Category: Health

Image from Pixabay

New Dishwasher

I’m getting a new dishwasher!!! My 23 year old dishwasher finally gave up the ghost yesterday! We bought a new one today, and it’ll be delivered tomorrow   I can’t wait!! My old one has been a faithful one but I’ve wanted to buy a new model for the last 8 years or so because they have cool new features the old one didn’t, but couldn’t justify the cost when the old one was still working normally. (I come from a family that doesn’t buy new costly things until they break.) Had to replace my washing machine last July which was 30+ years old in last July, and still crazy in love with my now no longer new washing machine 😀 I feel silly being so excited about a new household appliance but there you are!

We decided that instead of waiting for the fridge to break, we’ll aim to replace later on this summer. It’s also 23 years old, makes too loud noises sometimes… probably normal for an old fridge, but they sound too loud to me because I’m sensitive to sounds due to my migraine. It’s the one I’ve wanted to replace for more than a decade now but money’s always the issue and haven’t been able to do it because it still works. But hopefully now this time we can stick to the plan!

Health update

Continued to sort of have an migraine attack yesterday, and still today though less so. It’s been a long run this time, going on five days 😡 I’d like to be able to point to a particular thing and say “this is the reason” but I can’t. There’s been nothing out of ordinary going on, not really. I did have some stress from mid-May onwards due to having to prepare and leave in formal applications for KELA to handle and all that stress resolved on last week’s Monday. So too early to count for this longer than my normal run of bad migraine attack days.

KELA made a negative decision on my disability retirement application yesterday. Which, expected. Still, disappointed. And a little suspicious – the stated time it’ll take to make a decision is up to three months. And that’s how long they took in 2018 with my last disability retirement application. But this time they handled it in a week and a bit! Doesn’t seem enough time to me to do their due diligence. KEVA hasn’t made their decision yet. I wonder what happens if they say yes? Apparently it’s rare, but it’s happened. The retirement pay KEVA would pay me isn’t anywhere near enough to live on, so it’d be complicated and probably more of a bureautic headache than a save!

And I can never spell propaply probably, no matter how many times I mistype it!

• Got my second COVID-19 vaccine today! First one was Astra Zeneca in three months ago in February, this second one was the Moderna one. Didn’t get side effects apart from the usual sore muscle in February, soon I’ll see what happens with this one!
• Saw a neurologist last week because my migraine symptoms have changed – they’re often in a new place now, and in February, I had the very first aura I’ve ever had. So far it’s the only time. We’re gonna try to bump up Propral (depends on whether I can handle without fainting because if affects blood pressure) to see if it helps. If not/not enough, we have a plan in place to try Aimovig, the biologic, starting in January. I have to keep a detailed migraine diary the rest of the year to make sure I qualify for Aimovig.
• So I’m cautiously optimistic because Aimovig, but it’s also it’s my last hope as it stands now – if a biologic doesn’t work, there’s nothing left to try and only maybe menopause can improve my migraines then.
• Having problems with Ferritin since last summer. Started taking iron in November by January the ferritin had got a little better, just about as much as could be expected for 2,5 months. But in April’s labs, no change from January  🙁 I’m so damn tired all the time, I’m starting to run out of patience with the shitty ferritin!
• Applying for disability retirement again, my doctor already sent it the doctor’s thingy (can’t remember the word…) needed and now KELA just needs an application from me. I filled it in online, but need to write up a txt file too because all my illnesses and their various effects were too much for the allocated number of characters allowed in their online forms. Gonna do that tomorrow or day after. I do love that this can all be done online – the last time I applied I had to download a pdf, fill it in and then either upload it via the message center along with an extra txt for the same reason or print them and send via snailmail. Now the application itself is fillable online too 😀 
• Both my doctor and I think that I probably won’t get the disability retirement now either (they are too strict about it if you are unemployed when you become disabled; it’s an acknowledged problem due to prejudices about unemployed people) but that it helps to build a history about doctors -thingies- showing you are unable to work and applications even if they are rejected. Black on white, medical history and history showing you’ve haven’t improved even with rehabilitation etc. so at some point it’ll get accepted, even if it takes years and years.
• The 300 days of long term sick leaves will run out at the end of June; if I don’t get disability I’ll have to return to unemployment benefits which is really stupid because in reality I’m not able to work, and that means only extra work for the unemployment agency and more stress for me :_( But there’s no other place for people who run out of long term sick leave and don’t get disability 🙁