Category Archives: health & happiness

my poor darling

17 Friday Jun 2011

Posted by in animals & pets, cats, health & happiness

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Looks like I won’t be going away this weekend. Azar hasn’t had a bowel movement since Monday and today he is decidedly unwell. If things change for the better overnight (this has been happening for awhile now – days with nothing then boom!) then I may reconsider. A Spanish speaking friend had offered to stay “on call” and go with Nog to the vet if Azar took a turn for the worse, but this was a precaution before he got so floppy. I couldn’t leave him the way he is looking now. And if he hasn’t had a poo by tomorrow I’ll be taking him in to see the vet myself.

 The weird thing is that he’s still got a good appetite and is drinking lots of water. But even with daily servings of steamed asparagus and malt extract (and, since yesterday, two doses of paraffin) he still can’t go. As I say, for the last while he’s only been going every two or three days, but four days is new, and just way too long.

I have to go out on a tapas tour tonight, but I’ll just be a phone call and a few mintues away if anything happens. Will keep you posted.

three years ago…

04 Wednesday May 2011

Posted by in cancer, change, chemo, death & dying, fitness, health & happiness, home, hope, hospitals

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May 4th 2008 was the last day I ever felt “healthy and normal”. The next morning I woke up with excrutiating abdominal pain and the rest, as they say, is history.

Three major operations and two bouts of chemo later, I am in remission and have been since September 2009, but of course the risk of recurrence is always there. This was seriously brought home to me when my friend Gaelen was recently diagnosed with new metastasis after three cancer-free years. Around the same time another friend – my power twin Jed – got sick again and is now facing a treatment-without-cure situation. It’s made it harder for me to go along in my usual state of semi-denial, which makes for a lot of sleepless nights and general emotional upheaval. But mostly I’m okay. Because, as far as I know, I’m still okay.

Anyhow, not trying to be a downer, but anniversaries are always a bit poignant in that “will it be my last??” kind of way. As I’ve said here before, perhaps if I’d made more of an effort to do all The Right Things I’d be feeling less, well, annoyed with myself right now. Every day I wake up determined to eat broccoli and forego wine and spend two hours at the gym, and then … it’s not that I can’t be bothered, but things are never simple and I’ve had lots of stress in other areas of my life and I can’t seem to get it all together at once. As if I have all the time in the world to get it right…

One thing I’ve learned these past three years is to be less judgemental about people who can’t seem to get it together. Well, except for me. Are you very hard on yourself, or are you able to just go with the flow?

round two…

14 Thursday Apr 2011

Posted by in health & happiness

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I thought that the Rhinomer was actually doing the job and that whatever icky sinus issues I’ve been having since last Christmas were finally about to end … and then woke up during the night (Tuesday-Wednesday) wanting to rip my face off.

So yesterday Dr Agustín prescribed this stuff to take while continuing with the Rhinomer. These include a three-day blast of antibiotics along with daily doses of cortisone spray and an effervescent tablet for controlling mucus production. Delightful.

I hope this works. I also wish I’d done this back in January as I am feeling mightily fed up with all this…

it’s for girls!

11 Monday Apr 2011

Posted by in fitness, health & happiness, wtf?

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Sled, you’re going to love this one.

My gym has recently opened this new workout room For Women Only, which opens off the shower & changing room. Goodness knows what it was before – storage? nothing? This photo shows about 2/3 of the room – there are three other machines to the left. Apparently users of this facility will be given a half-hour routine which will focus on weight loss and getting in shape (so what are the other two floors of machines for?) and, of course, there will be no big smelly men around. Oh, and it’ll cost an extra 5 euros a month.

Current female members can try out this new facility free of charge until May, so I went upstairs this morning to check it out. It was not only small – and purple and pink! – but it also didn’t have most of the machines I use. I couldn’t imagine it being comfortable when full, which would be about six people. So it looks like I’ll be saving that 5 euros a month.

s’not funny

08 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by in health & happiness

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So, on Christmas morning I woke up with a killer sore throat, which seemed to come and go quite a lot over the next month or so. And then finally it was gone. But what lingered was this rather icky nose and sinus infection, which also got worse and better, then worse again, etc. Finally after almost four months of this I decided it was maybe time to mention it to my doctor?

In this case I decided to just ask my friend/neighbour/student/GP Agustín yesterday while we were having English class at his place. And so now I am squirting this stuff up my nose a couple of times a day and hoping it will work, otherwise the next step will apparently be some sort of steroid spray. Ick.

For those who previously suggested rinsing out my sinuses with salt water, yeah yeah, I know. But I always seemed to either forget or just couldn’t be bothered mixing it up and snorting it (which I’ve done before and really hated). Agustín told me that this Rhinomer stuff is pressurised so it is much more effective than snorting… and wow, he was right about that. This stuff shoots straight up my nasal passages to my eyeballs and then swooshes its way back down and around all the behind-my-face cavities again before finally trickling out through various orifice openings. I’m impressed! I also wish I did this about three months ago.

And I hope you weren’t eating while you read this…