Thorns

Before I forget:

I went to the doctor again, my test results came back low-but-just-within-normal for Vitamin D and something similar (low or high?) for ANA.

It turns out that colloidal minerals did not mean silver, but actual useful minerals like potassium etc, in the form of concentrated sea water. This stuff tastes really odd (a bit like salted licorice) but I've found it makes a nice addition to savoury sauces. I should check with him if that's an ok alternative to drinking it :D (vitamins etc I wouldn't do that too, but these are metals, they're hardly going to degrade)

He seemed pleasantly suprised that I was having an improvement so fast.

He said fermented soy (ie soy sauce) is probably ok (THANK GOD) but mainly went on a little rant about GM soy which I nodded and smiled through (it's not like I'm going to eat it either way...). He said there's no way to tell if trace amounts of gluten etc will affect me very severely except by comparing my health with them and without them, which is kind of annoying but what can you do. I think I'll wait to get really picky about that sort of thing until after christmas or there'll be no end of angst with my mum's cooking.

I thought I'd record my hits and misses going gluten free, both for personal records and anyone else who might find it useful. All foods are gluten, soy, and dairy free. (Also coconut etc)
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So I FINALLY got to a recommended chronic fatigue specialising GP today. He started by asking what the "Dr" was for, and then when I said maths his whole face lit up and he started fanboying maths (apparently he seriously considered majoring) which was a nice start. He took my history and unlike all the vague handwaving I've gotten from other doctors was all "Ah, I know what's wrong with and how we can fix it" which was both encouraging and discouraging (I'm not sure anyone can be that sure with chronic fatigue)
( Nooooo! Don't take away my cakes! )

Have been skimming through the Canadian guidelines on CFS/ME, which are supposedly the best document on the illness and since it's so long thought I would make notes as I go. This is mainly for myself!
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So, after several months of me taking more and more days off work and being less and less productive on the few days when I did drag myself in, I and my manager discussed it and I'm just not going to go in again until I'm better enough to be able to work consistently (exact amount of time off to be decided after I can find a decent doctor who knows anything about chronic fatigue). Which on the one hand is, obviously, a hugely bad sign about my health and future, but on the other is a major relief since it got to the point where the effort of just choosing what to wear was more than I could handle most days.

I thought about locking this and disabling comments, since I'm not really in the mood to discuss it and don't need sympathy (it's not like it's a sudden shock, and I'm..not always good with well meant sympathy) but hopefully this way I can avoid a lot of awkward "So hows work?" conversations.

Anyway, expect a lot of ill thought out lj posts in the near future since I have nothing else to do and if nothing else it stops me wandering around tiring myself out :) Unless lj decides to stop me posting again!

I did it again!

This time I had the excuse that I only brought in one days worth of bread for lunch and then was reminded we were going out for lunch. Where I ordered marinara with no cheese, and it came not only full of chilli (my fault for not checking, but who makes marinara spicy?) but also with a big hunk of grated cheese hiding under a mussel shell, and who knows how much more mixed in that I didn't notice due to the spiciness. Hmmph.

Though I'm increasingly certain that this is not actually a cheese reaction, since (a) They're not usually this severe or have quite these symptoms and (b) it's not getting better. That and I've been having increasingly bad headaches and..dumbness for the past few days which have only gone away after sleeping for like three hours.

Anyway, I have somewhat belatedly realised that I am far too stupid and grumpy for the internet right now. *attempts to enforce internet silence on self*

Wow. I managed to stay at work for six whole days in a row. That's the healthiest I've been for ages :/

I am sick. Literally, do not expect to hear from me for a few days, my throat is all swollen and I feel gross (and you do, don't be surprised if I am croaky and grumpy and nonsensical). I currently have a little paper pad next to me with half a conversation in it.

And now, back to the wonderful world of fanfic. Typically, I got two really thinky nonfiction books from the library on Friday...

EDIT: And of course I read an otherwise quite cheery House/wilson story where a patient starts with flu-like symptoms and a sore throat and then DIES A HORRIBLE DEATH

Yesterday I unexpectedly found myself at a talk by the social epidemiologist Ichiro Kawachi on the social determinants of health. He's giving a talk at UWA tonight, it may be too late for people to go though. Audio available from here (thanks Zanchey!)

It was absolutely fascinating. Here are some somewhat unstructed thoughts based on the notes I took (on my pda, I certainly didn't go in expecting to take notes) and the printout of his slides.

Basically, the idea is that if we want to lower the prevalence of some illness we need to look at (and fix) the environmental factors driving the overall trend towards it, not focus on telling individuals how to "stop making themselves sick". He looked specifically at why England is healthier than America despite the fact that americans spend way more on healthcare (and tend to drink and smoke less), and within that at what's causing the "obesity epidemic". It was pretty much exactly the thing I was looking for the reconcile the somewhat contradictory ideas that (a) There's an obesity epidemic and (b) there's not that much individuals can do to change their weight (so how are we all getting fatter?) It also very much suits my pinko socialist tendencies :)
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(This I started as a reply to fred_mouse's post)

So, if people's lj posts are anything to go by, a LOT of you have issues with fatigue/energy levels. What have people found effective in dealing with them?
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Just had my endoscopy, and am apparently not allowed to drive or make important decisions for 24 hours doe to being off my skull. So likely anything I say in person or online will be more giberrishish than usual, apologies in advance.

They sent the info booklet or whatever to the wrong address and the whole thing happened at such short notice I didn't have much of a chnce to think of questions etc, so I had no idea what to expect and ended up being way early.
-7am: miss breakfast for fasting. Feel very uncomfortable about this
-8am: decide I am already too grumpy to go online any more
-10am arrive at hostpital. Watch bad tv once I run out of podasts.
-11am: find out the doctor doesn't even arrive till 1:30. Think mournfully on the lunch I packed.
-2pm: get put into a bed. Discover they have Usbourne puzzle adventures!
-3pm: Am very woozy. Book on the religions of India starts to Really Make Sense.
-4pm: Wheeled into room, nice doctor injects me with something.
-4:30pm: Wake up back in ward. FOOD!
-5:30: Cam comes to pick me up. We wobble off for more food and then go home.

It turns out I have a minor hiatal hernia and signs of ulcers, and will find out soon from tests whether I have Coeliacs or heliobacter pilori (both of which I've tested negative to before, but no harm I guess) Also, it turns out my esophagus really isn't very photogenic. Ick.