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My latest round of medical adventures. :P

But first, a diversion. We went out to see "Kung-Fu Panda" at the local multiplex last Thursday. :) They have plenty of legroom in the theater, so I was able to take off my shoes during the screening and give my aching feet a rest. :phew: Anyways, the film rocks. :nod: Fight sequences were awesome... probably the best aspect of the film, IMO. The characters were really good, too, and I think they did a quality job with the choice of actors to provide the voices. :) Only downside was that it's not that long. :shrug: Of course, there were a shedload of trailers beforehand. The one for "You Don't Mess With The Zohan", the new Adam Sandler film, was hilarious. :rofl: Was :| over "Madagascar 2" as I didn't see the original. There's a new Aardman animation coming called "Chop-Socky Chicken", apparently. :hmm: Oh, and of course, they showed the trailer for "WALL-E"... actually, they also had an ad for the videogame of the film (already? :roll:) and him and EVE got pressganged into a PSA about the evils of knock-off DVDs. :hmm: Actually, they seem to be stuffinf WALL-E into press adverts for just about every consumer good going right now. :wtf: I think I might just wait for it to finish playing in the cinemas then rent or buy the DVD.

Had a followup visit to the opthalmologist last Friday - he checked my eyes again, and confirmed that the drops seem to be working on the conjunctivitis I'd acquired, probably as a side-effect of the arthritic stuff going on. I'm to continue with the drop for another four weeks, then stop, then have another followup with him. :thumbsup:

Yesterday, I went back to see the consultant rheumatologist, who discussed with me the results of my blood tests (several markers were way too high, including the rheumatic one) and the MRI scan on my feet. At the moment, it's a toss-up between rheumatoid arthritis and sero-negative arthritis, but the results are not conclusive either way. :hmm: So I'm having another MRI scan done tomorrow, this time on my hands, then I'm having another followup at the end of August, with a bloodtest required a fortnight before hand. In the meantime, I'm getting some initial treatment to get me moving again. Had a cortisone injection in my backside :o which should make me more mobile - seems to be working as of this typing :w00t: although I'm still taking it slow and steady. And I've gotten a prescription from the local surgery for some new anti-inflammatory drugs that should :fingerscrossed: bring down the pain levels to the point where I'm able to get back to work.

The big Four-Oh! Whoa... I r teh ancient now. :P

Lack of mobility notwithstanding (see previous journal), I'm feeling pretty good today. Admittedly, based on recent research, I can probably kiss goodbye to fathering healthy children, assuming I was interested. *shrug* And someone had cancelled summer over here... we're on our third day of torrential rain. :( But on the other hand, I did get a cool birthday present - a combined FM / DAB / Internet Wi-Fi radio from Roberts to replace the ancient micro-hifi that was gathering dust on the shelf next to my PC. Plus, I finally broke down and bought myself a new monitor - a Samsung SyncMaster SM245B 24" LCD widescreen. :D Big desktop FTW!

Currently signed off from work while I wait to get the full diagnosis and treatment plan from the consultant for my joint problems. In the meantime, I'm doing what I can to keep my joints working and my circulation going, and trying to minimise the number of painkillers I'm taking every day.

(Crossposted from dA - excuse the emote tags...)

Hey guys. I know I've not updated in ages... to be honest, the last few weeks I've not been doing much of anything as far as dA goes, just answering messages and catching up. I had my fortnight off from work... unfortunately, my feet had become very swollen, so I had to go to the doctor to get some medicine to bring that down... he told me I had to rest up, so all the plans about going into London went out of the window. :( Was able to get out into the garden a bit, as it was nice and sunny :sun: and I picked raspberries and loganberries from the bottom of the garden. :) But my mobility has been getting worse... I can manage a slow walking pace, anything faster and my heels and ankles complain. :o

This week, I was supposed to be back at work, but I was still in lots of pain... turns out I have an infection in my left foot, so I've been prescribed antibiotic cream to get that under control, plus I'm on stronger painkillers at night so I can get some sleep. :sleep:

Yesterday was my appointment with the consultant rheumatologist that I booked way back at the end of May. I am not happy with my local GP surgery now - they never sent a referral letter through to him. :wtf: Just as well I'd made notes of my symptoms to date on a piece of paper. He asked me lots of questions, then gave me a thorough exam. His initial diagnosis is some form of arthritis, but he needed some blood tests plus an MRI scan of my feet in order to determine the exact form, and how to treat it. He also noted my bloodshot eyes :eyes: and called up one of his colleagues, an opthalmologist - luckily for me, he was between appointments, so I nipped upstairs and got my eyes checked as well. They think that the eye problem may be linked to the arthritis, so I've been given eye-drops to take, and have a follow-up eye-check for next week. After that, I got the blood tests done - as this was a private hospital, they have labs on-site, so I won't have to wait ages for the result. Just as well I have BUPA health cover through my employer - those blood tests are expensive! :omfg: Finally, I booked the MRI scan for tomorrow (Friday).

Overall, I was in a much better mood when I left... things are finally starting to happen, compared to when I was dealing with my GP. :hmm: I'll have a follow-up meeting with the rheumatologist in a fortnight, when :fingerscrossed: I'll find out what can be done to get me moving again. In the meantime, I'm just hoping that this infection goes away soon, otherwise I'm going to have to get my GP to sign me off from work... as things stand now, commuting is pretty much out of the question, and I cannot stand for more than half an hour without experiencing intense pain.

I'm not normally one to ask for this, but any prayers, petitions or goodthoughts you can spare towards my getting (literally) back on my feet would be greatly appreciated. It's not much fun being effectively housebound, and the pains have meant that my online time has been pretty limited... a lot of the time I've just laid on my bed and listened to podcasts and music.

I only visit here sporadically. I have the My Amigos feed from here plugged into Google Reader, so I know if/when youse guys post stuff. :) But yeah, most of my time is spent over at deviantART now. I did dally with Facebook for a while, and it does a good job of aggregating my information from other places, but to be honest the prevalence of all these novelty apps got on my nerves... how many frickin' wall apps do you need? Will probably be downsized into nothing in the New Year, along with the profile I have on MySpace (my excuse is that some people are on there who left dA... hey, stop lookin' at me like that... ;P) Multiply is looking a lot more interesting, might start making more use of that. (Some of you will know I lurk on LJ... I've no plans to start posting stuff there... yet)

Currently chillin' at home... work has been pretty intense lately... but the business is doing well, so things look good on that front. Got a few new toys to play with. :D If you're very lucky, I might post another journal to tell you more... ;P

-MT.

Went to check My Amigos this morning (at work, using IE6) and every journal page I visit, I got bombarded with Javascript errors... just by scrolling up and down! WTF is up with Taco & Co. now? Grrr!

Anyway, I found out that the offending scripts are being linked in from images.slashdot.org - so I've put that site on the Restricted list, and I can now actually read and reply to stuff.

It'll probably work fine in Firefox when I get home, knowing my luck.

Just felt the need to let people know, and vent a bit.

-MT.