I’ve been having a bit of an extended blip but I’ve had some lovely things going on too. This image is from St Peter’s Chapel at Bradwell-on-sea. My lovely old parish choir started going to Othona 25 years ago. Othona is a Christian community that is very inclusive and welcoming. I was there at that first weekend 25 years ago. Simon, the choir trainer asked me to take a service of celebrating our unique choir community and all that have gone before us, whose voices we still hear echoing as we sing.
It was so good to have a creative liturgy to write for this special occasion.
St Peter’s
Around this time I also took a funeral for someone I didn’t know where the family were struggling. The woman died in August and she was younger than me. It’s tough to have to wait till November to be able to go ahead with the funeral. I was glad I could help.
Another aspect of life that has given me much pleasure this year has been being able to have my grandchildren over to decorate the tree. I always did this with my daughter, their mum and she remembers it fondly. When she came to collect them I hadn’t quite finished outside. It was lovely to have all 3 generations putting together the outside tree.
All of this was made possible by the fact that I had Covid from July to Nov and it didn’t kill me!
Now we move on to the blip. My routine money blood test showed that I’d become profoundly neutropenic. This was 5 Dec. I told the consultant I had a scratchy throat. Swabs were taken and it showed I had flu and covid. I sure know how to have a good time! The consultant asked me to come back the following week.
In the intervening week I developed a temp. One night I woke up and went to the loo and couldn’t stop shaking even when I got back into bed. I kept spiking temperatures which settled with paracetamol. Then I had awful face, and jaw pain and a horrible headache. It seems I have developed sinusitis. The pain was waking me up at night. It was horrible.
The next blood test showed I was more neutropenic and my platelets were on 19. This is why I’m so bruised. It also showed my CRP was 155. That’s very high and is a marker of infection and inflammation. I was given a strong course of antibiotics which I’m halfway through now. It definitely improved the face and jaw pain but I still wake up with a headache and I’m still very snotty, which comes in a range of colours. Urgh!
On top of all this I was told by the ophthalmologists that I needed to have my cataract done. Regular readers will know that worries me more than any other thing. I have bone marrow biopsies with no sedation and no anxiety but because I’ve only got one good eye, I’m very protective of it. The problem is it’s getting really hard to drive at night and my hospital appointments are long. I often drive home in the dark. The consultant has decided it can be done as a priority. I will also have a senior surgeon doing the procedure because of my complicated medical history and the fact that only my right eye works. It will all be done during the next 6 months. Please pray or keep everything crossed for me. The picture is the drops I had to assess my eye health.
So coming up to date; today’s bloods show a neutrophil count of 0. My platelets are now 11 and my Haemoglobin is 80. I need platelets and blood. I also still have flu, covid and a pseudomonas infection. Oh dear! That’s a bit pants just before Christmas. I’m gonna have a top up of platelets today and I have to come back tomorrow for some blood. They also may want to keep me in for a few days to give me some IV antibiotics. They will decide on that overnight.
Despite all that I’m keeping in good spirits. I’m just a bit weakened and even more frail than normal.
I’m really pleased I managed to get the Christmas decs up. At least I have beautiful twinkly lights to look at each night.
I hope wherever you are and whatever you are carrying inside of yourself or struggling with, that you find some hope and peace and light in the darkness.
Merry Christmas Xx
The gift of life in the form of a bag of platelets
