Photo courtesy of St. Patrick's Shamrock Company at http://www.realshamrock.com - a website where you can buy shamrock - jaypers I'll be getting mine out in the field, as usual!...and a twinkle in me eye,
I'm off to Tipperary in the morning!"
I wish - but, it is good that St. Patrick's Day falls on a Wednesday this year, as it gives me a chance to mitch off from teaching - no I mean take a well-earned rest and have a bit of family time.
I'm just surfacing from what has to have been my own worst winter of discontent: illness after illness, pain after pain, strange swellings and shrinkings, ultra-mood swings - it could be viewed as being funny, in that understated way that Irish women have, except that all the way along since last September I've remained undiagnosed - but I'm finally getting closer to a diagnosis! Progress indeed. I've had a colonoscopy (basically, a camera up me bum -unneeded, but apparently an elimination that was needed), and an OGD, both of which thankfully I was knocked out for (camera lowered into the tummy and small intestine). Nice, I suppose, to know that at least that part of me is okay and has been passed as fit. Wish the rest of me was :/
But it seems that the pains and the mood-swings and the awful, awful mind-numbing tiredness is down to wandering bits of endometrium; the lining of the womb.
You'd think that this stuff would stay put, where it belongs - but no, in some women it likes to go off and have an ould grow on other organs, causing 'adhesions' which are when one bit sticks to another - say your ovary to your womb, or your ovary to every other organ around it.
What happens every month as you go through the cycle is that these extraneous bits grow and shed, just like your womb would, except that there's nowhere for the shedding to go... which is why you get strange, regular pains (that were frankly the most excruciating thing I've ever been through - I'd much rather have had a baby, without any anaesthesia any day!). I'm far from having the whole thing sorted out, but it's nice to have a name for the symptoms - endometriosis - and not feel like I'm simply going doolally.
So, wherever you are, have a Happy St. Patrick's Day : enjoy the wearing of the green and have an ould pint of shtout for me!
20 comments:
You had mentioned illness, B, but I didn't realise it had been so bad. Sorry to hear all that.
x
Endometriosis ! ??That's a real yoke of a handle for your unwellness. What a terrible time for you Barbara. Hopefully now they know what the problem is it can be treated? Get well soon anyways and have a point o plain yerself too! (Could be a cure!)Happy St Patrick's day.
Barbara, sorry to hear you've been unwell, all that testing sounds positively awful...it's a relief to have things ruled out...really hope you get some relief from those symptoms and that you are on the mend ....and yes, Happy San Patricio...I'll be working tomorrow but decked out in green and spreading the word! ; )
Sláinte!
Barbara, so sorry to hear about that - sounds awful. Hope they can do something for it pronto now that they have more of a clue about it.
I feel very close to you Barbara, I have had myself an ordeal of a year as far as pain is concerned and it was finally diagnosed: gout, in my genes. Swelling and excruciating pains in the sinews, every sinew at risk for at least one year, and tablets in any case every day for the rest of my life.
-Inelucatble modality of the "liveable"- !
Oh, that is miserable. I hope you get some relief now it's diagnosed.
Hope you get it sorted out, now they know what it is.
(And a happy St Patrick's day to you, too).
Thanks very much guys, for all your kind wishes - I didn't mean to sound like a moaning minnie; I'm just so glad to have a name to put to it all.
Davide, hope you're minding yourself too - I'd guess that a change of diet was highly recommended as well. Good luck with your course of therapy, I hope you get fit and healthy soon.
As for me, what's on the cards next? Well, have to see what yer man in Dublin says next week :/
Hey, B - keep yer chin up lass. All that intimate filming - a bit like having your own youtube channel...inappropriate humour, but I can't cure you so I may as well try and make you smile!
Hope you can get the endometrium under house arrest soon!
Sounds bloody misery-making. Wombs - amazing bits of kit but they don't half go wrong a lot.
Rachel, thanks for making me laugh - I'm not sure people looking at youtube would appreciate a journey down a long fleshy tube..., but you've given me an idea...
Sorry to hear of the illness Barbara. Glad they finally have a name on it, hopefully effective treatment follows.
Having a name makes it easier to bear, Michael - an odd thing, but at least I know where I'm going now.
Please take care of yourself young lady!! Give me a shout any time. Lots of love, Jaki
Sorry you've been so unwell Barbara. My sister-in-law had that and it was a v. painful gruelling thing for her to go through. My sympathies. Hope you get back to feeling like your old (or better still, new) self soon.
Thanks Jaki & Kay - I have a feeling that the new me isn't too far around the corner. Lovely doctor knows the score and it's just a case of seeing what happens next, hopefully!
Barbara, I hope spring brings good health and time for creativity your way.
Aw Barbara so sorry that you've been having such a tough time. I can imagine it must be pretty exhausting being on a roller-coater like that. But I always think think can be dealt with better once labelled, so I hope that is the case for you.
Enjoy your downtime with the kids,I hope the weather warms up so they can get out and let off some steam :)
Thanks Michelle & A - like your poem in Chimaera BTW, A :)
I've been a bit too shut away inside my strictly gender-based issues to venture forth this past few days so I'm really sorry to find that you've been struggling with a decidedly gender-based health problem too! Good luck, Barbara, with further consultations and I hope that there's a clear-cut solution.
That's okay Dick, yours was far worse than mine! I like what you say about it being gender based, tho' - that statement has made me think... feel a poem coming on!
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