Mud, Mud, Glorious mud

After weeks of nothing much very visible happening on the new house, today saw the start of the groundworks. The crew were due at 9am. They arrived at 11 and had a tea break, six phone calls and a big conflab. After another few phone calls they decided they needed more equipment so off went the tractor and trailer to fetch some. Another truck appeared. Some more digger parts appeared. They had another cup of tea.

About 2pm they started and cleared the whole back-garden in about 40 minutes. I fetched 6 year-old grandson to watch after school." It's boring," he said, "they wont let me do anything, I'm going home." I watched fascinated.

All that is left is a pile of rubble to be removed in the morning, a pile of bushes to be replanted and a wide expanse of flat clear space where the lawn will be. No dead trees, no stumps, no little twee brick walls, no giant weeds.

I love it.

Just got to dig the foundations tomorrow then we will be really motoring on.

Back from the front line

I'm home. I've got stitches. I'm sore. I can walk but I can't sit.

I was allergic to the dressings. I was allergic to some of the hospital equipment (Memo to self: Does this mean I have a latex allergy?). I was only in for 8 hours after all the fuss before-hand. I was accompanied by WH the WHOLE time.

I'll be housebound for the next few days. I will be able to drive in a couple of weeks. I'll be packing for the move in a couple more.

I had a hernia, which was nothing really to a 'normal' but to a Lymie, it's a whole other country, let alone the complications that having an infection in my foot brought.

It's over. Yay!!!!!!

Cartoon courtesy of www.piperreport.com

Bye for now

At risk of yet another medical post I am going into hospital tomorrow for a small operation so will not be here for a while.

See you soon.

The NHS strikes again

More and more this blog this turning into a rant against the NHS. I do give them a chance, honestly, but the more things that happen to me the more I seem to be turning into Dr Rant or NHS Blogdoctor, minus the medical degree of course.

This latest episode with my right foot has proved once again that GP's don't spend enough time with their patients to form a proper diagnosis and more importantly if you suffer from unfashionable ilnesses or diagnoses like I do, ME, Fibromyalgia, Lyme disease and a weight gain resulting from inappropriate medications, they don't always want to listen. It's the good old heart-sink trap again. But like the famous boy who cried wolf, sometimes heart-sink patients do actually have something wrong with them apart from the never ending list on the practice computer screen.

I was lucky yesterday. I saw a locum GP who was lovely, had no preconceived ideas about me and actually examined the foot in question for the first time in 9 weeks rather than casually glancing from the side. She left the room momentarily to fetch a nurse and we heard her say "Well she definitely has something in there, it's quite obvious, it must have been there for weeks". An hour later I had had 3 pieces of wood removed from my heel.

So why did it take 4 GP visits over 9 weeks with 3 different doctors to finally extract what was painful for me and clearly very obvious to the locum. In all this time I have been told to keep up my excercise levels (How, precisely, on one foot?), take some painkillers, ignore it and walk on it properly.

The locum sent me to A&E for a soft tissue Xray and then the balloon went up. The Xray was abnormal. Surprise surprise. I explained it was calcification due to Lyme Disease so some very old plates were found and a lot of old notes and they finally agreed that that was not the cause this time. I have strong antibiotics now for a week after which I have to return the A&E to get checked over by an orthopaedic surgeon if if the heel is not completely better. At least someone has finally taken notice.

The examination I had from the locum under a strong light was very different from the perfunctory look I was given initially. It took maybe 5 minutes longer. If this had been done in the first place, 4 appointments would have been saved and the trip to A&E and the 4 hour wait.

And the NHS is trying to save money. What a joke.

Not my left foot part 2

Well for 8 weeks I have been struggling on my right foot in various degrees of pain, ranging from mild to absolute agony, where I have been unable to put any weight on it at all. The GP decided weeks ago that it was another bout of fasciitis which I had in 1995 and has been treating me with anti-inflammatories. I however have not been convinced.

Last night I was proved correct. The side of my foot literally burst open and an abcess was revealed.

I am waiting for the surgery to open now so I can get it looked at properly. Maybe it will start to heal now and I will be able to walk again.

What a waste

When I first saw you, you presented with the highest number of Lyme symptoms I have ever seen in one person. You were really very, very ill. I can not believe that your regular GP missed it. Especially as you had the EM rash and a defined onset.

