This is a short post, but I think it goes quite well as a follow from my first of 2015. A big part of handling illness is education. Teaching yourself and taking advice from doctors helps you to control and look after yourself better. I constantly learn new things, and I did promise myself I would put my condition top of my priorities this year. This has made for a fairly busy January, but a very productive one. It's been busy in other ways too, I haven't just been hanging around hospitals and clinics thank goodness. I have had an anniversary, holiday planning, lots on at work and have tentatively gone back to running. I will write a post on this soon.
I went to see a dermatologist about some bleeding under my skin on my foot, and we came to conclusion it was done at a wedding by some very uncomfortable shoes about a year ago. Typical, the shoe saga strikes again! It's becoming a constant problem for me, but that's for another time. This is apparently now a stain rather than continuous bleeding and she wasn't too concerned by it.She wrote to my GP who then suggested I have some bloods done.
I had my full blood count and an ESR test done for the first time to my knowledge. The ESR test picks up on inflammation in the body and can therefore detect infection. It can also be used to test for autoimmune disorders and connective tissues diseases. My GP predicted this would be higher than average and flag up something, but it was totally normal. The mystery continues. All my bloods were normal actually, and my clinical colleagues assured me I am a very well person on paper. It's a shame this doesn't filter through to my general feelings!
One particularly exciting thing has happened. I did some research into clinics around London that see hypermobility and EDS patients. I emailed a doctor who sadly only specialises in children now, but she works at UCL and pointed me in the direction of a clinic I could potentially self refer to. She was extremely helpful and proved that initiative pays off. I also pushed for a medical genetics referral, which my dermatologist backed me up on and it actually got done. Success! So I was referred to Northwick Park Hospital in London to the genetics team and am now waiting an appointment.
I will report back on what this appointment is like, as a few people on Twitter have mentioned they are keen to be referred too.
That's it for now!
Happy weekend everyone.
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