I’ve started to write this today because, to be honest, I’m fed up with facing the unexpected. I can cope with most things, as long as I know what to expect. And all that has just gone out of the window.
I’ll start my story from the beginning. Not my beginning, but this beast’s.
It must have been April or May time when I first noticed some blood when I wiped myself. Just 2 watery dots. At the age of 64 and we’ll past the menopause, I wasn’t expecting that!
I turned a blind eye, which probably wasn’t the best decision I’d ever made, and yes maybe I did have a quick Google. A week or so later I had a bad pain in my right hand side. It wasn’t crippling but very uncomfortable and I felt really tired and a bit nauseous. I googled. I think I came to the conclusion it might either be appendicitis or kidney stones, or maybe some kind of blockage in my intestines. I drank plenty of water, normally I only drink coffee or tea. I never gave too much thought previously to adequate hydration and my pee has always been quite dark. To be honest, it wasn’t until I started drinking a lot of water that I realised what colour pee should be! The pain lasted a couple of days and then passed. Then I noticed some stringy looking blood when I wiped myself. I wasn’t expecting that!
I was chatting to my daughter about it one day, as you do, and she said ‘Mum, you have to ring the doctor!’ I’d kind of reached that conclusion all by myself but having been a virtual recluse for over a year, I wasn’t much looking forward to the prospect of visiting the GP during a pandemic.
I was pretty impressed with the GP system. I rang the surgery, a GP rang me back. I told him the problem and he said I should visit the nurse the very same day.
I think that’s enough for my first post. More of the journey to follow.
