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KKrafts
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Name: Katie
Metro: Salt Lake City
Gender: Female
Interests: Creative challenges- Scrapbook Design, writing, working in the garden. Editing Photos, Photography
Expertise: 13yr. Scrapbook Designer- Horticulture in English Cottage Gardens. Editing Photos: over 2000 images in an hour
Occupation: Visual Artist-Horticulture-Des
Industry: Landscape-Scrapbooks-Photograp
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
3/12/2006
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| November 9th, 2009
I have had Raynods all my life. My parents were not responsible in getting me in for proper medical treatments as a young child and several years later was diagnosed by my family doctor that I had some sort of connective tissue disease but he didn't know what exactly. Nothing was ever pursued and always questioned.
This was roughly 12 yrs ago that this diagnoses took place. My doctor took one look at me and said, "yep you have Lupus or something of that nature but anything in the auto immune family is so hard to detect." Wished me well, told me to document any new changes in my flare-ups. As the years went by, I suffered shingles. Isolating it from my auto immune disorders/diseases I was given valtrex to treat the shingles for 5 long painful years. During that time I developed what you would call the "Butterfly Affect" prominent and easy to see, I took pictures and made an appointment with my family doctor to discuss this "Butterfly Rash" His response was," yes that looks like the "butterfly affect”, you have some sort of connective tissue disease." I begged and pleaded for him to do more extensive test but he didn't and referred me onto a Rhumatologist(sp)
The new doctor took one look at me, tapped on my knees with his instrument like I was a 3 year old and said, "nope don't see anything wrong", charged me hefty for the visit and sent me on my way. So discouraged, I found myself crying and feeling so alone with my health.
Once again discouraged and alone, not getting too much support or help from my husband either at home. I could physically see my body getting worse. My husband at the time could see me getting worse. Hardly there for any of my appointments showing now support or compassion of the ongoing pain I was in. Not being able to explain to the kids either.
Random infections in my eyes that made no sense at all, rashes, soars, my Sjogrens and Raynods was getting stronger and flare-ups where longer and more intense.
The doctors could clearly see what was something going on but still dismissed doing any type of adequate testing that could have prevented years of suffering.
Divorced now and on my own, I figured I would have more time to devote on determining if I have Systemic Lupus, Hotchkins Lymphoma or a few other major auto immune diseases.
In August 2008 I started getting sick again. In and out of the doctors, emergency rooms with my blood count not being normal and was looked over and mis diagnosed for having Strepicocal and C-Diff in January 2009. Questioning the medical profession and all the doctors that associated and treated me poorly, “how long did I have these infections, does anyone know?” Not surprised that I was not getting any responses from the medical profession.
Then in February after being told to treat my infections at home and not being treated properly, I ended up in the hospital weighing in at 114 lbs counting every rib on my body.
I spent 10 days in the hospital with a 30% chance of dying and from the waist down had no bodily function whatsoever. As I laid in the hospital bed being mis handled and mis treated. I pleaded for the various doctors to please run certain tests on me. My good friend at the time watched and witnessed how the hospital staff mis treated me and the doctors would not do tests that I asked them to do. They deny me my rights in being treated properly. I could help but wonder when they looked at my insurance and saw what I had that it was their opportunity to take advantage of my health coverage and my health.
After several fancy and expensive tests were done, Cat Scans, MRI, Ultra Sounds, Spinal Tap etc. NOT ONE BIOPSY WAS DONE ON MY ORGANS. I laid there for days complaining that my liver or something under my right rib cage hurts.
$42,000 hospital stay plus a $20,000 deductible, I had nothing left to my name, had lost my job over this and the hospital sent me home with toxic poisoning from all the heavy anti-biotics that made my flare-ups worse, I ended up in the emergency room going into shock.
After spending several months on the couch trying to regain my strength. Literally wondering what happened to my life and where did it go? I discovered with two new doctors that simple and inexpensive tests could have been done that could have prevented additional health problems and damage to my body/organs. I was also made aware that blood work can come up completely different then that of direct biopsies of the organs.
If the doctors knew I was struggling with a connective tissue disease and they could clearly see me getting sicker and I was coming up positive for various things along the years that they had been treating me, why did they keep me from my right of getting biopsies on my organs?
I am 37 yrs. old, have no way or no means to financially take care of myself. I was approved for Medicaid but didn’t receive because I can’t show intent to work a full time job, how can I when I am fighting for my life?
I spend my days and nights sitting in the bathtub trying to get the pressure off my spine and watching my vision get worse. My organs are so swollen that it hurts to breath or sleep anymore these days.
Just last week I spent 7 days throwing up biol(sp) and turning yellow (jaundice) and purple. Swollen glands under my arms and neck. My dad passed away 1.5 years ago of pancreatic cancer. Tossed around in the medical profession like a rag doll, his insurance dropped him because they wanted to claim him as pre existing so they wouldn’t have to pay, he died 3 months later. Is this my fate? My Insurance dropped me because they don’t want to pay for the expensive highway robbery hospital stay that didn’t need to happen on me. Inexpensive tests that could have been done.
My dad had a grapefruit size tumor under his pancreas that no expensive camera could catch or see. Then just before he passed away, his second wife had to bring in an attorney to demand that a biopsy be done. Sure enough blood work came up normal but found that his pancreas was abnormal he passed away 3 months later.
