staciabimanyu

[staciabimanyu]

Dealing with Vit D Deficiency

In April 2019, upon having entered into a swimming competition, I felt sudden shoulder and neck pains on the left side of my body. The pain went on and off and became worse during the night. I was in my lowest shape in June 2019 as the pain started striking my inner ear and so I went to an ENT specialist to get my ear checked but the specialist did not find anything.

           I initially suspected that I had a pinched nerve which further led me to a chiropractor, who I hoped was the one who could end my misery. During the first visit, the chiropractor did some physical examinations and said, “You’ve got a Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS)”. He explained that the healing process would not be instant and so I need to be patient as It would take several sessions of therapy to achieve 100% recovery. I had no idea what that was so I did a Google research right after I went home. After reading through people’s threads and replies in one of so many TOS forums I have found (I was quite surprised by the fact that there is actually a lot of people who have been struggling with TOS), I discovered that the symptoms did sound pretty similar to what I have experienced, so I thought it would not hurt if I continue the therapy sessions the following weeks.

A one-time therapy session which lasted for 45 minutes consists of acupuncture, dry cupping, and infrared exposure treatments. Unfortunately, after undergoing four sessions of therapy, my neck and shoulder pain did not seem to get better, and the worse part was that there were some additional symptoms that suddenly appear, such as leg numbness and vertigo, and that was when my husband said, “I think you need to see an orthopedist and get your body medically checked. It is probably not a pinched nerve at all.” I completely agreed and immediately made an appointment with an orthopedist who had been taking good care of me when I had a Jones Fracture a year ago. This orthopedist wrote me a recommendation letter to the radiology department to have a shoulder MRI and Thorax X-Ray and I brought the results of such tests to him the following week and that was when the conversation took place.

The orthopedist : (Looking at my MRI and X-Ray result) All looks good. You only have a mild tendinosis in your left shoulder, it’s probably the inflammation that has been causing your neck and shoulder pain all this time. It's not a big thing but It is just kind of rare to come across this tendinosis case in a patient at your age as it is related to degenerative bones, which commonly found in elderly people.”

I was actually a bit worried, I felt like Benjamin Button.

Me: Is it like dangerous? Is there any sort of treatment to cure this?

The orthopedist: No, it is not dangerous. All you need to do is stretching, I will show you how.

After teaching me how to stretch, in which he said I should do it at least 4 times a day, I began to ask more questions.

Me: So, doc, I assume this stretching result won't likely be perceived until at least a week from now, my guess? Is there anything that can instantly reduce my pain?

The orthopedist: For now, I recommend to give you a steroid injection in your shoulder.  

Me: How does this steroid injection works? Would the pain go away permanently?

The orthopedist: No, only temporary.

Since I was so in pain at the time, I approved very quickly to receive the injection.

When the syringe was pinched to my shoulder skin, it felt normal, just like another blood test injection I usually had. But when the liquid being injected, I can feel the pain to the bone.

And the conversation continued.

Me: Doc, any suggestion on what actions need to be taken if the pain recurrent or even got worse?

The orthopedist: I'm sure that the inflammation would heal itself in a couple of days after receiving this steroid injection and after taking the medicine that I am about to prescribe you. However, apart from your tendinosis, you have a sharp-edged shoulder bone which can potentially cause you to feel pain in the future. In which case, I recommend you to have surgery.

Sharp-edged shoulder bone? Why didn't he mention it in the first place? And surgery? Is there any better solution? I did expect the treatment would be less dramatic than surgery.

Me: Surgery? Seriously? For what?

The orthopedist: Yes, to cut your bones. You’ll feel a lot better after surgery.

“Thank you for your recommendation Doc, but no, thanks”, I whispered in my heart.

Sometimes, visiting a doctor can be so devastating, especially if surgery seems to be the one and only answer. Also, he did not seem to find the root cause of my other symptoms (i.e vertigo and leg numbness).

I did the stretching that the orthopaedist taught me to. However, a few days after the orthopaedist visit took place, my neck and shoulder pain got worse. I was so in pain, I could not concentrate on my work and one day I felt a sudden stabbing pain in my upper chest. I really thought I was having a heart attack and so I went to a cardiologist to get my heart checked. My EKG test result was surprisingly normal so he sent me to an internist to see if my GERD issue was recurrent because after reading my medical record, he suspected that the culprit of all of the symptoms I had was the GERD issue.

