A diagnosis!
Rubbishitis, I name thee...Lupus. I have lupus! SLE, to be precise.
House fans, please point and laugh. It’s one of those things that there’s no direct test for, but all the things that did test positive, plus my answers to some other lifestyle questions, make it likely.
What is it? It’s an autoimmune thingumybobby. Googleable and wikipediable if anyone’s interested. The most common symptom is a face rash, which I don’t have (me? Skin problems? Hah.), but i tick enough of the symptoms boxes for a “yup, probably” diagnosis. After I answered the GP’s questions, I realised it’s probably been chuntering around in the background for years. It explains all sorts of things I would never have gone to the GP about, and had instead put down to “getting on a bit”, “being intolerant to certain foods” “having a slow metabolism”, “having a bad memory” “hating the cold” and “hating the sun”. (Yes, really! My extreme hatred of bright sunlight and preference for hiding in a darkened room actually has a cause. Now NO-ONE can force me to “come outside and stop wasting the lovely day”. MWAHAHAH.) And the whole thing where I detest and loathe most exercise with a passion, because it makes me feel nothing but utterly rubbish and exhausted, and I’ve never had an “exercise buzz” in my life? Yup, that too. :-) (Happily, my cycling to work can return as soon as this ‘ere “flare” finishes buggering off, which it’s in the process of doing. Cycling to work - low-level cardio - was actually pleasant.)
So, what amazing drugs can I take for it? How can I further maximise all my National Insurance contributions?
No point putting me on corticosteroids at the moment. My internal organs are, spleen aside, fine at the moment (this needs to be monitored - more cold gel, yay!), and I don’t have a skin rash. I could take interesting unpronounceable anti-inflammatories to help my spleen along and stop it irritating the tissue in my chest area. However, some of them have the side effect of lowering white blood cell count, and since mine are already at “almost no immune system” level, that would be a Bad Plan. So, what’s left?
Aspirin.
I have to take aspirin. Not a whole aspirin, mind you. That would be a Bit Much. Just half an aspirin. If I find that all gets a bit much, I can switch to...ibuprofen.
I am highly amused by the lack of drama here. In six weeks I’ve gone from A&E with heart issues, through heart scan, armpit biopsy, more blood leeched than I can shake a stick at, a chest x-ray and an ultrasound, all culminating in...“take half an aspirin a day and go away”. Not that my GP is being mean, and there are many lifestyle things I have to do (many of which I was doing anyway, like a really healthy low-fat diet, a multivitamin, gentle cardiovascular exercise and a generally non-extreme lifestyle), but it is quite funny.
So the final question of, what caused the flare? That’s funny too. Consider the timing - I started having chest pains during the August bank holiday weekend, and ended up in A&E the following Thursday...let’s just say I have to have some Serious Words with my ritual group! . (These words will go something along the lines of “I want everyone to have fun, but you guys were so disorganised and stressed me out so much that I was ill for 2 months afterwards. Let’s do things differently next year, eh?”) It’s crazy...I can handle everything to do with work (including the madness that was last March), kitten-birth, cats being ill just fine, but 2 days of people saying “I’ll just be five minutes” and being 15, and forgetting lines, and I fall over. (Wrong hobby? Bah!)
House fans, please point and laugh. It’s one of those things that there’s no direct test for, but all the things that did test positive, plus my answers to some other lifestyle questions, make it likely.
What is it? It’s an autoimmune thingumybobby. Googleable and wikipediable if anyone’s interested. The most common symptom is a face rash, which I don’t have (me? Skin problems? Hah.), but i tick enough of the symptoms boxes for a “yup, probably” diagnosis. After I answered the GP’s questions, I realised it’s probably been chuntering around in the background for years. It explains all sorts of things I would never have gone to the GP about, and had instead put down to “getting on a bit”, “being intolerant to certain foods” “having a slow metabolism”, “having a bad memory” “hating the cold” and “hating the sun”. (Yes, really! My extreme hatred of bright sunlight and preference for hiding in a darkened room actually has a cause. Now NO-ONE can force me to “come outside and stop wasting the lovely day”. MWAHAHAH.) And the whole thing where I detest and loathe most exercise with a passion, because it makes me feel nothing but utterly rubbish and exhausted, and I’ve never had an “exercise buzz” in my life? Yup, that too. :-) (Happily, my cycling to work can return as soon as this ‘ere “flare” finishes buggering off, which it’s in the process of doing. Cycling to work - low-level cardio - was actually pleasant.)
So, what amazing drugs can I take for it? How can I further maximise all my National Insurance contributions?
No point putting me on corticosteroids at the moment. My internal organs are, spleen aside, fine at the moment (this needs to be monitored - more cold gel, yay!), and I don’t have a skin rash. I could take interesting unpronounceable anti-inflammatories to help my spleen along and stop it irritating the tissue in my chest area. However, some of them have the side effect of lowering white blood cell count, and since mine are already at “almost no immune system” level, that would be a Bad Plan. So, what’s left?
Aspirin.
I have to take aspirin. Not a whole aspirin, mind you. That would be a Bit Much. Just half an aspirin. If I find that all gets a bit much, I can switch to...ibuprofen.
I am highly amused by the lack of drama here. In six weeks I’ve gone from A&E with heart issues, through heart scan, armpit biopsy, more blood leeched than I can shake a stick at, a chest x-ray and an ultrasound, all culminating in...“take half an aspirin a day and go away”. Not that my GP is being mean, and there are many lifestyle things I have to do (many of which I was doing anyway, like a really healthy low-fat diet, a multivitamin, gentle cardiovascular exercise and a generally non-extreme lifestyle), but it is quite funny.
So the final question of, what caused the flare? That’s funny too. Consider the timing - I started having chest pains during the August bank holiday weekend, and ended up in A&E the following Thursday...let’s just say I have to have some Serious Words with my ritual group! . (These words will go something along the lines of “I want everyone to have fun, but you guys were so disorganised and stressed me out so much that I was ill for 2 months afterwards. Let’s do things differently next year, eh?”) It’s crazy...I can handle everything to do with work (including the madness that was last March), kitten-birth, cats being ill just fine, but 2 days of people saying “I’ll just be five minutes” and being 15, and forgetting lines, and I fall over. (Wrong hobby? Bah!)