Monday 16 April 2012

The first green shoots...

The title does not, in fact, refer to the beautiful Hampshire countryside that we drive through going to and from the Dove Clinic although that has become very green, a bit at a time. What with the blossoms in the hedgerows and in the gardens, the trip has become very pretty indeed.

However, what I was thinking of was the effects of the treatments. But, since I haven't blogged for some weeks, a quick catch-up is in order. The last blog was prophetic and we did indeed not get any treatments done that week. The gout cleared towards the end of the week and so the following week I managed four one-hour treatments. We managed the same the next week, which brought us to the Easter weekend and so a day off on Easter Monday and only three treatments that week, which was last week. This week we are back to four treatments.

I now find that I can tolerate it all much better. I still wouldn't call it enjoyable but it certainly isn't as much like hard work as it was when we started. Also my bladder seems to be improving, I can now get to the half hour (more or less) before needing to go and relieve the pressure and last week I managed fouty-three minutes before needing a break! I can now regularly complete the session without needing a second break.And there are some noticeable improvements in my health  - I got a bit of tightness in the chest last weekend after going up and down some very big stairs twice and was feeling a bit disappointed because I hadn't had that for a couple of weeks. Then I remembered that last time I did those stairs I had to stop after only one ascent and use my spray, so then I didn't feel too bad at all! There have been a number of comments that I am looking well again and I feel up to doing much more than I could before (which was, to be fair, not very much at all). So we continue with the treatment and I will try to record it all a bit more thoroughly.