Friday 18th November 2022
Aande
Hey everyone, hope you’re all doing well. I’ve not done too much but a few things have happened, it’s been a busy few weeks with appointments and doing this, that and the other. Got the car fixed up which could have all been done in the one day but it all got a bit messy with lack of communication which ended up being 4 days over a two week period and a complaint made and a nice discount on the work that needed done so I’ll not grumble about it too much. Although I could have done without the hassle.
My leg has continued to get gradually worse and can be pretty unbearable at times especially when it’s getting close to when I take my painkillers as they’re wearing off, this morning was quite evident of that. I left early to get things done and out of the way but I left so early it was too soon to take my meds and because I didn’t, it took me longer to do what I needed to do and was at least an hour longer than I was expecting to be. I was struggling to walk by the time I got home to take them. I got everything I needed to sorted though and now I can relax and not do much for a few days now.
I haven’t been getting as light headed and dizzy, I’m getting used to the lower blood pressure but it is pretty crap that my arms and legs get cold, even though the house is warmer than what it would be in some summer days.
I do like how my head is at the moment though, most of the time anyway. I’m more chilled and laid back, and I don’t feel as if I’m in as much of a rush to do anything. Dodling along and just taking my time, not that I was ever really in much of a rush beforehand.
Things weren’t too bad until Monday, I was turning my chair round to be more straight on to the tv and I felt this massive clonk in my sternum and I just froze to find out if it was my heart or bone… after a few seconds I was ok and then I moved a little and there wasn’t any pain. I wasn’t going to do much of anything and stood there a bit longer just to be sure, then I got woozy, light headed, with a cool sweat starting and felt a bit nauseous. I sat down for a for it to settle, stood up and the same outcome. I felt around my chest and there wasn’t any obvious damage but the third rib down on the left was a little tender but not noticeably sore.
After a while I tried to get up again, it was a struggle I couldn’t move my arms certain ways without an incredibly sharp pain in my chest but if I didn’t move I was ok, it was all very similar to when I fractured my back. Any time with my back it didn’t start too bad and took a couple of days for it to peak. I was expecting something similar with this.
As the day went on it got gradually worse and with it being in the chest, I thought it might be best getting it checked out, plus everyone I told wanted me to get it checked out. I was very reluctant to go to hospital though, mostly because of all the problems I’m having I felt that I would be kept in. Despite not really doing much, I really didn’t want that to happen and I know it would slow down any recovery.
By the Monday evening I was feeling quite sorry for myself and my head started to get really sore, quite sure it was just a tension headache but it persisted after taking extra pain killers and through to the next day. Normally some paracetamol sorts it out pretty quickly. I tried some more on the Tuesday and it didn’t settle it at all and that made me make the choice to go to A&E. I phoned hospital to let them know and to potentially go there instead where I would feel more comfortable but they said to go to A&E, so I did.
I got there about 6 and just over an hour later I got in to triage to get my blood pressure taken and to explain what was wrong. About 45 mins after that I was sent for an ECG. It wasn’t overly busy and no one being an ass. A short while later I was given the printout of my ECG and told to go to another place, the ECG said about my low heart rate and weak left ventricle which I’d already told them about and already getting treatment for, but when I got to see a doctor who was able to see my medical history actually paid a bit of attention to what I was saying. With similar thinking to me; that it was possibly a fracture and nothing more he sent me for an x-ray, although he did send me to the wrong place and past where I was going to go, to have to walk back. As I hadn’t taken my tablets before going and sitting in the not-so-comfortable seats I was getting sore and struggling to walk.
They normally don’t check for fractures there and normally send people elsewhere, he embellished a little on the form and as I’ve had a couple of clots before the doctor put that on the form. When I got back he brought me in straight away and told me about the results. There was nothing visible, it could be hidden and if it is anything it’s probably a fracture or quite a fine one. He asked me about pain relief but as I’m already on loads there wasn’t much more he could do, I just needed the results of the bloods that were taken but he wasn’t expecting anything from them as I’d had them done the week before anyway, he told me to go on home and that they’d phone me with the results.
On the way home I got the call and they were all grand. Despite just sitting around most of the time I was shattered, I finished at hospital about 10ish, I went to my parents for a while and wasn’t home till after 12. The next day I had the dentist at 9 and getting stitches removed at 2 so another long day waiting around.
With only getting about 5 hours sleep a night it’s quite draining when I do have to do anything. At least now I can go into a bit of a hibernation mode after a few weeks of being quite busy. It would be nice to be able to do the odd thing, like even getting to the pub but I just don’t feel comfortable doing anything with the way things were never mind with the added factor of a sore chest on top of a sore back, sore leg, low blood pressure, lack of sleep, light headed and coughing, just enough going on and most of the time I just want to roll up in a ball but even that hurts. Don’t think there’s any way I can sit or lie down where there isn’t something sore even when loaded up on pain killers.
