April 10, 2008

I have escaped from hospital (a day early) - woo!

The prednisolone infusions seem to have gone well and without any horrible side-effects or reactions.  I had three lots of 1000mg over three days put in through a cannula.  Despite massive amounts of steroids running through my body I slept like a baby last night.  My blood sugar got up to 10.1, but the doctor was pretty impressed that it hadn’t gotten a lot higher considering everything.  My blood pressure has been perfect to slightly low (could be down to my expert use of my Dr Andrew Weil guided imagery audiobook!) .  My blood tests were all fine.

My daily dose of pred is being reduced by 5mg per week until I’m off the stuff, so tomorrow I’m down to 35mg.

I should be getting an appointment through to see my consultant in a few weeks (he didn’t make it in to see me while I was on the ward - hmm, no comment!).

While I was in hospital Mum got phone calls for me from work.  I am a preferred candidate for the summer job … so basically, as long as my references are okay and my Disclosure Scotland thing comes through okay, I have the job - hurrah.

I’m also working more hours next week, so I hope I don’t suddenly feel awful because of the treatment!

In more fun news, I’m off to see ‘And then there were none’ at the theatre on Saturday.  I have a small ‘And then there were none’ obsession, so I’m rather excited about this.

28 May 2007 May 28, 2007

Ugh, ugh, ugh. I had an appointment with the nurse today. My blood tests came back fine, but my blood pressure was still a little high, so I’ve got to take it twice a day for the next week and take it in to her next Monday. It was something like 140/90 when she took it today, but I did it this evening and it was was fairly normal (130/80 or thereabouts). My heart was pounding when I was in seeing her, I just get so anxious.

I got a catalogue for Burt & Daisy through the post today. They do natural, organic skincare, beauty, baby and cleaning stuff. On the off chance that anyone ever stumbles upon this post and actually reads it here’s the offer they sent me with the catalogue (I’ve not tried it, so can’t guarantee it works, nor have I ever ordered from them so I can’t vouch for them personally):

“Receive £2.00 off your next order when you spend over £25! Just quote/enter Voucher Coder BD5234Z when you place your order, either online or by telephone. Valid from 1st May to 31st July 2007. Feel free to share this great offer with your family and friends.”

Also, I liked that the catalogue says it is printed on recycled paper with vegetable dye inks.

I’m not feeling very well today. My nausea is pretty bad and my stomach is churning. I can’t think that I’ve eaten anything particularly out of the ordinary: banana for breakfast, Quorn chicken burger, boiled tatties and salad for lunch, then Tesco Naturally Good Chicken Dijonnaise Tagliatelle (I picked the broccoli out - I’m such a child) and a chocolate Skinny Cow lolly for tea … nothing there that seems like it could make me ill surely. It’s probably the Cellcept, but the stomach churning is something new. My travel sickness bands are doing nothing today, but I am persisting with them. I was asking Mum about natural things which are good for nausea we didn’t get any further than mints and ginger, but she did say that she has a homeopathy book somewhere upstairs which might have some suggestions. Despite my skepticism about homeopathy, I’m willing to give anything a try right now.

Last night I once again fell asleep to my guided visualisation mp3. I’m never going to find out what the third exercise is at this rate. I’m still not sure how the second one ends. I remember my wise, healing thing being a rabbit and imagining myself lying on a warm bit of granite (which was remarkably comfy in my imagination) outside a little wooden cabin in the middle of some woods, then nothing. Fast asleep.

I cracked open my packet of Sante facial cleansing wipes this morning. They’re okay. I’m not keen on the fact that they require you (me) to rinse my face after use, this hasn’t been my practice in the past when using Simple facial wipes (but then again maybe I’ve been doing it wrong all these years!). They smell nice and feel nice, but they’re perhaps a little on the dry side. I’ve added some of the Tesco BNatural facial wipes to this week’s shopping, so I’ll see what they’re like and get a proper look at the ingredients list after they arrive on Thursday. I also added some Bionsen deodorant to the shopping. It’s one of these spritzy mineral deodorants where you add water to some crystals - it sounds more complicated than it is, I’m sure.

26 May 2007 May 26, 2007

Still tired. In fact I’m constantly tired. Ugh, this is just going to get worse as my pred goes down.

I feel asleep last night while listening to my guided visualisation mp3 … I seem to vaguely recall not being able to imagine what my ‘healing voice’ looked like, then the next thing I knew it was 6am. I was burning peppermint essential oil and I was so relaxed and snuggly on my bed, so it doesn’t surprise me that I fell asleep so easily last night.

This morning I got up late and watched some News 24. It was a lovely day here and I spent some of it in the garden and some of it dragging Dad around a garden centre spending lots of his money on plants. We went there to buy a companion-style bench that Mum had seen a couple of weeks earlier, but we failed on that score.

I had some nausea today, but it passed quite quickly. I was wearing my travel sickness bands, so maybe they helped.

This evening we all settled down to watch Snakes on a Plane. Genius. ‘Nuff said.

Guided imagery May 20, 2007

 

 Last night I flopped on my bed and watched Rebus (Hannah not Stott!), then when it was finished and I was cosy and comfy I put on one of my new meditation audiobooks -Self-Healing with Guided Imagery: How to Use the Power of Your Mind to Heal Your Body by Andrew Weil and Martin L. Rossman.  It was very interesting, but I didn’t actually get as far as doing any guided visualization.  I was pleasantly surprised at how non-airie-fairie-wishie-washie-hippie-dippy it was.  Weil certainly was very persuasive and logical in his arguments, and was very clear that guided imagery should not be used as a replacement for conventional medicines and treatment.  I think it may be worth pursuing this and trying the guided meditation, as Weil says even if it does nothing else, it should relax me and take my mind off my worries for a short while.

Like I say, I didn’t get as far as the practical bits of the audiobook.  This was mainly because I was too tired.

Today was a busy day - out to M&S (the woman in the checkout queue ahead of us had even less hair than me, but she was old and somehow that seems more acceptable), then lunch with Dad, then we made the foolish decision to go and try and find him a comfy chair - not a wise move when you are stuffed with Sunday lunch.  Once we prised ourselves out of big, leather armchairs Dad took me to see Zodiac (loved it).  Anyway, I’m too tired to listen to any of the audiobook tonight, I’m just going to snuggle in my bed and sleep, sleep, sleep.