I followed his instruction and went to an internist. All the internist did was measuring my heart rate. She then came into conclusion that the GERD is what has been causing all the symptoms merely upon observing that my heart rate was so high. She looked at me and said “You look really worried and that’s the first thing that I notice from all of my patients who have been struggling with GERD. Their anxiety was written all over their face, just like you” Dude, of course I look worried. I AM WORRIED for not knowing what happens with me after all the tests and consultation that I went through. And so her diagnosis was that I had an anxiety disorder which leads to GERD. GERD ok but anxiety disorder? I told my best friend this story and her first reaction was “I don’t accept that you have been diagnosed to have an anxiety disorder. Dude, you are like the most chill person I have ever met.”

And neither do I. I felt the urgency to get a second opinion, so I went to the Second and Third Internist just to hear a similar diagnosis like “You need to be more relax and maintain your stress. It’s all in your head. “ I have never felt so desperate in my life before.

At the bottom of my heart, was pretty damn sure that those were not GERD symptoms, cause it felt different. I have been battling with GERD for years and I notice the difference. When you have a GERD problem, the chest pain that you tend to feel will be like the heartburn type of pain, which in my current case, what I felt is more like a stabbing pain to one point area of my upper chest.

I became more and more frustrated each day. One more additional symptom that I started to feel was that I can't stand to type for more than an hour cause my thumbs would start to generate a tingling sensation. It’s been really disturbing cause It made me less productive on my work, so I made an appointment with a neurologist to see if I have a carpal tunnel syndrome. After having received numerous diagnosis from many different specialists, I was a bit skeptical that this neurologist would finally be able to find the root cause and provide me with a permanent solution.

I still remember I prayed the night before the visit, “God, I am so tired with all of this. I began to feel depressed as it seems like I am only spinning around in a circle of a never-ending searching process. I hope this neurologist will be your incarnation to help me solve my health issue. “

The neurologist sent me to have an MRI (a different type of MRI from the previous MRI that I had before). It is called Braxial Plexus MRI. He also sent me to the laboratory to have a blood test. (CPK, LDH and Vitamin D3). Like I have said before I was soo skeptical. Another MRI..but a blood test? This is actually something new. But I thought let's just see. I brought the result the next day and went to see him again.

He looked at the MRI, “It's all good”.

I am not happy with his statement. I want him to find something. I want an answer.

Then he looked at my blood test and said “Ah there you go. You have a severe vitamin D deficiency. Your level is 9 ng/ml, where the minimum range should be at least 30ng/mL ”

At first, was like are you kidding me? I drank milk every day, I eat cheese every once in a week.

My husband replied with a question, “How is that possible? Does it mean she is malnourished?”

Me: “But I drank milk every day”

The neurologist: You can drink milk as much as you want but still lack of Vitamin D. You need to sunbathe. You deficiency is simply because you never or seldom went outside and did not get enough sun exposure.

It's 100% true. I never went outside my office, not even during lunch. My company provides lunch for their employee (which is good), but it is ironically what has been pampering me not to go outside.

My husband: So when is the best time to sunbathe and how long do you have to sunbathe each day?

The neurologist: The best time to sunbathe is between 7 to 9am, for 30 minutes maximum. But given that your level is so low, I will prescribe you a 5000iu vitamin D3 supplement that you need to consume daily. It cannot solve your problem overnight, in fact, it will take three months at a minimum for you to start seeing progress. But I am sure you will feel a lot better once your level is up. So, let's meet again 3 months from now and let's see how the progress will be.

I feel like what he has been explaining makes more sense to me than what other specialists had told me.

Again, I did plenty of Google Research to find out what Vitamin D deficiency is, what are the symptoms, and what are the treatments. I suddenly felt pretty relieved as I seemed to finally get an answer.

I have been consuming vitamin D for a week now, combining it with 5 to 15 minutes sunbathing. I have not yet been able to say that it works (as its too soon to tell) but I do feel progress, which is a significantly reduced shoulder and neck pain. 

I am going to update you with my progress three months from now.

So, see you then!

