Happy Birthday Bernard! Happy Birthday Bernard!

Well we didn’t get a phone call from the m-i-l about the card but look what B got when he called to see her yesterday…

one picked by me and one by his brother.

Our visit to the GP this morning resulted in blood test being sent off with results to them evening, things getting prodded and stethoscoped, blood pressure being taken (with B asking if he could have his done! cheeky monkey). As my temp was down to 37.4 this morning, I felt tired rather than ill and the thought that more antibiotics may not be a good idea without knowing exactly what the root cause was we are waiting and seeing.

And I may have mentioned once or twice before that I love our GPs well now I love them just that little bit more.  I am under doctor’s orders to take it easy this weekend – how fantastic is that!

Thinning Thursday

After a comment I made over at Lorna’s (and Mike’s) blog and although I normally do Creative Space Thursday (my creative space is filled with a couple of Myeloma Buddies I can’t show yet) I intend to herewith start Thinning Thursdays.

So every Thursday (hopefully next week along with something creative) I will pop on the post how much weight I have lost in the last week.  Feel free to lose along.  Lorna is preparing for some sort of big event – I think they may be opening a branch of Selfridges in Wolverhampton in about 18 weeks, well either that or a Home Bargain.

I on the other hand just have a lot of back side, front side and side side!  When I was telling a friend about the dentist last Friday saying I had fat cheeks she said I should have asked him how he could tell as I was sitting down.

So as I didn’t we-hay myself last week I’m going with the figure from my last blood clinic appointment even though the nurse said we could keep it between ourselves!

If you do participate you don’t have to show your actual weight if you don’t want to – you can just show how much you’ve lost!

And if you want you can do the whole Slimming World meeting thing – ‘I don’t know why I’ve put 3 pounds on I only had 6 Baileys at the weekend and they were in half pint glasses and I only ordered REGULAR fish and chips THREE nights and I didn’t eat the lemon wedge and that piece of green stuff. So I just don’t understand it.  Although I may need to change my washing up liquid as the one I squirt onto the kids’  unfinished meals to put me off eating them is actually better than my cooking.’

So in the past 4 weeks I have lost 2.8kg or 6lbs through my own hard work – WHAT!?!?  I’ll have you know it had nothing to do with indulging at Christmas so that came off easily or a stomach bug or the temporary cleansing effect of the second lot of antibiotics.

And I am not afraid to show my original weight.  It’s right there in the middle of this piece of paper…

AND Happy Birthday to B today and also to Tim, Denise’s husband!

I think personality wise they are similar in their laid back way. My Dad’s birthday was the 2nd and he took laid back to a whole new level – I must remember to tell you about the firey pan incident some time. (Handy-man wise, wait have I been censored over that?  Mmmmm – no – I just can’t say that B can’t make milky coffee and he has learned to make cheese on toast after slapping a ban on me saying he couldn’t do that.  So handy-man wise Tim has his own flooring company and B has a gutter on the garage that’s been dripping about four years and this winter the bradish came off half the shed roof – I don’t think I need to add to that.)

And many happy returns to my temperature spike, tired on Monday put down to not being over two busy days, more of less okay Tuesday night after mid afternoon dip then last night I needed an hour’s kip when I clocked off work – two friends were calling round and one wanted to know why I was in my pyjamas – I said at least I was awake.  Then this afternoon shivery, took two paracetemol because I decided not to join our little Italian/American Dr Frankenfurter in her new extreme sport.  An hour later is was 39.1 (note to self remember not to put smart ar, um aleck comments on other people’s blogs, Sean’s, about temperatures because they come back and try to bite you on the bum).  My temperature is now resting comfortably at 38.6.  I spoke to our GP’s and the Blood Day Ward at the Royal because I was scheduled to go for Zometa tomorrow.

Bascially  the lovely receptionist at the GPs said I can ring in the morning for an appointment, due to the computer she physically couldn’t book me in today for tomorrow (keep up), per the Day Ward I need to ask them to do blood counts, and check out if it’s still my ears or wherever and give me more stuff.  Then if I’m not feeling better by Monday I need to ring the Day Ward again and they will look at getting me assessed somewhere!