No, not a dream but the words of my wonderful consultant yesterday.

I was also told that I would never have 100% cast iron test results and in any case they were not that useful per se anyway and it was probably a waste of money testing for all sorts of things when all the clinical signs were there in such a massive number. And yet every other medic I have consulted over the last miserable, bloody, frustrating 16 years had missed them, ALL. A point not lost on me, WH and the consultant.

The medics who asked if I was really that bad, the medics who thought I was hysterical, the pain specialist who said "Well of course a lot of these symptoms are not proved to exist anyway", the medics who said "You'll just have to work through it", the medics who said "Try exercise", the medics whose faces fell when I walked into their surgery, the medics who said "Get out more," the medics who told WH to let me get on with it, the medics who said "really it's not that bad" the medics who said "Here take these antidepressants, you'll feel much better," the medics who told me to get a life.

I only wish.

This revelation seems to have really affected me. I know I was told before that Lyme was 99% likely and then the treatment started working so it looked as though the diagnosis WAS right, but never before had it been said in so many words, so definitely,categorically: "This is what you have got and have always had, since 1991."

So today I am still weepy and feel like I have wasted 16 years of my life but at least the end is in real sight now, it's not just a maybe. And also the realisation that all these odd things were not just me being awkward/attentionseeking/lazy they were a REAL illness.

And how many more people are there out there like me?

ETA Whats with the colour?? Blogger misbehaving again, at least it beats my dashboard coming up in German which was last week's surprise.

Answers

Seeing as everyone has so many questions (Terri!!) here are a few answers to those you have asked and those you want to ask!!

How do you preserve lemons?

It's easy peasy, see here. Afterwards use them them in Morrocan dishes, with curries and finely shredded in a marinade for meats, olives etc

Am I in the new house yet?

Er, no. We start work on the extension this coming Tuesday. I am moving out of here the last week of November and I hope that we'll have a working kitchen-diner big enough for all the family at Christmas, we have to seat 12 comfortably so it will need to be finished.

Have I been to Greece recently?

Another resounding NO. I am having surgery in 2 weeks time so all holidays have been on hold.

Have I been to Denmark yet?

No, see answer above.

Why am I on steroids? again?

Having had the rash from Hell for the last 3 months I have tried 4 different antihistamines (well all the ones I had not tried before for any reason) and they still didn't stop the itch, not even when taken together at excessive doses. Steroids was an almost last resort. They didn't work either. The last resort were some meds you used to take for stomach ulcers, now well outdated but they *might* have some sort of synergistic effect on antihistamines. RESULT. I am on my second itch free day since May and it's marvellous.

Why do I have so much energy?

Steroid high. I'm making the most of it.

How's the Lyme disease?

Still on the treatment, getting slowly better in terms of stamina, mental capacity and energy such that other people now notice. And yes this was well before the 10 days of steroids! Actually I see the consultant tomorrow so watch this space for his take on things.

How's the RA?

And here is the rub, it's getting slowly worse, but temper this with the knowledge that I have had no treatment at all for it for 9 months and things get more into perspective. I probably need to restart the methotrexate to ensure I don't have yet another seized-up winter. Of course I have more movement in my hands than I have had for months due to the steroid treatment but as we know from previous encounters, the effect lasts 8 weeks at best and 2 weeks at worst. I need to act now to get it under control before we have some really cold weather. If I restart methotrexate I have to stop the Lyme treatment, so whats a girl to do? Dither at the moment.

What did I get for my birthday?

In no particular order:

A box of chocs

The good, good pig. A most excellent read.

A weekend washbag and lurverly smellies

A new food mixer

A notepad

A humungous bunch of flowers

Money/vouchers for cds

More books

Cds

A foodie hamper

A necklace

Pottery

And it was only an ordinary birthday. I am so lucky to have such generous family and friends.

Why am I still in England at all?

I really wonder that one myself. The temperature here last week was the same as in Athens in January. We have another 6 months to go of this winter, so this year we will have had a 12 month winter in total. The weather here really sucks. Next year it had better improve or else...

Hope this keeps you satisfied for 5 minutes. I'm away for the weekend now so I'll have more on that and the consultant later.