I’ve only gone and caught it

My positive LFT

Two years on from the start of the coronavirus pandemic during which I’ve (mostly) applied caution, followed the rules and guidance, been vaccinated (4 times now as I’m apparently in a vulnerable priority group due to my arthritis drug which is an immunosuppressant) I’ve finally succumbed.

I started coughing on Sunday and thought no more about it. On Monday evening I started feeling rough, had a temperature and shivers. On Tuesday I did a lateral flow which was negative, but still felt pretty meh, enough to knock playing golf on the head and forgoing a trip to CCS to watch City play Derby - although we won, it was an awful match, so probably no bad thing missing it).

Today feeling a bit better, and with a skittles match scheduled tonight, so to be on the safe side I did another LFT and what do you know? Positive instantly! Cue getting out of my wife and daughter’s way sharpish. Booked a PCR straight away at CCS and within 30 mins had been, and completed the test on the off chance my LFT was a false positive. We’ll see.

To be honest it’s just like a heavy cold, although to be fair those 4 jabs have probably kept the symptoms down to a reasonable level. 

I've no idea where I picked it up from - could have been skittles last week (Wednesday), or St Fagans Museum (Friday) when with a group of family - none of whom were symptomatic. Unlikely to have bee anywhere else though, as haven't really been anywhere else. Golf on Saturday, but was never that close to anyone.

A reminder then, that whilst things are getting back to “normal”, and whilst coronavirus has melted from the headlines due to what’s going on elsewhere in the world at the moment, it hasn’t gone away.

Stay safe out there folks.

Twitter: @Statto1927 

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/simon_hiscocks/ 

Instagram: simon_hiscocks

Arthritis - still a pain the .....fingers

Those of you who have visited these pages before will know that I suffer from psoriatic arthritis, a variation of arthritis that often tends to affect fingers/hands the worst, and is associated with, although the links aren't entirely clear (other than it's tied to your immune system) the skin disease psoriasis.

I last posted about this in October when I recounted a recent flare up in my left index finger which was treated very successfully with a steroid injection.

However....

Shortly after this (certainly within a couple of weeks), whilst that finger following that treatment was and still is fine, the same pain and swelling materialised in the left middle finger. It's like, "oh that one's all right, let's move on to the next one..."

Up until Christmas, the soreness and discomfort it has s been fairly intermittent but since then, and particularly in the last couple of weeks, it's become worse. It's surprising how even the simplest of tasks with that hand requires some finger movement which can lead an excruciating bolt of pain on an already chronically sore joint. I contacted the Rheumatology team a month or so ago to enquire whether they could see me and do anything about it, but the only date they could offer in the ensuing 6-8 weeks I was unavailable. As I had a scheduled telephone consultation on 21st Feb I decided to leave it, and have been taking both ibuprofen and paracetamol meantime to try and keep the soreness under some sort of control.

So yesterday my consultant rang me as scheduled and I updated him. He wasn't keen to try another steroid injection as it's essentially a short term solution, and suggested that I increase my weekly methotrexate dose slightly as it was more appropriate for longer term control (there's no cure by the way). I wasn't keen on this for reasons that are evident in my previous post, but I grudgingly accepted that this was probably the better option. To be fair, he did say he'd book and injection clinic appointment and if it hadn't settled, then we could try the jab. Having only that day taken my methotrexate, I took another tablet to top up the dose to what he'd suggested. It'll probably take a couple of weeks for the higher dose to take effect, so meantime I went off to Boots to add some freeze spray and Deep Heat spray to my "managing pain" armoury, supplementing the ibuprofen and paracetamol (plus the methotrexate and the folic acid I have to take because I'm on methotrexate).

Oh, and I'm going to need another blood test to check the extra dose isn't nerfing my liver.

It's a pain, physically and metaphorically.

Twitter: @Statto1927 Flickr: 

https://www.flickr.com/people/simon_hiscocks/ 

Instagram: simon_hiscocks

World Arthritis Day

Today is, apparently, World Arthritis Day, although I have to admit, despite suffering from the disease, it had passed me by until I heard someone mention it on the radio.

I suffer from psoriatic arthritis, a type of arthritis that affects some people with the skin condition psoriasis. It typically causes affected joints (usually fingers and feet in this type of arthritis), to become swollen, stiff and painful. I tend to suffer it mostly in the fingers and thumbs. I've also have osteoarthritis in my knees from years of playing cricket, although a partial knee replacement 3 years ago has worked wonders for that particular issue.

