Now that I am finally no longer coughing due to the medication that I was supposedly placed on for this (which doesn’t mean that it was successful, as I shouldn’t have been placed on it to begin with given my health history), I have edema in my leg that has gotten progressively worse and begun to creep further and further up said leg. Even though I’ve had transient periods of edema in the past, none of them have been quite like this — I’m not able to wear any of the pairs of shoes that I own because of this, excepting the pair of CLOAK Slipps that I’ve owned for… ever now, forever now, and getting that on my foot has been a fight.

I’m going to be calling my primary care physician (doctor? physician?) in a few days, hoping that I’m finally able to get through to them because… that’s always been fun, and I’m going to ask about the status of the cardiology referral that was supposed to be sent out. I’m also going to ask for a refill on the medication that I was put on if they don’t want to change it before I see that doctor, and see what needs to be done about my leg. I can almost not bend it at the ankle, and it’s getting to the point where bending it at the knee — or even sitting on that leg, which I do some of the time — has gotten increasingly more awkward. I know that, given my family and health history, the edema is most likely to be caused by… wait for it, the heart problems that have been inheritable on that side of the family. I just want to be able to stand, walk, and use this leg without concern, and this is getting more and more annoying (with the leg less usable) as time goes on.

As I prepare to resume streaming, I’m noticing a modest uptake in the amount of seizures I have.

This appears to be something that I am just going to have to deal with and work around. Almost all of them occur during the night, but I always have an aura with them (or a period of time that I feel like absolute shit and proceed to wonder about the cause or causes of instead of going right to my medical history on the first try). And I am on medication for them. My care team is obviously aware of them. As long as they stay within the parameters of the predictable patterns they’ve been having, there’s no need for anyone to panic or be concerned about my health… even though I know that my friends, being my friends, may at least worry a bit.

Still, at the moment, it is ironic in a screwed up way. I had reorganized the gaming computer’s desk and was neatening the wires when it happened and I blacked out, and when I came to I’d thought that only a few minutes had passed. No, it was 4:03AM in the morning. I’d gotten sleep before that taking naps as I am wont to during the day when I feel tired or… like something may happen, so my “sleep debt” isn’t that bad now…

I’m wondering if a medication I take to help me fall and stay asleep may help lessen the seizures I have?

For the most part, the coughing seems to have resolved itself.

However, it doesn’t seem like the beta blocker that I was prescribed for the heart issues that are finally being taken seriously is working… at all, because my blood pressure and pulse on metoprolol is now for the most part what it was before I even began metoprolol. But since I don’t acutely feel the “squeezing” that was going on in my chest — the squeezing that had, and has, nothing to do with anxiety because early-onset heart problems are extremely heritable on my mother’s side of the family — I’ll chalk that up to a narrow win and continue to bide my time waiting for my cardiology referral and primary care physician’s request for more detailed testing to go through, hoping that it goes through sooner rather than later to change this med.

So I was put on a beta-blocker for my cardiac issues and referred to a cardiologist, which wasn’t an entirely bad thing… the fact that I have cardiovascular issues that are starting to be recognized isn’t, anyway, because I have a strong family history of early-onset heart disease on my mother’s side. I have been coughing nearly constantly since that started even in spite of taking all the cough medication I safely can. And then I found out that people with bronchial asthma are generally not supposed to be prescribed beta blockers, even cardioselective ones in cases where the bronchial asthma is definitely not mild. This explains why I have literally been coughing for more than a week now. It tracks. If I can get through to my primary care doctor’s office next week, I’m going to be calling them, explaining the coughing thing (which I had intended to do earlier, but I had hoped that it would ride itself out and that this medication would still be viable), asking to be prescribed a different medication, and asking where the hell the second prescription I was supposed to be on for my heart went because I clearly heard “two prescriptions” while I saw him.

This cough needed to go away yesterday though, as my voice has faded in and out and I am just over it.