A challenge to look forward to....
Boy, doesn’t time just fly by?? It’s been 2 weeks since my last entry already so again, I’ve got to play ‘catch-up’!
Luckily, my second & third weeks of treatment went as smoothly as my first. I am getting a little fever & a few aches & pains with the Interferon but they’re manageable. My worst time seems to be a Friday morning & Sunday so I’ve quit going to the gym on a Friday now & go Saturdays instead – much easier to cope with.
Saturday 2nd June
2 weeks, 2 days into treatment. I went for a dog walk with my friend. We found a hikers walk called the Shropshire Way, which takes you literally from one side of Shropshire to the other. No, we didn’t walk the entire breadth of the county, but we did walk for 3 ¾ hours, through beautiful woodlands & fields. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although my arthritis told me about it the following day. My continual problem is (& has been ever since I was diagnosed with arthritis) that, because I feel fine ‘on the day’, I don’t see myself as being any different from an able-bodied person & will push myself to the limit; it’s only then the following day that I end up paying for it! But after so many years of living this way, I cope with that very well now.
Sunday 3rd June
I got together with Joan & hubby to try to finalise arrangements for our Shrewsbury gathering on 28/ 29th July. We drove around Shrewsbury looking for suitable venues & finally found a lovely church hall, right by the river Severn, so now we don’t have to worry about kitchen or toilet facilities. That’s now booked, so it’s just the catering that needs to be sorted out for that weekend. (More about this gathering later….)
Monday 4th June
A rash has appeared on both my arms (tiny, raised spots) – itchy or what?? I’m putting good old Canestan cream on it & it seems to be doing the trick. Today was the day I had shock news …. My 19 year old, single daughter is pregnant! Her dad told me & I have tried to get in touch with her to arrange to see her for a chat. She’s coming to see me sometime this week.
I got in touch with the Hepatitis C Trust about my charity head shave, asking them if they could provide me with health awareness leaflets. I want to turn this charity event into an awareness raising event. The way I see it, even if people don’t sponsor me, if they learn about the virus then I’ve achieved something really good. I’m not going to rush into doing this; the more preparation that goes into it, the more successful it should be!
Tuesday 5th & Wednesday 6th June
Both uneventful days, although did feel quite tired & lethargic. Didn’t stop me doing all my usual stuff though!! My leaflets arrived on Wednesday – talk about lightning speed service!!
Thursday 7th June
My 3rd appointment with the chocolate teapot today. Got my blood results from last week & in comparison to the previous ones, they look ok (I think)……
DATES 25/05/2007 & 31/05/2007
WEEKS 1 & 2
ALT 68 / 139
AST - / 63
Bili 12 / 3
ALP 64 / 72
ALB 41 / 37
HB 14.2 / 15.3
WBC 12.1 / 6.9
Plat 250 / 186
Neut 8.1 / 3.5
The chocolate teapot assured me that the rise in my ALT / AST is due to the fact that the hospital lab have a new machine which measures these in a different way – will have to see what next weeks results are like to make a truer comparison.
I did my third shot in the evening as opposed to the morning, as I had with the first two & I hope to be able to carry on doing them on a Thursday evening throughout my treatment now.
My daughter came to see me with her boyfriend this evening. I was feeling particularly tired & in all honesty, all I wanted to do was to have my dinner, do my shot & crawl into bed. Instead, I had a mammoth 2 ½ hour session with my daughter, talking through her future. She intends to keep the baby & (against her dads wishes) wants to find a flat & set up home with her boyfriend. I can’t pretend that I’m not a little disappointed & concerned about how they’ll cope, but after the initial shock wore off, I think I managed to give them some good advice & show love & support.
On top of that, my dad had one of his car windows smashed by kids playing out in the street & I ended up having to take charge of that situation too, calling the police etc. So, my early night went out of the window & not only that, but I had the worst nights sleep I’ve had in years!!!
Friday 8th June
Felt extremely tired all day today, due to the shot last night & the lack of sleep. Managed to get through the day at work, although didn’t really achieve much. Again, just wanted an early night, but (again!) that wasn’t to be because my youngest daughter & her boyfriend decided to visit. They don’t come round too often, so it’s always such a pleasure when they do. We had a lovely couple of hours, just chatting over a cuppa!
