An Update On My Health

Last week I wrote about my recent absence and the reason behind it, and after waking up on Saturday with an awful pain in my legs I decided not to put it off anymore and made a promise to myself to visit the doctor.

Fortunately, I got through to my surgery at 8:02am yesterday morning (Monday), to get an emergency appointment, you're advised to call up at 8am, in the past I've tried to get through as quickly as possible but I've had times where I've not been able to get through for a good 40 minutes, to find out all the appointments had gone! After a quick conversation with the receptionist making sure the appointment was an emergency and I did need to see a doctor urgently, I was given an appointment.

I've been worrying about the idea of a blood clot for a few weeks now, but I'm a natural born worrier and panicker, so I thought maybe I was panicking about the pain (even though it's been excruciating) and swelling in my legs, however after seeing the doctor, and being told I should of come sooner, I knew I wasn't worrying for no reason.

The doctor measured my calves, and the leg with the varicose vein which is the leg thats been given me more jip, is larger than my other leg, so at least I wasn't imagining the swelling! This obviously led to cause for concern though and I now need to have a blood test to rule out a blood clot.

To be honest, I'm quite surprised at how well the doctors treat blood clots, al I seem to hear these days is how bad doctors are, but the doctor I see yesterday was fantastic. She told me step by step what would happen, I'd have a fasting blood test and will get the results on the same day, if the doctors are closed by the time the results are back, the local out of hours doctors - located at our nearest main hospital will call me.

I will start treatment straight away - on the day and will be seeing the doctors/hospital quite a lot over the next few weeks if the results come back as positive for treatment. I'm not entirely sure on what the treatment will be, but I know I'll have to have a daily injection to thin my blood for a couple of weeks, so when the doctors aren't open, I'll be visiting the out of hours doctors at the hospital, neither are within walking distance - especially with a bad leg, and I don't drive, so it's going to be quite hard, but manageable.

Once the treatment is over, I will have a scan at the hospital where I will be seen quite quickly, and this is whats making me worry, because for doctors to rush things like this, there is obviously a real concern.

My doctor did go on to tell me that she's had many cases where the blood test have come back positive, her patients have had the treatment and gone to the scan where there's been no blood clot, but they need to make sure they're treating you as if you do have one.

I'm also on antibiotics for lumps under my armpit believed to be hidradenitis suppurativa, and at the moment, resting my right arm in its natural resting place is giving me the most horrid of pains, it's even worse than my legs and that's saying something! I need to take antibiotics before I can be referred to the hospital to have them removed, I've also been left with bad scarring which will never go.

My beautiful big sister's wedding is just four days away, where I am being bridesmaid, I don't want to let her down in anyway, but being a single mother to a child means you can't rest. It's impossible.

Gareth was able to help me yesterday both dropping Spud to school and collecting him for me, unfortunately he can't help me with the rest of the week, so this morning see me and Spud get the bus down to school, it's only five stops away from our home, but my leg is giving me that much jip I had no choice. A single for the pair of us cost me £3, luckily my sister needed my help with some last minute wedding preparations and was able to pick me up from Spud's school, otherwise a single for myself would of cost me another £1.60 home, and then there's getting to the school later on.

I'd already spent £8 on bus fare yesterday by purchasing a family bus about as I needed to get to the doctors etc, add on today's £3 spent on the buses and thats £11 and we're only halfway through the second day of the week. A weekly for myself and Spud will cost me £28, something I just can't afford at the moment.

I've not been working due to the pain I am in, I have lots I need to purchase ahead of Saturday and I'm in constant pain! I've been prescribed stronger painkillers than paracetamol, but after taking one yesterday and needing a nap within 30 minutes of taking it, I can't carry on taking them! Luckily Gareth was here to watch Spud for me.

So for now, I will have to carry on with the pain, hope and pray that I don't have a blood clot and try and find some work!

It never ends!

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