Up The Farway Tree

Buddha Baby





This is a projection of how I may look by next year should I continue my current weight gain. I think its rather attractive. Well, it may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but I have now regained all the weight I lost over the summer (about 10 pounds in total) so if anyone wishes to now refer to me as 'Buddha Baby' it would not be entirely inappropriate. I think I have managed this due to a combination of consistently eating breakfast and making sure this is something appropriate like weetabix, instead of my usual choice of, for example; 2 chocolate digestives, one savoury mince pie, one slice of fruit loaf, one caramel log, or 2 chocolate truffles. I have not stopped eating the above selection of goodies, but have instead moved them to a more sensible 'supper' slot, which has been created by attempting to do my night time physio earlier in the evening. These small adjustments all appear to add up (to 10lbs in fact). I have no doubt that the period of time off work has also aided this weight gain, and this gain has in turn kept me infection free over the past 5 weeks and also pushed my lung function back up to what it was earlier in the year (as was measured at clinic last week). So I am delighted that my month long sabbatical was indeed worthwhile.

Speaking of work, I am now into my second week back. I didn't post about it last week, as I was a little disappointed with my first day back, which had left me feeling washed out and exhausted. However I suspect this the normal first day back feeling most people would experience, and I have found it to be easier this week. The 10 am start was definitely the way to go, as I now have enough time to complete all treatments and have the added bonus of missing the rush hour traffic. Winner.

Now my dilemma for this week is deciding whether I should go on a 2 week course of intravenous antibiotics prior to Christmas in an effort to ensure good health over the festive period. In some CF centres the use of 3 monthly IVs is advocated regardless of whether patients are symptomatic, but in my case, I never get to 3 months without needing them anyway. However, although I had some oral antibiotics about 5 weeks ago, I have now been off IVs for almost 3 months. Record breaking stuff. Logically you could therefore assume that I would be likely to require IVs before or during the Christmas period, and therefore logically it would be better to strike now and have them done and dusted by Christmas day. However,if you take into account the fact I feel quite well just now, it would then appear rather illogical to pump myself full of intravenous drugs that will predictably make me feel not so well due to side effects and add another hour or two off treatments onto my day. Also from past experience, I can become unwell within weeks, if not days, of a course finishing, so it does not even come with any guarantees. I will debate this over the coming week. The fact I both suggested it and agreed to it at clinic last week is irrelevant. I think I am entitled to change my mind. Fifty times a day it would seem.