Statins

I seem to have been really busy the last few days and having WH with a major relapse of depression hasn't helped. All this could have been avoided had he not revisited the statin problem. With statins he is verging on suicidal, without them his cholesterol rises to atomic levels due to his hereditary high cholesterol, he makes it as well as eats it! Of course when he's taking them the whole mood dampening thing kicks in and then he lives on junk food, refuses 'proper dinners' with veg and his level rises even further as soon as he stops them. They also appear to make him extremely tired which dampens the mood further. We've tried the healthy eating kick and the plant ester supplements but it's extremely dificult for someone who a) hates most veg with a vengeance b) detests yogurts and c) would live on meat alone if he could or in a pasty or some other type of pastry if he could get away with that.....It's doubly difficult when my cholesterol level is low to mid range and I exist almost entirely on veg and fruit.

Conversations, if that's what you have with someone who answers only in monosyllables, have been fraught but there do seem to be some alternatives out there without the dreaded statins. My GP said there were 'other choices' but did not elaborate, his says 'take statins or drop down dead', not much choice there then. Next move I think, if I can persuade, him is to seek advice at a higher level, presumably there is a consultant out there who specialises in this type of thorny problem. Until then, we both suffer the horrid side effects. I'm still at a loss to explain however why the GP would put him back on them given the fact he was suicidal on them before, his quality of life on them is rubbish so they're not exactly preserving him for much.

Yesterday he was like a new man, unbeknown to me he had dropped the pills for a few days. It took 3 days for the mood effects to go. Feeling confident that I DID notice the difference, he promptly took one again last night. Looks like I'm in for another crap weekend.

The honeymoon is over - again

I've had my last GP for just under two years. I've always got on with her pretty well and she has been very supportive of my Lyme treatment within the confines of this practice. I wasn't too impressed that she hadn't spotted the problem with my foot last year, see here, here and here , but then neither did 2 other GPs and a nurse, but overall I'm as happy as anyone relying on the NHS can be. Until yesterday that is.

As I have blogged about recently my Lyme symptom free period has come to an end and I am awaiting a consult with my LLD (Lovely Lyme Doc). Obviously then I have some symptoms to consult about. My hands are like wood which are trying to curl up at the sides as well as along their length and which are very painful most of the time, my feet which are trying to do the same and are painful to walk on, and stiffness everywhere for at least 2 hours each morning and then periodically throughout the day. All in all symptoms of Lyme related Rheumatoid Arthritis. My weight loss has slowed right down too, but given that I am not so active and that Lyme tends to make you put on weight I wasn't too worried about that in the light of my 3 stone loss this year so far.

So, my suggested treatment to help me put up with this lot until I can kill a few more spirochaetes with the appropriate medicines? Go on, have a guess. Walking. A 30 minute brisk walk 5 times a week. It will help me lose weight and keep up the good work. I should examine my diet again too, to rev up the weight loss which of course will make me feel a whole lot better. My carpal tunnel syndrome which only appears when the RA is at it's worst will go because I will have lost weight around my wrists. No mention of the horrid lumps which have formed on the palms and the soles of my feet and which went shortly after beginning the original Lyme treatment. No mention of anything for the pain. And if I want to lose weight even faster perhaps I could come off the beta blockers which I have taken for over 10 years because of strange palpitations, valve anomalies and other Lyme related heart problems, it slows me down and makes me sluggish and stops me losing weight.

"How do I walk that much when I'm in agony?" I asked. Answer: Think of the good it's doing you. Walking is apparently much better for you than anything else including hard digging as it raises your heart rate and gets you breathless, you can work your arms too as you walk to increase the calorie uptake. Having done a lot of digging in the last week, (3 hours a day on 3 separate days admittedly interspersed by lots of little rests), I have been removing concrete from the patio, raking and wielding a pick axe then sorting flints and stones for a drainage bed, I realise I was wasting my time I should have been walking instead.

I relayed all this to WH tonight as he dug out part of the lawn for a flight of steps, with the pick axe on our extremely heavy clay. If the doctor can do this at this speed without losing her breath then she's in the wrong job" he retorted, "I do it for a living and I'm still knackered and out of breath".

What is it with these GPs? Are they now only trained in certain illnesses/problems as determined by the latest fads of Her Majesties Government? What happened to old fashioned medicine, compassion and seeking to help the patient? The Hippocratic oath states "I will keep them from harm and injustice", perhaps it no longer applies to todays doctors?

Life insurance medical

I saw my GP yesterday for a medical for my life insurance. I thought it was just me and my poor medical history that required it but I was told that they do it all the time now.

Anyway interesting reading going through my medical notes for the last 20 years and before, and an invaluable exercise for my GP too, as I have only actually been seeing this one for 9 months.

Things I found out:

I have been complaining about my hands for over 10 years.

My then GP in 1997 queried RA but never did anything about it.

They had me down as depressed, but when the GP dug into it, it was just a comment after I had 2 bereavements in the same year, 11 years ago. The diagnosis was removed from my long list of current problems

Another GP had frequently put 'unexplained weight gain' and never followed it up.

That same GP had documented my aversion to Amytriptiline and my refusal to take it on the grounds of weight gain but never tied the two things up.

My heart problems started immediately after I had Parvo virus as did the RA but it was never 'joined up'. The GP put that right too yesterday and said in the report that I had had both things as direct result of the Parvo virus, it being a well documented progression in adults.

If all this had been sorted out at the time I probably wouldn't have remained with the ME diagnosis and other problems I had would have been investigated more.

The GP concluded the report by saying that as conventional treatments had failed to have much effect I was now seeing my Lyme specialist and getting much better on this regime, giving credibility to the 'probable Chronic Lyme' diagnosis.

Interesting isn't it? When someone actually bothers to review all your notes not just the current appointment stuff.

I thought that this government was all in favour of 'Joined-up Thinking', pity it doesn't extend to Ms Hewitt's departments. Or then again it's really no surprise is it?