Living Without HepC

With a gap of over a month between entries it’s obvious I have spontaneously taken a break from blogging about HepC.

Some of this is due to not being able to get online except on weekends when I’m home back in London. And I’m ready for a break when I get there, not more computer work. The city I am working in has very few internet cafes (all of which seem to close at 5 pm). Even Chefchaouen in the remote mountains in Morocco had more internet cafes! I do occasionally have a look on the Forum while I’m at work but use of the internet is not allowed so I can’t spend much time online there either.

Ben gave me a wifi card for my laptop - and I still had trouble locating zones to use it in till recently. I found a bar where I can sit sipping mint coolers and use the internet. How cool / sad is that?

Another reason for not blogging? How much more can I say about living with Hepatitis C? I feel very fortunate to NOT be living with Hepatitis C, so I don’t really feel I have much to contribute to the greater pool of knowledge and experience of it.

And a final reason for not blogging is that I have not even been thinking about Hepatitis C much at the moment. I feel it’s useful for me to ‘let it go’ a bit at this time. I have moved away from being an ill person and back to living an everyday life. It’s what I waited for all those months and now I’m doing it. I know I won’t forget Hepatitis C and the amazing journey I experienced living with it. But for the moment I am having a break from blogging. I will continue to oversee the Forum, probably in a minimal way, as I don’t want to lose contact. But expect a gap here on this blog!

Wishing you well

Ron

It’s been over a month since I’ve posted here. Busy, busy, busy. I have now found an apartment where I am currently working so no longer travelling on the trains every Monday and Friday. Just every alternate week – with Carol taking a turn and travelling to me. This weekend she discovered a sun-trap cove of a beach just five minutes from where I am living, so we spent a wonderfully lazy afternoon there yesterday.

While I sometimes struggle on an upward learning curve getting back into work, I am realising I have a lot to celebrate. And very grateful that I am able to say “I feel very well these days”. Most of the people I work with have no idea that I have been ill at all. Not that I wouldn’t tell them – just doesn’t seem relevant to do so.

My brain has really wound up from almost standstill a few months ago to full tilt recently. I still regularly have trouble remembering things – like the synapses in my brain aren’t joining up quickly enough yet. Probably two or three times a day I realise I can’t remember something I said last week, or the name of a casefile, or someone’s name. Other people probably just think I’m having a ‘senior’ moment but I know it’s still the leftover of those treatment drugs.

But I don’t feel badly about this happening. I have achieved a remarkable amount with this ‘rusty’ brain. I have met literally hundreds of new colleagues and staff in the past few week, learned three new computer software programmes, the policies and procedures of an organisation new to me, familiarised myself with a hundred or so casefiles, ‘hit the ground running’ managing a staff team of ten people. All in a city new to me – and I’ve found time to find a new place to live as well as commute on the trains.

Despite having to eat in restaurants while I was staying in hotels, I have managed to maintain my healthy diet and keep up the yoga. I’ve been walking a lot too. I think I am managing to avoid stress – I am so much more aware of it than I used to be. Two weeks ago I worked a 48 hour week – so I will take the extra time back for myself and spend a day (and a bit) relaxing. New rules.