More than just a bag lady

Let’s talk about Candida. Although it sounds like the name of sex worker who might leave her calling card in a London phone booth it is in fact one of 4 bugs that have grown in my Hickman line and by far the most serious. Candida  is a fungal infection that is yeast based and it’s nasty little spores can migrate round your bloodstream and settle in various places in the body, potentially causing havoc. In my head I imagine them to be a bit like when you pick a dandelion and blow and the little fluffy bits catch the wind and off they go. The places they like to set up home are the heart, brain, eyes and bones so this week I’ve been having various tests to check whether this has happened or not.  On Tuesday I had an Echocardiogram to check that there was no infection in my heart. Except nobody told me it was happening so imagine my surprise when a random bloke wheels in this machine to my room and tells me to strip off from the waist up!  The only reason I happily complied ...

God, this weekend has been hard. Not so much physically but emotionally and mentally. It started with Hubby sending me this photo on Friday… Somehow over the last couple of years he’s managed to dodge it but the dreaded Covid had finally caught up with him for the first time. And although Covid isn’t really a ‘thing’ in the real world any more, in hospital it still very much is, so of course, this meant that he wasn’t able to come and visit on Sunday with the kids like he always does.  I found out on Thursday that my Hickman line was going to need to come out but I was hoping that it would all be done and I would have a shiny new one in time for Big Fella’s birthday at the end of the month. But I was talking with one of the nurses about it on Saturday and when I said that she told me that there would be no way I would be discharged within the next 2 weeks. Apparently waiting lists for line insertions and excisions are the longest they’ve ever been and she said that although she fel...

I’ve not managed to write my blog post about the Jubilee bank holiday weekend. The short story is that I was due to be discharged on the bank holiday Thursday but took really poorly. I thought I would miss going to London for the Platinum Party at the Palace on the Saturday night but the doctors and nurses were determined I should go and somehow got me well enough. I then spent days in bed recovering but my goodness was it worth it! There’s obviously a longer story and I’m working on it but if you read on you’ll find out why I’ve not managed to write it yet!  A week after the bank holiday Thursday I developed a very high temperature of nearly 40 degrees, had rigours, vomiting and pains all over my body. As usual this was lousy timing as I had been starting to feel better and was supposed to be discharged the next day.  The doctors assumed it was the second dose of Adalimumab that I had received the day before that had caused me to have these symptoms but to be on the safe side...