Wednesday, October 03, 2007

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 The last resort were some meds you used to take for stomach ulcers, now well outdated but they *might* have some sort of synergistic effect on antihistamines.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.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the site Jas, love lemons. You are a busy person, I know what you mean about a steroid high, had it after my large doses when I had pneumonia.

Don't like the coming down after, makes 'normal' seem worse.

Read your other post, too bad we aren't able to trade in body parts when some go haywire. Takes all kinds to make a world, I had a blowout on the autoroute because of an incompetent mechanic who said my tires were fine. They are in every profession. Just happy you now have the answers you needed.

Take Care