Saturday 9th June
In preparation for being able to work from home, I needed to get a new wireless router for my internet connection, one with an inbuilt hardware firewall, as mine didn’t have one. I was reluctant to do anything to change the set-up I’d got, because I just knew that something would go wrong somewhere in the process of uninstalling one & then setting up & installing the new one. However, my boss promised me that she’d send one of our IT guys over to my house to sort out any problems that arose, so I went & got my new wireless router this morning. I had to disconnect my pc & take it downstairs to connect the new device. When I booted my pc up, the mouse just didn’t want to work!! What had I done wrong? I couldn’t figure out, but just blamed the machine for being such an awkward thing, loaded it into the car & took it to the shop to get the problem sorted.”Your mouse is fine” said the technician. “It must be your pc!” Not wanting to spend money on the heap of sh!t (I was calling it worse things than that, believe me, as I had to restrain myself from throwing it out of the window!!) I decided to take it to work with me on Monday & get the IT manager to look at it. After all, this problem occurred as a result of something I was trying to do for work, right??
Sunday 10th June
Felt a bit low this morning. No reason behind it & nothing specific, just didn’t feel like my usual content, optimistic self. Spent a lot of the day sitting in the garden reading. Went for a lovely walk with my mum in the afternoon, which cheered me up a bit. We found Granville Park, which is a lovely bit of woodland, not far from where I live. The weather & the scenery were lovely & by the time we got back home, I felt more like my old self!
Monday 11th June
Took my pc to work, only to find out there’s nothing wrong with it – the mouse works fine!! Must have been something I was doing wrong, although still couldn’t define what that might have been!
Set my pc back up this evening; mouse working fine, but installing the wireless router still a problem. I know what I’ll do… I’ll get an Ethernet cable long enough to trail down the stairs & try installing it with my pc set up upstairs. Dad can go get me a cable tomorrow, I’m sure.
Tuesday 12th June
Hip, hip hooray!!! My pc now works, with its new wireless router. Now all I have to do is get the necessary software installed so that I can access my work files from home, but I bet that’ll be easier said than done, knowing me – LOL!!
I emailed Raquel at the Hepatitis C Trust this evening & asked her for advice on organising the publicity for my charity head shave as I think that’d be best done by someone who knows what they’re doing, that way the printed information should be more accurate!
Wednesday 13th June
Spent 6 ½ hours re-organising the stationery store at work today, moving boxes of paper & stock etc. consequently, I was knackered when I got home & apart from an hour on the pc, I didn’t do anything this evening & had a rare early night - was in bed by 10pm!!
Managed to check my emails before I fell into bed. Heard back from Raquel already! She’s going on holiday next week & won’t be back to work until 17th July. Because of that, I have decided to leave the head shave until the end of July / beginning of August – exact date yet to be finalised. This isn’t such a bad thing, as I’ve now got 6 weeks to let my hair grow & make the shave a bit more dramatic. Raquel also sent me a sponsorship form which I will edit & personalise. Once I’ve got a firm date & have finalised any changes I want to make to the sponsorship form, I will start the fundraising & health awareness.
Thursday 14th & Friday 15th June
Both uneventful & quite healthy days, especially considering that Friday mornings haven’t been the best for me since I started this treatment.
That now brings me to today. It’s been pouring with rain all day here in Telford….so miserable! And the cold, damp weather doesn’t do my arthritis any favours either, so I’m sitting here with quite a few aches & pains. I’ve taken some Paracetamol & haven’t done anything in any way strenuous today. I went shopping for an hour this morning to get a fathers day present for my dad & a birthday card for my sister, but other than that, have spent the day pottering about the house.
I must say, I’m really looking forward to doing my head shave. I just hope that I can get it well organised & everything planned so that the most is made of the event. I will be doing the shave at the local pub on a Saturday night. They have karaoke there every Saturday & I know the guy that does the entertainment very well. I intend to write a short speech for the event which I thought I could read out before I get the hair shaved & then the sponsorship forms can be passed around the pub whilst the dirty deed is being done. Then I thought I could get up & sing a song (have to think of something appropriate) & show off my new, hairless style to everyone! I’ve given Raquel contact details for the local newspapers & radio & hope that a reporter will come along on the night to take a photo or two to go with the press article. I told Raquel that I would even find the courage to go on local TV if she could arrange it (although I don’t know how news-worthy the TV stations would see it??). As long as I had someone with me to give the facts & figures, I think I could talk about my personal experience …….. now wouldn’t that be a grand bit of publicity for the awareness campaign?
As far as the treatment goes, I must say that the last 3 ½ weeks has been quite kind to me really, for which I’m grateful. Although I’m not one of the fortunate 20% who don’t experience any side effects, I am optimistic that I’m not going to have the roughest of rides either, even with my arthritis to contend with! But, always the realist as well as the optimist, I’ll take it one day at a time & make the best of what each day brings me… can’t do any more than that, eh?
