Sh Sh Shingles

Why hi there! I have not written on here for a wee while. I guess that's because I thought I had nothing interesting to say. I'm not sure if you can call Shingles interesting but that's what I now have! HOW ANNOYING. I was scratching my back yesterday and Mum had a look at it about 11pm and straight away said, 'Yup, it's Shingles'. My medical knowledge is still pretty sketchy and all I know about Shingles is that it's similar to chickenpox and some of my friends at Uni had it.. Anywho, we phoned NHS 24 who told us we had to go to Monklands for an appointment at 1.15am. Unfortunately, I had just taken my sleeping tablet so forcing myself to stay awake was rather difficult.. My speech was slurring, I was talking nonsense (more so than usual) and I nearly tripped up quite a few times. When we arrived at Monklands, the waiting room was full of drunk football fans covered in mud so I wasn't overly enthralled to be there. We were taken through quite quickly and the doctor confirmed it was shingles. I needed to have my blood checked to make sure I wasn't neutropenic before they gave me anti-viral medication (basically if my neutrophils were below 1.5 they would need to give me an IV, if it was above 1.5 I could get tablets). However, the doctor said it would be TWO HOURS to get a blood test - ehhhh what?! After phoning two other hospitals, the A&E doctor said she would see me right away. The blood came back within 15 minutes and my neutrophils were... 1.6! Hurrah! At this point it was after 3am and we were not in the best mood. I had also eaten a lot of sour fruit pastilles so I felt a bit sick.. Whoops. So, that's last nights drama! I had three separate appointments at Wishaw and the Beatson tomorrow which now have to be cancelled which is rather irritating. It also means I'm pretty much under house arrest until this clears up. If you have had chickenpox come and visit me - I AM SOOOOO BORED. I have tried to nap this afternoon and failed. Why can't I ever nap?!

The past week was nice - my Grandparents were down and looking after me very well. We also had Teenie's dancing show on Friday which was very good - they were all awesome. One of my highlights is always the tuck shock (and the dancing obvs) and this year they even had candy floss! Fab. Here's a pic of Alice, Ruth and myself (pre-Candy floss)

On Saturday Alice and I did a spot of shopping and met our chum Gavin for lunch. On Saturday night I forced Jamie to watch Eurovision and it was great. At the time of Eurovision last year, I had just been sent to London and I remember feeling very down in the dumps in hospital, being unable to watch it! The year before, Ruth, Amy and I held a party in the flat which was so much fun. We had planned to do one again last year but obviously this silly cancer got in the way of it - how rude.

I had hoped by now I would have more energy and would be able to do more. The house has felt very quiet these past few weeks as everyone else has been so busy. I think I have only just realised how isolating my situation at the moment actually is. I was asked why I don't just get the train into town one day, if I'm bored and sitting about doing nothing. I actually wish I could and for some reason it really bothers me that nobody really 'gets' that I physically cannot do that. I struggle speeding up to cross a road and I am too scared to go anywhere myself in case my legs give way and I fall (sounds lame but my legs are very weak). I know the above sounds rather glum and defeatist, I don't mean it to be, I just wish I was able to convey how tiring everyday things make me feel. Also, having shingles how doesn't really help the situation! I appreciate that you never know these things until you're in the situation but I feel like I'm banging on about it all the time! I don't even know if any of that makes sense, I hope it does.

I'm going to go back to my book so I hope everyone has a lovely Monday.