I have been half writing this Debbie in my head for three weeks. Unfortunately, I find that I’m really too ill to write it. I’m actually using the media server and the TV because when I tried to use my computer earlier I just sat there coughing and holding my head.

I have officially been ill for a year. My symptoms first showed up on 20th December 2006. Since it was one of my days off I went to the gym as usual, cleaned up a bit and headed into town to meet my colleagues for our Christmas dinner. I felt okay when we started, but as the afternoon went on I felt worse. I did the usual cold remedies for the first few weeks, I gave up on 7th January and saw my GP. He diagnosed a sinus infection and gave me antibiotics – the first of 15 courses. I cannot tell you how much this year has sucked. This has been awful. The frustrating thing is that I pushed myself to do so much this year and people forget how ill I was. I have been taking painkillers pretty non-stop, steaming and douching and deafness. I’m very tired of being ill.

This week has been hard. I have a coughing fit pretty much any time I change position. From sitting to standing, from lying on my left to lying on my right… last night when I went to bed I had a fit and got up to deal with it, this sadly led to a vomiting fit and I ended up completely miserable because I’ve been nursing a migraine since Monday and the coughing makes it worse and the vomiting certainly didn’t help.

My methotrexate book says that one of the side effects is a dry cough, I assumed that was the cause of my cough. So Weasel called the clinic this morning to find out if there was anything they could to do help me. Thankfully they could see me today. They don’t think the methotrexate is the cause. My last blood test showed that I had inflammation, and she thought that might be an infection of some sort so I have another course of antibiotics. I also have another appointment in two weeks to see if the cough has improved.

Meanwhile, I’m pretty miserable and pretty bored since I can’t do anything. I’ve been watching The Brady Bunch. I got the theme in my head the other day so I had a look on BitMe to see if they had it and sure enough they did. I’m only in the second season, but it is entertaining me. I also borrowed a large pile of books and DVDs from Doodle when we were there on Saturday so I guess really it is that I’m bored of watching TV and I’m not well enough to read.

This is by far the most depressing anniversary I’ve ever had.