Luckily, my second & third weeks of treatment went as smoothly as my first. I am getting a little fever & a few aches & pains with the Interferon but they’re manageable. My worst time seems to be a Friday morning & Sunday so I’ve quit going to the gym on a Friday now & go Saturdays instead – much easier to cope with.
Saturday 2nd June
2 weeks, 2 days into treatment. I went for a dog walk with my friend. We found a hikers walk called the Shropshire Way, which takes you literally from one side of Shropshire to the other. No, we didn’t walk the entire breadth of the county, but we did walk for 3 ¾ hours, through beautiful woodlands & fields. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although my arthritis told me about it the following day. My continual problem is (& has been ever since I was diagnosed with arthritis) that, because I feel fine ‘on the day’, I don’t see myself as being any different from an able-bodied person & will push myself to the limit; it’s only then the following day that I end up paying for it! But after so many years of living this way, I cope with that very well now.
Sunday 3rd June
I got together with Joan & hubby to try to finalise arrangements for our Shrewsbury gathering on 28/ 29th July. We drove around Shrewsbury looking for suitable venues & finally found a lovely church hall, right by the river Severn, so now we don’t have to worry about kitchen or toilet facilities. That’s now booked, so it’s just the catering that needs to be sorted out for that weekend. (More about this gathering later….)
Monday 4th June
A rash has appeared on both my arms (tiny, raised spots) – itchy or what?? I’m putting good old Canestan cream on it & it seems to be doing the trick. Today was the day I had shock news …. My 19 year old, single daughter is pregnant! Her dad told me & I have tried to get in touch with her to arrange to see her for a chat. She’s coming to see me sometime this week.
I got in touch with the Hepatitis C Trust about my charity head shave, asking them if they could provide me with health awareness leaflets. I want to turn this charity event into an awareness raising event. The way I see it, even if people don’t sponsor me, if they learn about the virus then I’ve achieved something really good. I’m not going to rush into doing this; the more preparation that goes into it, the more successful it should be!
Tuesday 5th & Wednesday 6th June
Both uneventful days, although did feel quite tired & lethargic. Didn’t stop me doing all my usual stuff though!! My leaflets arrived on Wednesday – talk about lightning speed service!!
Thursday 7th June
My 3rd appointment with the chocolate teapot today. Got my blood results from last week & in comparison to the previous ones, they look ok (I think)……
DATES 25/05/2007 & 31/05/2007
WEEKS 1 & 2
ALT 68 / 139
AST - / 63
Bili 12 / 3
ALP 64 / 72
ALB 41 / 37
HB 14.2 / 15.3
WBC 12.1 / 6.9
Plat 250 / 186
Neut 8.1 / 3.5
The chocolate teapot assured me that the rise in my ALT / AST is due to the fact that the hospital lab have a new machine which measures these in a different way – will have to see what next weeks results are like to make a truer comparison.
I did my third shot in the evening as opposed to the morning, as I had with the first two & I hope to be able to carry on doing them on a Thursday evening throughout my treatment now.
My daughter came to see me with her boyfriend this evening. I was feeling particularly tired & in all honesty, all I wanted to do was to have my dinner, do my shot & crawl into bed. Instead, I had a mammoth 2 ½ hour session with my daughter, talking through her future. She intends to keep the baby & (against her dads wishes) wants to find a flat & set up home with her boyfriend. I can’t pretend that I’m not a little disappointed & concerned about how they’ll cope, but after the initial shock wore off, I think I managed to give them some good advice & show love & support.
On top of that, my dad had one of his car windows smashed by kids playing out in the street & I ended up having to take charge of that situation too, calling the police etc. So, my early night went out of the window & not only that, but I had the worst nights sleep I’ve had in years!!!
Friday 8th June
Felt extremely tired all day today, due to the shot last night & the lack of sleep. Managed to get through the day at work, although didn’t really achieve much. Again, just wanted an early night, but (again!) that wasn’t to be because my youngest daughter & her boyfriend decided to visit. They don’t come round too often, so it’s always such a pleasure when they do. We had a lovely couple of hours, just chatting over a cuppa!
