Dear All,
I’ve been delayed again, my return to Laos has been pushed back a further 10 days. My organisation decided that I hadn’t seen enough doctors and weren’t sure I am nuts enough to return to Laos (you and me know otherwise, obviously) and so have insisted on me getting a mid-term medical and psychological evaluation done, so I’m now due to arrive back in Laos on the 26th February. It is frustrating.
It is frustrating because every day that passes I am getting better, my bad days now are better than my good days were just a few Read More »
Dear All,
It has been another week of progress, of feeling dismally cold, and of getting stuff done. This break back in the UK has been just wonderful for me, I really have been able to relax, get addicted to the TV show “Top Gear” once again and eat an awful lot of Jaffa Cakes.
But it has also been frustrating. I’m still in a lot of pain, most of the time, and some days have been bad. I really wanted to make a meeting on Wednesday in Nottingham, but when I woke up very early in the morning I tried getting dressed but Read More »
Dear All,
It has been a week of journeys, of turning 32 and more medical tests. And turning 32 felt odd. I celebrated it by hosting a tea party for 3 of my nephews, my dear mother prepared everything and we had jelly and ice-cream, chocolate cake, party poppers, and silly hats. It was truly as if the ’80s had returned, and sweet memories to hold on to during the hard times when back on the field.
I’m slowly still getting better, the pain is frustrating and it has been difficult sleeping, but the progress overall is very Read More »
Dear All,
The snow has finally cleared and with it has come cold heavy rains and heavy blankets of cloud, the days are dark and still and quite hard to adjust to. It seems the longer I live in Asia, the harder I find the adjustment back to the UK is.
I’m still caught up in lots of medical tests and doctors appointments, it is frustrating but necessary. The current medical thinking is that I have a Spondyloarthropathy of some kind (in America this is known as Spondylitis); Reactive Arthritis is a Spondyloarthropathy but I seem to have a few odd symptoms. I’ve got another doctors appointment and more tests this Read More »
Dear All,
This past week I got the sad news from Laos that my cat, Simon, had died. It looks like he got some kind of infection or something, and even if I had been there it would have been hard to do much for him. I rescued him as a kitten, after he’d been mauled by a dog and very almost killed, and I nursed him back to health. His will to live was an inspiration to me, his Read More »
Dear All,
Happy New Year to you, it feels great to see the back of 2009… Last year so many different horrible things seemed to happen, but hopefully 2010 will be a fresh start.
It feels strange to be back in the UK, the reverse culture shock has been rather emphatic this time around. But it is so lovely being around my family, enjoying their considerable personalities, and experiencing again their sometimes astonishing quirks. My family is really very competitive, one lunchtime recently over our sausages and beans the discussion Read More »
Dear All,
I’m safely back in the UK, back in rural England, and it is somewhat horrifically cold. It is ludicrously cold, and British heating appears to be something of an oxymoron. Anyway, Happy Christmas.
I got into Heathrow airport very early on Wednesday morning, landing in freezing fog so thick you couldn’t actually see the wing of the plane (I’m guessing the captain of the 747 I was on I could see the runway, but if he couldn’t then he is a very good bluffer indeed). There was snow on the ground, and outside temperature was sub-zero. It is a little warmer now, Read More »
Dear All,
It has been a good week, a really good week. I had another blood test on Wednesday and it showed my blood was normal again, the blood test on Saturday showed I had only about half as many white blood cells as I should have, so I was massively happy when the next test was good. I am getting better. But I am weak, even a mild virus leaves me feeling very poorly. It is time for a break.
I leave on Tuesday night to go back to the UK, and it will be so lovely to see everyone again and relax in front of my Parent’s massive log fire, drink warm milky tea, and be incredibly British once again. I meet very few British people here, Read More »
Dear All,
I’m exhausted, emotionally exhausted, but I am making progress and am getting better. It is slow progress and sometimes things are very tough indeed. This season of being so unwell has felt like a bit of a nightmare that sometime I’ll wake up from and feel normal and well again. I’m reminded that at the end of the storm is when we feel least able to cope with more battering, but it doesn’t make the battering any easier.
The really good news is that my joints are lots better, my pain is much less, and the medication I’m on is working exactly as my doctor expected it would. My back is less bad and a little more flexible too.
I went back to hospital on Saturday, it was my 11th hospital visit since the end of September; I worked out I’ve been to Read More »
Dear All,
I’ve got so much better this past week, it has been quite amazing. For the first time in months I’m really sleeping deeply. For the first time since September I’ve been able to swim normally. Getting well is fun.
I’m able to get a lot of rest at the moment, and rebuild my strength. My new medication is working amazingly well, though at times it leaves me a little zonked. My back is still inflamed, which isn’t awfully fun, but I have much less pain anywhere else.
It has been a good year, getting dysentry really wasn’t any fun (:all things will pass), but good has come out of everything Read More »