And because I have the common sense of a stoned lemming I had to wait until B got home to have it suggested to me that maybe it wasn’t a good idea to go to Liverpool tomorrow with my friend, Chris, anyway for lunch!

Sometimes though it’s hard to locate that fine line between seizing the carp (to quote Ruth) and having it whack you in the kisser with its damp fishy tail! Ugh!

Sometimes I just don’t learn

Friday I felt much better and we did stuff, Saturday I felt okay, bit tired but okay and we did stuff.  By Saturday evening at my Auntie Ann’s I could barely keep my eyes open.

And yesterday I was too tired to move.  So I knit all day, for fun, these…

And the pattern is from here.

Go stick it in your ear!

I feel like I have spent the last 11 days moaning – I feel sick, I have a headache, I’m cold, I’m hot, my back aches, I’ve given myself whiplash from nodding off at my desk, I don’t wanna eat that, I don’t know what I want to eat, I’m melting no, I mean wilting AND I have a spot!

Well not just moaning there has also been a lot of time sleeping, a huge amount of time in the bath and well that’s about it – with work all the whingeing didn’t leave room for anything else.

However I went to see one of our GPs today and by the end of the week I will be remarkable, no wait, I should feel remarkably better.  If I don’t I need to shriek and they will squeeze me in Friday afternoon without an appointment.

I have an ear infection or two.  That is I have an infection in both ears, I don’t know if they know each other or not.  Maybe one liked it and recommended me or found it ran out of room in one and expanded to the other or two separately thought my lug holes made a des res.  Apparently in non-children (I don’t think I qualify as a grown up) ear infections can be present with no earache.

The GP checked applied pressure to my sinus regions still nothing.  I however mentioned this bit of discomfort at the back of my jaw and it could be that that is the same thing.  I said that the only time I had a tooth infection it was ragingly painful and he agreed where this definitely isn’t.  However I am to keep my dental appointment to get it doubly checked out.

As you know I love our GPs (general practitioners, not global positioning satellite) and even though I can shriek on Friday if not better, and can shriek basically any other time I feel the need and I get wool from the receptionists, they let me down today – there were no newsletters!

So roll on remarkable – hopefully by Friday I will be able to open a box of medication without busting the box.  Hey I’ve never had a box of tablets that opened like a box of maltesers before.

What do you mean it’s back to front – this is my phone’s idea of ‘cool’ which I can’t stop it doing!

Oh and to put the top hat on it this morning B got himself dark instead of milk Kit Kats – What a catastraphuf.

 

Sometimes it’s not good to be too hot!

Yesterday morning I felt fantastic.  I made me realise that even when I felt better last week I was a way from the usual me.  And then yesterday afternoon  I wilted again.  It didn’t help that I was typing a HUGE homebuyer survey report by a really boring sounding surveyor (think highly successful alternative career making tapes for insomniacs).  I awoke several times to this sort of thing…

In a proppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp

There were high dammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Seriously!  Not good.  And because this time of year can be quite quiet I was thrilled to pick up such a big job – obviously every other typist knew something I didn’t.  The general lack of enthusiasm, on both parts I think, was compounded by the surveyor changing his mind about things and in my 10 years of working for a surveyors typing or otherwise, I have never heard the word ‘verticality’ used – in relation to chimneys or anything else.

When I took my temperature when I clocked off, guess what, it was a tad high 37.8 but I felt pretty blah.  As the report had taken me 20 minutes over my working hours I was having to work an additional 30 minutes anyway because of an appointment with my acupuncturist things in the kitchen were hotting up too by 18:50.  With B working nights we can’t exactly be too flexible with tea time so B had started tea – not a tea he normally does on his own.  Anyhoo I surprised him by getting it done by 19:15 and we had tea – my appetite was fine and then I nodded off on the settee until B went to work.  My temp hadn’t settled and I decided to have a bath – I then proceeded to nod off in the bath from 20:30 until 22:00.  Fortunately we have a talking Simpsons clock in the kitchen and I’d left the light on (it doesn’t work in the dark) so I was awakened from my slumber at 21:00 and subsequently 22:00, at which point I dragged myself out of the bath.

