New Challenge

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

Grab a brew, it's a long one....

Well I know I say it most weeks but goodness me this week has flown,  it's been a busy week, Paul has been in the office for most of if, then I have  had appointments to think about,  today is no exception,  Soph & I are at Opticians this morning then Paul will take me Gloucester Hospital for my Liver Fibrosis Scan, its at 3.45pm. I cannot eat or drink for 3 hours before the scan,  so I will definitely be taking a packed lunch for straight after the scan, it's more the  not being able to drink that's a challenge as I have was advised to drink at least 2 litres of water a day by my Consultant Urologist.  I think I am most apprehensive about this scan as I know that there is a problem with my liver, both from previous scans and blood test results, had the new GP had the sense to check back through my blood test results for the past few years it would probably have gone on longer,  she was shocked that I had never been referred for a FIB4 Liver scan given the blood test results had consistently been a good bit above the highest level for last 3 years at least.  Lets hope that whatever the findings are its something that can be treated. 

My bladder treatment went ok after a minor hiccup regarding level of blood in my urine, I explained that every sample I have had tested has had blood in it due to the inflammation and my bladder was really inflamed through Wednesday night, although I'm not sure why.  Anyway after consulting a Dr it eventually went ahead, the procedure itself isn't too bad  they insert a catheter and have a syringe filled wire the 'cocktail' that they slowly put in,  I then had to 'hold onto'  the medication for up to 3 hours if possible,  which I expected would be tricky but it really wasn't,  I  am hoping and praying that it was down to the effect of the medication,  wouldn't it be fantastic if it had an effect straight away?!  It was an odd sensation having the feeling of a full bladder but no feeling of needing to 'go' !! 

I have the treatment weekly for 4 weeks them fortnightly fot a couple more and then it goes to Monthly right up to Christmas, then I will have a meeting with Consultant to check progress, if necessary it can just be continuous until no symptoms remain. 

Its basically a cocktail of drugs, one of which is Hyaluronic Acid, they work together to recreate the protective lining of the  bladder, this coating called 'Glycosamimoglycan', mine will have been eroded away by the many UTi's I have had over the last years, which leaves the bladder totally unprotected  from the very acidic urine it holds.  It was fascinating learning about it yesterday.  The treatment is called  iAluRil'

Our Next Challenge 

I really felt like I needed a change of challenge topic, so I looked at July 2020 and it the first challenge I saw was aperture cards!  

I want to simplify it though so our Challenge will be  'Aperture & Faux Aperture' cards.

This means you can choose whether to actually cut an aperture in your card OR give the 'effect' of an aperture like some of the cards above.  Even a background die that cuts into the card front will count. ( I have a few of these that I haven't used in ages). 

I hope you enjoy this challenge,  its certainly one that we haven’t done in along time. 

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I hope that you all enjoy this last weekend of June,

Love & Hugs to all, 

Sandra

xxxxxx