Well, I've been to the doctor. The cough was diagnosed as probably a virus which has been complicated by asthma - the virus itself has run its course by now, but my lungs are now irritated by all the coughing. Which means that I keep coughing and irritate them further, and so on. She says I may just have lungs which are easily irritated.She's given me a preventative inhaler (which I 've never had before) and told me to rest. Which sounds good.At first I was a little incredulous, since my asthma is generally triggered only by allergens and very cold dry air, and often I don't pick up my inhaler for months at a time. But now that I think about it, this happened to me on a lesser scale when I was 20: I had mild bronchitis, but the cough lingered on through most of a university term, causing...
I seem to have last posted on the 22nd, eleven days ago. At which point I was moaning about my sinuses.The cold had gone by Monday, but I continued to feel tired and rather chilly and achy. When I'm tired, I have a tendency to comfort-eat (I was also PMSing, which didn't help a lot). At one point the scales were reading 187, which is not a number I really wanted to see again. On Wednesday, I came home from work, sat down, wrapped a blanket round myself and basically did nothing of any utility all evening. This probably ought to have told me something.On Thursday, I woke up feeling sort of sick, decided I would feel better once I had had breakfast, had it, went to work and lasted an hour and a half before coming home. Some kind of feverish gastric bug.What is wrong with me at the moment?...
I have a cold. Everyone else in Edinburgh either has it, has just had it, or (I'd guess) is incubating it.Mine is mostly sitting in my sinuses, throbbing quietly.There will be no triumphant tales of exercise exploits this week, because I am just too tired. Normally I'm a night owl, but I've been in bed well before 10pm twice this week, and am about to go there...
I have no idea whether any guys read this dubious excuse for a blog, but - dear reader, if you're male, you have permission not to read this entry.The older I get, the more I become aware of... my Cycle.No, not the kind with two wheels. (I am hoping to acquire a new one of those soon, since my current one is fifteen years old and extremely heavy. But I haven't got around to it yet.)The one I mean, of course, is the kind that poleaxes you once a month, if you're female. Mine's been doing that to me for about the last seventeen years, although it seems longer. Much longer. This is genetic; there's nothing much to be done about it (except take NSAIDs and keep warm) and I'm used to dealing with it.Lately, though, the Cycle has taken to making me suffer before the main event as well.I've...
I've been rotten with the cold for most of the week but am now on the mend. I just realised that I've never had the cold, the flu or any physical illness since going mad in 2004. Maybe there's a good side to antipsychotics, maybe all my medication induced blubber protects my fat bloated body from germs.
Although I no longer see any old friends or colleagues from the real world, I do sometimes...
I haven't posted very much in the last week or so:These two little chaps have come to stay with us for a couple of months. Their names are Snowy and Snuggles, and we’re babysitting them while their owners are abroad. We’ve been talking about getting pets for ages, and of the animals I have lived with before, guinea-pigs seemed the most suitable option: they don’t make me sneeze, they don’t seem to mind living in a hutch too much, and they don’t need taking for walks. Also they’re cuddly.Although he’s very fond of animals J has never had a pet of any kind, so this seemed a good way to find whether we really have the time to care for guinea-pigs, and whether he’s allergic to them. So far, the pigs have been a joy. They’re young and lively and chirp away to us...
I want to take this time to highlight something that is close to my heart, and that's PCOS (Polycystic ovarian syndrome). I've posted about it before because I was going through some tests to see if my problems were caused by PCOS. My next doctors appointment will most likely have the outcome for being told I 100% have PCOS. I'm making this post so that other women might recognise some of the symptoms and then seek help and tests. So here goes. Please read carefully and if anything in this post rings true to you, then please seek help from the doctor.Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), also known by the name Stein-Leventhal syndrome, is a hormonal problem that causes women to have a variety of symptoms. Some of the symptoms include:* absent or infrequent periods (oligomenorrhoea): a...
Today I went for more blood samples for my on-going testing for PCOS. I asked the nurse what my file said about my last set of results and she told me that I had a low level of the hormone SHBG (Sex hormone binding globulin) and the doctor wanted that tested again and also for other things. Once home, I went searching to see just what this hormone is and found that conditions with low SHBG include polycystic ovary syndrome, diabetes, and hypothyroidism. I'm guessing that it's more than likely that I do have PCOS. What didnt help was me then reading more into the syndrome and seeing...heavy bleeding is also an early warning sign of endometrial cancer, for which women with PCOS are at higher risk...for the past few months, I've suffered from heavy bleeding. Like my mum said to me (while I...
I don't know if anyone has ever had to wait 3 weeks to get blood test results back (resluts and this is for Luna to laugh at) but that's what I've had to do. I had two blood samples taken on the 22nd Dec. One to test to see if I was anemic and the other was to test for PCOS (Polycystic ovarian syndrome). The anemic result came back the week after, which said I wasnt anemic. Which I kind of knew because I gave blood the week before and if I were anemic, then my iron count would have been spotted then. Today, as you all know, is the 8th January 2007 and so far today I've been on the phone to the doctors 4 times. I've complained and one woman I talked with has taken it upon herself to make damn sure that I find out the results today. I'm waiting for the doctor to call me as I type this.I've...
Tomorrow at 9am I have to give blood to test the sugar in my blood. Which means fasting after 10pm the night before..I would just like to say something..I'M SO FUCKING HUNGRY! I've been busy all day and not had much time to eat anything. My friends asked me around for dinner. I get there and they didnt wait for me. So I've had nothing to eat today, I cant drink any soda/juice. Water only and it's driving me insane. I felt the need to post this because I cant stop thinking about it! I have grilled steak noodles in the kitchen just begging to be cooked and eaten. I have diet coke at the side of my chair just calling my name for me to drink it. I dont think I can last . I'll need to head to bed early just to stop thinking about it. ARGH....this isnt fair =(blog of...
The phone rang yesterday afternoon. I don’t usually answer the phone anymore. Not that I mind the “you have won a holiday in Las Vegas” calls, or the “save money by combining your gas and electricity bills” calls, or even the “can we arrange for a financial advisor to visit you?” calls. No, those sort of calls allow me to have a huge catharsis, involving loud shouting of multiple expletives and are of great benefit to me. No, the calls I dread are from real people, friends and relatives, who phone to ask how I am. I used to talk for ages, usually dominating the conversation but now I dry up after a couple of sentences. And because I used to be such a chatterbox, I assume people will take offence when I don’t speak much. So the least stressful thing is to not answer the...
