Category: the sickness

Am Sick of Being Sick And Am Blaming The Cab Driver And The TB Tourist

The end of the rope is nigh now that almost a week has passed and the sickness has evolved as such (and for those of you who don’t care, please skip this post):

1. Slight tickle in the throat on the plane + no sleep + massive cold sore = the ominous beginning. When we exited the plane last Saturday at 5 AM Toronto time, my RRHB said: “WHAT is that?” This was followed by a look that can only be described as disgust.

2. Needle on Saturday AM + no sleep = feeling like I’ve been run over by the kind of truck that evens out pavement. Coughing, coughing, coughing, coughing, rinse, repeat.

3. Good night’s sleep + good book + my own bed = waking up Sunday morning feeling refreshed, renewed and actually better. Go visiting, go grocery shopping, do all the laundry. See, I’m better!

4. Coughing + coughing (see above) – good night’s sleep + 250+ emails = feeling worse on Monday morning and call in sick to school. Manage to make it through a whole day’s work but walk home from the bus stop with legs so wobbly I am afraid I won’t actually cross the threshold of our house.

5. See #4 + a fever – any sleep = sleeping in and heading to work late, but feeling actually well enough to make it through the rest of the day and attend every meeting I actually had so far in the week. But have possibly infected entire office. Perhaps not so smart.

6. 5 days of coughing + wicked sinus headaches + runny nose – any solid rest = doctor’s appointment on Wednesday.

7. Ordered into quarantine for Thursday and Friday which means I’ve missed or am missing the following: The Book Lover’s Ball (I was actually looking forward to dressing up like Sylvia Plath in my red dress and Mexican beads), two days of work, lunch with Sam and Chico, and quite possibly The Weakerthans outdoor show at Nathan Phillips Square tomorrow night. But forced quarantine means that I’ve caught up on all the TV on the PVR. Have now seen all the episodes of jPod (which looks, acts and smells a lot like the book, yes, that’s a given, but the feature film Everything’s Gone Green, right down to the set decoration and the secondary characters) and am enjoying it, quite liked Eli Stone, am shocked and dismayed by Paul’s extra-curricular activities on Corrie Street, and was reduced to watching Wild Hogs (absolutely embarrassingly awful) and semi-delighted to see The Science of Sleep, which then led me to searching out Serge Gainsbourg on YouTube and falling into an internet coma (damn you Ethan Hawke, damn you for pulling me back into the spoils of celebrity gossip if only for a second) until I recovered enough to catch up somewhat on my posts since we’ve been back from vacation.

8. This morning: coughing up a bit of blood + meds + exhaustion + good night’s sleep + a dry house = feeling better but not 100% and when will it end? Stupid disease medication. Stupid immune system. Bah! But isn’t the snow pretty?

How is everyone else?

Adventures In Illness Part 81358

So yesterday I went to see the family doctor because I’ve got this strange rash on both sides of my nose that looks like eczema, and it simply won’t go away. That coupled with the lip blisters that lead to cold sores cropping up for the second time in two weeks ensures that I’m looking awesome these days.

Anyway. I think the rash-type thing is a result of the meds, it’s the only thing that it can be as I haven’t changed anything with respect to my skin care regime, and even tried stopping washing my face for a day to see if that would help (it didn’t). Even so, the family doctor wasn’t willing to make a diagnosis and even suggested that I go see the Super Fancy Disease Doctor about it. Considering he’s, like, the smartest doctor in the world and it’s just a rash, I felt that maybe that wasn’t quite the right thing to do.

Without having ANY idea what it might be or what might be causing it, they’re sending me to a dermatologist, which is fine. Except they don’t want to TREAT it in case it goes away or something before I see said dermatologist without them figuring out exactly what it is. Yay for me. It means that however long it takes for them to refer me that I’ll have to continue to look like I have the chicken pox.

I tell you, Wegener’s is awesome.

Not.

Life As I Know It Is Over

So I went to see the renal dietitian today, and she was perfectly pleasant, as many people I deal with are at the hospital. However, she has told me to stop eating nuts.

ENTIRELY.

On top of that, other things on the ‘must-go’ list include: juice (no more than a 1/2 cup a day), tuna sandwiches more than once every couple weeks, cheese (ack!), butter (which I only use to cook with) and muffins.

As I’m ‘high risk’ with this whole cholesterol thing because of the Wegener’s, I really need to crack down and deal with the situation but I do love almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, pecans, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, all yummy, all out.

Like I said, life as I know it is over.

Sigh.

Super-Fly Fancy Disease Doctor

Hallelujah! I’m safe for another five months, and can start reducing my medication, slightly, which is all so very exciting. On all accounts, I’ve got my “mild” Wegener’s under control (his words). We’ll see for sure what he says when all the bloodwork comes back in the next week or so. But by all accounts, I’m chuffed—it’s been a long, long three years.