[staciabimanyu]

The path I’ve been searching for

The process of finding my path is quite something. Back to 2012, when I graduated from College after getting my Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering, the thought of getting a great job and pursuing an established career in a well-known company (to be specific in Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Industry) had always been my ambition or some may call it "future goals". I still remember how grateful I was for being able to work (not even a month after graduating) in a prestigious company in transportation sector handling a megaproject that hopefully will solve one of many Jakartans problems; traffic congestion. Not realizing that the bigger the project you handle, the more stressful you're gonna be. Instead, I was so thrilled cause I felt like my dream had finally come true. However, it only took 6 months for me to eventually filling a resignation letter to the Human Resource Department. I supposed that this was not exactly my passion. Yet, I still did not know what my passion was. I kept on thinking that maybe I was just following other most civil engineering graduates dream. Maybe what I thought was my ambition is not really what I want. Then the process of discovering myself had just begun.  

         Luckily, two weeks before the "one-month notice process" from my resignation had over, I got this another job opportunity to work in an EPC Company as a Project Control Engineer. I knew this job vacancy information from a college friend of mine who has been working for that company for a few months. I felt quite relieved because I didn’t have to spend "a jobless period" in the process of seeking a new job. The first year was okay. The second year was amazing cause my bosses told me that they were satisfied with my achievements that directly affect the amount of incentive I have received each year. The third year I began to question my employment status. As I was being recruited as a contract-based employee, and as I was pretty much aware of this country's manpower regulation, I realized that it has been three years I’ve been working in that company, but I have not been appointed (not even been proposed) as a permanent employee. My understanding based on the manpower regulation is that after the employee’s contract has been extended for 2 times maximum by the same company, there were only two options; it’s either you would be appointed as a permanent employee, or the company could simply just terminate your employment. So I was curious and triggered to ask about this matter to the HR Manager. And his answer was pretty much like this...

         "Your performance is excellent..as it is reflected by your Key Performance Index (KPI) which is above average..and as you may or may not know, this KPI has been our tool to determine the amount of incentives you have received, but since our company is currently facing a financial downturn, there is no such quota for permanent employee appointment this year. In which case, this plan will be postponed until next year. "

         Despite questioning the actual company’s financial condition (because it didn’t make any sense to me that while your company claimed to be facing financial problems, yet you still received incentives) and feeling disappointed by his not-so-satisfying answer, I asked myself instead, “If I am so passionate about what I’m doing, why would I make this employment status such a big deal?” I managed to survive another year with a heart full of hopes that there would be some enlightenment the following year since there was still a possibility that I might be appointed as a permanent employee. However, after surviving for two years of status quo with all my hopes going down the drain, I decided to (for the second time in my life) filling a resignation letter to my boss.

         It was quite a hard decision to make because three months after my resignation, my wedding ceremony will be held. An Indonesian wedding ceremony, where you have to invite like zillion people who you barely even know (mostly because they are your parent's co-workers, colleagues, etc), where you have to undergo a series of traditional events,  in which expenses are surprisingly high. Since my husband (my fiancee at that time) and I were about to finance our wedding on our own, this wedding plan had made us gone through a back and forth discussion prior to making my final decision.

         But he once asked me...

         "Whats the point of holding onto something that burdens you, that you're not so passionate about? Dont settle, yet. Find another job that makes you wake up in the morning with excitement, without questioning your employement status. Your status doesn't matter, your happiness in working on to whatever your job is does."

   And the decision was firm. 

This not so long but winding journey somewhat helps me search my path. I have been through so many interviews these past few months, yet ended up here working for a company which project’s goal is to provide electricity to the communities who live in remote areas that even the government could not reach. This job makes me wake up in the morning with such excitement because I know the purpose of this project is obviously not in terms of profit making but to help those less fortunate people so they can live a decent and advanced life as we do. Hopefully, this is the path that I’ve been searching for...

[staciabimanyu]

i suppose i dont have anything to post..well..instead of posting things that dont need to be posted (dont push yourself too hard to digest my words..cause i dont understand either..).. how about me sharing these cute pictures of mine to test my new tumblr... these pics were taken on 29th july...when my boyfriend and i were celebrating our 8th year anniversary :p at the zoo..lalala...