Saturday 9th June
In preparation for being able to work from home, I needed to get a new wireless router for my internet connection, one with an inbuilt hardware firewall, as mine didn’t have one. I was reluctant to do anything to change the set-up I’d got, because I just knew that something would go wrong somewhere in the process of uninstalling one & then setting up & installing the new one. However, my boss promised me that she’d send one of our IT guys over to my house to sort out any problems that arose, so I went & got my new wireless router this morning. I had to disconnect my pc & take it downstairs to connect the new device. When I booted my pc up, the mouse just didn’t want to work!! What had I done wrong? I couldn’t figure out, but just blamed the machine for being such an awkward thing, loaded it into the car & took it to the shop to get the problem sorted.”Your mouse is fine” said the technician. “It must be your pc!” Not wanting to spend money on the heap of sh!t (I was calling it worse things than that, believe me, as I had to restrain myself from throwing it out of the window!!) I decided to take it to work with me on Monday & get the IT manager to look at it. After all, this problem occurred as a result of something I was trying to do for work, right??
Sunday 10th June
Felt a bit low this morning. No reason behind it & nothing specific, just didn’t feel like my usual content, optimistic self. Spent a lot of the day sitting in the garden reading. Went for a lovely walk with my mum in the afternoon, which cheered me up a bit. We found Granville Park, which is a lovely bit of woodland, not far from where I live. The weather & the scenery were lovely & by the time we got back home, I felt more like my old self!
Monday 11th June
Took my pc to work, only to find out there’s nothing wrong with it – the mouse works fine!! Must have been something I was doing wrong, although still couldn’t define what that might have been!
Set my pc back up this evening; mouse working fine, but installing the wireless router still a problem. I know what I’ll do… I’ll get an Ethernet cable long enough to trail down the stairs & try installing it with my pc set up upstairs. Dad can go get me a cable tomorrow, I’m sure.
Tuesday 12th June
Hip, hip hooray!!! My pc now works, with its new wireless router. Now all I have to do is get the necessary software installed so that I can access my work files from home, but I bet that’ll be easier said than done, knowing me – LOL!!
I emailed Raquel at the Hepatitis C Trust this evening & asked her for advice on organising the publicity for my charity head shave as I think that’d be best done by someone who knows what they’re doing, that way the printed information should be more accurate!
Wednesday 13th June
Spent 6 ½ hours re-organising the stationery store at work today, moving boxes of paper & stock etc. consequently, I was knackered when I got home & apart from an hour on the pc, I didn’t do anything this evening & had a rare early night - was in bed by 10pm!!
Managed to check my emails before I fell into bed. Heard back from Raquel already! She’s going on holiday next week & won’t be back to work until 17th July. Because of that, I have decided to leave the head shave until the end of July / beginning of August – exact date yet to be finalised. This isn’t such a bad thing, as I’ve now got 6 weeks to let my hair grow & make the shave a bit more dramatic. Raquel also sent me a sponsorship form which I will edit & personalise. Once I’ve got a firm date & have finalised any changes I want to make to the sponsorship form, I will start the fundraising & health awareness.
Thursday 14th & Friday 15th June
Both uneventful & quite healthy days, especially considering that Friday mornings haven’t been the best for me since I started this treatment.
That now brings me to today. It’s been pouring with rain all day here in Telford….so miserable! And the cold, damp weather doesn’t do my arthritis any favours either, so I’m sitting here with quite a few aches & pains. I’ve taken some Paracetamol & haven’t done anything in any way strenuous today. I went shopping for an hour this morning to get a fathers day present for my dad & a birthday card for my sister, but other than that, have spent the day pottering about the house.
I must say, I’m really looking forward to doing my head shave. I just hope that I can get it well organised & everything planned so that the most is made of the event. I will be doing the shave at the local pub on a Saturday night. They have karaoke there every Saturday & I know the guy that does the entertainment very well. I intend to write a short speech for the event which I thought I could read out before I get the hair shaved & then the sponsorship forms can be passed around the pub whilst the dirty deed is being done. Then I thought I could get up & sing a song (have to think of something appropriate) & show off my new, hairless style to everyone! I’ve given Raquel contact details for the local newspapers & radio & hope that a reporter will come along on the night to take a photo or two to go with the press article. I told Raquel that I would even find the courage to go on local TV if she could arrange it (although I don’t know how news-worthy the TV stations would see it??). As long as I had someone with me to give the facts & figures, I think I could talk about my personal experience …….. now wouldn’t that be a grand bit of publicity for the awareness campaign?
As far as the treatment goes, I must say that the last 3 ½ weeks has been quite kind to me really, for which I’m grateful. Although I’m not one of the fortunate 20% who don’t experience any side effects, I am optimistic that I’m not going to have the roughest of rides either, even with my arthritis to contend with! But, always the realist as well as the optimist, I’ll take it one day at a time & make the best of what each day brings me… can’t do any more than that, eh?
posted by Maria | 9:05 AM
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