rushing ...

I smiled when I read yoga gumbo's blog this morning - why am I online! Well, I'm online coz I'm at work and since I've achieved something I have been struggling with for ages (a 3-level CSS navigation menu) I've got a bit of space to hang out! But I'm flying to Sydney tomorrow. Haven't done any packing yet, and I'm still intending to go to choir practice tonight. So before I go out tonight I've got to somehow pack without my cat seeing me doing this! Not easy - specially when I have no idea what I'm going to take! Then go off to choir practice 45 minutes drive away. Then tomorrow morning I've got to get Miss Mieke Pussycat into her carry-box, leave the house by 7am, drop said pussycat off at the pet motel, and then get to the airport parking place by 8.30am. A big ask ... So I really better not imagine I can get my laptop out at home tonight!

Despite all my whinging about colds (which I've still got!) I managed to get to yoga on the weekend. So glad I did - it was wonderful. Haven't managed to do any more since then because I'm still not feeling 100% and am doing my best to 'be sensible' and look after myself. But I'm taking my mat with me to Sydney (well, country NSW) and hope to be able to give it a go down there.

I'm also feeling a bit ashamed of myself, making such a big deal about what is really, just a cold, albeit a nasty one. I think I need to try and ease myself back from this health obsession! I know it's all understandable and everything, but still - I need to get a reality check about what I'm getting upset about! Save it up for something that deserves being upset about!

2 steps forward 1 step back - sound familiar?!

I guess that's my life story at the moment. But hey - I should be grateful it's not 1 step forward 2 steps back!!

So, on Monday evening I got that 'scratchy sore throat' feeling and thought - uh oh! One of the guys I work with had been off for a week with a really nasty cold and it looked like it was coming my way! Which it was/did! I've been off work the last couple of days, which means eating into my holiday days, as I've got no sick days left at the moment! No yoga, no 'curves' ... hopefully I can make it to yoga on Saturday. We shall see.

I started with the 1 step back bit. But on Tuesday I went to see my doctor, and the results from my blood test the previous week were pretty good! My neutrophils are up to 1.1. Can't remember when they were that high before! Just so you know, 'normal' is 2.0 to 7.5. But mine have been hovering around the 0.4 - 0.6 range for months! And my platelet count was up too, to 57. (Normal count = 150-450 so a ways to go there!)

However, before anyone gets too excited, he said it was probably largely because of an injection I was given just before I left hospital last month to stimulate the production of white blood cells. The effects of this last for about a month. However, I'm going to have another blood test in a couple of weeks, and if it's gone right down again, have another of those injections. He thinks it 'may' help my bone marrow recovery. At the least it should help me avoid getting staph infections!

Anyway, though I've been fed up having to be off sick yet again, and feeling like death warmed up(!), I'm still pretty pleased about my blood results. And today I've been feeling a bit better so I may go back to work tomorrow. Just the one day and then the weekend.

This post needs a title but I don't know what it is!!

Finally made it to yoga last Saturday. It was wonderful to be there - once again apologies and explanations to the teachers for this being my 3rd re-start!! I really noticed my lack of strength. By the time I'd done 5 Surya Namaskar As and then 3 Bs, I had to stop (the Surya Namaskars I mean)! My shoulders were really tired from being in downdog. I can't remember that happening since the days when I first started ... ! Anyway, I did all of standing, and then some finishing. Not doing shoulderstand yet but am doing that 'legs up the wall' pose - can't remember what it's called Like a more passive shoulderstand I guess.

And so far this week I've done one practice at work at lunchtime. (Didn't go as far!) Tomorrow I should be able to do another one. So that'll mean I'll have practiced 3 times this week. I guess it's a start !!!

Yesterday after work I went to my (cranial) osteopath. She got really excited because she said my body told her what treatment she should give me!! Whatever that means, it feels good now. And then on to choir practice. I'm only staying for about half of that at the moment, leaving at 8.30pm. If I stayed till it finishes normally, 9.30pm, I wouldn't get home till after 10pm and I think that's a bit too late for me at the moment! Oh I'm having to mollycoddle myself so much these days ...

my superhero quizz!

Who the heck was the Green Lantern?!!!!







Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

another new start!

Seem to be making a habit of these ... sigh!

So, I'm back at work again, trying to take it easy and not do too much. And trying very hard to be a bit more careful about hygiene etc. Never was a great one for that - always happy to pick food up off (my) floor and eat it! But all this has given me a bit of a fright - on Sunday I cut myself in the kitchen and got in a complete panic that some of the staph bugs that live all over our skins could get into me again via the cut! Rushed around madly looking for disinfectant etc ... Touch wood I seem to be OK (it is Thursday after all now) from that. But it was a bit of a wake-up call to take more care and be more aware for a while, till hopefully my immune system comes back up.

Went to choir practice last night for the first time (since last July). That was lovely ... I was actually a bit tired and could have done with not having to drive into Brisbane. But I really wanted to get the music and just see everyone again. I only stayed till 8.30, and was home and in bed by 9.30 so I guess it wasn't too bad!

And so to yoga ... am going back to class on Saturday again - that's what I mean about another new start! I've been missing for 2 weeks from class so it'll be nice to go back again, and start again from the beginning. Not that I had got past 'the beginning' anyway, so ...

big smiles all round

Me and the pussycat are home - both of us very happy to be here! Feeling 100%, bone marrow completely clear and everything looking great again!

Tomorrow a big day working on the foame:e poetry zine, the new edition for which goes live on 1st March. The 2 other people involved are coming over here (with lunch!) to spend the day working through what's been done and what still needs to be done.

Then Sunday and Monday I can collapse again, going back to work on Tuesday ... :)

she spoke too soon ...

Well, funny how things can change! During the week I was feeling more and more tired, and suddenly realised I should be checking my temperature. On Friday evening when I got home from work I did that and discovered I had one! 38.2C! So I rang the hospital, and got a call back a while later telling me to come back in!!

Not what I had been planning to do with my weekend!! Most of my clothes were waiting to be washed over the weekend, I had hardly any library books ... a very different scenario from when I would go into hospital last year! And what to do with my pussycat?! In the end I decided I'd probably only be in a couple of days, so left lots of food down for her, plus her cat-door open so she could get in and out. Took enough clothes for 4 days, a couple of books and my laptop, and drove off. Five days later, and I'm still here, though I'm feeling fine!

Turned out I had a staph infection in my porta-cath (the device they 'implanted' into me to drip intravenous fluids/chemo into me). God knows how it got there, but ... Anyway, they had to resort to pretty heavy duty antibiotics to get rid of it (I've been on 3 different ones of varying strengths!). But by Monday I'd stopped having shivering, teeth-chattering fits and/or heat attacks and my temperature had gone back to normal! And I have been feeling perfectly fine since then! My doctor is keeping me here till the end of the week as he wants to keep the antibiotics up so make sure it doesn't come back. Which seems like a good idea!

Luckily I managed to get someone to go out to my house on Sunday to collect some more clothes, and most importantly, to catch Mieke pussycat and take her to the pet motel! That was such a weight off my mind that she managed to do this! I'd been so worried about her ... she's such a sociable cat, and hates being left for even a couple of days!

Felt really bad to be off work for another week (at least) after I'd only been back for three. I know it's not my fault, but still ... They are, of course, being really supportive and telling me to take whatever time I need.

I certainly do live in interesting times ... :)