Week 14 - Monday
Like I experienced the last time I came back from Spain, I found I had to “squeeze” myself back into life in the UK - schedules, appointments, etc, although this was a quicker and easier process this time.
I have been feeling very energised from this short break. And feeling like I could get back into a more normal everyday routine. I have been thinking I have enough time during the week (when I am not doing my part-time work) that I could begin to take on other activities in my life. I haven’t done any watercolours for months now and I stopped going to Tai Chi and Chi Gong ages ago. There are probably work projects I could develop as well.
However, when I look at what I have done today - it has been very little. I keep Mondays clear, as a day for appointments with Mynurse at her Clinic and for my weekly injection, but today have had no commitments outside home. I realise I am still taking ages to do very little. I have answered emails, made a few phone calls, surfed the net on the usual HepC sites, been to the supermarket to collect water and drinks (and done my self-Reiki, had meals, chats with Carol and had coffee with a Danish pastry). Not a lot really.
Perhaps it a case of the spirit being willing but the flesh is weak - to borrow a phrase usually used in other contexts.
In terms of my health there is very little different to comment on. I have a pain in my right shoulder area again. I think this is not unusual with HepC as there are nerves connecting the liver and this area, I understand. I know from a seminar I went to with John Tindall last year that it is a commonly reported issue. It isn’t so bad that I will take anything for it.
My hair continues to fall out and is looking thin - with glimpses of scalp showing through. It should grow back in, Im told. I am also told that it could grow back in curly and grey. Well, not much change there then. But I would appreciate having it grow back.
And, once again, I have had difficulty working out what Week of treatment I am in. I have just given myself injection #15, if I count the sites around my body - so I calculate I am starting Week 14. By the way, the blotches I encountered on the injeciton sites at the beginning of treatment seemed to have stopped developing as the weeks have gone by - occasionally a red area comes up by the end of that week and disappears in a few days.
Another example of the “brain fog” side-effect - while I was planning the site for my injection Carol commented I was aiming for the wrong side of my leg. I had remembered Mynurse instructing me to do the injections on one side of an imaginary line going down the centre of my leg. I was spotting the fleshy part of my inner thigh as a good target area when Carol pointed out this is where the femoral artery runs from the groin to the knee - exactly the wrong area to select! I should be using the outer side of my thigh. I had forgot half of Mynurse’s instructions!
It makes me appreciate how fortunate I am to have a carer watching over me to prevent potential difficulties like that. It also makes me appreciate how hard it must be for those on this treatment living on their own who could be forgetting all kinds of things to do with their treatment.
February 15th, 2005 at 1:08 pm
Hi Ron,
The liver and the right shoulder are indeed on the same pain lines. When I had my last liver biopsy, not only did I feel like I have been kicked really hard in the abdomen but I had incredible pains in my right shoulder. In the end it was the pain in my shoulder that made me request medication.
Sorry to hear that your hair is falling out. I was using Nioxin shampoo which is supposed to help reduce hair loss, in the end I had to give up using it as it made my scalp inflamed. So far my hair seems to be staying put, for which I am eternally grateful.
All the best
Jonathan