I am really upset tonight because I discovered that my temperature was up again after a day of wondering why I felt so bad after several days of feeling that I was getting better…not better enough to do too much but not feeling sick…just really tired. I thought the fatigue may have been due to the “die off” some spoke about on the Net after they had undergone a diet and medication for getting over this gut dysbiosis or more commonly an overgrowth of candida. But I was not feeling ill as such until today. I have had a lot of trouble dealing with any form of stress though…even this diet is stressful.

I have not done anything besides mark and work and go to the shops and some days were longer than what I could have coped with only a week or so ago but the last couple of days I have felt myself spiral down again and the temperature verifies it. Bugger. I am really pissed off. I have also been really teary the last two days. Today even holding a plate out with an extended arm for several seconds is a physical ordeal so that I really have to muster up my resolve to get the basic days demands met when all I want to do is sit and stare at a wall most of the time.

Scoot and Angel left last Friday to live elsewhere and that means less work around here straight off. I finished tutorials on Tuesday for the semester and my marking for this week after a meeting on Monday. Next Monday I start on some more marking and then some exams if I want the contract but now I am thinking of saying no to even 10 hours and just forfeiting the pay I would normally get from exam marking at this time of the semester. I am really not coping well with anything at the moment and I am grateful to have enough energy to get outside into the garden for a while. And I hate it when Breville thinks that I am attention seeking. And I hate it that I will probably not get to go out with Brenda this weekend because I need to rebuild my energy by having early nights. Even organising birthday cards for Mum seemed to be a major ordeal. I was totally pooped after work on Tuesday but I got Mum’s letter written. I did not have the energy to go out again and post the card so I left it till Wednesday morning and I was told that it would not get there in two days so I missed getting a card to her on time because now it will be Monday. I’ve got one from Scoot and Breville too but I only found Scoot tonight after getting Breville to show me where he now lived. They do not have a phone but tonight they said they may have got their mobile working again. It seems mine is stuffed unless I remember to check that it is on the charger and does not switch itself off. I needed a mobile in case of car problems mainly and now my car is playing up and the mobile is not likely to be of any use in case of breakdown. I will leave it on the charger and try to remember to check that it is on for this weekend anyway if you want to try to ring Zena.

I hope I remember to ring Mum tomorrow evening.

Anyway I got my front teeth fixed (and made even more sensitive) next visit…there were deep holes at the back of them. A couple of days later a piece of bond off the back of one of them came off and I do not have another appointment for dental work until July. I have the hygenist to do the cleaning on Monday, the same day I have to go to Uni to pick up the last assignment. On Wednesday I go for a needle only to the doctor. The B12, B6 and B1 is down to every two weeks now. I have no real appointment to tell him about how I have got worse again. Because last time I told him I was feeling better and I had no positive results to the helicobacter test or the micro urine and faeces so whatever is raising my temperature is not from there…and it was down to 37.3 then so very close to normal (my normal is a bit lower about 36.7). I have not got enough energy to think about trying to fit in another doctor appointment tomorrow or during another marking period. My local doctor would not be much use since she has not been following the history of this fever like the other guy has and will probably adopt another wait and see attitude. I spend my life doing that!!!!

Well I don't know about no one being around to read it over the week-end at all. You were suppose to be doing your marking on the week end and this week end coming and no one is suppose to be around annoying you was my assumption.

The weekend

I guess there is not much point blogging over the weekend when no-one is around to read it. While all of you are out and about doing things that you want to do, I am getting stiff and sore sitting at the computer or the table marking much of the time ….so I have been feeling sorry for myself. I have had a bit more energy which I would have preferred to spend doing something other than sedentary work.

I have had a walk to limber up but it wore me out instead.

On Friday I went to the dentist and did shopping so I hardly did any marking. But I have finally got rid of the black hole in the front of my teeth. But it will take at least another four appointments to finish the fillings and the root canal so I had to make another three. Two more in July and one in August. Only then will I be able to book an appointment or else go on another list for a plate. In the meantime, many of my teeth remain sensitive even though they have been fixed up.

