Wednesday 22 June 2011

Doctor, doctor.

So, off I trotted to the doctors this morning. Told him that basically I've had no energy since February, and even though I was regularly doing 48 hour weeks through May I had two weeks off and still no luck.

He sent me off to the hospital to get bloods done, have had the full works so now I've got to wait until I hear back from them, if at all. These days they don't call you if they don't find anything, which I think is rather annoying. So if I've heard nothing this time next week am going to give them a bell.
Then he sent me off to Holland and Barrett for some vitamin D. Apparently that's the only vitamin that your body doesn't make, and with England being so crap on the sunshine scale, it's quite a common deficiency to have. So, I have to take one of those every day for the rest of my life, unless I decide to emigrate to Florida!!
Told him about my cycle being all out of whack and generally a bit strange, he's had me tested for a thyroid deficiency, that was one of the first things I came across when I was trying to find out why my cycle was a bit weird, especially as I'm knackered all the time and my once lovely nails absolutely refuse to grow any more! Hopefully the vitamin D will sort that out!

I'm in two minds, one part of me wants it to come back all clear, but that then doesn't explain why I feel like an old lady, when the doc said that the peak of physical health is reached at 28!

At least if it came back with something I'd know what I was dealing with, could kinda go 'ahh, so that's why then.' Atm, I just feel like people think I'm a wuss!!

Have done no stitching today, between Dr's, hospital, and getting on the bus that went the long way home, I havent' had time. I also managed to fall asleep when I got back >.< Then I went to the opticians for my contact lens check (all fine, so at least SOMETHING is working properly atm) and then I nipped into the supermarket to get some bits and bobs. Am off now, need to turn oven on for dinner!! We are having chicken that you cook in the bag with spices, and what Mr A calls 'sexy rice' :)

Monday 20 June 2011

some good, some bad...

Went to the dentist today and got a bit of a shock. She did lots of poking about, took lots of x-rays and praised me on my good oral hygiene routine (go me). Then she said that three of my wisdom teeth have got to come out and I have to have two fillings in the tooth next to the left one, because that's going so rotten it's affecting the one next to it.

I have to go back and have the fillings done next week, fortunately I'm not in any pain with it so that's good. Not looking forward to going under to get these teeth pulled, and not looking forward to feeling like my face has been stepped on by a draught horse!! Unfortunately it has to be done, the other way (leave it alone) involves a lot of pain, and as someone who's had monster toothache before, never again.

It's fairly simple, but typical me, there is a slight complication. My teeth and my jaw are really, really small.
(no jokes about my big mouth please, and the amount of talking I do)
Apparently there's a nerve that goes down the side of your face which gives you sensation around your lips and mouth.
according to the dentist, most people have a 1% chance of losing sensation after the procedure, which can be temporary, say, a few weeks to a few months, however some people can lose it for up to 1 to 3 years and may never get it back.

In my case this is knocked up slightly by the fact that according to the full x ray I had (massive machine that looked like something out of a sci fi movie), said nerve is wrapped around my bottom left wisdom tooth.
Dentist said I have a 10-15% chance of that nerve being damaged during the op, she couldn't say how bad the numbness would be, but she did say that if the nerve is damaged the loss of sensation will be permanent.
She did say that the surgeon might well break that tooth into little bits and take it out slowly to try and avoid damage but there's no guarantee.
I tell you what, if it does happen, kissing will never be the same again!! :(

So, I've been referred to the hospital, I'm just waiting for a letter to come through now for the appointment, and I'll be honest, for once in my life I'm petrified!! I don't mind doctors/dentists as a rule, but this is a bit different.

I'm going to make sure I book 2 days off work to get this sorted, Mr A is coming with me to the hospital, and he will be there when I wake up so I should be alright.


Wednesday I have docs, time for me to find out why I'm so wiped all the time!! Not doing very well atm am i?

On the flip side, I have managed to pick up my cross stitch again today, am off to do a bit more now while I watch the soaps, if I can stay awake long enough!!

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Lets hope this week is better!!

Well, last week was waay too stressful for my liking. Unfortunately over the weekend we lost two rats, both within 24 hours. Needless to say I wasn't much in the mood for anything.
Thankfully it's over, and we still have four others, we are busy now trying to get my two to get on with the babies, in the hope that eventually they'll all be able to live together!! It didn't go too bad last night, I've seen intro's go a lot worse!

I finally managed to finish the roof on the well of 'Make a wish' I have a picture to upload.
Have to go back to work today, got another day off tomorrow and then I have to nip back in for a meeting, so not too bad.

