I'm Back ... again.

Well, the world obviously does not revolve around my blog - 'cause if it did, then it stopped some time ago.

I don't imagine that there is a whole lot of readers out there to whom I need apologise, but I AM sorry that I haven't kept up with things. You see, health is a fleeting thing, that you don't really value until it's not there, and my health went away for a long sabbatical some time ago. Even the power switch on my laptop was beyond me for a while there.

I had some abdominal pain, so eventually (hey, it's a man thing!) I went to the doctor. He poked, and prodded, and questioned, and concluded that I had diverticulitis. He wrote a script for some antibiotics, and made a suggestion (no more than that) that I get an MRI to confirm his diagnosis, just in case. Surprisingly, I actually listened, and rang about an MRI. In a stunning tribute to the fact that Australian medicine is not completely over-run by the State, I got an appointment for the next morning, and dutifully turned up in the starving, un-breakfasted condition required. "Drink this over the next twenty minutes. Lay here. Don't move. Expect a whole-of-body warm feeling, you might feel like you have wet yourself. OK, you can get up now." Radiologists are SO cold.

Two hours later, I got a phone call: "Get yourself to hospital NOW. Not lovely, nearby private hospital - they don't have a surgeon available. Go to the ER at large, distant public hospital - they are expecting you."

I don't remember much of the next week. After spending less than 30 seconds in the ER, I was bound for the surgical ward. Apparently, I had multiple blocked blood vessels in my gut, and missed my appointment with the guy with the black robe and scythe by about two hours.

Recovery from surgery takes a while, but having to stick myself in the gut with rat poison injections twice a day for eight months is not something to be remembered with relish either. Blood tests every week; visits to the hospital every fortnight; colonoscopy; endoscopy; MRI; ultrasound; X-ray; CAT scan - none of it is to be recommended.

But now that is all over. The two latest blood tests have reported that all is as it should be, and the clots are now believed to be all gone since the levels of anti-thrombin 3 are within normal levels. I am still struggling with a lack of energy, but even that is improving.

So, TL;DR ... I'm back - just don't expect too much. :)