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Health update
Oct. 24th, 2011 11:40 amThanks very much to everyone for their support and concern after my last post - it was much appreciated!
I managed to get an emergency appointment with a doctor this morning and it's mainly positive news: there's nothing in what I told her that gives her any concern that I might have an immune system issue, especially as I am fighting the illnesses off with the need for medication. Basically the recurring illnesses are down to a number of factors:
1. I work in an open-plan office of 60+ people so I'm exposed to a lot of germs (the doctor said she'd be far more concerned if I worked in an environment with no people and still got ill)
2. My current levels of stress are fairly high which isn't helping
3. My sleep patterns are not fantastic right now
4. Although I eat reasonably well and get an okay amount of exercise it's not consistent enough, between anxiety and sickness.
So there's this whole vicious circle thing (sick-anxious-don't sleep well-don't get consistent exercise-sick-anxious...) which means that I'm not really getting up to full health and so I'm more likely to pick up the next thing that comes along.
So some of this is stuff I can do something about (like making sure I eat properly and get at least some light exercise even when I really don't feel like it, improve my sleep hygiene) and some is a bit more difficult (there's only so much I can do about work right now - even looking for another job is stress I don't need right now. Once my health is better, maybe...) Also, while it's not a final decision yet, I may well not do the next show with Andover Musical Theatre group - just so I don't have anything other than work to worry about for a while.
Also, just to be on the safe side, I am going to have a blood test done to check for anaemia (not common in men) and diabetes (I'm in the right age group now, although there isn't any history of it in my family so unlikely). So I'm not expecting anything nasty, but just being safe. To give kudos to the doctor I saw, it was because I mentioned being concerned about the nastier possible underlying causes that she suggested that maybe I should get the tests done as reassurance rather than anything else.
So nothing to be too anxious about for now, anyway.
I managed to get an emergency appointment with a doctor this morning and it's mainly positive news: there's nothing in what I told her that gives her any concern that I might have an immune system issue, especially as I am fighting the illnesses off with the need for medication. Basically the recurring illnesses are down to a number of factors:
1. I work in an open-plan office of 60+ people so I'm exposed to a lot of germs (the doctor said she'd be far more concerned if I worked in an environment with no people and still got ill)
2. My current levels of stress are fairly high which isn't helping
3. My sleep patterns are not fantastic right now
4. Although I eat reasonably well and get an okay amount of exercise it's not consistent enough, between anxiety and sickness.
So there's this whole vicious circle thing (sick-anxious-don't sleep well-don't get consistent exercise-sick-anxious...) which means that I'm not really getting up to full health and so I'm more likely to pick up the next thing that comes along.
So some of this is stuff I can do something about (like making sure I eat properly and get at least some light exercise even when I really don't feel like it, improve my sleep hygiene) and some is a bit more difficult (there's only so much I can do about work right now - even looking for another job is stress I don't need right now. Once my health is better, maybe...) Also, while it's not a final decision yet, I may well not do the next show with Andover Musical Theatre group - just so I don't have anything other than work to worry about for a while.
Also, just to be on the safe side, I am going to have a blood test done to check for anaemia (not common in men) and diabetes (I'm in the right age group now, although there isn't any history of it in my family so unlikely). So I'm not expecting anything nasty, but just being safe. To give kudos to the doctor I saw, it was because I mentioned being concerned about the nastier possible underlying causes that she suggested that maybe I should get the tests done as reassurance rather than anything else.
So nothing to be too anxious about for now, anyway.
