Friday the 13th

Ahh. there must have been something in the date!

I woke up & was not feeling very well at all. Actually, Karen had to wake me up as I had another bad night with bleeding.

I had a visit today from a client who strongly encouraged me to see the doctor.

I couldnt get into my normal doctor or the specialist (who is away for 3 or 4 weeks at the moment) so we chose a new doctor in Penrith.

She seemed quite nice.

I've also had a little bit of bleeding from 2 new external spots which is interesting - one on my arm (but that seems to have gone now) and one from a spot under a small mole on my side. That one will need to be followed up urgently.

After reviewing my medical history (shortened condensed version..) she took my blood pressure & wanted to know what was really going on.

It was sky high

I've never been to a doctor (never been able to get in to see a doctor) so close to a big bleed & the blood pressure was way up. I've never had a reading that high before! (170/120).

The doctor contacted another ENT who fit me in straight away.

That was really good. I'm always reluctant to go to the doctors & specialists as you are always seeming to spend so much money & get back so little from medicare and the health funds....

That was a good appointment, as I had visited him some 12 years earlier also with a nose bleeding problem. Except we didnt know that it was a problem back then - just a one-off.

So it is interesting to start to get a timeline of events - I hadn't realised it was a problem for me back in 1996. I think from memory it would have just been a couple of really bad bleeds at the time; nothing to worry about anyway.

It was good though as the specialist wanted to know what he'd missed back then as compared with the condition now, which of course was much more severe. So I really appreciated that.

Come to think of it, the above happened on the Thursday (not the Friday). my memory must be going too!

Friday I felt very off - very low on the energy quota & quite pale.

The ENT gave me a couple of different ways of managing the severe bleeds which was really a good thing.

He also arranged for a referral to an ENT who works out of St Vincents Private Hospital in Sydney. I;m not too keen about the travel; but if it is a solution, it is worth looking into.

I think its called argon laser therapy - apparently much better than C02 and the general electrocautery that I have done under a general anesthetic.

I think the appointment is in about 3 weeks; so that's not such a long wait.

We had a discussion about emergency treatment. One thing the specialist had said (or scolded me?) is that instead of waiting 1+ hours to seek treatment, I have to reduce the window down to 20 minutes. Up to now I've been "managing" the condition between an upper & lower parameter - so I dont bother anyone unless I go outside the parameters... Recently I've felt that I have not been coping with the blood loss too well, so I guess this is a good thing to narow the time down significantly before seeking treatment.

I guess I am paranoid about calling an ambulance - but the last few times they have been absolutely wonderful. It's when you get to hospital that things seem to be left wanting....

My local hospital is Nepean. But after discussion with the ENT he suggested (strongly) that if I need to make it to a hospital Westmead would be the better option as they have ENT surgeons after hours; where I dont think Nepean does. Based on my past experience there, I think that is correct.

What I'm getting from the discussion is that I have to seek treatment earlier so I can bounce back quicker - by leaving it until I'm really sick, that's not a good thing.

So it's good to keep things (or get things) back into perspective.

This weekend I went to the shops for some groceries. That was a mistake as I was absolutely exhausted for the rest of the day. Maybe a bit to optimistic.

I slept most of today & also took it very easy (Sunday).

Tomorrow I go off to my normal doctor & hope to have a good discussion on where I am at.

I had a blood test a couple of weeks ago as the thyroid function was low (?) - probably as a result of the bleeding.

The ENT recommended a further series of tests on Friday to see how my body was coping with the bleeding, so the results should also be back tomorrow.

I get so use to the blood tests, they dont really worry me any more. However, Friday's test I went sweaty & feint. I guess that was telling me too that I have lost a lot of blood in the last week. Sometimes I need something like that to poke me (literally) to know I need to slow down.