3y 9wks Month 38 blood results

It’s that time again, monthly blood test results are in (maybe)

Last week was a manic whirlwind of activity on the work front, I love my new job, it’s manic and crazy and fun, a few uneventful days wouldn’t go amiss though J

The weekend has been quiet with minimal commitments to attend to, strangely this seems to have wiped me out more than the busy ones though (probably just my body being in shock and having a bit of a panic that it got a rest J)

Pilates starts again this week on Wednesday, strangely I’m not actually sure if I’m looking forward to that or dreading it. The beginner’s class was okay but the last one was hard, not in a make you sweat kind of way but in a ‘sometimes it breaks me’ kind of way. If it’s going to get harder again I’m not going to be able to do it.

We’ve also hatched a plan for a holiday. We put our requests in today for a week off at the start of September. Gareth and I are hopefully heading off to Normandy for a week of sunshine, calvados, awesome food and dog walks around the D-Day landings beaches and clifftops. We are planning to take Winston and Bella as they both have passports. Amber is too old and not strong enough for that kind of activity level so we will probably see if we can get her into our day care lady for a vacation of her own.

It’s now Thursday, I haven’t actually got round to posting this yet. Gareth went to Pilates last night but I didn’t. I was massively exhausted I’d had to work from home during the day and I just couldn’t have got through it so I stayed on the sofa with the dogs and snoozed.

On the holiday front = we we’ve both put in leave requests, Gareth’s has been approved, mine is still pending. We’ve not arranged pet care or booked transport or a rental Gite. In fact apart from a discussion about it and looking at some properties online we’ve done bugger all to actually get our holiday sorted.

Anyway – scores on the door time for my July bloods. Netrophils and Monocytes are still all over the place but closer than they have been. Lymphocytes are being boring and staying pretty even. My thyroid is staying in the normal range and doing as it’s told (it’s even a little lower than in the past)

Anyway, it's pretty 'normal' in my world right now - I'm sure it won't last long

Stay well everyone xxx

 

 

 

3 years 8 weeks - double update

Apologies for no update last week, work and life has been pretty frantic

The missing week -

First things first – I’m gutted I’m not in the menopause

So I guess we can all agree on one thing - I’m a bit weird?

Apparently 5.7 on the FSH test doesn’t mean I’m going through the menopause, Dr B laughed a lot when I asked about it being an appropriate level for someone going through puberty and his comment was soothing along the lines of ‘you wish’ ….. when we both stopped laughing I realised sadly I’m not going to get the magic patches which will make me feel like a teenage girl again L

In my mind - the patches were going to fix everything dagnammit …..

The others in my year at school have them….

They’re bouncing around like spring lambs and reliving their youth partying all night in Lanzarote and singing the praises of the magic patches.

Surprisingly when I suggested magic patches regardless to Dr B his response was once again ‘You Wish’ …. It wasn’t so funny the second time L

We had Gareth’s parents visiting at the weekend, much BBQ’ing was done along with serving of the trusty Tomahawk steak which was well received served with awesome peppercorn sauce prepared by Gareth. Lots and lots of talking and catching up, it’s the first time I’ve seen them this year (very rubbish I know). Wine was drunk, football was watched and generally a good time was had by all.

On the point of football, it’s not coming home this time. The youngest team in the World Cup (England) lost last night to the oldest team in the world cup (Croatia). An enjoyable game as an England fan in the first half, we bossed the game and went 1-0 up thanks to a great goal. Sadly a few more chances were not scored and at half time we didn’t change anything up. Croatia came out and for the 2^nd half and then both halves of extra time the Bossing was all done by them. 1-2 to them in the end. I’m proud of our young new team and their manager, my expectations were low before this started and they have outperformed what I’d thought we would achieve. If the team and manager stay together and move forwards then in the next internationals and competitions they will hopefully go from strength the strength and become a formidable team.

So the decision had to be made for the final - France or Croatia?

Gareth and I have such strong ties to and love for France; they are our neighbours so I will be embracing our French ties – Allez France and all that J

The UK heatwave continues, our obsession with being unhappy with the weather continues, hose pipe bans loom to conserve water, weather reports allege rain showers will happen but they don’t come and everyone is having a good old moan about the heat J My latent ‘gingerness’ means I spend my time in the shade admiring but not participating in the sunshine, a good rain shower would be lovely but I’m enjoying paddling in the pool we bought for the dogs to cool down (they don’t seem to mind the taste of ‘hot people feet’ in the water J)

We had the week off Pilates this week as it’s between courses (and apparently the WI have booked the hall next week too, so it’s actually 2 weeks off) – I’m pretty sure that my body is grateful for this J

The last Bella training session is tonight, we’re being vigilant to continue this and try to pass this on to the other dogs as well. It’s working although discovering that because she’s a skinny racing snake Whippet she can actually get out through the cat flap yesterday evening was a shock when we found her happily sitting out in the garden on the padded chairs after we had brought her in with us J

I’m still loving my new job, it’s interesting and fun, mad and challenging and it makes me smile. It’s the best work choice I’ve made in a few years.

