Good things, my best friend from second grade contacted me out of the blue. I got an e-mail from another friend in reply to a message I sent in August*. Weasel agreed to my fiendish plot of her not using her computer for a day. I got the steamer I wanted for Christmas instead of the waffle iron. I wanted both and when I made the list I put the waffle iron first, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted the steamer, so it was nice that that’s what I got. I also got a nice pile of DVDs, CDs and a book†.

Everyone really liked the gifts we got them too, so yay. We got my Mom some software to organise her family photos – she’s been creating an archive of all the photos ever for five years so this should help. We got my Dad some filters and lenses for his new camera, he’s been having a lot of fun with it. We got Mal a beautiful necklace to match the beautiful earrings we got her last year. Doodle & Chance got books and DVDs.

* I never know how much to say to people in these situations, about my illness I mean. So far I haven’t said anything, but there’s only so many vague things I can say before it comes out. It is all I’ve been doing for a year, three months exclusively.

† I barely had the energy to open them and sadly I couldn’t talk on the day [my voice is very hit and miss at the moment] to say thank you properly and laughing a one point brought on a coughing fit which I think put the fear of god into Doodle.

I’ll keep this health update as short as I can. I have been in a lot of pain lately, everything from the neck up. I spent Christmas Day alone in bed. I couldn’t want TV because my eyes were being grumpy about light and I couldn’t read because of my headache. I didn’t want to ruin everyone else’s Christmas so I insisted Weasel got over as planned and have a lovely time. Boxing Day saw me having coughing/crying cycles and fits so Weasel arranged for me to see the out of hours doctor. They gave me an inhaler to help the wheezing that the cough gave me, steroids to help with the swelling/pain, more painkillers and antibiotics [course 17 for 2007!]. The next day I ended up in a coughing/crying/vomiting cycle and fit so Weasel called our doctor and he said he would squeeze me in if we could make it up to the surgery. He’s put me on morphine. There’s a slow release tablet I take twice a day and a liquid I can take every three hours. Last night was rough since I was waiting for the tablets to build in the background. I managed a nice three hour block of sleep between 9am and noon. I’m going to try to stay awake for the rest of the day.

I have a follow-up with my doctor on Monday to review my morphine amounts. Then on the 3rd the vasculitis people will be reviewing everything overall. The doctor showed me that my blood tests are indicating that the methotrexate isn’t working. The graph shows everything coming down until the beginning of December, but since then it has been steadily coming back up. He says he’s going to write them a letter and keep a closer eye on me. In fact, he called this morning to see how I was getting on.

I’m just so tired of being in pain and not living.

Today has felt very strange, I’m not sure why, I suspect it is lack of proper sleep. I wake up every two hours, sometimes because of pain, sometimes because I apparently felt like it. I am coughing less which is wonderful, I’m not sure how I feel about the rest of it yet.