To Zena, I spoke to Brenda so long on the phone that I did not feel like ringing back even if I had remembered by then. And no not Auntie Lil and Grandma. Isn’t it more like Nana and Auntie Marnie? Unless you are planning to give this kid pj’s every birthday and Christmas. Now that was Auntie Lil. Being a great Auntie is not so bad is it? It looks like I will never get to be one unless you count Belinda, Tanya and Glens kids when they have them. I used to be an auntie to them but now I think I am an ex-auntie. I wonder what Marlene is.

Mum rang the next night so again I did not ring and Monday night I am very busy getting ready for work and the doctors long day.

Marking and Roger

I am still marking naturally and it is a very slow process especially with all the interruptions. Scoot was told not to bother to come to work so he was around with Breville in the morning (Monday), and then Roger turned up, then Angel and also Roger’s new puppy called Cruiser. I was left to babysit the dog while Breville was taken to work at 12 and the others went to K-Mart for some reason. Ofcourse the dog started whining when it woke up not long after they left and I was up and down like a yoyo. There were promises of money to all. But we all know that seeing is believing.

I am feeling better but very stiff and sore because of sitting and marking.

I am going to be a nan

I don’t think anyone is surprised by this news. It was only a matter of time. Scoot thinks it is going to be the longest nine months of his life till January 12th 2004. That book called "Every Woman" that has been around here for decades now has a new reader.

Stevia

I got some powder when up at the organic shop near the docs on Tuesday. Does not taste very nice in drinks as far as I am concerned. I prefer fructose but the advantage of stevia is that it does not raise blood sugar at all because it is not a sugar. I’ll try to stew some fruit with it and see what it tastes like or make rice pudding or something.

Free massage

I got a free Swedish massage from Mitch (who Nick lives with) and it was the greatest I’ve ever had. I’m going back every week if I can. I will pay her next time. It is worth it and it is going to keep me free of a lot of pain.

Lab

It is not easy to get stools into the little tubes they provide. The scoop is built into the lid which is not good when it comes to screwing the lid on the bottle. The helicobactor test meant drinking a tasteless liquid containing a radioactive isotope, waiting 20 minutes and then breathing into pink liquid through a straw-like tube until it turned clear. I had to fast before hand. I guess I will be back tomorrow morning with another stool sample. And then it will be off to the dentist again. Maybe this time I will get that front tooth with the black on it filled. I must also get groceries and stuff so I won’t get much time for marking. Today I tried to get marking but with distractions from everyone and all the prep I needed to do before I could even start properly, I have only managed a grand total of one assignment marked.

Medical Report

I got a video of my heart ultrasound…pretty cool. The problems found are trivial even though they have probably been there since birth. I do not really understand – mitral incompetence, pulmonary incompetence and tricuspid regurgitation if it means anything to you guys reading this. It is not significant because I have not got any enlargement of the right heart size so he said. So the extra bangs and thumps I get are just part of my life.

Blood test results: low in B12 (weekly injections will fix that…had another two cheeks jabbed today…ouch), low oestrogen and low testosterone – perimenopause. Low testosterone in particular causes fatigue and muscle wasting. This is on top of fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue. So I guess I have a reason for the hot flushes I’ve had since last year and the itchy skin on my face. Not to mention the mental confusion.

The test for helicobacter infection (the ulcer bacteria) has not been done yet…it is a breath test. I suppose I will get it done when I take a urine sample and faeces sample to lab. He is checking for long-term microbe infection. I have to take along three separate lots of stools. He is keen for me to have the $250 bioscreen detailed lab on faeces (at my expense). It is sent to the University of Newcastle (?). I’ve remained non-committal. Other expenses are likely to be high in supplementation and dietary requirements. Elimination diets coming up next week with weird foods that I do not keep in the house. And cleansing diets etc. I spent over 35 dollars on Intestamine which is for gut repair and contains natural stuff. That is just for one month. Natural as opposed to synthetic HRT is being considered but not yet. I think even he prefers to avoid it if possible. Depends on quality of life. Mine is not good at the moment. A terrible day at work. Nevertheless I feel less “infectious” type sick today.

