Still sick

I went back to the doctor yesterday to follow up on my ER visit/hospital admittance.

I've gained about twenty pounds in the last month as my diuretics are no longer working well (I'm swollen with a lot of edema). Coupled with being low on potassium at the hospital, he upped one of mine and kept me at the same dose of my other one. This has not been helped with the clearing out of the kitchen and the eating of lots of high sodium foods (lunchmeat, canned tuna etc) or fast food. I'm going to try to choose salads when we do fast food; I am well aware they are still not great, but if I stick with the "side salad" type without cheese or meat and use low cal dressing they are not too bad. For sandwiches I'm switching over to low sodium peanut butter for awhile. Bananas are now breakfast every day (potassium, but not TOO much). Once the kitchen is totally done I will be resuming a "whole foods" diet that was previously helping. It's really impossible to do with no kitchen at all. While I do have fridge access, I don't have dishes/pots/etc to cook items in or wash them in at the moment.

For the tachycardia and panic attacks he has added Buspar to my Klonopin. He doesn't want to change me up too much all at once, but when I return in January I will be starting a beta blocker. At that point we will also do another contrast CT to check out this adrenal "nodule" that showed in the hospital to see if it has grown. I will also do another 24hr urine test to see what my adrenaline levels are at again.

I am a smoker, and he pointed out I've now been one for 20 years. Even though I am only 33, that is part of why I'm starting to have issues not usually seen till one is in the 40-45yo range.  I do know how badly I need to quit, so I will be trying a new round of Chantix in January. (My doc is smart enough not to suggest a quitting attempt during the renovation and holiday season, LOL). He did suggest I cut down as much as possible and try doing crafts or other things to occupy my hands when I can until January. Each cigarette I don't smoke right now will help me feel a little better.

And then I came home and this morning woke up to blowing and hacking up green mucus. Ew. And VERY painful. I'm going to give it 48 hours to see if it goes away (color change does not always mean infection) or gets better, and if not I will call him and probably be put back on antibiotics and steroids.

So.. hopefully I am better soon.