There and back again, finally

I'm finally back home in the Mid North Coast of NSW, I'm very glad to sleep in my own bed again.
What it was supposed to be a nice relaxing holiday/visiting family trip turned into a 'medical tourism' experience unwillingly.
I must praise the public hospital system in Mexico, the care I got was excellent, prompt, and very respectful of my rights as a patient, the Neurologist, Emergency Medicine Registrar and the Internal Medicine specialist were all very kind to me, treated me very professionally and were very knowledgeable, the nurses were also excellent, especially when I might have been a difficult patient due to the circumstances.
After all medical visits and alternative treatment options the trip was nice in the overall, even if at times I just felt like catching the next flight back.

I got to meet wonderful Maren whom I miss terribly, she has the loveliest gummy smile I have ever seen, I met with some really dear friends and other cool people, got to eat delicious food and had more rest than I have had in a long time.
The shit hit the fan on my return flight from San Francisco to Sydney, we were onboard the plane for 3 fucking hours without even water in a steaming cabin full of annoyed people when got told at 2am the flight was cancelled, no hotel rooms, no help, no flight until maybe 10:30pm next day, I was tired, pissed off and in acute pain when the big guy behind the counter threw the remnant of my used boarding pass at me and said 'not my problem', got ignored by the manager on duty who asked me 'what do you want?' as first greeting, charming.
United Airlines sucks big time.
Finally made a flight next night after even more drama but too tired to recount, after about 50hr travel made it to Sydney and 3 days after I got finally home.
I got a confirmation of the polymyositis diagnosis, a ct scan, a lumbar puncture, lots of laughs, cuddles from a beautiful baby, adverse reactions to multiple meds, 2 blouses, lots of pain, and some extra kilos, those are my souvenirs.
Tomorrow I go back to my hydrotherapy treatment and to start this new chapter in my life.

After the party

So, I'm back in HQ at Mexico City after traveling to the desert city of Durango north of the capital. It was nice, it's a quietish town quite small for a city in this country but full of old interesting buildings.
I went to the XXVIII Festival of Medicinal Plants, attended a pretty cookie seminar that was supposed to be on Music-therapy but in reality was about strange stuff about god and spirituality, which I don't particularly care about but there was a fair bit of dancing and that was fun!
I did ritual dancing every morning at 6a.m and for someone with the exquisite pain I feel all the time I did pretty well, naturally every afternoon I thought my back was about to snap but I enjoyed myself.
The worse part was the coach ride there and back 12hrs each way - that sucks!!!
Now back @ HQ I feel exhausted, still 4 more weeks in Mexico before I go back home to Oz.
It was a fun party.

Mexico

So, after 4 years since my last visit I'm once again in Mexico, Mexico City to be precise, I'm glad to be here, after all who knows if and when I'll be able to come back. I was hoping for a relaxing, invigorating, joyful holiday but on my second day only I managed to end up in fucking emergency at a Neurology Hospital with the mother of all migraines, the drs thought I was having a stroke! Thankfully it wasn't that sinister, it turned out to be a 'flare up' of he polymyositis, I was aware it is a relapsing and remitting condition however I had no idea a relapse could be so full on!!! CT scan, drip w wonderful painkillers, lots of blood taken out and a freaking Lumbar Puncture later I am now getting used to the level of pain one notch up and thanking my lucky stars I wasn't admitted for that would indeed suck balls during my holiday!!! I hate pain and my body hates me. My live and thoughts to all of those out there suffering from chronic pain in particular but also thinking of all those ill, in acute pain and in need of medical attention.

Hydrotherapy

This is how I feel and look after my hydrotherapy session, I could have never imagined this level of exhaustion was possible after just 30 minutes of very light exercise. I am indeed facing an uphill battle this time.

Immunology

So, after many years living with pain I have been diagnosed with Polymyositis (PM), an autoimmune condition that affects connective tissue, primarily muscles. Not jolly good news really. Learning that one has a chronic, progressive and degenerative, disabling disease is a hard thing to process. It started in my hips and thighs, down to my legs and now it has started to affect my shoulder girdles and arms, the pain is exquisite which in in medical terms means absolutely awful. The treatment is slow acting and the side effects of the meds are very bad, at the very least uncomfortable, in the worst case scenario can be fatal - oh the joy of being your own medical research Guinea pig. All truth be told, I don't want to take pain killers, I don't want to have to 'learn to live with pain', I just want for it to go away, I want to be healthy and not have to think what is going to happen when I cannot move my arms and I won't be able to feed myself, or swallow or even breath unassisted... I am sad indeed and exhausted.

Sea Change - and then some!

After a very long time I have left Sydney for good, I have removed myself from the horrible situation I was in, still baffled by the notion that despite having an AVO in my favour the police couldn't or wouldn't help me. The police didn't care, the landlord didn't care, the SSWHAS didn't give a fig and that terrible person was just nasty - that really was a sad case! However, things are now looking up, I have a nice house close by the beach, with a great yard that fill with birds of all kinds during the course of the day. The town is lovely, quiet and the people friendly and polite in general. It is getting colder but the sun is shinning.