Sunday, December 30, 2007
30th December Looking back and hard to look forward.
Things certainly don't get any better.
I have felt really strong nausea for most of the day and have been incapable of doing very much. If I try to do anything then I very quickly feel that I might faint.
I have to say that this evening the nausea has worn off a bit - but I just feel exhausted.
I never did chop the vegetables for the chicken korma but I did feel I wanted to be around to talk Bill through things - not that I think he is stupid of course.
As he assembled the food I decided to research potassium.
I can now put a label to the problem - I have hyperkalemia.
The internet describes my symptoms and has explained that the doctors have done all the things that they would normally expect to do for this condition.
They get the potassium level down to the high end of normal and then it flares up again.
I didn't feel strong enough to make a very full study of the implications and I certainly don't know what can be done next. It is potentially quite serious and points to kidney problems. But Mr Swinn has told me that my kidneys looked good and healthy.
I do feel that there is a good chance I shall be back in hospital at some point.
If the forms for a blood test don't arrive in the post tomorrow I shall be on to the GP and will want them to know just how unwell I am feeling. But GP's don't normally step in over the heads of hospital consultants and I have 2 of those right now.
I shall soon be in bed - I haven't slept during today at all and I yearn to be cosily lying down.
So, tomorrow is New Year's Eve. A time to look back. It will go down as a bad year for me with lots of pain, treatment, surgery, bags and now illness. But there has also been a life - well up until the end of October there was a life.
Best of all was being in Thailand before the treatment started. Then there were the lovely 2 weeks with Ashley and Katya in the summer. There have also been lots of lovely days out with Bill.
Just like in yesterday's blog I can look back on this day last year. We had a pleasant walk in Salisbury with Roger and Sue. I think it was the beginning of my full awareness of what was actually wrong with me - intense pain developed the next day.
Anyway - here I am posing in front of the beautiful cathedral.