Now normally if I’m in the bath any length of time I’m reading so the extreme wrinkled state in which I found my hands was something to behold.  An hour later when I went to bed they were still wrinkly.  It’s just as well I haven’t activated fingerprint recognition on the laptop or I’d have been stuck.

Today I should have gone for my second revaccination but when I phoned the nurse said to book it for next week as this morning my temp was not back to 37 and I felt ropy.  I did feel better by lunch time and although tired now I’m not sleepy or exhausted.  B had been relieved since he got up that my temperature had stabilised and this afternoon actually went back to 37 then just after I clocked off work I felt really warm and it was 38.7.  When I told B he suggested I may not have been reading it correctly.  So I showed him the thermometer which still said 38.7 and he nodded sagely and then, approximately half an hour later this being, I took it again so he could witness the whole high temp thing – it was 37!

At this exact moment 09:01 it’s 38.1.  I think I’m going to make an appointment with our GP tomorrow and I already have one booked with the dentist as the back of my mouth, definitely not tooth, possibly jaw has become a bit sore and I’m wondering if this is the source of the infection.  And no, Ruth I didn’t get a leaflet when I changed to Zometa I forgot to ask for one despite you mentioning it but I have now printed off the information from Myeloma UK.

I seriously think I may be turning into a hypochondriac but then again you can never be too careful.

On the crafting front which has been decidedly small over the past two weeks I’ve made one Buddy, a pair of mittens (which I can’t show because they were ordered) and my worm got a tad fatter…

although it may have to go on a diet as I think I went wrong and all the blocking in the world ain’t gonna fix it.  The sides, which somehow the camera missed, are not as straight as they should be.  Doh!

39.2

Having myeloma means you get quite a few trips out in the space of a year – even working on the basis that all is well.  When I was calculating that I needed to go part time, it was 13 Zometa appointments and possibly 6 Blood Clinic appointments.  I also need 12ish re-vaccination appointments, but these are with the Practice Nurse at our GP’s so literally 20 minutes from leaving home to being back (and let’s not forgot I sometimes come back from there with wool.)

And then we have the spur of the moment trips out.  Fortunately I have only had two (addendum – it’s three – the other was projectile vomiting after my 40th birthday party – no, I had not been drinking).  One was when I had shingles* and one was last night.  As Bud said yesterday I ‘wilted’ about 19:00.  I’d felt good, been out with B and Bud for a walk, although I had felt a bit tired I’d figured it was just the after effects of whatever I had last weekend. Although, and this should have been a clue, I was knitting a pair of mittens without a pattern and I was having real trouble with the second one for no reason, so my concentration was a bit off.  So much so that I asked B if he wanted to play a game on the laptop instead.

I moved out of our little office for something and I got cold, very cold, very quickly.  Shaky cold.  I think B thought I was putting it on a bit as he was plenty warm enough. So I put my cardigown on over my trackie bottoms and T-shirt and snuggled up closest to the radiator.   This is prime position because this is closer to the mouse to control the game.  As it turned out B had no worries, I warmed up and them put my head down on the desk and fell asleep.  20:30 when I took a brief break from drooling on the desk B suggested I ring for the Indian takeaway.  I did and then went to bed – now this is never good.  I rarely go to bed if not feeling well.  I ‘take to the settee’.  I think this is because I was brought up being told ‘you die in bed’.  Hey I know you can die anywhere, Grandad died in the garage reaching up for something off a high shelf and having a heart attack – which is also why you should never overstretch yourself or you’ll drop dead of heart failure.  And you know sometimes I wonder how superstitions got started. Anyway, the ‘die in bed’ mentality has served me reasonably well and certainly got me out of bed everyday during my SCT holiday.