Yesterday at the dentist was not good either but it may explain an earache I’ve had in the background for so long that it just became a part of life. Being unable to distinguish the locus of pain is also a sign of this syndrome doc is treating me for and so is rotten teeth. Anyway this one damned tooth had a bit of trouble being numbed and has been repaired but since the decay is likely to be also in the root I am going to have to have root canal after she has fixed up all the other many holes in the front area. Then my “earache” may go. I have hated wearing the right hearing aid because of that.

Scoot also went to the doc today. He has teamed up with a doctor who is still being monitored…straight out of medical school and about the same age as him. This doc is treating Scoot like a pet project. He even rang me yesterday to see if Scoot was going to make an appointment because he was overdue. He has rung adult mental health to get Scoot’s reports and consulted with quite a few others gathering information. Most importantly, Scoot likes him and the attention ofcourse. The new medication he is on is hard to tolerate because it makes him even more tired than the previous stuff.

I will be marking from here on in so life will be pretty dull for a while except for another exiting visit to the dentist on Friday.

Mothers’ Day

Mothers’ Day was not celebrated in any great way in this place this year. Probably because I do not expect anything being so close to my birthday. Scoot offered to cook the bacon and eggs that Breville said he would do because he had no money for a present and Breville cut up the palm branches which I had asked Scoot to do. Both were just trying to get the chore over and done with as fast as possible. None of us had plans for anything to do today so there was a lot of boredom in the house. Breville just played the computer all day and Scoot slept a lot (as usual). I poked around outside doing the odd thing, and with some determination to do something “fun” for the weekend, I drove to Moffatt Beach to eat a tub of yoghurt. I came straight home again because I really was not in the mood and it was getting a little cool because the sun had been filtered through the clouds just as I got there. I picked up a few rocks and added them to my garden edge. Another 100 metres to go. I am still fed up with not feeling well. I got a foot cramp today, started prickling all over until I had a shower, and my dry itchy patches on my face flared up again. Yeah I still have a temp.

Some time outside

Even though my temperature went back up again over 38 today and yesterday, I did feel good enough to get outside and pot up a couple of hanging baskets that were looking tired. I have put all the zygocacti into two mixed hangers and most are about to flower so it will be nice for a while to have them to look at. I picked up a basket of sun jewels for one dollar at a stall when shopping sometime during the week too. I already had one colour that I got from Mitch so now I have three colours.

I used up most of my energy lifting the things and cleaning up the table and felt horrible afterwards but I seem to have picked up again after a rest this afternoon to the extent that I don’t feel bad just sitting around. Apart from keeping appointments and running necessary errands I have not spent any time trying to get anything organised for Mother’s Day so Mum will probably just get a phonecall. I thought about flowers and called into a florist yesterday but decided that even Mum would not appreciate the measly box that I would have to pay 56 dollars for through Interflora. Better to wait for her birthday at the end of the month. Have you got any ideas Zena? More to the point has she? Because if she has, she will probably just want the money so she can get it herself.

I bought I statue of Quan Yin (Goddess of Compassion) with Mum’s birthday money. I have only seen the one, but I guess it is freely available so not a collector’s item or anything. It is just gold polyresin but I could use a bit of compassion from the God’s in relation to my health and from Rec when he hears that I actually like to make my own decisions and run my own life. He tries to make me feel like I am such an evil person for wanting to continue doing that. I logged on to ICQ tonight and found these messages that were quite scathing. Now I know why he was surprised that I rang him yesterday on the phone. These messages were from before that but I had not received them. I don’t hate Rec. And why he would think so from what I said about my life, I cannot guess. I actually feel quite sorry for him being put on hold while I have not got enough time for a boyfriend in my life but I do not hate him.

My hard drive

The hard drive in my computer which was one replacing one that failed under warranty, is also corrupt now. A bad sector was written tonight. It is often failing to be written to and the blue screen/scandisk thing happens if it does not find another good place to write to. Reformatting my hard drive obviously did not fix the problem. I took it to the computer shop in January but the guys there did not hear it make a noise nor did it fail at any time. They sent me home saying that the noise was probably my CD-ROM. I will have to take it back but now I will have to wait until after the marking unless it fails completely before then. The original hard drive came with a three year warranty that ends in November. Now, the same company only gives a one year warranty. My CD-RW is likely to be making some of the noises but it is not the thing that is causing a freeze up in MSWord when a CD is not even being used. I hope two things: that it will not fail completely before I have finished my marking; and that it is still covered under warranty. The PC-User mag disk was read OK this month Zena but I like the contents of APC more. Although, I had trouble reading the APC mag disk. So take your pick. I may unload this computer onto Roger anyway, after I see some cash ofcourse.