Hopefully by the next time I write something things will have settled a bit, until then... I have the prepatch for the new WoW expansion to disappear into.Thursday 3rd November 2022
Readjusting
Hi everyone, been a couple of months since my last post, hope you are all doing well. It’s been quite a one-extreme-to-the-other type of couple of months. September was highlighting my adventurous side, as I mentioned at the end of my previous post about a trip I had planned a few years ago and it kept playing in my mind and with the way things have been going, if I didn’t do it in September I wouldn’t for sure be able to for another year or ever. I know I was pushing myself and taking a chance doing it, but it has been something I’ve really wanted to do for a long time. I’d only be annoyed at myself if I didn’t at least try which seems to be my thing of late.
The trip was the Wild Atlantic Way, rather than doing it all in one go, I split it into different phases, which added a lot of miles but it gave me time to recover, and more importantly not overdo it on the pain killers. It was mostly a recce driving run to explore rather than going visiting places, apart from stopping places to sleep I never stayed anywhere longer than half an hour. And it was amazing, from start to finish. Now I know what areas I liked most and could plan proper holiday/trips around them, which I will hopefully be able to do.
September, I spent a lot more time socializing with people as well, I probably spent more time with people that month than I had in the last 4 years combined, which has been nice. As usual good things never last for long and October came around, I wouldn’t exactly say it was bad, it was however very different to September. October highlighted my hermit side, for starters I went out for a walk to Peatlands Park and I knew I was overdoing it but I just kept going anyway and after my leg gradually got worse, peaking at agony and not being able to put weight on it.
This coincided with starting on new tablets for my heart to help “protect” it and to lower my blood pressure, I think this has a factor in the leg pain too, probably more so than the walk. The leg has Avascular Necrosis (AVN), which I’ve had from about 15 years or something but over the last year it’s been getting much, much worse and severe since July and still deteriorating. It’s caused by the bore dying and breaking off in the joints with the blood not getting to it properly, more specifically my left hip and knee. The pain is everywhere in between, when I’m sitting or lying down it’s in the thigh and standing the knee and hip.
With the betablockers my blood pressure has plummeted and I think with that the circulation to the joints has got worse and potentially been making it worse, on the first Thursday of the month after a starting them on the Monday, I didn’t do much that day, got a chippy and was watching the football just sitting on my normal seat and tried to stand up and well… I couldn’t. As soon as I put any weight on my leg it was excruciating, at the time I would say it was worse than my back when it was at its worst but I think it’s different, this is more the pain is in sudden sharp pains where the back was more a long, drawn-out consistent pain, although I definitely prefer this pain, I can cope more with it a bit better.
The leg pain continued on the Friday and I thought that was gonna be it for my hip and it was going to stay like that but thankfully on the Saturday it started to ease up a bit and I mean just a bit. Still really sore when I put any weight on it but I’m able to walk short distances (around the house) ok without my stick but anything longer (to the shop) I need it, as I’m sitting here now there is a throbbing pain just above my left knee and I’ve taken extra pain meds this morning for reasons I’ll get to later.
There is also another reason why I’m using my stick, as I mentioned the blood pressure has plummeted, generally for me it’s always verging on high and my body is used to that, now it’s below normal, which my body’s not. The first week or two on them I was getting light headed and dizzy and having to hold on to things to not fall over. My sleep has been really different too, I’ve generally been sleeping less and I didn’t sleep that much at best beforehand. I have been phasing out a lot and just being in a daze and losing focus on things, but in a way it’s a bit nice especially with the pains, the body just seems to go into standby mode.
The third week I was on them I was at hospital getting my infusion and as I’d lost a bit of weight and the blood pressure being low the nurse was really concerned, the doc had planned to increase the dose, they never told me or at least I didn’t remember them telling me, but as I’d lost weight, they weren’t sure whether it was a good idea to go ahead with it, eventually they decided to anyway. I always feel shite after getting it so was a little worse than normal. The nurse wouldn’t leave me alone as she was worried about the stats.
Next day I was at the dermatologist, my normal screening doc has retired and they’re stopping the screening, and now they’re going through her patient list and culling out people that don’t really need to go. I am one that does though and they are chopping out a couple of blemishes and putting me on the list to go back when the screening starts again or get transferred. I got the two blemishes cut out yesterday so one had 8 sutchers and the other had 5, both on the left but one is more sensitive than the other. Another couple of scars inc, they’re a little tender this morning but I’m not planning on doing anything until Saturday and will hopefully have got over the itchy/tender stage by then but I doubt it, the one I got done last year on my head was still seeping at that point.
With all that going on in October I’ve really not been able to do much, thankfully I got my new PC which has made things a bit easier, I had picked out which one I was after and when I went to buy it a few days later it was on a pre-Black Friday sale with 24% off, but even that I can’t go on for too long without getting sore. Hopefully November things will settle a bit and I’ll be able to get out a little bit to do stuff, it’s a good time of the year to just get cosy in the house and hibernate though.