Hi everyone, been a couple of months since my last post, hope you are all doing well. It’s been quite a one-extreme-to-the-other type of couple of months. September was highlighting my adventurous side, as I mentioned at the end of my previous post about a trip I had planned a few years ago and it kept playing in my mind and with the way things have been going, if I didn’t do it in September I wouldn’t for sure be able to for another year or ever. I know I was pushing myself and taking a chance doing it, but it has been something I’ve really wanted to do for a long time. I’d only be annoyed at myself if I didn’t at least try which seems to be my thing of late.
The trip was the Wild Atlantic Way, rather than doing it all in one go, I split it into different phases, which added a lot of miles but it gave me time to recover, and more importantly not overdo it on the pain killers. It was mostly a recce driving run to explore rather than going visiting places, apart from stopping places to sleep I never stayed anywhere longer than half an hour. And it was amazing, from start to finish. Now I know what areas I liked most and could plan proper holiday/trips around them, which I will hopefully be able to do.
September, I spent a lot more time socializing with people as well, I probably spent more time with people that month than I had in the last 4 years combined, which has been nice. As usual good things never last for long and October came around, I wouldn’t exactly say it was bad, it was however very different to September. October highlighted my hermit side, for starters I went out for a walk to Peatlands Park and I knew I was overdoing it but I just kept going anyway and after my leg gradually got worse, peaking at agony and not being able to put weight on it.
This coincided with starting on new tablets for my heart to help “protect” it and to lower my blood pressure, I think this has a factor in the leg pain too, probably more so than the walk. The leg has Avascular Necrosis (AVN), which I’ve had from about 15 years or something but over the last year it’s been getting much, much worse and severe since July and still deteriorating. It’s caused by the bore dying and breaking off in the joints with the blood not getting to it properly, more specifically my left hip and knee. The pain is everywhere in between, when I’m sitting or lying down it’s in the thigh and standing the knee and hip.
With the betablockers my blood pressure has plummeted and I think with that the circulation to the joints has got worse and potentially been making it worse, on the first Thursday of the month after a starting them on the Monday, I didn’t do much that day, got a chippy and was watching the football just sitting on my normal seat and tried to stand up and well… I couldn’t. As soon as I put any weight on my leg it was excruciating, at the time I would say it was worse than my back when it was at its worst but I think it’s different, this is more the pain is in sudden sharp pains where the back was more a long, drawn-out consistent pain, although I definitely prefer this pain, I can cope more with it a bit better.
The leg pain continued on the Friday and I thought that was gonna be it for my hip and it was going to stay like that but thankfully on the Saturday it started to ease up a bit and I mean just a bit. Still really sore when I put any weight on it but I’m able to walk short distances (around the house) ok without my stick but anything longer (to the shop) I need it, as I’m sitting here now there is a throbbing pain just above my left knee and I’ve taken extra pain meds this morning for reasons I’ll get to later.
There is also another reason why I’m using my stick, as I mentioned the blood pressure has plummeted, generally for me it’s always verging on high and my body is used to that, now it’s below normal, which my body’s not. The first week or two on them I was getting light headed and dizzy and having to hold on to things to not fall over. My sleep has been really different too, I’ve generally been sleeping less and I didn’t sleep that much at best beforehand. I have been phasing out a lot and just being in a daze and losing focus on things, but in a way it’s a bit nice especially with the pains, the body just seems to go into standby mode.
The third week I was on them I was at hospital getting my infusion and as I’d lost a bit of weight and the blood pressure being low the nurse was really concerned, the doc had planned to increase the dose, they never told me or at least I didn’t remember them telling me, but as I’d lost weight, they weren’t sure whether it was a good idea to go ahead with it, eventually they decided to anyway. I always feel shite after getting it so was a little worse than normal. The nurse wouldn’t leave me alone as she was worried about the stats.
Next day I was at the dermatologist, my normal screening doc has retired and they’re stopping the screening, and now they’re going through her patient list and culling out people that don’t really need to go. I am one that does though and they are chopping out a couple of blemishes and putting me on the list to go back when the screening starts again or get transferred. I got the two blemishes cut out yesterday so one had 8 sutchers and the other had 5, both on the left but one is more sensitive than the other. Another couple of scars inc, they’re a little tender this morning but I’m not planning on doing anything until Saturday and will hopefully have got over the itchy/tender stage by then but I doubt it, the one I got done last year on my head was still seeping at that point.
With all that going on in October I’ve really not been able to do much, thankfully I got my new PC which has made things a bit easier, I had picked out which one I was after and when I went to buy it a few days later it was on a pre-Black Friday sale with 24% off, but even that I can’t go on for too long without getting sore. Hopefully November things will settle a bit and I’ll be able to get out a little bit to do stuff, it’s a good time of the year to just get cosy in the house and hibernate though.