So coming, up ….

We have a lovely friend over on Sunday for a BBQ, as he’s Italian; I’m chickening out on some of my trusted favourites (since they’re a bit Italian and I can’t face the judgement) and going Portuguese with a Piri-Piri chicken and salad combo.

And up to date

Lunch on Sunday was lovely, we broke with british tradition and drank about a gallon of diet cola watching the match as everyone was driving later in the day, and France did indeed win the world cup - in part thanks to a couple of very dodgy refereeing decisions which VAR didn’t help with.

Work has been pretty frantic with me blinding myself with spreadsheet’s and plans.

Dog training has finished and Bella graduated her IMDT foundation course (although she was the class dunce in at least 2 areas)

Other stuff has happened but to be honest it’s all a bit of a blur and to be honest I don’t really think anyone reading this would care at all.

It’s Monday again, I’m back to work and I have a plan, I just need to crack on and make it happen.

Blood tests on Friday this week so more lovely results to be published next week.

Sorry for the crap update
xx

TESTING TO SEE IF EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS WORK >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
(if you're not me please just accept that I'm a little mad and delete this notification)

3yrs 6 wks - I have a NORMAL THYROID reading WOOHOO

Check out the new thing I managed to d >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If this works (still testing see the post above) then you should get an email notification when an update is published *allegedly*

Feeling HOT HOT HOT
 

British people are insanely picky and like to moan about the weather (it’s almost an national hobby we whinge about it so much)

I’m not having a whinge, just loving that we are having ‘Summer’ like the rest of the world does for a change. Like our British reaction to 5 flakes of snow in winter though, we are woefully unprepared to meet what seems to be an ‘extreme weather event’ J

When I say woefully unprepared, in our case this means the aircon unit is currently buried in the back of our garden shed behind a multitude of things which have been relegated from our home, but are not quite at disposal status. The duvet is now in the bottom of the wardrobe, we are sleeping under a duvet cover only and to be fair if it weren’t for the night monsters which attack the bits that are uncovered – well that would be gone too.

Dinner on Saturday was lovely, so great to catch up with our friends. The ribs I’m doing for their summer get together were received very well as the starter and blessed as perfect for the summer do. Two tomahawks proved to be complete overkill – we didn’t even finish one between the 4 of us – they’re off to fill their freezer with them this week. The Lemon Curd and Limoncello individual cheesecakes to round off the meal went down like feeding time at the zoo …. Sixpence to watch the lions feed (after the meat coma that preceded it, that we had room left for anything was nothing short of miraculous)

Sadly 12:00 walkies for the pups at K9 on Sunday couldn’t happen, it was simply too warm and with the limited shade and risk of them running too much in the heat and making themselves poorly – risk assessment said NO.

We went and collected BamBam’s ashes on Sunday, very bizarre to receive him in the same floral tube that we got my brother in (a considerably smaller one – but the same type regardless) We aren’t sure where to put him if I’m honest, we can’t bury him in the garden for fear that the dogs would dig him back up. Perhaps scatter him around the front and the garden (probably freak out the neighbours). For now he’s sitting on the top of the bookcase while we mull over our options.

Randomly after many calls and much faffing around to get my Thyroid results for June the receptionist at the surgery read it down the phone to me when I was trying to book an appointment to have it done again ….. 2.19 – that’s back in the NORMAL RANGE WOOHOO I think – I hope OMFG that’s awesome news

I also really do need to understand more what an FSH (menopause reading) of 5.7 means – a quick google search of said levels seemed to imply I might be going through puberty J (which at 46 would be somewhat bizarre – and I remember the breakouts and the spots from last time, and goodness knows my boobs getting even larger would be nothing short of catastrophic – EEEK L) Low FSH also (according to Dr Google) can also imply problems with the pituitary gland or hypothalamus (interestingly pituitary gland problems apparently can also contribute towards HypoThyroid – according to Dr Google) I guess it depends how much you want to furtle around under the hood of that one – but the lack of ability to conceive throughout my life certainly gives a little gravitas towards the Pituitary being on the frisk. That’s one for a long in depth conversation with Dr B I think.

So apart from the worst hangover in living memory on Sunday (less said the better about that) the week has been entirely lovely and normal

Stay well xxx

BLOOD RESULTS - Month 37

Ta-da
No suprises,
Neutrophils high (broken foot)
Monocytes high (but lower than last month so thats good)
WBC high (broken foot)
Lymphocytes a little lower (suicides after broken foot)

TSH hasn't come back yet - check again tomorrow
FSH (menopause) also not back yet - boooooooo - give me my teenage again patches LOL

3 years and 5 weeks - The anticipation is rising

It’s been such a busy week, so many things needing to be crammed into such a short space of time. Fortunately this was a week off Pilates, I’m not entirely sure the broken foot would have been terribly happy about giving that a go, so happy days for a week off. The foot by the way is so much better, my super powerful bone healing seems to have remained intact despite MS and Lemtrada.

