Gambling on Life: Understanding the root cause of chronic illness

This post, like others that will follow it, is a continuation of my Gambling On Life series.

In case you're new here, I am.. not well, we'll say, and I haven't been for a very long time (click the Gambling on Life link in the above note to get a better idea).

It has been an adventure and a half to find out what's wrong with me (and treat it), and lately it has gotten even more exciting (as I alluded to in the final point in a previous piece on multiple shitty things in my life).

That tachycardia I mentioned? I may have figured out what my more recent heart issues were caused by.

I recently started a nerve pain medication called Nortriptyline; it's a pretty common drug, isn't anything you'll get stabbed for, and more importantly isn't goddamned Gabapentin (seriously, fuck Gabapentin). It does have some risks associated with it, though, and it appears I learned this the hard way.

While I balked at first at the idea, I am absolutely grateful my neurologist started me on the minimum dose just to see if I can tolerate it, because, as it turns out.. I can't.

About a week/week-and-a-half ago I started having allergy issues; at first I thought it was my new stuffy (who is a giant Shiba Inu I named Biscuit), but after fresh bedsheets and (barely) sleeping without him, I eliminated that as a cause.

Then, on Friday, I had a very new-to-me allergic reaction.. First, the area above my upper lip itched; not a surface-level itch, but an under-the-skin-there-are-bugs-inside-me-fucking-kill-it-with-fire itch.. And then I had a big swelling lump on my lip itself that was numb.

After about 20 minutes it disappeared, but.. Holy shit. I did my requisite googling, and came upon the most logical explanation: I was having a serious allergic reacton.. More serious than my usually serious ones.

It clicked. I had been experiencing itchiness randomly all over my body under my skin. My heart has been pounding out an extended-extended-cut of Inna-gadda-da-vida.. And I was also having asthma issues, too (want to know maddness? Try having your lungs fucking itch).

A quick check shows.. Yeah, these are signs of an allergic reaction to my new nerve pain meds.

So, I'm a couple days free, and things are slightly better. The under-the-skin-itchies are gone now, and my sinus drainage is reduced significantly.

Thankfully, I'm more sure of this allergy than I was when my nerve issues I'm trying to treat came about.. Which leads me into the second part of this piece.

My genetic tests that we did to determine the actual cause of my nerve issues came back, and I had a positive result for a potential cause for my demyelinating peripheral polyneuropathy. I was going to wait for my doc appt to review it, but.. I couldn't resist. I pulled up the report after confirming I really wanted to see it (and after being warned that they'll notify my doc I peeked early - really?), and it looks like I may get another fun disease to add to my list of fucking shit wrong with my body.

I say may because I am absolutely going to wait for the expert opinion of my doctor to give me a proper interpretation of the results. Just because I have a positive genetic marker for something doesn't mean that's definitely what's going on.

That's the critical thing to remember: Trust your experts.

While it took me a while to determine what was going on with my allergic reaction to the nerve pain meds, I have been dealing with my allergies since I was 3 goddamned years old. I know how to isolate causes there, for the most part, and also know not to take stupid risks in the process.

The nerve issues itself? Yeah, I am decidedly not an expert. Nor are the random Ancient Aliens-esque memeworthy "experts" you run into online and in meatspace (I had another Lyft driver today suggest acupunucture.. again).

I'm going to trust my doc on this one, because he's actually a peer-reviewed, confirmed expert.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to supplement my almost-empty-inhaler with some caffeine (which works in a pinch as a bronchodilator - the more you know!) and try to relax.