So B came in and told me the Indian food had arrived, and then told me again, and again, and again and finally I got up, slapped it on plates, went through to the lounge and stared at it a while, then nodded off over it briefly, then ate a piece of chicken, then a piece of poppadom, then a couple more pieces of chicken and then B and Bud scavenged the rest.

I then assisted Bud with any technical issues on his first post, otherwise it was all his own work, and B felt that I must be feeling better.  I was however by then really hot (but not in a good way) and figured it might be a good idea to take my temperature.

39.2 – ohh

39.1 – wasn’t a boo boo then

39.1 – ah poop

Took two paracetamol, slapped a wheat bag I keep in the freezer round my neck and drunk some cold water.

This is the highest I’ve knowingly had outside of my SCT holiday and I have to say it perked me up immediately.  You know that sudden cold ‘ohh, that’s a tad high may be I should do something.’

So I phoned our GP for the after hours service which turned out to be in the town centre and we got a trip out at 23:50 in -2 degrees celsisus.  I had a long sleeved T-shirt, a thin cardy and a pair of linen pants on and wasn’t cold.

We saw a very efficient Russian (I’m guessing – she said Dah at one point) lady who did smile once – she asked if I could provide a water sample and B asked if he should leave the room!  I had to say ‘It is late.’ – she smiled as she showed me where the toilet was.  B doesn’t cope well with ‘sudden’ situations at one point before we left home he’d briefly had his head in hands – so we are not talking clear rational thinking in a crisis – he’s very practical otherwise but not under sudden pressure.

While I made wee wee B rallied and attempted to engage the doc in small talk, I have said before he will talk to anyone/everyone – apparently they stay open until 07:00.  That is all.

So my vital statistics were

Temp – 38.6

Chest – fine

Throat – fine

Wee wee – fine (nice colour – I may be a bit obsessed with this because I do tend to check quite often to see it’s light straw and this week it had been a bit well, not light straw – by the way I don’t have a wall chart or anything – Note to self google wee colour wall charts)

Pain in various areas – abdomen, bones, joints – fine or not vastly different than normal – bit stiffer round hips but possibly due to not doing as much this week.

I came away with antibiotics and instructions that if my temp doesn’t stay down for the next 12 to 24 hours we have to take a trip to A&E.  This morning 37.8.

If the temp had been in isolation, Dr Russia wouldn’t have given the antibiotics and I would probably have settled for advice over the phone rather saying I’d prefer to call in, however as I’d been off last weekend she felt it better to take that route.

And the best bit – I got popcorn on the way home because I’d been a good girl!

 

* If you ever get shingles on your head and look like you’ve done 10 rounds with Mike Tyson remember to tell friends/family who visit you in isolation that you do.  It’s no good saying that it started as a small spot, which it did, only for them to get there and find out why your husband made you wear sunglasses and a winter hat, in September, when you went to the hospital.

Random Wellness

Thank you for your concern – Wow I feel much, much better today, a bit tired but that’s probably lack of food.  Speaking of which one of us for lunch today had scrambled eggs on toast, grilled tomatoes (less the vine), a slice of grilled halloumi and a touch of HP brown sauce.  Here’s a clue I had nearly all the slice of halloumi and B had a bag of crisps as he got up late and had said he’d walk Bud so he didn’t have much time before it went dark.   The family member in question ate it all!

When I petitioned for the regular walk for Bud rather than the shorter version with more playing fetch nearer to the lights on the by-pass B informed me that if he did that it might be too dark to find Bud to bring him back.  I then nearly passed out in hysterics at the sight of Bud in the age 8-9 yellow reflective waistcoat I once bought myself with a view to cycling at night – it never got worn. B told me I was mean but then agreed it was hilarious.  Bud was a tad non committal but looked like a little irate foreman!

I must be looking better than yesterday, or at least not as ruff, as whilst I was getting tea – we were supposed to be having salmon salad but then I didn’t feel like it so B went out to get me either readymade or kit form mushroom soup whilst I sorted him out some cheese on toast.  After getting back with the kit form B nipped upstairs and then came back into the kitchen and asked…

‘How’s my cheese on toast doing?’