Bella’s dog training last week was mostly successful, although some of the loose lead techniques seemed to contradict the previous weeks learnings and confused her greatly. Doing a lap of the room with a full glass of water in my lead hand and not spilling a drop was pretty epic though J

I’m eagerly awaiting 13:00 when I can call the doctors to get my blood results for the month. It’s quite bizarre after the last 3 years, to be excited about things other than the Lymphocyte count. So this months look out points are :

·        TSH – hopefully heading back in the correct direction thanks to the increased Levothyroxine dosage J

·        FSH – Menopause measure – bring on the ass patches that will make me feel like a teenager again J

·        Whatever weirdness the foot brings – OMFG – Just went back through my photographs to find last years broken big toe so I could look at the bloods for that month and see what went odd – CREEPY RANDOM THING – I broke my foot A YEAR TO THE DAY that I broke my toe – perhaps I should pencil in June 15^th next year as a potentially suitable date for break number 19 J - Anyway back on topic my Neutrophils went a little nuts back then so possibly again this month.

I got my oxygen therapy in over the weekend, lovely dog walks and 2 BBQ’s one lazy lie in (Saturday I was wide awake at 06:30 L BOOOO)

In different and awesome news COSCO finally have Tomahawk steaks back in stick again. We have 4 sitting in the freezer now and Gareth thinks I’m going slightly mad. 2 will be used this coming weekend when the Chapper’s are over for dinner. Gareth will be making 2 awesome sauces to go with them, his ‘Better than Miller & Carter Dripping Sauce’ and a peppercorn sauce. My amazing ribs will be the starter and I’m toying with individual boozy desserts in pretty little glasses but I’m torn between something salted caramel and something lemon curd / Limoncello based. If this follows the usual food related decision path of my life, I suspect will make a panic decision late on Saturday afternoon J

I’ve been pretty slack on the diet for the last couple of weeks – not BAD – BAD just a bit naughty BAD so today I’m going to knuckle down and get back on it properly.

Cripes that’s just made me realise it’s 11am I’ve done umpteen conference calls and I’ve not had a cup of coffee yet L


EDIT : for those at the start of their journey, another Lem-Blogger I recommend you follow. The lovely Jo has just completed round one and is publishing her progress in real time.
https://ms-understood.com/

Talk to you later alligators when I’ve got my blood results – I’m off to hit the caffeinated beverages shop – hard J xxx

3yrs 4 wks - breaking my foot and my heart

Some days I wonder who I must have been in my previous lives.

I figure I must have been someone REALLY bad if I’m honest because I’m not sure what I’ve done in this life to deserve constant loss and heart ache - Perhaps Ghengis Khan or Hitler - it would explain a lot?

Something I didn’t mention last week was that I had BamBam-cat back at the vets on Thursday night, his weight loss had continued and he had stopped eating entirely until we managed to get pureed cat food in him on Wednesday night / Thursday daytime / evening. We knew his time was limited and that there were more sinister things going on (lumps inside in his tummy area)

We had hoped that we would have a few more weeks with him, but it wasn’t to be. On Saturday morning I brought him into the utility for breakfast and he simply lay down on the floor and wouldn’t move, when we lifted him he would cry. It was time. One last car journey on Gareth’s lap rather than in a cat box, lots of tears and cuddles, lots of we love you baby boy and we let him rest.

I’ve cried so many tears this weekend.

It was father’s day on Sunday, BamBam is gone and then there’s the broken foot ….

Yes you did read that right

The broken foot

My right foot is swollen, misshapen and quite frankly feels like tooth ache has set in

This injury happened whilst I was standing on my tiptoes trying to put the over the table brolly up in the garden …. I slipped off the marble base, lost my balance and STOOD ON MY OWN BLOODY FOOT…..

Yes you read that right too …….

I stood on my own foot and broke it.

I figure it takes a really ‘special’ (not a compliment) kind of stupid to do this to yourself (remember the last break when I dropped a dining table chair on my foot and broke my big toe??? ‘special’ ……)

I mean seriously – who actually does these type of clutzy injuries to themselves??

OVER

AND OVER

AND OVER AGAIN

Perhaps I should just wrap myself in bubble wrap from head to toe and then stay in a nice safe padded room.

In different news – The World Cup has begun. After being quite ambivalent about it, I’m really starting to enjoy the continuous football on the TV. The shock results so far, Germany in a shock loss, Spain and their draw against Cristiano Ronaldo (or Portugal as the rest of the team call themselves) Brazil’s 1-1 draw with Switzerland last night. Tonight England play Tunisia – anything could happen given the other run of results. Bugger I’ve just realised I’ve committed to a drink with my old boss this evening – I hope the game is on at the pub.

So the weekends plans went out the window, no more work was done on the pot holes on the lane – I feel like I could do with a weekend to get over the weekend.

In different news, I ‘think’ the increased Levothyroxine dose might be starting to work, I feel less ‘old-fart’ than I did a few weeks ago in myself.

This month’s blood work is taken on Friday (along with the menopause test) so fingers crossed for a better TSH result, and if I’m honest possibly a nice set of patches to stick on my behind and then onwards and upwards to feeling like a teenager again (I think I can remember that far back)

Much love to everyone xxx