While I've made no huge gains in my health the last week or two, the trend has (wonderfully) been towards feeling better. Better in millimetres rather than leaps and bounds, though.My period of feeling intensely fluey and weak is mostly shorter these days - like from noon until 6pm instead of 10am (when I get up) until 7pm or even until I go to bed.
Of course I still feel ill all day every day, it's just with lesser intensity, even for a few hours a day, I feel as if I can cope.
This feeling better still seems to be predicated on me being home laying down most the day. I have managed some small (less than an hour) outings without crashing if someone else does the driving. The photo here (while not a great one) is from the evening when my friend J came to take the dog to a park nearby. I asked her to take me along too. The plan would be for me to sit by the creek while they walked.
Unfortunately the dog didn't like the plan (she sticks to me like glue) so she ran around wildly from J to me....I kept telling her "go find J" and she would cock her head listening to me, look in all four directions, and then tear off for five minutes or so running through the fields woods and creek...it was actually pretty entertaining.
I'm still considering a medical leave of absence for the PhD, though. I'll give myself the month of November to work, and if I still haven't found a way to make some progress, I'll take a two term leave. I'm not putting much pressure on myself to do things right now. I want to continue focusing on my healing and recovery from the relapse and treat myself gently....after what I've been through I feel like I deserve it.
I tried one very short shopping trip this week just to buy a card for my Aunt. I put on my compression stockings and my roommate drove me to the drug store. Within two minutes of standing in the card aisle I managed a complete black-out (I didn't fall).
The OI is obviously still pretty severe...my hands pool blood most the day (even laying in bed) and I can't stand still for long. I can, however, do very very short 1/2 to one block walks on my better days. If I'm moving I don't seem to get the dizziness. However, I still have to be very careful about "overdoing" and crashing.
This is good news, upnorth. Very good news~ walking 1/2 to 1 block..yahoo! a couple of outings...way to go! It will come back...slowly and steadily by tiny bits. Sorry to hear the OI is so bad. Yikes. Hope that improves soon too.
ReplyDeleteLove the photo!
Hi Upnorth. I agree with Renee....walking 1/2 block to 1 block is *very* good news!! Every little bit helps and is a step forward.
ReplyDeleteThe picture you painted with the dog sounds very entertaining.
Wow... You really have been through the mill of late. Things seem so hard. I'm glad you are getting some small relief. It makes a big difference to get those brief breaks and moments.
ReplyDeleteI hope you continue to improve. I think you're right about the PhD. Put your health and YOURSELF first. You've already achieved so much over the last few years. Whatever you do, I hope it helps you xx : )