So, I turned yellow. Or at least I thought my eyes were looking a bit yellow. I consulted with my personal nurse (aka mum) who agreed I had a bit of a tinge about me. Off I was chased to the GP surgery, where, incidentally, I was not registered. That was a pain in the neck in itself but with mum's contacts, I had blood drawn by one of the treatment room nurses and off I went to work.
Again, another short day as not feeling great. Same indistinct unwellness. Home on Tuesday and off to bed again.
Wednesday, I got up, thought about going in the shower and getting dressed and changed my mind. I just couldn't face the hour long bus commute to work. So back to bed. Then things moved fast.
A GP phoned the house to speak to me. She wanted to know who I was, why I had had blood taken without seeing a doctor and what was I doing in her surgery. That sounds pretty pompous but it wasn't like that. Apparently my Liver Function Tests were through the roof. She wanted to see me straight away, and warned me that I may have to be admitted to hospital.........
So off we went to the doctor. Mum came with me, for which I will be forever grateful.
The GP called us through, and asked a lot of questions. My favourite one was had I been doing anything exciting.... Well, apart from going to see Take That, not really.
Just proves my innocence - she meant anything from which I could have contracted hepatitis - drugs, sex etc. But no, perhaps sadly, my life lacks that kind of excitement.
There was nothing.....except for a rash on my feet. Now this rash had been coming and going for about 4 weeks and I had attributed it to a rather delicious bottle of wine we had sampled at http://www.calistoga.co.uk/ and had then purchased. The first tasting had resulted in a wee red rash on the tops of my feet. I put this down to tight shoes with hot, swollen feet. But when we had another bottle the next week, within half an hour, the rash was all over my feet and halfway up my legs. Since then, despite having no more of the wine, the rash perservered. It wasn't sore, hot or itchy. Just there. And one of those rashes that didn't disappear when you pressed it.
The GP had a look and diagnosed it as a petechial rash - the same sort of rash that comes with meningitis. So this suggested that perhaps I had contracted some sort of virus that was attacking my liver.
Whilst we were with the GP, she spoke to the oncall consultant at Dr Gray's hospital, Elgin. When she told them my LFT levels, they said they wanted to see me.
So off trotted mum and I to Elgin, where I spent most of that day, lying in a hospital bed having what felt like gallons but was probably mls of blood taken for tests and lots of doctors poking and proding their way around my tummy and abdomen. I also had an ultrasound.
Eventually, they decided that I could go home on the proviso that I contacted them immediately if I got at all worse, and that I came back on the Friday to meet with the Gastro consultant. Agreed. And home we went.
And I was so glad to do so! Later that night, we went to a Red Arrows display which was arranged by RAF Kinloss as part of the Forres Week Celebrations. It was fantastic. I've never seen their display in full so it was great to do so on such a spectacular evening, even if I did have to lie on the grass, a sort of yellow-ish colour.....
