Msblueii

Msblueii

Hi, I live in North Carolina in what was the furniture center of the world. The vacant furniture factories are like sleeping giants.


My daughter is an elementary school teacher. I rarely see her because she works three jobs and just started Grad school. She also was married over the summer.


I return to my hometown once a month to join my YaYa's for dinner and meet former co-workers for lunch occasionally. I worked for a national shoe chain and helped buy and distribute children’s athletic shoes to 500+ stores. My job involved crunching numbers and sales analysis.


I became ill with bi-lateral Ramsay Hunt syndrome (RHS) in July 2007. I had to stop working in 2008 due to my illness. Complex thinking became difficult for me and memory was a problem. The virus attacked multiple cranial nerves. My eyes and ears were damaged the most and I had total facial paralysis on the left side. Most of the face is working now but there are frequent flare-ups, which seem directly proportional to my activity level. There is a tremendous amount of post herpetic neuralgia (PHN=pain) and post viral fatigue (PVF). Along with that, I have a weird unnamed rheumatologic disease and neurological problems.


My hobbies are playing games on the computer. Singing, playing piano, movies, television and volunteering in my community.


Since I was unable to work, I took some online college courses. It took me longer than the average person, but I finally earned my degree.


I donate my time to RamsayHunt.org to help others who are either new to the disease, a long-timer like me who has flare-ups, or is a caregiver of someone with RHS.

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Testing Adding a Photo to a Blog Entry

You need to upload the photos to the page as a file attachment. It's another section on the Edit page.

Where do I find the url-of-photo? It is the one given in the File Attachments section of the Blog Entry you uploaded it to. If the photo is for your Intro then the best Blog Entry to upload it to would be your first one (the oldest). Scroll to the bottom of the page below the message box and click on File Attachment.

Click on Browse and locate the picture file on your computer and click on it. Click Open in the box the picture will be uploaded to your blog entry.

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Moments of remembering

I know for certain I could not have handled knowing what the future held for me by having RHS. It would have driven me mentally over the edge. You try so hard to get well. I guess that is why the doctor doesn't tell us. That's why he did not discourage me from working, etc.

I remember how I was when I first found the forum. I could barely see and I was soooooo tired. I was groping for hope. Hope that my life would not change, that I just hit a little bump in the road. It was a very long time before I realized I wasn't even on the same road anymore.

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Initial Paralysis

I remember my initial paralysis. It was 11PM and my husband had bought me some orange sherbert for my sore throat. The sherbert tasted horrible. Minutes later I felt all the nerves die and creepy crawled across my head from the ear to the top of my head. That is when my face froze.

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Facial Paralysis

I've noticed the last few weeks that I am having a recurrence of facial paralysis and the little eye. Perhaps it is the change from summer to fall weather.

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Face Pain

I've had face pain two days this week. I'm having a bad headache right now. I've been fighting this sinusitis for about three weeks. The Z-Pack last week did not clear it up, it never does. I'm going to suggest to my doctor to not give those to me again.

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Sleep Habits

I go from sleeping all day and night to being awake all day and night. It would be nice to have more consistency with my sleeping habits.

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Stinging, itching and scratching

I woke up early and am stinging, burning and itching again. I've scratched my left arm so much it is cherry red right now. The itching is from the waist up even my head. Mostly that arm and my neck.

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Pins and Needles

I had a good day yesterday but got a bit tired later in the evening. I had some pretty bad ear pain a couple of times.

After I went to bed I started having the stinging sensation on my back and arms. It was driving me nuts and I almost got out of bed, but then I fell asleep and slept a full eight hours.

Today my spine feels achy and tight.

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Mold

I'm tired today. Tinnitus is loud, eyes blurry with gook in them and headache on top of some facial pain. I think I need a good night's sleep. I've had a lot going on. The hot water heater has been leaking for a week and I finally convinced the maintenance man last night and he fixed it. I still have a fan drying out the closet and carpet. There is mold of course. It seeped through the drywall to the bedroom and to the hallway. The carpet is wet from the bedroom, hallway and living room. I was anxious because my piano is on that wall in the living room and I am unable to move it out.

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Back Pain Stinks

I've done a lot of housework this week because nothing got done during my recent flare-up. This afternoon my back was hurting. Every move I made I'd get a searing pain on each side of my lower back. It was worse on the left side. Hurt all the way down to the heel and outside of the left foot. My feet are cold and keep going numb. That is not a feeling I enjoy. I was almost crying it hurt so bad. I took a pain pill. I was hurting so bad I was nauseous.

I moved from the recliner to the sofa. It still hurts on the left lower back.