h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Training that is


Felt really weird the last two days. kind of light headed at times, and possibly with some intestinal upset so been fiddling with my steroid dose a bit, to, well, so I don't go into a coma.

Was ten pin bowling last night, and felt really weird at one point, so light headed, distant, and so weak... but carried on bowling (was drinking water not beer), and as I still felt so odd, popped some extra hydorcortisone steroid and manade it through the evening

so tired though... so went to bed quite early last night, just 1 AM

and felt tired this morning despite that.... so napped from about 11.30 until gone 3 PM - having gotten up earlier, eaten, taking steroids and suppliments etc...

decided I probably need more steroids, so had a lunch, cheese sandwich, and took 2 MG prednisolone, then went out at 4 PM, to get bus to hospital....

was at hospital reallly early, so had to pass the time... so went to annoy endocrinology, stopping in as we went; to look at the glorious leech jar, on display in the musseum bit of the hospital... leechs ar eso neat... ahh... the great Hoffman....

got some bloods back from endocrine, my GH is now right at the top of normal range, which is good, and they're happy for it to be there, thyroid levels are off the bottom of tghe normal range, as would be epxected now I'm not taking the thyroid meds....m must look at the other bloods later; tracking my sodim and potasium levels as far as I can, help ensure I don't get too ill from that oh, and my testosterone was nicely in the middle of normal range, just before my last injection, which is good, or, well, is sort of good, if only I had any labido at all anymore. which of course I don't now... which is, well, kinda totally distroyed my life really....

went to circuit training, and had the weigh-in - last weigh in there was two weeks ago; and in that two weeks I've lost 2.4 KG so.... must have lost about a stone in weight now - we'll do a weigh in here tomorrow, on our scales too, ...

starving hungry when we got home, so had dinner... and took another 1 MG prednisolone plus PPI, calcium, magnesium, zinc, vitamine D, and vitamine K2... I do now rattle....

Should be getting phonecall tomorrow, from a rep from a pharma company; thy might want me to fly next month, to Germany, forf a two day patient conference thing, expenses paid, so as long as they'll pay for W too, and house us somewhere too, I hope we can organise that to happen

one stone down..... possibly three to go... although two and a half more to lose is the main objective I think... that would put me at about 12 and a half stone

Got my lab work prior to surgical removal of a patent urachus and a bladder stone next month done day before yesterday.

Stuck five times in an effort to get the blood for the blood work, one of the sticks producing a subcutaneous edema about 2 1\2 inches in diameter.

I always have had a reputation for being a 'hard stick', probably related to lifelong low blood pressure.

On the second round of labs they wanted a second urine specimen.

By that time, the bladder stone had done its impression of the ping pong ball in the neck of the snorkel and gravitated to where its least wanted, so I was unable to comply.

Yeeowtch!!!

May have to go in for more tests in the mean time; surgery mid-month, next month; a week on a catheter, 1st post-op; 2nd post-a week after that.

It will be nice to be able to sit, stand, bend and stoop again without pain as high as level 8.




Spent yesterday bopping about visiting some of my favorite recreation areas from my teens, twenties and thirties, finding most of them so changed as to be almost unrecognizable.

Probably my last chance for an outing before surgery.

Got a little much needed fresh air and exercise anyway.

ouch! - I'm really unsure over this whole "you've got difficult blood vessels" thing.... - I know I've got tiny blood vessels; even I can tell the nurse she needs to use the small needles.... "yes, thats right, just use the ones you would with a very young child/baby and they'll work better.... trust me, they'r emy veins, I know what will work!" - which they invariably ignore.... - I've come to the conslusion after many many thousands of blood samples being taken; nurses do not get better with practise; they can either take blood, or they can't; some just have the technique, and get blood out of me, no problem, first time, other's, leave me with a paralised arm for a week or more post-blood taking - using the same vein often two nurses, a few days apart can just utterly fail (and moan its my fault because I've got rubbish blood vessels), or succeed first time and tell me, I'm an easy blood letter - To be honest I think I've got more clue now how to get blood out of my own veins than any nurse, and I can't even see my veins, but I do know where they are!!!

I had a mini battle a couple weeks bak; I showed the nurse the blood vessel on my bicept, and had to persuade her to use it... "no honest, it won't hurt me a bit, I cna't feel needles, ... yes even there I won't feel it.... no really, that one works and won't paralyse my arm... please... please use that blood vessel.... " - even after all of that, she was supprised when it worked so easily - and yes I never felt the needle go in or out - the smaller vessels on my forearm send my arm to sleep when they use them, even if temporily, and often then give paralysis of the arm, and bruising useually from the needle spot (bbend of elbow), all the way to my shoulder and all the way to my wrist in the other direction.....