Hi Readers,
Well, after a bit of a hiatus after our recent overseas trip, I've been struggling to find anything worth writing about.
I just felt that talking about what it is like being back at work would just be incredibly boring to say the least.
We recently had a visit from someone from Russia who we hosted as a child 20 years ago. This was not just a great moment, but one of the great moments of our lives. Ilia and his family flew back to Moscow yesterday, and we had planned to see them one more time at the airport, but these plans were soon blown out the window, as I'll explain.
As my regular readers know, I've been receiving ongoing treatment for some issues that arose after shoulder surgery just under a year ago. I have been tested for various forms of arthritis and put on different medications.
The first of these made me sick after just over a week, causing bloating, extreme tiredness and a slight slurring of my speech. After a little more than a week on these I stopped taking them as the side effects were very worrying.
I was then put on to another drug, but was told not to start taking them until I got back from overseas. Thank goodness I followed this advice, for if I did take them while away it would have totally ruined our trip.
These pills started with one a day for a week, then two a day, then three, and then finally four a day. I also had to have blood tests every 3 weeks while on them, which was a worry in itself. These pills also made me extremely tired as well, and another side effect was constant nausea and loss of appetite. There were other side affects as well that I needn't elaborate on, but needless to say that they all collided last week.
I had been very listless and tired at work, constant headaches, but thought it was just a passing bug. I left work before lunch one day, came home and slept for hours, something which is unheard of for me as I never sleep during the day!!
Still no good the next day, I headed off to the doctor who was pretty alarmed with what was presented to him. I was ordered off for immediate blood tests, and told to immediately stop taking the pills I was on. As the test results came through, he tried to get me hospitalised for the weekend, but a bit of a bed shortage put that plan to bed. Just get home and total rest, with blood tests each day.
Looking back now, the whole weekend is now just a blur, as I was constantly in and out of sleeping.
More checkups this week (plus being told no work for this week at least, and most likely next week as well) and it appears that the pills I have been on have caused a fair bit of liver damage, resulting in all of the side effects I have been suffering from.
While we all know that the occasional day off work and lounging on the couch does sound appealing, it has done my head in. I have watched LOTS of tv over the past 5 days, but I'd much rather be up and about and getting my regular exercise.
As my son said to me the other day, "Dad, you've had two of the most important things you love taken away from you. Your exercise and your home brew beer"! He was right. I do love my exercise, and I do love my occasional home brews! As it concerns my liver, alcohol is definitely off the radar at the moment.
Just even concentrating on a task is incredibly difficult, possibly due to the constant headaches I have.
So if there are major typos or grammatical errors in this post, please forgive me. It has taken hours to do this post as I have to stop and rest every so often and come back to it.
Sorry if this post sounds like a whinge, it wasn't meant to be. The events of the past few weeks have given me quite a scare, especially as the medication I was on to make me better actually made me extremely sick. When my doctor rang the doctor in Melbourne who put me on this medication to explain what had happened, she said that this had only happened 3 times in 20 years! Not a statistic I was proud to be part of.
The rest of this week is more tests and lots of rest (and tv!). Plus a trip to a hospital in Melbourne for mores tests too. Thank goodness for Nurse Jen (my wife) who is coming with me for the day.
So Readers, not much to write about, but it explains to some extent why I have not posted much of late, I've just been too knackered!!
As always, until my next post...
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment