Long Silence

My friends, I am sorry for the long silence. It's not that there's been so much going on, as I've not had the energy to do anything. Not even type, let alone string words into a sentence to tell you all what's been going on. It's been like my brain hasn't been working right, you know? I've felt incredibly foggy and lethargic, somewhat depressed, and incredibly unmotivated. Also, it would seem I've been pretty moody and snippy this past week. And, I've felt like I can't think straight.

At first, I put it down to stress. After all, it's not like we've had nothing going on in our lives and we've undergone a huge change this past year. So, I soldiered through. Things needed to be done, so I forced myself to do them. But after a while, I couldn't ignore it. After an appointment with my rheumatologist that didn't go the way I'd hoped it would, I was very upset. My sweetie strongly suggested that I see my GP to find out how the system works here, so I did. And asked that he sit in on the appointment with me to make sure that I covered everything, and remembered what I was told afterward. Our GP is lovely and he talked to the two of us, explained some things I didn't understand about the system here, and I found myself tellling him how unfocussed I felt. That my sweetie was there to make sure I didn't forget anything, that I had no energy and was tired all the time. My GP ordered some blood tests.

It seems that I have a vitamin B12 deficiency and a severe vitamin D deficiency. Both can cause incredible fatigue, but the B12 deficiency can cause depression, lethargy, loss of memory, anxiety, falling asleep easily, and mood changes such as, well, snippiness, all of which I've been experiencing for well over a month. I'm now on a prescribed 50mcg dose of B12 and am awaiting a prescribed dose of 5,000 IU of vitamin D to come into the local pharmacy. I took my first dose of B12 yesterday. I actually felt brighter, less lethargic AND for the first time in weeks, didn't fall asleep on the couch at 9:00 last night. I actually saw the end of the movie we were watching. I'm hoping that as I continue taking it, things will continue to improve.

As for the vitamin D, I was very impressed that my GP was willing to put me on 5,000 IU a day, and that the NHS approves up to 10,000 IU a day. That's pretty controversial in Canada right now. I know Mum had to fight her GP to get him to rest easy with the 4,000 IU a day she takes. It's going to be a few days before the high dose comes into the pharmacy, but we'll see what happens when I start taking it.

In the meantime, we are definitely moving again. The landlady is selling the house. So, we've been looking for a new one somewhere in this area. It's given us the opportunity to explore Leicester and really decide where we want to live. Find a place together that we both love. Sadly, we both love this place and the neighbourhood, but it is what it is and we'll figure it out. This is the most beautiful place, this area of Leicestershire, and the people are marvellous. We are definitely staying in the area.

And we went to London last week for a couple of days, as we had business at the Canadian Embassy. Took the train this time. Stayed in a second floor walk-up B&B in Covent Garden. Fell totally in love with Covent Garden. We must have walked 15 miles on Thursday. Saw the changing of the guard, and some important personage going into Buckingham Palace. I've decided that since neither of us can see clearly who's in the car in our photos, it was the Queen. Saw St. Paul's and the Tower of London. Wandered Picadilly, shopped on Carnaby Street, saw Trafalgar Square, took one of those bus tours. And saw an incredible performance of "The Madness of George III" at the Apollo Theatre. Phenomenal! Thank god for the half price ticket booth. Dinner in a little place in Soho before the theatre, dessert there after the theatre.

It's been hard to be overly enthusiastic about much of anything lately, but London was good.

I'll post more photos on flick'r and I have a new programme for working with my photos that I've been playing with these last few days. And I'll tell you about our pilgrimage to my sweetie's old stompin grounds at North Luffenham in Rutland. And more fully about London. But I wanted to make sure I let you know that I haven't forgotten about you, just haven't had the energy to do this blog, let alone keep up with emails. I have a feeling that's about to improve.

Love.