What a day: Part 2

I have remained overweight since the year of inactivity waiting for my Degenerative Disc Disease to be diagnosed. I exercised as much as I could (walking up and down the classroom for example) within the constraints of my Lecturing post, but, although this halted the increase in my weight, the combination of pain and the limitations placed on some types of activity by medics meant I could no longer exercise strenuously enough to lose the extra weight I had already acquired.

My weight increased again when, during the year following the onset of my current depressive episode, I spent a year as a Day Patient at the local Psychiatric Day Hospital, attending various therapy and educational groups to address my “mood”. There was a well-equipped gym at the hospital but I was unable to make use of the facilities because of my DDD.

I get some activity now by walking with my camera and photographing and watching birds. (Some say I photograph “anything” to which I reply “only things that interest me”, but it is mainly birds). I take this exercise whenever I am able, I find the Birds and the photography help push the pain to the back of my mind for a short period of time, but once again I am unable to exercise strenuously enough to reduce the weight I gained during that period.

Once I had recovered from the depressive episode enough to think about food and eating again I began to address this problem through diet but I was too late. About this time last year I was diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes and now the major part of my diet is selected for me through the things I must not eat.

So now I take handfuls of Pills. Pain killers and muscle relaxants for the back, Anti-depressants, and, for the diabetes, tablets to control my blood sugar and others to correct marginal blood pressure and cholesterol levels which would not be deemed serious enough to require treatment if the diabetes were not there.

Because of all these things I sometimes become dizzy when rising from a sitting position, not a problem if it happens immediately because I just sit back down and wait for the dizziness to pass. On three occasions I have been caught out when the dizziness started after I had walked away from my seat and on each of these occasions I have fallen. I escaped unharmed on the first two occasions but during last occurrence, three weeks ago, my legs buckled under me and I suffered a badly sprained ankle.

I heard a bang as my right foot bent under my weight but as I remained conscious, and could wiggle my toes (a trick I remembered from my football playing days), and, because I am used to feeling a variety of weird sensations and pains in my feet and legs from the damaged nerves in my spinal cord, I decided to wait till the next day to see what happened. I took extra’s of my prescribed pain killers so that I could sleep.

The next day the foot was so swollen I could not put my shoes on. Stuck now because I could not drive and felt I was not entitled to call an ambulance as I was no longer an “emergency, I resolved to get through the weekend and contact my GP on Monday.

The Poggle phoned that night, frustrated that her weekend plans made it impossible for her to come and help (which is why I did not call her) she suggested that if things were still bad the next day that I should get a taxi to the Casualty Department. This good solution had not occurred to me.

My mind was made up at 4am the next morning when, despite my “double dose” of nighttime pain relief, I was woken by severe pain from my foot that was by now roughly three times the size of its companion. Remembering from my Social Work days that casualty was probably full of drunks at that time on a Sunday morning I waited until nine and called the Taxi.

I gained my first experience of the world from a wheelchair because staff were so concerned at what they saw that I was sat in one and pushed from place to place. One of those places was the X-Ray department where we learned there was no break but a very bad sprain. The doc explained the implications of that and suggested I call on my GP during the following week to request follow up Physiotherapy. (I wondered, but did not ask at the time, why he did not strap the ankle, learned from my GP since that the combination of my age and the diabetes could mean strapping would inhibit fluid drainage).

Until yesterday I was unable to drive through fear that if I needed to brake suddenly the pain might cause me to take my foot off the pedal so I phoned my GP last week and explained what had happened, we agreed there was no need for him to come to me, I would get in when I was able.

The Poggle (who is my ex-wife and current best friend of whom you will learn more one day) visited on Sunday. She is an ex SRN and currently has a small reflexology practice. For four years she has given me regular free reflexology treatments (more of this at another time too because they have definitely brought be relief from both the Sciatica and the depression in the past). She was concerned at the colour of my skin above the sprain, she thought this might be Cellulitis and suggested I contact my GP to have it checked. I called in following my analysis yesterday to book an appointment but his slots were all booked for over a week so I phoned him when I got home to explain the situation and ask if I should go to Casualty again. He found a space when he could see me today.

He confirmed the Poggle’s view and prescribed an anti-biotic, telling me this is yet another thing he might leave to do its own thing and maybe go away, but could not afford to do so because of the Diabetes, so from today I am being treated for three different conditions that might not require intervention if the Diabetes were not there. Because I know he is very resistant to prescribing anti-biotics I looked “Cellulitis” up on the Net when I got home, seems it is something else that can be quite serious.

That’s a drag eh.