Now I told him I thought his wording was such because he really didn’t think I’d even started it and then I asked the cheese on toast how it was doing and it said…

‘Fine ‘n’ dandy!  Top o’the morning to you.  How’s yourself?’ in an Irish accent.

The second word B said was ‘off’ – he wouldn’t have said that to me yesterday.  Mind you the toast wouldn’t have been talking yesterday in any sort of accent.

When I made my soup I had it in a cereal/dessert bowl and not a soup/pasta bowl because

a) it fits better into the dishwasher and

b) I laugh in the face of dining etiquette.

I once saw a programme (well not the whole thing obviously which could explain a lot) that involved a lady who gave lessons on how to behave correctly at the dinner table.  The thing I remember, and I think this was about the only bit I saw, was when she demonstrated how to eat a plum and transport the stone from your mouth to the napkin so that no-one noticed.  Everyone at the table with her were really impressed, there was a lot of uhhhhhing and ahhhhhing.  I was amazed that anyone would need to know how to do that, for two reasons really.

1)  I would imagine that a lot of people, well me, being faced with sitting at a dinner table and having to smuggle a plum stone out of their mouth surreptitiously would probably end up doing a pretty good impersonation of a cat yaking up a hairball, and

2)  I, personally, wouldn’t have to worry about doing it etiquettely so as to be invited again because if we went to dinner anywhere where the idea of a dessert involved plums that weren’t in a pie, a cobbler, a crumble or otherwise served hot with custard or ice cream B wouldn’t go again!

Ohhhhhhh, and if you take your temperature and it’s 38.3 and you know that’s high but can’t quite remember what the HIGH level is think carefully how you answer questions on the NHS site you happen to come across whilst google-ing ‘What’s a high adult temperature’.  ‘Well yes, my neck’s stiff, but I don’t have a severe headache, er, um, oh I’ll say yes.’

‘You said no to a rash but yes to headache, stiff neck, direct light hurting your eyes.  Ring 999 and ask for an ambulance.’

I thought why would they need to tell me to ask for an ambulance – ahhh, I suppose if I was that way inclined (friend with huge fireman fetish) maybe I’d think of asking for the fire brigade to hose me down.

My own personal prescription – take two paracetemol to attempt to lower temperature and remember in future not to take temperature 10 minutes after getting out of hot bath!

Feeling better but looking ruff!

I am feeling somewhat better today no headache, no sickness, but picky over my food selection and particularly lethargic/fati-gued and a bit achy/stiff having moved so little over the last couple of days.  Having decided shortly after returning from my acupuncture appointment this morning that nothing in the fridge/cupboard resembled a Sunday roast – noooooo, I didn’t want soup or something light – I had to settle on Curly Fries.  I burnt the first lot!?!?!?! (Note to self – Remember cooking times although sometimes guidelines don’t vary that wildly.)

I decided I was capable of driving the car and since my acupuncture appointment was earlier than usual there wasn’t much traffic on the road.  I’d already decided where I was going to park.  The easiest possible place (and don’t say on the drive at home and take a taxi), a side street with bays running along the edge of the road, no barrier going on or coming off, no major manoeuvring.

I could not believe my luck when I got there, they were ALL the spaces were free!  So I kerb crawled right to the front of the line so I could literally drive straight out.  I got out and walked back to the ticket machine.  It was one where you put your registration numbers in and pay up front for increments of 15 mins.  Fortunately I knew this already because the machine was telling me what to do in Welsh.  Having worked for a couple of Welsh surveyors I cottoned on reasonably quickly that the seemingly random selection of constants and absence of vowels made this a pretty sure bet.  So thinking ‘Hah, gotcha’ and ‘That’s why ALL the spaces are free’, I popped my numbers in and then my pound coin – which went nowhere literally.