I had Friday night to myself because Breville, Scoot and Angel went to a party and then crashed there for the night.

Dad

To Zena in response to your blog: Yeah I know what it is like. I am the same. That is why I gave up on the blog for the day. We all did our own things to remember him but I would prefer to do it on his birthday. Reading Mum's letter and your blog gets me going a bit too. I guess we miss him. It is a pity that it is all so close to Mother's Day and that the funeral day is so far removed because I cannot let it go again until after the 12th. Something to think about when I am alive and sitting in a dental chair on Monday.

My mobile had died on the charger but it is back on now.

I did not blog yesterday out of reverence to Dad.

Breville only works two days a week

Monday and Friday only and Frank is oversees so the roster won’t be changed for at least another week after this one finishes for him tomorrow. Breville tidied the house while I was at work on Tuesday. He did a wonderful job.

Felafel

ho hum is my verdict

Medical Report

Temp was down to 37.5 yesterday but I was no good for anything. Today it was back up a few points and I am developing a sore throat. I am not getting anything done around here. And I am getting worried that this is not going to go in time for dental come marking week next week and the week after.

I would have spent some time in Buderim today if I had felt well enough but I had shopping to do for the house so I came straight back to Caloundra after my echocardiogram. The guy doing the ultrasound spent most of the time telling me about how boring his job was and how he wanted to go home to his couch. It took about half an hour and the only thing I know is that my pulmonary valve pressure was above normal. Whether this is significant I have no idea and so I have to wait for the doctors appointment Tuesday after work for the verdict (plus another couple of jabs).

Scoot is back home

Angel’s Mum and Phil were picked up from the airport by Scoot and Angel last night at about 10pm. Scoot is feeling down that his life is not going anywhere. He has no work tomorrow either. He said he missed us while he was away for the week and I am sorry that I do not have the energy to make a fuss of his return. I was told that Phil is a celiac. He has been gluten-free for a couple of months now. Another person who has had a close relationship with the toilet.

Who is the pretty young girl in the photo below............wooooooooooo very nice.

Work

I managed to get through the day and have fun with the students using digital cameras borrowed from IT. We had them for about half an hour and wandered around the campus taking photos in groups. I did not wander too far. The students were happy to take their toy and leave me chatting close to the tute room. I may get around to putting up web pages of the photos sometime but in the meantime you can see this pic.

Labour Day Holiday

Breville did not have work today so he stayed at Nick’s again last night. I cannot believe my luck. I’ve had 3 nights to myself. Scoot has been staying at Angels place because the parents are away in NZ till Wednesday. That is why I have not seen hide nor hair of him. Yesterday he did actually think to let me know and popped in for a couple of minutes.

Still got a fever around 38 and I still feel fluey so I am dreading work tomorrow. I have done some toward my lesson for tomorrow but I am going to have to wing some of it because I am not prepared to stay up any later and miss out on essential sleep. And I am not going to try and figure out all this shingle stuff of Rec's. If shingles are the same as shackles, I have no idea why anyone would be impressed by a shingle hanger. Who said they were?

Bubble Tea

With all this tapioca in the house, I had to have a go at this bubble tea I read about. But not before I had made what Mum calls tapioca custard with milk and vanilla. Yesterday I made lemon sago pudding. Sago and Tapioca are one and the same. It is a root plant (not a cereal) and the starch pearls are supposed to contain inulin which happens to be a prebiotic. I had been trying to find the fructose based prebiotic (fructogoosacharide or something like that) to have in conjuction with Yakult because apparently most of the live culture does not get passed beyond the stomach due to the acid. The tiny bit that does survive needs a medium to grow on in order to multiply rapidly and that is where prebiotics come in. Inulin has no nutritional value to us…but the lactobacillus and bifidus love it. So sago will have to do for now. It is in chicory too.

