Hi all 
Where has this year gone? Is it really almost Christmas already?! I don't feel I've achieved much of anything this year, but I'm alive and I suppose that's something.
I thought I'd give you all another update about my health, and while doing so spend a bit of time here and try to get back into the swing of things here, I've missed so much.
Those of you who are on my Facebook probably won't find anything new or interesting here. Actually none of this is really very interesting, but since I've updated at various points along the way I may as well do another!
So, I had my thrombophilia screen (blood clotting tests) a few months back - the results of which took ages to come back to the hospital and were not as we had expected! My haematologist had expected it to come back with me having a genetic clotting disorder, but apparently none were found. He is going to re-do some tests in February just to be sure, but meanwhile I have a clean bill of health effectively. The clots should be long gone by now. They have no idea what actually caused them, which is frustrating - and because of this they have chosen to put me back on anticoagulation in the long term, though this doesn't necessarily mean for life, they do want to keep an eye on me for the next couple of years. That means no having children for the next couple of years either - I don't mind, cats are more my thing and the four of them keep me busy enough! I'm also told I can get the implant now I'm on long term anticoagulation, so that'll be one less worry.
I was feeling rotten on the warfarin, and much as they told me the tiredness & brain fog weren't warfarin related, I still believe they were partly down to it, directly or indirectly (through a lack of green vegetables?). I've been allowed to go onto Rivaroxaban (Xarelto) now instead and within days I was feeling much better. I still get tired and have to rest a bit in the afternoons, I still get chest pains if I do too much and my oxygen is seldom above 98% but for all I know it was always like that. I find it odd that my husband, who smokes, has oxygen of 100% all the time. Go figure! Anyway, at least I don't get the brain fog that I had on the warfarin, which makes life a lot, lot easier. I'm loving not having to be careful of my vitamin K intake too, and feeling well enough to fast again. I'd like to say I feel around 80-85% of my former self. Once I can make it to the shops and back on foot on my own without suffering the next day that'll be the next big step, and when I no longer need a couple of hours rest in the afternoon ... oh, how much more I'll be able to get done!
I think getting a dishwasher has really helped too. No longer do I spend what little energy I have left at the end of the day getting through the mountain of washing up - Hungry Horace the dishwasher sorts all that out for me - and he doesn't moan about it like hubs would, lol.
I've even started to have a bit of time and energy to do some things I'd like to do for myself, like prepping some new Christmas decorations (no tinsel this year due to the playful kitties!) and a cat-proof Christmas tree. I even started a little blog about cat-proofing Christmas, at http://www.catproofchristmas.com - maybe it'll help a few cat lovers out It's made a nice change to work on a different site, though I do feel a bit guilty about doing it when I could have been here. It's just a short term project though and a way to document my Christmas crafts as I get them done. This weekend I hope to start on my homemade tree plans.
Anyway, enough of all that, it's time to have a look around and see if there are any newbies I can help and try to catch up a bit
Hopefully my next health update will be to say I'm back to normal! ...and won't be the only thing I've posted for weeks, if not months.
Where has this year gone? Is it really almost Christmas already?! I don't feel I've achieved much of anything this year, but I'm alive and I suppose that's something.
I thought I'd give you all another update about my health, and while doing so spend a bit of time here and try to get back into the swing of things here, I've missed so much.
Those of you who are on my Facebook probably won't find anything new or interesting here. Actually none of this is really very interesting, but since I've updated at various points along the way I may as well do another!
So, I had my thrombophilia screen (blood clotting tests) a few months back - the results of which took ages to come back to the hospital and were not as we had expected! My haematologist had expected it to come back with me having a genetic clotting disorder, but apparently none were found. He is going to re-do some tests in February just to be sure, but meanwhile I have a clean bill of health effectively. The clots should be long gone by now. They have no idea what actually caused them, which is frustrating - and because of this they have chosen to put me back on anticoagulation in the long term, though this doesn't necessarily mean for life, they do want to keep an eye on me for the next couple of years. That means no having children for the next couple of years either - I don't mind, cats are more my thing and the four of them keep me busy enough! I'm also told I can get the implant now I'm on long term anticoagulation, so that'll be one less worry.
I was feeling rotten on the warfarin, and much as they told me the tiredness & brain fog weren't warfarin related, I still believe they were partly down to it, directly or indirectly (through a lack of green vegetables?). I've been allowed to go onto Rivaroxaban (Xarelto) now instead and within days I was feeling much better. I still get tired and have to rest a bit in the afternoons, I still get chest pains if I do too much and my oxygen is seldom above 98% but for all I know it was always like that. I find it odd that my husband, who smokes, has oxygen of 100% all the time. Go figure! Anyway, at least I don't get the brain fog that I had on the warfarin, which makes life a lot, lot easier. I'm loving not having to be careful of my vitamin K intake too, and feeling well enough to fast again. I'd like to say I feel around 80-85% of my former self. Once I can make it to the shops and back on foot on my own without suffering the next day that'll be the next big step, and when I no longer need a couple of hours rest in the afternoon ... oh, how much more I'll be able to get done!
I think getting a dishwasher has really helped too. No longer do I spend what little energy I have left at the end of the day getting through the mountain of washing up - Hungry Horace the dishwasher sorts all that out for me - and he doesn't moan about it like hubs would, lol.
I've even started to have a bit of time and energy to do some things I'd like to do for myself, like prepping some new Christmas decorations (no tinsel this year due to the playful kitties!) and a cat-proof Christmas tree. I even started a little blog about cat-proofing Christmas, at http://www.catproofchristmas.com - maybe it'll help a few cat lovers out
It's made a nice change to work on a different site, though I do feel a bit guilty about doing it when I could have been here. It's just a short term project though and a way to document my Christmas crafts as I get them done. This weekend I hope to start on my homemade tree plans.Anyway, enough of all that, it's time to have a look around and see if there are any newbies I can help and try to catch up a bit
Hopefully my next health update will be to say I'm back to normal! ...and won't be the only thing I've posted for weeks, if not months.
