It's been a while. I've been through a lot over the last 7 months and a lot has changed. So here's a little update for you guys!
I got married! My wife Alishia and I made our wedding oaths on March 16th, 2016 in a small outdoor heathen ceremony, officiated by a dear friend. We had less than 15 people there, which was absolutely amazing. Very low-stress.
We moved back to my hometown, a tiny town in rural Michigan (like seriously, there's 1300 people in the whole town and this is one of the bigger towns in our county). We're living in a much better situation now, a safer and more stable situation, so I think this was a really good choice for us.
My health has been..... complicated. I had medicaid and was seeing an amazing GP who strongly suspected that my stomach problems (which I was briefly hospitalized for in April) are caused by gastroparesis, a complication of my hypermobile joint syndrome. Basically, what was happening was my stomach was not contracting enough/correctly and so food was just getting trapped in my stomach and fermenting instead of moving through my digestive system. This explains my chronic nausea, abdominal pain, sulphur burps, and specifically it explains why my pain was occasionally so severe even though my ultrasounds and scans were coming back normal. She put me on Reglan, a medication that treats GERD and Gastroparesis, and it was like a miracle drug for me. After almost 3 weeks of literally crippling stomach pain and nausea that was so bad I had to be put on opiates and anti-anxiety meds, in addition to zofran (which had to be the dissolving kind because I kept puking the zofran back up), my symptoms evaporated within 48 hours of starting it. I've been able to stay on a solid diet since then, which is really good.
I also started seeing a physical therapist for my ankles, which are my most unstable joints. I've sprained/strained my left ankle over 30 times since I was 13 (including 3 third degree sprains), my right ankle has been sprained or strained more than 10 times. They "give out" on me regularly, which greatly compromises my mobility. So I've learned some really useful exercises for my ankles, and learned the exact degree of hypermobility (which is astonishing).
My asthma and allergies have improved a lot. I'm back on advair, and we've also added zyrtec and a nasal spray to my regimen. I now have "mild intermittent asthma" instead of "severe/acute asthma" and my chronic bronchitis has gone away, as it usually does during the summer. I still have chronic sinusitis. My allergies have been worse since moving, as there's a lot of dust in this house and a whole different set of pollens and trees that my body is no longer accustomed to.
Unfortunately though, due to a paperwork error my medicaid was retracted right before we moved. Now that I'm settled in to the new place, I'm going to have to reapply so I can resume medical treatment. Of course, that will mean the painstaking process of finding new doctors.... one of my least favorite activities. Ugh. Wish me luck, and a caseworker who actually responds to their emails.