The lemon sago pudding I made really just looks like jelly with tiny clear balls in it whereas the one cooked in milk looks more like a milky rice pudding (and tastes similar). I actually used lemon, lime and ofcourse bitters to change the flavour a bit of the first one. Just happened to have them it in the house. I decorated it with mixed peel.

The bubble tea is made with sugar syrup, the cooked and clear tapioca bubbles, milk and some variety of tea. Now commercially they make a shake (supplied in a cocktail shaker with a very big straw to suck up the bubbles) in a thousand different flavours and franchises are advertised all over the Net especially in Asia. I have made peppermint tea flavoured. It was nice and frothy.

Ok why could I not see my last blog anymore on the website?

Hi A.G.
Just dropped by to say hello and was wondering why it is people are so impressed by people who hang shingles around themselves when others with no shingles who have spoke the same as the shingle hangers are not believed given no attention or credit for the opinions.

Johnes or Crohns disease

Mum was telling me on the phone about a man who told her that Crohn’s disease was caused by an infection from eating meat. We both remembered the “beasts” that were killed and supplied to Roger and I for our chest freezer after they had been hung out in a shed overnight and sawn up with the shed saws, cut and packed before the flies could get to them. I remember the tubs full of mince that we puddled through bagging the stuff into meal-sized lots. I even corned my own silverside back then in a poisonous brine solution. If there is some sort of disease in beef that can be passed on to human,s then I was a prime target along with the rest of the Frizzell family. Anyway, I jokingly said to Mum I will look for it on the Net using search terms Crohn’s and bovine…and we spent the rest of our phonecall trying to decide what the right term for sheep would be, if canine means dog, feline means cat, bovine is beef, swine is pig, etc. So later, I entered those search terms after first researching chicory and tapioca (I am going to make some bubble tea or pearl tea – the now commercial rage in Asia thanks to the tapioca pearls). I saw Johnes disease come up in the listing and the very first piece of information from the CSIRO stated:

Johne's disease and human safety
There is a human disease called Crohn's disease that resembles Johne's disease. Although their pathology is similar, there is no hard evidence that they are caused by the same bacterium.
There are many theories about what causes Crohn's disease, but none have been fully accepted……..
The Australian health department has reviewed the scientific findings and concluded that there is no substantial evidence for a link between Johne's disease and the development of Crohn's disease……..
Not detected in locally bred animals in WA, Qld or NT
Mycobacterium.paratuberculosis
M.paratuberculosis lives in the intestine, but survives in the outside environment for extended periods. The disease develops very slowly. Animals can be infected for many years before they show any disease signs, making detection extremely difficult.
Is there a cure for Johne's disease?
There is no cure - prevention is the best alternative. Although there is some evidence to show that an infected animal can be cured with expensive antibiotics, it would involve treatment for a long period of time - maybe up to a year or more, using multiple antibiotics and making it a time consuming and very expensive task

http://www.csiro.au/index.asp?type=faq&id=JohnesFAQs
http://www.gatewaybbs.com.au/Agricult/Disease/Ovine.htm
http://www.cattlecouncil.com.au/images/Animal_Health_Welfare/BJD_brochure.htm
The following references were some listed in an Inquiry authorised by the Victorian Government (http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/enrc/ojd/report/) and each paper mentions Crohn’s
Hermon-Taylor, J. (1999), 'The use of Antimycobacterial Drugs in the Treatment of Mycobacterium avum subsp. paratuberculosis Infections on Animals and in Crohne's Disease in Humans', Proceedings of the Sixth International Colloquium on Paratuberculosis, 14-18 February 1999, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 520-524.
Naser, S. A., Schwartz, D. S. and Shafran, I. (2000), 'Isolation of Mycobacterium avum subsp paratuberculosis from the Breast Mils of Crohn's Disease Patients', American Journal of Gastroentology, Vol. 95 (4), pp. 1094-1095.
Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare (2000), Possible Links Between Crohne's Disease and Paratuberculosis, Report to the Director-General Health and Consumer Protection, European Commission.
Selby, W. (1999), 'Pathogenesis and Therapeutic Aspects of Crohne's Disease', Proceedings of the Sixth International Colloquium on Paratuberculosis, 14-18 February, 1999, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 515-9.
The cattle council urges us to TELL OUR MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT for the sake of the Australian meat industry (it is not just cattle, deer, sheep, etc)