I have two beautiful children my daughter 15 and my son 11 and I had no choice but to give full custody of children to my ex husband because I can’t take care of my health anymore, literally. My daughter just a month ago yelled at me and said, “I suck the life out of her with my health” what do I say to that, she is right? I didn’t want it to affect my kids anymore so without having too many friends or family support around for that matter I did what I thought was best. I can’t even take care of my kids anymore and I am so scared.
I literally lay here with my organs swelling and throbbing. My friend insisted that I be seen the other night in the ER for pain management, it got so bad. I was given pain medication then sent home as usual when they see that you have no insurance.
When the medical profession discovers that you have no health Insurance, it means you mean nothing to them.
They don’t care that I have two beautiful children or that I am a mother or young woman with life goals. They don’t care that I can’t work outside the home and struggle to support myself. They don’t care that I had a life as a Landscaper or Scrapbook Designer. They don’t care.
So I am one of those people that fell through the system and am just waiting to see when my body will give out.
I even wrote to the doctors that mis treated me and instead I got met with “how am I going to pay for this hospital stay, never mind my current health state I am in.”
I called my mom last month asking for any type of support and I was reminded ever so quickly that I was a mistake that happened in her personal life and she didn’t know who my real dad was and she in so many words doesn’t want anything to do with me, even if it means my life.
Trying to find any answers to my health or not knowing if my dad that passed away with cancer is my real dad and if I might be fighting the same cancer or being mis diagnosed with my Connective Tissue Disease for so long that it has affected my major organs.
Words can’t describe how angry I am with the world, how angry I am with the medical profession that failed me. I miss being a mom to my children, I miss making scrapbooks or landscaping and making people happy. I miss living life.
If I could say one last thing to the medical profession, doctors and insurance company, I would say this, “is giving full custody of my two children to my ex husband and giving my well being away enough to cover the unneeded medical expenses that didn’t need to happen?
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As I struggle with my own health today, I am constantly coming back to this Cancer Scrapbook I made.
Let me tell you the recent story about this book.
I developed a close pen pal bond with one of my past scrapbook customers. Faithful she was in purchasing just about every scrapbook I made. Sending kind notes in the mail to me or sending me a care package filled with all the little secret things I cherished the most in life and I never told her what they were. She just simply knew how much I didn't want to feel alone anymore in my heart and I was scared, confused and utterly heartbroken over my health.
She had a special way of understanding me and some how providing me with comfort in my heart.
As quick as I was comforted by her wisdom, my dad passed away suddenly of cancer. She was the first one I reached out to, I just knew she would be on the other end to talk about my dads passing.
Then as life would have it, she was taken from this planet. I cried for days missing her, missing her gentle and soft spoken words. A deep ache came over my heart causing me to cry over someone so hard that I never met before. I wished she could have been my mother that I didn't have, I wish I could have met her. The bond we developed countries apart made the distance seem so small.
My Jenny, she left a wonderful family and she left so many others who cared for her deeply. I find myself asking her to comfort me when I feel so alone with my health problems. Whispering to her that I miss her and wishing she was on the other end.
Not knowing what else to do at the time I pored myself back into my scrapbooks, I had recently been to the craft store to pick up some supplies. As I passed by some cancer stickers, a little voice inside said, "make a cancer survivor scrapbook" in the 13 years of designing and making scrapbooks, I never had done this particular theme before. I quickly passed over it and went back to shopping. Returning weeks later, the same cancer stickers stood out to me and the voice inside me said,"make a cancer survivor scrapbook" I followed my intuition which often I don't do in this case and made my very first cancer survivor scrapbook.
Jenny's daughter loved this scrapbook and purchased to hold her mothers keepsakes in.
I shipped the package out to her not knowing that the scrapbook would get lost in the mail. Several weeks went by that the book had gone missing. Then out of no where the scrapbook was found. It had ended up at the neighbors house, it had found itself in the hands of an elderly man who had just lost his wife to cancer and thought that the scrapbook had been sent to him in honor of his wife.
Right then I knew I wasn't alone and that I was not going to face my health problems alone that I was being watched over.
I know Jenny had a roll in this and I know it was her that told me to make this scrapbook.
Now I struggle with my own health and it's getting harder to make scrapbooks with these aching hands and poor vision. What use to take 2-3 days is now taking 5-7 days but somehow I am reminded by Jenny that it's important for me to continue making my scrapbooks and to never give up. That these scrapbooks are meant to help others that may be in need of support and to know they are not alone. | | |
| Hi my Scrapbook Fans  my business is growing and am switching over to my website and my new blog site.
I will do my best to stay in touch with Xanga but encourage all my friends and fans to follow me over to a new playground.
You can view more scrapbooks and garden tips at: www.poeticgarden.com
or our new blog site at: www.pggardens.blogspot.com
Don't forget to subscribe to the pggardens.blogspot.com if you want to receive updates on new scrapbook designs or garden tips and ideas.
If you live locally, we are offering scrapbook classes starting in November, hope to see you there.
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| I decided this past week that I am going to run a couple of variations of my scrapbooks.
The New Chic & Simple lines: Scrapbooks that vary in price and details. This way my clients can choose from completed "high end chic" scrapbooks to the most simplest.
Ranging in price from $39 - $99 this gives my clients the choice to pick something that is entirely completed or a scrapbook that is not as embellished yet still just as adorable.
Below are just a few Scrapbooks that are posted on eBay this week. The Baby Girl Scrapbook is from my new "Simple" line and the Baby Boy Scrapbook is from the new "Chic" line
 
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