Interestingly when I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis I didn't even know I had psoriasis, but since then, both the arthritis and the psoriasis have become more prevalent. For years I self treated with moistening creams and ant-inflammatories, rejecting disease modifying drugs designed to slow down the degeneration of of joints caused by the disease - specifically methotrexate, an immunosuppressant as it's got a contraindication (side effect) list as long as your arm, and need regular blood tests as it can damage the liver. This means that you're not really supposed to drink (much) alcohol, and certainly have to keep it under check - a bit of a pain for a beer and wine lover like me...

However, a few years ago, I caved in as the pain in my fingers and thumbs, especially over the colder, damp months got unbearable. Since starting on this drug the arthritis is mostly well controlled on a low dose, and although the psoriasis has not disappeared, it has significantly reduced - it's handy having medication that controls psoriasis as well as slowing the joint degeneration. 

(I have to say, although I have far from given up alcohol, I do generally *cough* keep my intake fairly low).

As an aside, because I'm on methotrexate, it also means I'm on the "vulnerable" list as far as the 'rona virus goes, because it's an immunosuppressant. I can't in all honesty say that I fully shielded in the early days of the pandemic, although I was cautious for the first few months, during and immediately post lockdown 1. But I'd been double jabbed by the middle of January anyway.

This summer I had a flare up in one joint on the index finger of my left hand, which became very swollen and very painful. I contacted the rheumatology team, and last week they gave me a steroid injection into the joint, which worked wonders within 24 hours. Trust me, the first two photos here don't do justice to how swollen and painful this joint was. But it's virtually back to normal now. Thank God for the NHS by the way....

L index finger - very sore

L index finger - very sore

Immediately post steroid injection
Not the nicest place to have a needle stuck in!

In many ways I'm lucky that my arthritis is pretty well controlled on my current medication. Whilst I've got some slightly dodgy finger joints, it doesn't otherwise impact my life, and an occasional prophylactic ibuprofen if I know I'm going to be doing something that might cause some joint discomfort usually does the trick. I can play golf, do my gardening and pretty much just about anything else, although occasionally I have trouble opening jar lids, and my grip isn't what it used to be (but that might just be old age)!

Arthritis can be a terrible disease though, severely impacting people's ability to go about their day to day lives as normal, and frequently finds them in great discomfort, or even sometimes unbearable pain. It's often (like mine) not always immediately visible either.

Whilst (as yet), the disease and it's multiple variants cannot be "cured", it can with the right support, and if necessary medication or even surgery, be managed. And that, for most sufferers, is a blessed relief.

There are loads of resources on the interweb to help sufferers and those who care for them. Here are a couple.

Versus Arthritis

NHS Arthritis

Arthritis Action

April 20th: Part 2 - Needles in vain (see what I did there?)

The second of a double posting today.  I wanted to get my earlier post about Starlink satellites out so that anyone interested had enough time to read and then prepare for tonight's pass should they want to - and it was a very specific post rather than my usual general "some stuff about some stuff" sort of post.

Back in the real world it's Monday (I think). How easy is it to lose track of the days?  Mrs H has gone off to work at the hospital, my daughter's working from the kitchen and my son - well now he's been furloughed he's just chilling.....

Following Friday's abandoned blood letting for my latest blood test because of my arthritis medication I woke this morning and downed almost 4 pints of water to ensure my veins were suitably full for this morning's attempt. Sadly, despite the best efforts of (more than one) clinician, they couldn't find a decent enough vein again this morning, and so I have to go back again on Wednesday. They were wholly apologetic, although I pointed out that it wasn't their fault if there wasn't a decent vein to stab.

On the bigger stage, it's evident that we've moved from a "we're all in this together" mode to tensions, and finger pointing as people start to see the curve flattening and other countries starting to loosen their restrictions on whatever flavour of lockdown they had installed. The critical point though is that we're far from out of this yet, just because the numbers of infections is plateauing. Deaths will undoubtedly continue to rise for a while, the pressure on care and services will remain for the foreseeable future. We might (or might not) see a second, or even third wave. God forbid we might see coronavirus as a permanent fixture, like seasonal flu, or perhaps worse, an altered strain that's even more deadly. I saw a headline today (one source is the New Scientist) saying that the UK’s coronavirus science advice won’t be published until pandemic ends. Well knock me down. I'm not surprised as we're still in the middle of this thing. It appears we (and most of the rest of the world) is still grappling with the pandemic - why publish the science now. It would be like publishing a novel that stops half way through.

I'm all for holding the Government (and anyone else such as scientists, journalists etc.) to account but it's also easy to adopt a holier than thou attitude (how many of you have done non-essential shopping in the last month, or made a trip you didn't need to?). It's easy to blame someone that they did something wrong, listened to flawed advice, took the wrong action or say person X or political party Y would have done better. We just don't know yet. The time will come when we can do that in a planned and focused way. Not now.

Don't forget - if you have clear skies, the Starling satellites will be over about 10pm tonight. Look up!

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives