‘Twas Brillig*

Quick trip to the hospital today for some skin tests and the results are… (drumroll please)

I am allergic to house dust mites and grass pollen.

Which kind of explains the perennial sneezing and my hayfever. My skin hardly reacted to all the other tests; I’ve known for some time that grass was a problem (I can’t lie down on grass without itching), but I’m surprised how little I reacted to the other pollens. I wanted something else to come up as well, as the dust mites explains the sneezing fits at home, but doesn’t really explain the fits at work. Seven hours later and the skin where I had the dust mite sample is still itching .

Woot! I no longer need to visit a nurse for packing the wound. I do need to be careful and it does (to my mind) look a mess, but I guess in another week, or so, it won’t look so bad.

It’s the weekend so I’m having to go to the NHS walkin centre - they measured the wound and it is currently 3cm wide by 1cm high by 1.2cm deep which means it has shrunk in volume by 60%, although depthwise it still has a way to go (I really like the way whenever someone sees it for the first time they comment on how deep it is).

Since the procedure it has been packed with something called aquasorb and at the doctors dressed using Mepore. The walk-in centre uses Tegaderm. Mepore is rubbish since it will not stick to my back properly and Ruth has to keep sealing it with surgical tape to stop the dressing falling off, Tegaderm seems to stick better but I think it irritates my skin. From Monday it will packed on alternate days (hurrah!) using something called sorbsan which is apparently better for smaller wounds.

Work has been really considerate considering every day this week I’ve had to leave work during the day, drive to the surgery (12 miles away from work) and drive back which has probably resulted in a man day lost. Having said that one of the practice nurses said that if there was any bother they’d have to sign me off work - so obviously from work’s point of view this is the better way.

I would kill for a shower - washing my hair over the bath is annoying and although I’m washing I feel dirty.

When my wound was dressed after the procedure on Wednesday I had three quite large dressings applied to hold everything in place. The wound is fairly large and needs packing with something called aquacel - the hospital couldn’t provide me with any on Wednesday, so yesterday I had to go back for some so that I could give them to the nurse at the doctor’s when redressing the wound. Since I was at IAU anyway to collect the packing they redressed the wound for me with one fairly small dressing.

When I woke up this morning the dressing had fallen off and the packing fallen out - the doctor’s couldn’t fit me in and I went to the NHS walk in centre in Walsall who measured the size of the hole (3cm wide by 2cm high by 1.5cm deep - ouch) and have applied yet another type of dressing (this one seems a lot more secure).

All I had in mind when I woke up this morning was getting to see a GP to give me some more antibiotics. I got an appointment for 10:20am and from then on it was all downhill. Anyhow several hours later I have been to both A&E and IAU (Integrated Assessment Unit) at Walsall Manor Hospital and the abcess round my cyst has been drained and the cyst removed. Which is good - just a bit of a surprise. I now have another trip to IAU and several visits to the practice nurse to look forward to (to have my dressing changed).

I’ve had a cyst at the base of my neck for two or three years and it hasn’t caused any trouble, until this Monday. Now it has swollen up so that there is a lump extending from the top of my shoulder to my spine (about 9cm across). This morning it had turned from red to purple and so I’ve been to the medical practice and seen the practice nurse who’s prescribed a week’s worth of antibiotics (flucloxacillin) and I’ll be on a list to have one of the GPs remove it once it has calmed down.

I’ve just tried to use the “Choose and Book” on NHS Healthspace to arrange my appointment with ENT and the stupid thing doesn’t support Firefox - great -1 for good design practice there. To make matters worse it is the most unhelpful site I have seen in ages - verdict abysmal.

I’ve had this blocked up feeling and a really smelly sneeze (but normally no sense of having a cold) for the last couple of years although in the last couple of months it has got worse. I went to the doctors tonight and apparently I might have a nasal polyp - so I’ve been given a nasal spray and I’m going to have a visit to ENT. From what I read it shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

I just realised that it’s six months since I last drank any caffeine (4-6 litres pepsi max a day) which I think is the longest I’ve been without the stuff since 1992. The worst bit is I still really want to drink the flaming stuff.