In February 1998, a paper was published in the British Medical Journal which documented the first proven case of M. paratuberculosis causing disease in a human being. The patient, a seven year old boy, developed a M. paratuberculosis infection in the lymph nodes of his neck. This was followed, after a five year incubation period, by an intestinal disease that was indistinguishable from Crohn's disease.


http://alan.kennedy.name/crohns/welcome.htm

This is for you Zena

Antipsychotic agents may slightly lower blood levels of testosterone, the hormone responsible for maintaining the libido (sex drive) in both men and women. The lower potency antipsychotic medications, such as thioridazine (Mellaril) and chlorpromazine (Thorazine), occasionally cause delayed or retrograde ejaculation in men. During retrograde ejaculation, orgasm is reached without the simultaneous emission of semen; semen is instead propelled backwards into the bladder and eliminated with the next urination (which may appear cloudy as a result).

I bet that you did not know that. I found it looking up stuff about Scoot’s medication. He had to make a change in meds. I am surrounded with men in my life like Dad was with women so I guess I am supposed to know stuff like that.

Friday and Saturday

My temperature kept going up so that yesterday was a right off of a day and so too is today. I am wondering now if I should have got some antibiotics. My headache is back and I am stiff and sore around the neck and shoulders but today’s temperature is a bit lower than yesterdays and it took 3 days to go up so maybe it will take 3 days to go down. So I am getting bored doing nothing but waiting to be better. But I cannot do anything because my heart starts racing from the exertion. That is how I know I am crook again with some virus or something or whatever. I always get like that even if I don’t have a sore throat or anything. The boys disappeared Friday before 6pm. I had forgotten that it was Friday and that Breville quite often stays at Nick’s so I wondered all night why no-one was home. I thought it was Thursday and that Scoot had taken Breville to his boys night out. But because no-one had said who was going where, even when I realised it was the weekend, I was not sure if I had the whole place to myself all night and at least most of Saturday. If I had known for sure I would have relaxed even more. Instead I wondered who would disturb me first and when. Breville has the habit of ringing for me to come and get him anytime after the clubbing session Friday night but he is just as likely to go out again Saturday night and not want to come home until Sunday. Scoot has a habit of not telling me whether he will be home for tea any night and is likely to walk in with Ange and decide to stay the night in Breville’s room while Breville is not here so that Scoot and Ange can get some privacy. Not knowing means that I cannot fully relax into the mess that surrounds me without feeling like I had better go and clean up at least for the sake of the others who are here. I am too sick to clean up more than a little bit at a time.

I had wanted to go out with Brenda to a Salsa night with dancing in the street outside one of the Mexican Restaurants in Maroochydore somewhere. She had to book a table even for coffee to get a seat. I left a message this morning that I would not be able to go. I would so like to get out and about this weekend before the onslaught of the marking again. I would have gone out last night too if I could have.

I got Mum’s birthday letter on Friday finally. But she rang not long ago this evening so she knows that it arrived. I forgot to thank her on the phone and make comment about all the horrid problems she has had with the house…those blinds I had no idea were built in the wrong way since way back. A problem sitting there waiting to happen dating back a few years now. How old is Gungurru? The point is that I forgot even though she actually rang just the next day. I hate the way this chronic fatigue thing affects my short-term memory. Her letter also reminded me about Dad being dead for 5 years nearly. I just realised that he had lasted through my birthday but did not make it through to Mum’s. I have always felt the burden of not being there to help keep him alive as if I could have done something to prolong his life. I guess Rec has made me feel that burden too but I have decided to give that job up as not being my responsibility. Sometimes I need help to be able to do it or NOT do it I guess I should say. It is very hard to find good help in the realm of the mind.

Hope for a better future

Written on MayDay

I was impressed with two people today. Firstly my new doctor and secondly my new lawn mowing man.

