Hannah's Blog - The Crazy Piglet
  • Home
  • BLOG

Hello Again - Been Absent Quite a While!

10/8/2015

 
Well hello!  This is the first time I've blogged for ages - I'm not sure why, but it just didn't feel like the right thing to do for a while.  I think my last post was about the fire in December, and now it's August.  I had another fairly serious depression after the fire - no surprises there - and eventually come out of it in March.  I had been told that I needed to have both my shoulders replaced when I saw the surgeon last year, but I put it off and off, and then decided to come off the waiting list for the summer, so that I could concentrate on losing weight and generally getting my life in order.  Never tempt Fate - I immediately got diagnosed with stress induced psoriasis, and then became aware that not all was well with my neck.  After a series of investigations, including a sudden and unexpected trip to A&E, I was told that I have a prolapsed disc between C5 and C6, and that there are osteophytes (bony arthritic growths) in my neck; both those things are pressing on the nerves to my left arm and my spinal cord.  Bummer.  I was told that it was "urgent" and that I should have an operation to fix it as soon as possible.

I looked up the dictionary definition of "urgent".  Every source said "requiring immediate attention or action".  "Imperative".  "Especially before anything else".  The NHS, apparently, has a different definition.  I wonder what it is.  I wasn't given an appointment to see the spinal surgeon until some time in August - I went to A&E at the beginning of June - but thanks to his secretary, I actually saw him on 24th June, because there had been a cancellation.  He showed me my MRI scan, and then a scan of a normal neck, and mine showed what seemed to be a huge prolapsed disc, which filled the spinal cavity.  I just hoped that it looked bad because I didn't understand what I was looking at.  The end result was that I was told the operation would be late in August/early September, which didn't actually sound very "urgent" to me.

So, I put up with the symptoms (tingling left arm, neck pain, wobbly legs) and was told I couldn't drive by my insurance company, so had to stay at home unless some kind friend took me where I wanted to go.  My friends have all been very good at giving me lifts when I've needed them, but even being driven doesn't help the neck.  Meanwhile, the secretary and I had been emailing each other with various bits of information, but even she couldn't make things happen any faster.

Then, last weekend, the symptoms got suddenly worse, and when I saw a new GP on the Monday, she really got the bit between her teeth, faxed and phoned the surgeon's office, marking everything "urgent" (!), and I have now been marked down for an "urgent" admission.  Ha fucking ha.  I'll see what eventually happens - no news as yet.  

So far, my mood has remained strangely stable (I'm touching wood as I type, which is actually quite difficult) and I haven't lurched into a depression or mania.  I've always had a severe mood swing after a general anaesthetic, so that's a probability, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
                                                                 


​

    Author

    I spent 16 years in the RAF defending the Free World , then got bunged out unceremoniously for being bipolar.  I and was subsequently diagnosed with PTSD.   Funny old world, isn't it?

    Picture
    □□□ □□□ □□□ □□□

    Archives

    August 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • BLOG