Letters from Wetville

Now that I have a nurse, I am sick.  I was a little lurgied when I was home alone, but once Favourite Handyman came in on his white horse (which looked remarkably like the West Coast Shuttle bus), I descended, almost in a faint, into his arms, replete with that scary white river of cold down my chest which in my experience indicates an infection. I am pleased to report that his excellent nursing means I am mostly out of bed now and showing signs of improvement.  I've been drinking lemon drinks, miso soup, spicey chorizo soup and blackcurrant syrup with vitamin C. I'm still trying to learn more about vitamin C and haemochromatosis.  The received wisdom for persons with haemochromatosis is that they should not take supplemental vitamin C.  Vitamin C asssists the absorption of iron in the human body. Which seems simple and straightforward enough, except that I have had such good success in improving my own health with supplemental vitamin C.  Given my dramati...

When everyone is home and it is term time, I crave silence in the evenings.  I've been immersed in noise all day.  Having no television suits me fine as in the evening I prefer to read, sew, knit or read or write online.  Tonight, after a quiet day to myself, I have a different set up.  I have set FH's computer up to stream Radio Four live while I knit/read/write online.  Just fifteen more minutes to Womans Hour. Today: 1. I thought I would sew all through these solo days, but it turns out I want to read and think. 2. I went to see Laksmi, my treasured complementary therapist.  She did some visceral manipulation work while we talked at length about haemochromatosis, food, symptoms and next steps.  She strongly encouraged me to be more assertive with my doctor. 3. Inspired by Laksmi's pep talk, I made another attempt to get an appointment with a locum who FH recommended.  Wonder of all magical wonders, I got an appointment today.  TODAY...

I've just rewatched Terry Wahl's TED presentation on mitochondria .  Terry Wahl is a doctor who developed Multiple Sclerosis and deteriorated to the point of being unable to walk.  She embarked on her own research into MS, delving deeper and deeper into what is known about mitochondria, and developed an eating programme which restored her to active health.  Now she campaigns the cause of vegetables, lots and lots and lots of vegetables.  I've read about her before and found her story interesting and inspiring.  I often think the focus in the media healthwise is far too much on what we shouldn't eat, to the neglect of the things which are very good to eat.  Instead of bemoaning KFC and proposing fat taxes, I wish that souvlaki bars were more widespread.  The proportion of veges to carbohydrate (plus the sheer yumminess factor) of a souvlaki is way way better than a KFC dinner box or a parcel of takeaways fish and chips.  In my experience, bought fo...

In my last post, I outlined the options and my preferences in my quest to lower my iron stores while I wait for an appointment with a doctor with the knowledge to supervise a phlebotomy regime.  Two days later and I've got more things to think about. 1. Green tea.   The advantages of drinking lots of green tea for a medicinal purpose are that it is cheap, easy to make, and can even be bought when out for lunch or dinner.  The disadvantage for me, I was noticing rather clearly today, is that drinking 3-4 cups of green tea per day is a lot more caffeine than I normally drink, and I've been getting tetchy headaches and restless legs/muscle spasms.  When I found myself craving chocolate this afternoon, it all began to add up to the possibility that the green tea was chelating out magnesium as well as iron.  I've learnt from past experience to look after my magnesium levels.  Next time I got near the computer, I did some research and sure enough, the tannins ...

I collected my blood results and sure enough, two of the readings considered significant for iron overload are outside the 'normal' range (transferrin and iron saturation).  Today I rang the medical centre to request an appointment with a doctor with some experience with haemochromatosis.  If I'm going to have regular phlebotomy, I would like to be under the care of someone able to interpret the blood results and with a clear picture of what needs to happen and how frequently.  Even in the days of bloodletting with leeches, I'm guessing people preferred to have some guiding expertise and supervision for the process.  It wasn't possible for the nurse to be sure of who had the requisite knowledge and experience, but I now have an appointment in five weeks' time with the doctor with the best reputation at the practice.  The blood bank doesn't visit Wetville in winter as the risks of having a full van of blood and not being able to get it back over the hill t...