My lawn mowing guy showed me that my paths really do have nice straight edges to them and this man will run late rather than skimp on the job. Not sure whether I can say that about my new doctor yet but so far, I am impressed. It is a pity that I was so unwell that my brain was in bovine mode again because he was full of interesting research about the fibromyalgic/chronic fatigue syndrome from a nutritional point of view. I’ve forgotten a lot of the technical stuff and everyone who knows me knows that it is the technical stuff that I thrive on. Anyway he knows what he is talking about even if he is biased towards his own theory of cause of CFS. He asked me things that I could relate to, which means that he has a real understanding of what I’m going through. He asked me how long it took for me to recover from a big day. The answer mattered. I think I am falling in love with my doctor. And I am full of hope tonight. Hope for better health.

I have not read the material that he has given me yet but this doctor Scoot (yes another one) believes that the cause of this fibro/CFS is a mycoplasma infection. Blood tests revealed Mycoplasma pneumoniae at the same time as Influenza (A) some time in my past. He also believes that it (and many other autoimmune diseases like Crohn’s) is associated with a leaky gut but the tests for that are hugely expensive. But we have not tackled treating that yet. The trick is to get rid of the inflammation that allows the leakage of all the toxins, antigens or whatever in the first place. And I guess I am going to have to go on a restrictive diet. Everything is subject to a battery of blood tests taken today. I was not thinking straight enough to remember but it included things like a certain hormone level rather than the regular hormone check for menopause, maybe even that gut bacteria that causes ulcers, iron levels…four bottles of blood’s worth anyway. He only ran tests covered by medicare bulk-billing pathology thank goodness. He thought that all Crohn’s and CFS sufferers should receive intravenous B1, B6 and B12 on a regular basis so I ran to the chemist, bought the ampules and then went back to the pathology nurse out the back for the two jabs in the backside. One each cheek. Oh, they hurt, sting and then ache but I love the potential they have for a quick boost to energy. I will line up for some more next appointment. The aim is blood saturation. I’ve been trying to get B12 approved from the Golden Beach surgery for over 12 months.

The one other thing he wanted me to do straight away was to buy a herbal immune system booster by a company called Eagle which he takes. It is not available off the shelf but naturopaths and other alternative practitioners can supply it by script only. I did not know that even Health Food Shops had certain brands or stuff that they kept under the shelf because it can not be supplied without a practitioners authorisation…I guess he just uses the medical prescription as his authorisation but many health food shops and chemists were not aware that those with naturopathic or homeopathic rooms out the back often hold the stuff behind the counter. I found one that stocks the brand (usually…before recall) but not the particular product. He wanted me to get Eagle brand, Cats claw echine capsules. It contains cats claw, Echinacea, olive leaf and astragalus. He takes it for his immune system. Anway, I could not find anyone who stocked it and as the brand is on recall, it is not worth going out to Forest Glen where the big alternative health stockists are. A naturopath at the local Alternative Health clinic in Golden Beach made me up a distillation of Echinacea, olive leaf, cats claw, liquorice and grapeseed. I can buy astragalus any place. And on my rounds I found out that they did recall my brand of glucosamine sulfate but bottles of 30 only…I had bottles of 90. Weird! Anyway, I have to go back to the doc in a couple of weeks but I have not made the appointment yet because I am coming up to a run of dental appointments in that week plus another lot of marking followed shortly thereafter by another lot and then the exams. One more week left to recover before the next onslaught.

Nearly forgot. He was concerned enough about my tachycardia and murmur to order an echocardiogram. I always get a racing heart when I am fluey-like. Doesn’t everyone? I will try to get that done tomorrow. He assumes my fever is part of a gut virus. But I did not go there for that.

Here is the same article Dr Scoot gave me in printed form.

He also gave me a questionnaire to fill in from a company called Bioscreen.

Scoot has been abducted

I was out getting toilet paper or something yesterday evening and came home to find a note from Angel which read:

Hey Judy!!

I’ve kidnapped your son for the night. If you want him back deposit $2 million into my account. He will not require food tonight as bread and cordial is all he requires. If the transaction does not occur you will be seeing him tomorrow.

The strange thing is that I did not deposit the $2 million yet Scoot has not returned tonight either [not that I am worried about it].

The war between Breville and his Boss continues and now I pay the price

Breville has been told not to bother coming to work until Monday next week. His pay this week was bad enough. He cannot pay all that he owes me. Next week I will get zilch. In the meantime he is bored stiff but still suffering waves of nausea.