Another month and yet more tales of woe!

image from Clipart Library

Here we are, already in October and my posting has not improved at all I'm afraid ~ sorry about that 😉  Once again I've been struggling somewhat with health issues, this time whilst visiting family south.

We decided to cut out part of the journey by flying to Aberdeen, where we stopped overnight.  The next day we got a train to take us all the way to Leeds ~ a good 6.5 hours 😳  With the benefit of hindsight this was, of course, a bit of a mistake to be sitting on a train for so long ~ when we got to Leeds my back was not happy at all!  After three nights sleeping on the rather firm mattress in the hotel we were staying in my poor hips decided to join in solidarity with my back ~ I was not a happy bunny, as I'm sure you can imagine!  From Leeds we travelled further south down to Stevenage on an LNER service, then just one stop back to Hitchin on the local service where my Dad picked us up from the station.

Thankfully, after a few nights at Dad's, my back and hips started to feel somewhat easier.  Amanda and Liz came down on the Sunday, and we all went out for lunch ~ it was lovely to spend time with them again 😊

Alas, my lovelies, I was being lulled into a false sense of security!  I woke up on the Tuesday and the big toe on my right foot was once again feeling very stiff ~ yup, the gout had flared up again😒  I couldn't believe that it had returned so soon.  We had been due to go over to Hitchin for a couple of days to catch up with Adrian's sister and her partner, as well as old friends, but with my foot being so sore and swollen we ended up cancelling that part of our visit south, staying a couple more days with Dad instead.  Elaine and Martin still came to see us, though, just coming a bit further to Bedfordshire rather than going to Hitchin.  Dad enjoyed seeing them, too, as they hadn't seen each other since Adrian's Mum's funeral a number of years ago.

Thankfully the gout flare-up, although still painful and uncomfortable, wasn't as bad as that first time.  After a few days resting my foot at Dad's, I felt able to start the journey back home again.  My criteria for travelling was whether or not I could get my Crocs on, so I was relieved that by the Friday I was indeed able to do that.  I decided that I could make the journey but Adrian did build in some extra contingency in case we had to break the journey more than we had originally planned.  Dad took us to Hitchin very early on the Friday so we could get the local service (as planned) to Peterborough, where we caught the LNER train to Edinburgh.  I felt able to stick with our original plan to then get a ScotRail train to Inverness to keep us to our original schedule.

This train, as always seems to be the case these days, was very crowded, and the ScotRail trains are not as spacious as the LNER ones are.  There was a young American couple sitting opposite us, and the husband was a rather large chap with pretty long legs.  He looked uncomfortable throughout the journey, and I was very conscious of trying to keep my legs tucked well in to try to protect my poor toe!  By the time we arrived at Inverness, where we were spending the night, I had developed a pain in the calf muscle of my right leg because of the way I had been sitting I guess.  The next day both Adrian and I had discomfort in the back of our thigh muscles, but at least the train from Inverness to Thurso wasn't crowded so we could stretch out more comfortably.  From Thurso it was a short taxi ride to the harbour at Scrabster, where we were very relieved to get the ferry home to Stromness as I'm sure you can imagine!

It was so good to finally sleep in our own bed, but my back and hips were once again aching, and to put the icing on the cake my body wasn't quite done with tormenting me ~ I woke up the next morning with a very uncomfortable feeling at the back of my right heel, in the Achilles tendon area, to add to the other leg muscle discomforts 😒  Still, at least we had made it back home again!    

Although it was nice to spend a little extra time with Dad, I was quite anxious to get home as I had an appointment with my GP on the Tuesday that I really didn't want to have to reschedule if at all possible.  What I haven't mentioned up to this point is that a couple of months ago I received a citation to attend for jury service.  I had a prolapsed disc back in 2008 and my back has never been the same since.  It's something that I have just learnt to deal with over the years, trying to be sensible in what I do and resting/taking pain killers if I find I've pushed things more than I should have done.  Now, when I received said citation it didn't even enter my head that my back issues could be a problem.  The flare-up of pain and discomfort following the train journey to Leeds, though, brought home to me just how difficult it was going to be to fulfill juror duties.  I would have to be sitting for considerable periods of time on seating that may very well not be as comfortable and supportive as my chair at home, and I would not able to just get up and move about if I needed to, or go and lay on my bed for a while like I can (and do) at home.  So, while we were in Leeds, I phoned and made an appointment to see my GP to discuss the situation.

I hobbled down to see my GP on the Tuesday ~ well, I hobbled to and from the bus stop, to be slightly more accurate, as I definitely couldn't manage the relatively short walk from our house to the surgery.  Obviously the first thing I raised with her was the issue of my back.  She agreed that it was not going to be possible for me to undertake juror duties, and was happy to write an excusal letter to the Court which was duly accepted by the Clerk.

We then had quite a long discussion about my other health issues.  She thinks that it is quite likely that the blood pressure medication that I take has caused the gout to put in an appearance ~ said medication, by the way, is doing it's job as my blood pressure was very good when I saw my regular Nurse Practitioner before my appointment with the GP.  Going back to the gout, my GP suspects that this second flare-up was because the original attack at the beginning of August hadn't quite cleared up when we went south, and the long hours travelling kicked it off again.  She prescribed another short course of Colchicine because my toe and the joint still weren't back to normal when I saw her last week.

We then talked about the health issues that had come up earlier this year.  You may recall my earlier post where I told you about the changes I was making, and how difficult it was to balance the dietary advice for those issues with the advice for gout!  My GP has told me that she wants me to concentrate on managing the more important issue of prediabetes.  The gout, though unpleasant and painful, can be managed if necessary with a preventative medication.  It's much more important not to tip over into actual diabetes as there are so many other health risks associated with it.

So that's where I am at the moment, making the dietary changes to manage the pre-diabetes and hoping that the gout doesn't flare up again any time soon!