An awful day…

Friday 22 November 2013 was an awful day for me.

I started off not too badly, not feeling particularly well, but decided that it was probably best to stay in bed for as much of the day as I could. Looking back, this was where the day began to go wrong, but at the time it seemed the most logical solution. You see, I was not feeling well.

The day before (Thursday 21 November 2013) had been a very good day. That morning I had been out to visit the BBC with the CIPR Northern Ireland group. Then in the afternoon, I had been into Positive Life where I heard more about what is happening in the days leading up to World AIDS Day 2013. And in the evening, Andrew and I attended an event with Accepting Sexuality. So, I think that all of those activities tired me out, making Friday not a brilliant day.

Back to Friday, I stayed in bed. Andrew brought me glasses of Diet Coke, and so began the long day of diarrhœa. Every time that I thought I would make it to the bathroom—I didn’t. I ended up with towels under me in the bed to catch anything that came before I could get out of bed and off to the bathroom. All in all, not a pleasant situation. But, it was bearable.

Second mistake of day. Not getting any help from “Mr Blue”. Now, Mr Blue is a small device that is produced by Philips. He is actually called a goLITE – but being in our house, he has been personified and is now known as “Mr Blue”. Andrew bought him when he worked at Philips, and he really does help us both cope with the lack of real sunlight. According to Andrew, if I don’t use, I become rather grumpy, likely to not move about, and even more likely to get a migraine.

It was the third of these that really manifested itself yesterday evening when Andrew was out with a friend watching “Catching Fire” the second of the Hunger Games series of films. I ended up with a terrifically bad migraine. As Andrew was out, I was not really aware of it properly until it was well under way and therefore the Sumatriptan (Imigran®) which I ought to have taken at the beginning would probably not have worked. I didn’t know where it was in any case.

I had what I think was the third bath of the day, trying to clean myself up after another bout of diarrhœa. I felt absolutely terrible. With my migraines I often become very sensitive to light and so had nearly all the lights in the house switched off. I curled up on the floor of the bathroom after getting out of the bath, and hoped that I would go to sleep—and not wake up. (It was good that I was not really in the mood for searching for drugs, because Andrew has a small supply of Tramadol that I was nearly wanting to take, and that would really not have been a good idea.)

I think that I was lying on the floor for about ten minutes—though it may have been any length of time—before Andrew arrived home. He, despite being tired himself, helped greatly by changing the bedclothes, by getting me WeeGee to cuddle, and then by getting me dressed and ready for bed.  Sadly, before I managed to get off the floor, I found that I had wet myself while lying there.

All in all, it is safe to say that it was one of the worst days that I have had for quite some time. Today, has been better. We have made a number of resolutions.

1. No matter how bad we are feeling, we get up and get dressed.
2. We always use “Mr Blue”.
3. We always have at least one venture out of the building into the big wide world outside–even if it is only to the local shop for something.

Today, we did all three. Hurrah! Tomorrow, we aim to do so as well. And the next day, and so on. As I began this blog, I took every day as it came. Today, I find myself thinking the same thing, but it is really the same for everyone. For anyone reading this blog for the first time, I suggest you go back to the beginning of the blog and read from there. Be careful, you might need to stock up on tissues before you start. But, it does get better.

And Andrew reckons that I may even have turned into a Dr Who fan after the migraine. I suppose anything is possible.