April 2014 - an anniversary of sorts

I'm not sure if it is an anniversary that I want to celebrate, but Monday April 15th 2013 is nonetheless a memorable date for me. It was just like any other April day in many ways, but I knew I had an appointment with a consultant who was going to tell me.....well to be honest I didn't have a clue what he was going to tell me. I knew at that point I had blood irregularities and was already on Hydrocortisone tablets, but beyond that, the possibilities (according to Google) were endless.

The first time meeting with a doctor/consultant, much like any other person, is always going to be a learning process. Do you hit it off with them, take an immediate dislike....then there is all that information to take in in the haze of stress and nervousness. I am reminded of an article I read some time ago about the 'primitive brain' and how to a certain extent we have no control over how we react in certain conditions. Our primitive brain is a throwback to our caveman days when it served to keep us alive, to assess dangerous situations and make sure we run away from that big tiger than is trying to eat us. Of course I'm not suggesting a big tiger was about to eat me on that day, but stress about a big event does elicit the same response, the anxiety, the heart beating faster, sweating etc. So when faced with a stressful situation, it does help me to be aware that that my body's reaction is something normal and not to be feared, and let the more rational part of my brain take over. Easier said than done, but a useful technique.

Aaaaaanway, this anniversary. On 15th April 2013 I went to see Dr. Partha Kar at Fareham Community Hospital (incidentally how lucky we are that various consultants hold clinics at this little local hospital, rather than have to trail up to the main QA Hospital in Portsmouth or the UHS in Southampton). This momentous day he would tell me lots about the Pituitary gland, what it did and how he suspected that something was wrong with it. I was to go for an MRI scan to tell for sure what the problem was. Oh and he told me I was on way to high a dose of Hydrocortisone as well, so I had to cut them down over the course of a few weeks. It was just as well because they were making me a bit hyper and I was having trouble sleeping. Looking back on it now, hyper was certainly not a word you could describe me back then!!

So this anniversary was the first of a series of anniversaries that I have coming up, none of them worth celebrating, but certainly pretty memorable.

One of the good things to come out of my meeting with Dr. Kar, was to meet someone with such a passion for what he does. Like many people my knowledge of the NHS came from what I saw in the media and that is not really a good thing. You only get to really understand anything in life from your own personal experience and of course I could have experienced good or bad....(and my experience wasn't always 100% across my time spent with the NHS), but with Dr. Kar luckily it was always 100%. So although I walked away from that meeting still with many questions and no definitive answer, I had confidence that I would get a diagnosis and it would be dealt with by someone who seemed to know what they were talking about.

Next 'anniversary' comes on Friday 24th May 2013. That is a biggie.

April 2014 - Bring it on!

Well, April is upon us and here in the UK that can only mean one thing. The days are getting longer, tree blossom is everywhere, trees/bushes are coming into leaf - essentially is a brilliant time of the year. A time of year I really love, because it is natures way of reminding you what there is to look forward to over the coming months. Bring it on I say!

So what about my Pituitary update then....well again not much to report. I have upped the dose of Testosterone as per my most recent Endocrine appointment, I can't say I am noticing any difference as a result but hopefully it will show up in my next lot of blood tests. As for my Cortisol levels, I have noticed now I am getting more active out in the garden at the weekends, I do have a tendency to use up my Cortisol and have an energy crash...this is almost always within an hour or so of me being due my next dose of Hydrocortisone. What I am finding is that I am more in tune with this need, so as soon as I feel myself start to flag I can remedy the situation with a quick drink and an early tablet dose. Of course everyone 'flags' and has energy crashes from time to time, but the lack of Cortisol feeling is quite unique and easy to spot. It is like a sudden 'off button' and I physically sink, so much so that Deb often spots it before I do. As I've said before, this is a result of me taking fixed doses of Hydrocortisone during the day and my body not being able to make any Cortisol of its own, so when it's gone it's gone! Not the end of the world, because I've always got tablets nearby and recognise the symptoms.

Health-wise, I've been on a collision course with my lack of fitness for the last few months. Regular walking has really helped my aerobic fitness and I can zip along for 2 miles without breaking sweat averaging over 4mph and doing a 14-15 minute mile. Much better than 6 months ago. I can't tell you how much good the Pilates is doing too, if nothing else it points out in no uncertain terms which muscles you haven't been using for a long time. In my case, it is my back muscles. Doing the "dart" where you lay on your tummy and raise both your chest and legs off the ground, back in January I couldn't left my chest at all, now I can. Not very far, but far enough to notice a difference. Also my joint flexibility is coming along, still a long way to go but a lot better. Last night we did some new exercises including some press ups, I am embarrassed to say that I couldn't do the press ups as intended, I had to wimp out and do them with my knees down....I could only do two press ups - HOW CAN THIS HAVE HAPPENED!! I used to do 50 press ups easily, granted that was about 20 years ago, and I probably haven't done any press ups for 10 years. The exercise was do the plank for a bit then whilst still in the plank release alternate legs and stretch them out, then do 5 press ups (fail!) then walk your hands towards your legs and stand up....then bend over put your hands down and walk back to the plank position and do 3 repetitions of that exercise. Nightmare! Definitely the hardest challenge in Pilates for me to date. 

I have a desire to get back on my pushbike too, I've been waiting for the weather to get better and I have a few routes mapped out, including one I used to do many years ago when I was fitter. We aren't talking very long distances, probably about 6 miles, but definitely a challenge I want to get stuck into.

I think that's about it for now, a positive update I think. I'm feeling good, the time of year is uplifting, so as I said earlier, bring it on!