Thread: Back up the hospital.

Back up the hospital again today, this time it was the medical men who are my Wegener's regulars, rather than the eye doctors I was referred to by A+E. The consensus is that this is a Wegener's flare, partially contained by the Mofotil I have been taking. They have taken me off that and I am going to get a course of cyclophosphamide, a chemo drug that suppresses the immune system. I have to get the mofotil out of my system first though, so for a week I am getting massive infusions of steroid straight into a vein to keep me going. I had the first today and might be up late typing frantically between sandwiches for a bit. Half a gram of methylpredlisolone is a bit like a bit of methylsomethingelse and a joint, I'm told.

There is a down side as well of course, I have put on half a stone and my cholesterol is pretty high since the prednisolone dose was raised, but then there is with everything, I know the cyclophosphamide works, I have had it before, but there is a limit to the amount you can take in a life time, about twenty something grams I think, so every time it is used is another time in the future I won't be able to use it, thank God I am not a young man I say.

That doesn't sound much fun, hope you make a speedy recovery.
I don't log on here much, take care and best wishes though.

Hoping for the very best results, Olly. Hang in there, friend.

I hope everything works out. Hope to hear from you soon. Don't stay away too long.

Olly that sounds horrible. I am so sorry. Take it easy and try to be positive. You are in my thoughts.

Hope everything works out Olly. Take care.

We're all rooting for you, Olly. Keep at 'em.

Glad to hear from you, Olly, though I wish the circumstances were better. Take care.

Thanks for all the good wishes everybody. I realise looking back that I have painted it all rather black. People asked me to let them know how things were going and it has all been so busy lately that I did that and nothing else.

Firstly, I have been getting on with editing a book for someone. It is his autobiography, he has a good story, but it has suffered a little in the telling so it is a sort of part edit, part writing course. You may imagine that takes a fair bit of time and effort, but is very interesting to do. My author is of to his country retreat this week and I am waiting to see what results come from it.

Secondly. my daughter and I went away for a couple of days and visited my brother up near Milton Keynes. He lives in a tiny village between Milton Keynes and Bedford and we had a couple of very pleasant days in a house filled with books and musical instruments (There were two home made alpen horns in the corner of my bedroom). We are both very busy people one way and another and don't get to do these thing often enough, I think it is at least six years since I have seen him and it is a simple journey from here, must do again soon list.

Stick whole afternoons at the hospital on top of that, with a two hour journey that gets me there very early because there is only a bus from the village every two hours and the next one won't quite make it usually, and life has been very full. Oh, and I have re-wired the shed so I have a light switch and don't have to take the bulb out, I am building a heat sink behind the chimney in it, the summer plants need to come out and be built into a new compost heap, the lawn needs mowing, and the apple tree pruning, I must empty the greenhouse and get the staging back in for the winter. It's all right folks, life hasn't stopped, it is driving me on pell mell as usual, it is just not quite so easy, like wiring fittings by feel because I can't see the hole or the screw, but give the wire a tug and you still know you have got it. The human being is remarkably adaptable, I have all sorts of little tricks, using my wheelie bag as a support when I look round to cross the road so I don't lose balance turning, that sort of thing. It's the new normal.

Se

I had another dose of steroid yesterday, it is now 4,20, I must go to bed, there are the orthoptics and scleritis clinics tomorrow, more steroid wednesday.

There were four of us getting infusions today and we chatted a bit, one guy said it made him really bad tempered, he wanted to run down the pedestrians for using the crossing and stopping him, suddenly I didn't feel so bad about being a bit niggly.

Hey Olly, you are one tough cookie. Hoping things get better real soon.

Olly, just to say, hope you are soon on the mend. From both myself and the memsahib.

You don’t need me telling you to hang in there. I’m sure you’ll manage quite well.

There has to be a light bulb joke in there somewhere. Give me time; I’ll come up with one. But in the meantime, as you have power to the shed, why not get rid of that filthy stove and put in an electric heater?

I know Britain's only small. But I did think I was being original in my story, setting an imaginary village somewhere to the north-west of Shefford and Biggleswade. Now I'll have to watch even more carefully for verisimilitude, against the off-chance you might get to read it.