Before I write about anything else, I have to tell you – I finally took the road test (actually I took it 3 times) and passed. I’m now a very happy camper with a Provisional licence for the next year. After that I’ll have P2’s which means I won’t have to drive with a P-Plate showing in my front and back windows. But mainly, I can now drive myself – without needing Rod as a chaperone. Yay!
It’s hard to believe I haven’t added to my blog since last November. I just read the last entry and have a few follow on comments. The salt thing was proven to be “SIADH” (inappropriate secretion of the anti-diuretic hormone). Meaning that I can no longer take anti-inflammatory medication for my arthritis. My GP had tentatively re-started me on one type but when I saw my rheumatologist he said the only safe option was to go on Fish Oil which would take about 3 months for it to start to take effect. I was a bit less than thrilled about that, and was about to throw in the towel when after 3 months I wasn’t seeing any effect, but I did some research and started taking a higher dosage and … yes it has helped a great deal. So that’s good, and the salt thing seems to have settled down but I’m still anemic.
In November I wrote that I was taking iron for the anemia but I stopped when my GP told me my iron deficiency wasn’t caused from a dietary lack of iron. It’s a shame she told me that in a way. Fast forward to 1st March. I had an appointment with a gastrointestinal doctor at Flinders, who was able to go back into my blood test records and he felt whatever issue I’m having with anemia, it’s been happening for a long while. Like even a year ago. He’s scheduled an endoscopy and colonoscopy, and has given me extra stuff to really make sure I’m all empty so the tests will be successful. They’ll give this two tries and if it still doesn’t work, I’ll need to swallow a miniature camera capsule. All this is to find out where the issue of my anemia is coming from. He also instructed me to start taking iron again. I did so until a couple of weeks ago when I had a bit of gastro tummy upset. I’ve now gone back on it as it did make a big difference in my energy levels. Without the extra iron, I am so very fatigued and flat. In fact, for a long time I thought that my being so flat was due to depression, but now I’ve realised that even though I’ve been dealing with depression, much of the fatigue has been the anemia. So here I’ve been mentally beating myself up for my lack of get up and go when it’s probably mostly due to something I don’t have much control over. The colonoscopy and endoscopy is scheduled for later this month so we’ll see how that goes. Hopefully it’s just a stupid polyp that needs to be nipped in the bud.
In other news there really isn’t any other news. I’ve enjoyed being able to drive on my own and pick up groceries and go to meetings I’d been avoiding due to lack of stamina to catch buses and worry about getting the bus home again. Other than that, I’m usually fairly active from Friday through Sunday and then spend Monday to Thursday in recovery mode. I’ll be glad to be able to be active all the time again. It’s been ages.
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