October 27th 2023 Medical Mutterings

Now that I’m home, so have access to my laptop – which makes writing blog posts a lot easier – I’ll update you on my most recent medical adventures.

 

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On September 27^th I went to A&E complaining of abdominal pain, with my stomach feeling more bloated than usual.  I spent the entire day there, only to be barely examined and told I needed to drink more liquid (ironic considering I’d spent the whole day there with nothing much to drink) and told I needed to lose some weight, and then sent home.  My comment about having lost another kilo (just over 2lbs) since July, despite having not done anything to try and lose any, was dismissed as not being good enough.

 

Then, late on the night of September 30^th, we called the number for non-life-threatening urgent medical care, because my pain and the bloating were worse, and I was starting to have trouble keeping food down.  The out of hours doctor came to see me in the early hours of the morning of October 1^st, and then arranged for an ambulance ride for me to the hospital, because she thought I might have some kind of abdominal issue and should at least be scanned.

 

Long story short, I’ve been in and out of hospital ever since (mostly in) and it turns out what I have is liver problems.

 

I’m now on medication to try and help with that.

 

I've also got some new rules for eating, a special meal replacement shake to have as one of my meals each day to ensure my body gets what it needs each day even if I don't manage to eat much, along with some medication to help me actually keep food down, which is something I'm still struggling with.

 

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In other medical news:

 

I’m still waiting to find out about the sleep study thing.

 

And, as for my back, I had my MRI, and it turns out I have a syrinx (air bubble) on my lower spine, which is the cause of the problems I’ve been having with my back.  Apparently usually air bubbles form and burst as you go through life, but sometimes they don’t burst, and put pressure on the spine, causing pain and other issues, which is what’s happened with me.  So, I was right that it wasn’t weight related.  But it wasn’t nerve-damage either, which is why the physio exercises weren’t helping.

 

Still in hospital

Today’s post is late, because there nearly wasn’t one.

I’m still in hospital. Managed to get myself a bad bout of flu of some kind while in here being checked out.

Will give you proper updates when I can.

Super speedy check-in

I was not able to schedule a post ahead of time for today, but was determined one would go up, so this is going to be very short.

My health is proving to be a big issue right now. In fact, I’m writing this from the hospital dealing with all kinds of tests to figure out what’s going on properly.

I hope everything is going better for you than it is for me currently

Of Transport Companies, #AutumnEquinox Celebrations, And Medical Mutterings

When we took the dogs to the groomer a couple of weeks ago, we used the transport company we’d used to take them to the vet.  They’re useful, and much cheaper than cab fare, but not particularly great at being reliable at timekeeping, and seem to keep forgetting I’m blind even when I’m standing right there.  We couldn’t book a ride back from the groomer with them though, because they didn’t have an available car (even though I’d tried to book a couple of weeks in advance) so I had to look for an alternative option for picking the dogs up.

 

Luckily, as it turns out, there’s a second transport company recently been started up in the area, which works similarly to the other one, and I was able to book the second trip with them.  So far, I’m more impressed with this second company, since they arrived on time to pick me up, and were a lot more helpful to me (which makes me feel better about any time I might need to use them without Kelly joining me on the journey).

 

 

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The Autumn Equinox was a couple of weeks ago, as I’m sure you know.

 

With my lack of energy and not feeling great, we didn’t do much, but we made some apple pie and had it with ice-cream (dairy-free ice-cream for me, of course).  So at least we did something nice for the day.

 

I’d have liked to do more.  But between how I’m feeling in general and having been out to take the dogs for grooming the previous day (even if the trips there and back weren’t long ones) I didn’t have the energy.

 

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I went to the sleep clinic (eventually – after the hospital transport got sent on such a stupid route we were all late for our appointments, so grateful the hospital takes responsibility if we’re late on their transport and fits us in when we finally arrive) and got the device they wanted me to wear for the sleep study.

 

Hopefully they got something from that device, because Kelly helped me make sure it was turned on (because, of course, it was all visual and not accessible to me) but when we got up in the morning it was off.  We don’t know how, or when, it got turned off, but it happened some time while I was sleeping.  Anyway, I’ll find out in a few weeks, when they say I’ll either get asked to do another sleeve study or told the results of this one.

In the meantime, my MRI appointment came through, so I have that on October 11^th.