Writing this blog is somehow comforting to me. I don't know who reads it, probably not many people, but I know some good friends are regulars. It's with them I feel I'm communicating my thoughts and this case my best Christmas wishes. It's good people I've been associated with who have made life something to cherish. So Merry Christmas to you who reads and may you be favoured by a gentle breeze and good fortune.
The hospital (Flinders) rang me today, a part of the surveillance program on my carotid artery. The purpose of the call was to discuss the pictures from my ultrasound examination done last Friday It was scheduled for yesterday, but I was shopping in the mall on Friday when a phone call came from Jones Radiology to tell me they'd had a cancellation and if I could be there in 20 minutes I could take the spot. Apparently, my artery is OK. There's been small change since my last ultrasound but not sufficient to cause concern or action. I'm clear for another 6 months when they'll organize another U/S.
I remain afflicted by the stiff legs despite my remedial massage program, so I've booked a Doctor's appointment for 6 Jan. I'll inform Doc that I'm cutting the statin tablet into quarters and therefore taking only 20mg per day instead of the originally prescribed 80mg. I'll request blood tests for checking cholesterol and markers for RA as well as all the other things Doc usually does. I should then know more of my situation and have a better idea of whether it's the statin causing my leg/bum muscle difficulty, or something else. All I can do is keep looking for solutions, which is the same with everything, for me and everybody.
The soreness hasn't stopped me doing anything. Most days I go down the river for an hour or so and do good things. Very satisfying.
I'm slow but the book on Vietnam tells a gruesome story. I'm still only about 15-20% of the way into a 600-page small print book, but it's absorbing. I did not realize there was a large-scale revolutionary war with the French years in duration in the first half of the 1950's. Losses of people and resources by both sides, as well as much suffering by the civilian population, most of whom were poor to start with. Then after the formal partition of Vietnam into north and south there was brutality and atrocity in extreme, by both the communists and the Diem Regime, in the second half of the decade.
I started this post last Tuesday - it's now Thursday.
The USA largely bankrolled the French for years with equipment and money due to their paranoia about communism. No doubt the Korean thing was a factor in this. The British were reluctant to become involved by joining the US with this support, believing it to be futile for France to try to maintain their colonial asset in Indochina (If they couldn't hold on to India what hope could France have).
After all the Geneva peace talk stuff and partition the US continued its financial input, now to the Diem regime in the south. The money and equipment were misused in huge corruption making the Diem people wealthy and most of Vietnamese population even more poverty stricken. An almost unbelievably inept disastrous level of incompetence and corruption. I will read on, difficult and slow as it is, such is the detail, but in my humble opinion the author has done an amazingly good job so far.
Back to my health situation. Starting Monday I had neuralgic pain at the top of my head shooting down to my right ear every minute or so. It was not severe, painkillers eased it, but I used them sparingly. Tuesday night I woke a couple of times with the pain stronger. At 6am Wednesday I took two Panadeine. At 6.30 the pain persisted so I took two Ibuprofen. The shooters were now every 10-15 seconds. After 7am I said to Lib I think I'll go to the hospital to get a blood test, to check inflammation and my RA markers given my history. Lib drove me up and came home.
Seven and a half hours later, I rang Lib, she picked me up. The doc at ED, Amy, a lovely young of lady of Scottish origin (I wish I'd asked her how a Scottish lass came to be a doctor at Victor Harbor Hospital) told me I did the right thing coming in, my inflammation levels were high. After consultation with rheumatologist, she said it was unlikely it was temporal arteritis (I had told them of my scare some 15 years earlier when I had artery biopsy to find negative for that) but to monitor myself closely and if I had strong pain, trouble chewing or vision issues to get back there quickly. By this time the pain had eased. She told me to ask for more blood tests at my Jan 6 Doctor's appt to compare with today's.
I'm not mucking around; I'm going to take Ibuprofen say three times a day if necessary and mix it up with Panadol. I'm confident I'm OK or will be fine in a day or two. I have a bit of an overreactive immune system methinks which gets a bit enthusiastic when it encounters triggers. I was getting prickled and bitten by ants, mozzies, mites, flies down the river and munching antihistamines to alleviate rash.
I feel great today, no pain. My leg soreness has almost disappeared entirely. Maybe that's because I've upped the painkillers, maybe it's because my massage program took a while to kick in, maybe it's because I reduced the statin to a quarter of a tablet a couple of months ago (80mg>20 daily) and that took a while to kick in. I'll share all this with Dr Kamahl Mamoud when I see him on Jan 6 and take it from there.
All we can do is "Keep firing." I repeat my Christmas best wishes to my friends. May your lives be filled with joy. I love you.