The Girl With High Cholesterol

So, I saw the kidney doctor on Friday for my bi-annual (yay!) check up. All my blood tests look great, and my creatinine is holding at 110-112-115, which is high, but stable, and the doctor is pleased. But he tested my cholesterol and it’s high, which could cause a problem because youngish people like me with auto-immune diseases are apparently at a greater risk for heart disease.

So I said, “What do you recommend?”

He answered, “Well, we’d tell people to stop eating so much red meat and fried foods, and to control their drinking.”

Considering a) I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 14 and b) I drink once a month at the most, figuring out where the high cholesterol is coming from is a bit tricky. It could be my diet, it could be genetics, it could be anything. What’s even odder is the fact that my blood pressure is perfect, so he doesn’t even have that test to go by.

Funny how I can’t go a single doctor visit without something! But in the scheme of things, it’s a pretty common test result, and maybe it just means I might have to alter my diet more than usual. No more muffins. God, I LOVE muffins. Anyway, he’s sending me to a dietician. Who will tell me to eat more vegetables. I mean it’s not like I don’t know how to eat; it’s just a matter of finding the energy to be more organized about it all. Therein lies the challenge.

For once it might not be the disease causing the wonky test results: it could be age-old genetics. Now that is something new.

Take One Sick Day…

I was off yesterday with a strange virus that has left me nauseous, achy and kind of dizzy. Gotta love the immuno-suppressant meds for allowing your body to pick up every strange bit of something that floats by in the ether. Funny how life just seems to go on without you:

Cormac McCarthy continues to cement his place as the all star in terms of the literary world this year by now winning a Pulitzer Prize, which means I need to bump that book way up on my TBR pile if Oprah, the establishment, and the lit blogging community are all in agreement. Isn’t that a prophetic ‘stars aligning’ kind of situation?

Yann Martel is seriously interested in learning what Stephen Harper is reading. An interesting project considering every single time Bush cracks a book it makes major media waves. (props to Jane at RHC for bringing this one to my attention; Pickle Me This also reported on the new blog)

The world receives a major publishing event in the form of a new Tolkien novel. Here’s another smile and nod-type author for me. I’ve never read a single Tolkien novel in my life even though I loved the movies. Honestly, I tried to read the first book in the trilogy but couldn’t get past all the hobbits singing.

CBC.ca/arts reports on all the crazy marketing behind The Raw Shark Texts. I have read this book and will be blogging about it in the upcoming days.

Fingers crossed we’re all back on our feet today.

TRH Movies & A Stupid Cold

I’ve been sidelined at home the past few days with a rotten cold, a sore throat and lots and lots of sneezing. Good for reading, not so good for thinking, which means I’m not getting as much writing done as I’d like, but I’m making progress regardless.

I’ve been buying DVDs lately for two reasons, one because we always need stuff to watch at the cottage in the summer, and we generally end up viewing many films multiple times so I don’t really think it’s a waste of money; plus, I’m sick to death of paying late fees because we never get the videos back on time.

Annnwaaay. Yesterday I picked up Babel and The Prestige. I kind of feel like the first film was a waste of money. We haven’t watched it last night. And you know what? It’s kind of overbearing and quite unbelievable. I know it’s all arty and ohhh look how connected the world is but the tenuous nature of said connection in terms of the Japanese storyline was almost laughable. Like Crash, it kind of plays out with a bit of the movie of the week sensibility where you’re forced to suspend your disbelief just that little bit too much. Why is it nominated for so many Oscars?

All in all having a stupid cold the last few days has meant I’ve watched way, way too much television. I’m looking forward to getting out of the house tomorrow and enjoying the few days I’ve got left before I start my new job.

Oh, and just FYI, I wrote a guest post over at Martinis For Milk about a trip to the doctor yesterday. It’s a bit graphic (there’s a whole gross but funny thing going on) and it’s about lady bits, so be forewarned, only read it if you are truly convinced there are some things that you just NEED to know about me.

The Almost All Clear

Wow. Just got back from the kidney doctor and while my creatinine levels aren’t back to their super-fantastic levels of three or four years ago, they are steady and no longer increasing at alarming rates.

And, I don’t have to go back and see him for six whole months. That gives me some serious time to try and shake off these prednisone pounds. Apparently, doing everything to ease the load on my kidneys, which includes not being overweight, is a good thing.

So no more procrastinating. Dammit.

Bloodletting & Non-Miraculous Events

Okay. Here’s a note of what not to do:

Never, ever get the blood requisitions for two different doctors done on the same day in the hope of saving time and energy. What happens? You end up very, very, very lightheaded trying to make awkward conversation in the waiting room with a girl you went to high school with but didn’t recognize.

Then, you eat a giant chocolate bar and call your RRHB 14x to pick you up because you don’t think you can make it on the streetcar, can’t get through, forget you have to buy your brother a birthday card and then fall asleep on the 10 minute ride almost missing your stop.