizzy from time to time, but it occurs much less than it used to. Another symptom of autonomic dysfunction has become part of my life - but that is a story for another day.

I am going to start blogging about things that bring me joy. I am hoping to post every few weeks. If the topic doesn't interest you, just skip that blog post. If you know someone who might be interested, please pass along my website atypicalaorta.com and my instagram page.

Here are some of the things that bring me joy: my family, my friends, trying new things, creating things (Scrapbooking, paper crafting, Cricut projects, sewing, crocheting, knitting, calligraphy, photography, pottery), home organization, all things Disney, vacation planning, Legos, and event coordinating for my church (weddings and funerals), blogging, music, accessibility... well, that is a pretty good list to start. What do you want to hear about first?