I'm Back...Glamour Shot and And All..;-{

Hello everyone...

(Boy I look like I have been through the Mill.....)

First of all I want to send a big thank-you to you all. Your prayers , good thoughts, candles and cards have given me strength and I will forever be grateful. I am starting to feel better and thought I should update my condition. I'm afraid I have been depressed and unable to put words to-gether until now. As some of you know I was taken by ambulance to the hospital 3 weeks ago . I was frozen with pain and could barely move. My diagnosis was Polymyalgia Rheumatica with the possibility of Giant Cell Arteritis.. The first part is very painful and the second part can cause blindness in a fraction of a second!! It is caused by inflammation of the arteries leading to the eyes as I understand it. Anyway, I had to have a biopsy to clarify my condition. WELL.... that was another story! The biopsy was to take one hour. NOT! ..........for me it was 3 1/2 hours on the table while they dug around in my temple trying to find an artery. The doctor was very unhappy and was not successful in that area......(He has done thousands of these surgeries and has not had a case like this in 20 years!) so he stitched me up and went to the other side where he proceeded to dig some more, finally achieving success he pulled up the artery, took a 3 cm. piece for pathology, tied off the artery, stitched me up and that was that. I heard him saying he was afraid the freezing was going to be wearing off... I thought YES!!! me too... I was so relieved when the whole episode was over and needless to say my DH was a nervous wreck!( Now I have 2 black eyes and a bunch of stitches!!!! I look like I should belong to the Munster Family!!)

The following week was a concern as to what the results would be. Thankfully I got a negative report and I can't tell you how thankful I was. The unfortunate part of the whole thing is the fact that I am on prednisone and being a diabetic it has shot my glucose readings up into the clouds... I have not had readings that reached high teens, low twenties since they first discovered I had the problem. I saw my family doctor on Friday to discuss everything. He tells me it will take a year to get me off the Prednisone~~! Not good news as far as I am concerned..... I DON'T want chubby cheeks for all that long!!!!!! but I guess if that is what I have to do I will just have to PUT MY BIG GIRL PANTIES ON AND DEAL WITH IT ;-} The best part is the miserable drug has done it's job and I don't have an ache or a pain anywhere...... yippee!

I am so looking forward to getting back to all the things I love to do and be a part of all my groups that I love dearly. Thanks again to all you wonderful, caring gals. I love you all more than I can say.....

((((hugs)))) Maggie