The machine was either jammed or full, maybe the resultant Welsh being a cry for help.  I prised my pound coin back out, not with the car key of course, really I didn’t – do you know how much those things cost? And that’s not even getting in the realms of lecture after lecture after lecture because ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time’, doesn’t cut much ice.  Once I’d liberated my coin I noticed that I could see at least two others lodged further in.  Poking them didn’t help either.  I considered whether I could be bothered driving round the corner onto the barrier car park especially since I had negelected to bring my phone (yes I know that is why they are called mobiles) so I couldn’t take a pic of the machine.  Frankly I couldn’t and if I got a ticket I’d slog it out tomorrow with the relevant council office when I felt perkier.

And when I got back there were several other cars who’d followed my example.  Which of course brings to mind the expression used at kid’s ‘Well if such a body stuck their finger in the fire would you?’  I however managed to drive off unsinged.

The amount of lethargy is evident in my parking on the drive…

it’s nearly a foot out of line.  Awwwww!

The only other time I’ve left it skew-if and then not as much, was when I drove home in the snow, and I did attempt to straighten it up that night but lost traction and left it on the basis that B would just prefer it on the drive rather than in the porch or completely blocking the road.  However today I gave straightening it up all of 0.0000000001 milliseconds thought before I dismissed it – normally it would be a very close run decision between leaving the car on the drive cockeyed or doing a Lady Godiva down the local main street.

Now don’t get me wrong I don’t think I’m gonna end up drooling into my keyboard anytime soon, hopefully, but if the house caught fire the fire would have to wait for me to get out in my own time.  Which reminds me – did I turn the oven off?  Oh well, that’s what smoke alarms are for!

And according to B (a husband who speaks his mind, freely and often) I still look rough.  So having mind to what’s written here and here I’ve taken that as a good thing!

 

For my Birthday I got…

Flowers

 

Other Stuff

 A box made by my youngest nephew at school.  He got an A, he would have got an A star if the little box on top had successfully fit inside with the other one!  I may wax it so it doesn’t get mucky.  It’s flanked by the cards made by my sister-in-law,Gill, (his mum), she’s way more patient and talented at cards than me.

This is what Philip made B for his birthday, it’s a CD holder, but I have a bit of an overflow of cookery books so I may put them in it instead.

And my final present was a vomiting virus!  I woke up yesterday morning and felt fantastic even though I’d had a late night because we had a little party.  They I had a drink of cordial and it made a rapid reappearance.  So I got back in bed and the sick feeling passed.  A few hours later I phoned the Royal to check it wasn’t a delayed side effect.  No.  So I asked B to take me to the walk in centre as I am very rarely sick.  My temp, blood pressure and pulse were all fine and I was informed there are a lot of vomiting viruses going round.  So I came home and went back to bed but couldn’t keep any water down and felt blah to say the least.  I knew I didn’t feel well because I wanted to go back to bed, which wasn’t a done thing in our family.

Gill offered to stay over but settled for B leaving a key with her and me promising that I would ring if I needed anything and I felt so bad I meant it.  I got up this morning at 10 and looked like Ken Dodd*, had a shower and got back into bed. 

I have felt better as the day went on and even had a little bit of hotpot for my tea.  When Gill rang the second time to see how I was she confessed she nearly came over in the night with a spare duvet to sleep on the settee.  As it was she dreamt I turned into a prune from dehydration.  I meanwhile had  a fitful nights sleep and dreamt/thought it was a good job I hadn’t even started knitting the first Myeloma Buddy on order as it would end up like the episode of the Simpsons where Homer buys a juicer from Japan and the flu germs are sneezed in and then let out when he receives it!!!!!

Look at my Acupuncturist

Deb, who I have started going to again, is a TV star. Well, not quite but she has made an appearance on the TV and she wasn’t getting arrested or anything. It was on some digital channel that I I’d never heard of. I realised I might be able to post a link or view or something here, so here goes…

Deb on TV

Apparently the glam presenter in her evening attire had manky shoes. And what was going on with the guy’s hair. You need to watch out for Deb’s dry teeth, she was really conscious of her lip sticking to them and so kept licking them and it was caught on camera. Overall an excellent performance I thought even though I’m slightly biased.

And you know what, Deb doesn’t even own a telly.