I'm not even half way done with this project and I'm already thinking about what I can do next. There are lots of small ideas in my cross stitch magazines, there are some baby-themed letters and numbers which I'd like to stitch and maybe just keep in a box, to make into cards or something, or just because they are cute designs, and I think it'd be nice to do something small after this one!!

Here's a pic of my progress so far.





I watched an interesting programme on assisted suicide, it's something I've always been in two minds about...Human beings have reasoning etc, yet a lot of the time when people come to the end of their life there appears to be a lot of suffering involved. However, if it's an animal, as hard as the decision may be, as responsible and loving owners we understand that we eventually have to make that call. Why should we not be able to make that decision for ourselves, when we feel the time is right? Currently it's illegal in this country and carries a prison sentence. But if you knew you had a terminal illness and you were going to be in a lot of pain at the end, wouldn't you want to go quietly and peacefully at a time of your choosing? I like to think I would, but I don't know if I'd have the courage to hasten things and leave everyone behind. I certainly couldn't help someone else do it, I guess that just shows that I'm as selfish as most people. My dad always had an interesting point. He'd say that when people cried at funerals, they weren't crying for the person that's died, they were crying for themselves. At first I didn't quite get what he meant, and he explained it like this. He said 'what's the point, that person has died and is free of any pain or suffering they had on this earth, it should be celebrated that the person had a good life and is now at peace.'

It took me a long time to understand that, but in my previous job caring for the elderly at the end of their life, I eventually began to see what he meant. Obviously, it never got easier when someone you'd cared for passed away, but I did eventually begin to find a small sense of the positive when someone passed away. The fact that often, they were very old, and had the chance to get married, have children and grand-children, to live a long and relatively happy life.
One thing I noticed, a lot of old people don't fear it. I think you get to a certain age and you just realise that of course this life isn't forever.

I find it far more upsetting when a child or someone in the prime of their life dies, because they haven't had a chance to live yet.

Thursday 9 June 2011

Still not good.... :(

Had to take Whitey to vets again today, he'd gone down since last night, when he was walking up to Mr A and taking water from a syringe, to this morning looking like flat lemonade!!

Managed to get an appointment in and whizz him in really fast, he's had a three day antibiotic injection, an anti inflammatory, and 5mls of fluid, I think he feels like a pincushion at the moment!!
He's resting just now, I'm going to try him with some ready brek in a bit with some sugar sprinkled on, see does he like it or not.
I'm also going to try and get some stitching in today, if only to try and ease my frazzled brain, the last two days I've spent worrying about him!!

Leonard went in yesterday, vet thinks he's suffering the tail end of a respiratory infection, he has antibiotics. Yoghurt on spoon trick didn't work, so I've plumped for direct syringing, which does work, cos he bites the syringe and i just squirt it in, and then he gets a treat for being a good boy!!
I actually managed to give sheldon a cuddle this morning, first time he hasn't squeaked at me and tried to leg it! go me...

Got to go work later, quite a busy one ahead, we have a new resident in for a short stay, really hope I get a good night's sleep tonight, probably won't cos they've moved the rooms around >.<
I slept well last night, struggled to get up this morning though, didn't even hear Mr A's alarm go off!! mind you, didn't finish work til 10 last night...

Right, time for some lunch, then check on my patient, and then some stitching, I hope!!

Monday 6 June 2011

Busy busy

Well, I haven't had much time for stitching since my last blog post, I had a big visit from The Frog, which meant I spent most of my time unpicking and re-doing what I'd already done!!!
Plus last week I went on holiday with the ladies from work, took them to Blackpool, it was good fun but SO exhausting, I'm still tired! Did a double shift yesterday so another day lost for stitching. Today is all about catching up with the ginormous laundry pile and trying to clean the house, along with nursing a poorly rat!!

I noticed he was a bit down the other day, but I put it down to hot weather, even my cats were flaked out a bit. Came home last night to find Mr A perched in front of the cage, he thought at the time that he'd had a stroke. Today we think it might be an ear infection, so he's off to the vets again for some steroids and antibiotics, hopefully that will sort him out. I've been feeding him farley's rusks and trying to syringe water into his mouth, he's going to hate me after today!! I nickname him grandpa because he's white all over, can't see very well (he's albino) and dodders around like an old man. Technically he is old, because rats only live for 2 years, so he's a true OAP at 18 months old!!

One of mine has had the sneezes for a couple of weeks so he has to go in tomorrow! Life is one big rollercoaster at the moment, hopefully it'll slow down soon! I've promised myself I'm going to try and do some stitching tonight while the soaps are on, until MR A gets home and I've been to vets I'm not going to be able to concentrate for worrying about poor rattie... :(