100th post and an end in sight!

Sorry I haven't been about lately, I haven't been too good actually. It's something I don't talk about much but I suffer from Fibromyalgia. I have done for a very long time and it took years to get a diagnosis. My sister was diagnosed with M.E. a very long time ago and was really very poorly for a while. After going to the doctor with a whole variety of weird symptons and discussing them with my sister, i realised there were similarities. My sister showed me some information on Fibro and I realised that was it!! My doctor had been pretty useless uo until I presented him with the information, and I got my diagnosis about five years ago.

Since then my sister has discovered that she actually has multiple chemical sensitivity not M.E. M.E. is such a vague term. When the chemicals she is exposed to are controlled my siser now lives a fairly normal life. We think both our problems were casued by exposure to Organo Phosphates and that's why we both suffer. My chemical sensitivity is not as marked as my sister's but I still have to avoid certain things.

I have coped with my Fibro relatively well over the years and have been determind to leave a relatively normal life and not let it get to me, I think that's why I don't really talk about it. Most of the people I know don't even know I have it!! Recently I have been quite poorly and my health is deteriorating. I am loosing weight, and completely unable to put it back on. My fatigue levels are high, my skin poor and my pain levels have increased. My digestive system is also a complete mess. So last week I was off to my new doctor for a moan. It looks like I may have Celiacs Disease. A very daunting prospect!! I didn't know much about Celiacs, I thought it was an allergy. Turns out it's an auoto-immune problem where the body's immune system sees Gluten as a bad thing and attacks it,, causing damage to the intestines. The damage caused stops the proper absorbtion of nutrients etc from your food.

The only cure is to completely stop the intake of Gluten for the rest of my life. The prospect is extremely scary but if it means I can get well, have more energy for my children and generally live a much healthier life then it actually makes the diagnosis an exciting possibility!! I hope that makes sense!! Any no doubt I will have more to say about this new journey so I will let you know how it progresses. I will also try to update you on all the 'normal' things that have been happening! But for now I'm am hoping you are all feeling better than me!

ABC Wednesday - G

G is for so many things this week, like Gosh I've been busy, for a start!! (I haven't posted since last Wednesday!!) G is for Greyhounds of course (see this post here, updates soon!) But most of all G must be for Gatherings.

An old school friend of mine attempted to organise a school reunion last weekend. It didn't quite come off. Only five people turned up!! I don't think she gave people enough warning and so many just couldn't make it. It was, however, a wonderful evening. It gave me the chance to go back to my home town in Somerset and not only catch up with a few old school friends, but also my old mates from 'home'.

On my first day of high school I met H. We became firm friends immediately and stayed that way all the way through school. After school she moved to London and we lost touch for a while but after making contact again we now keep in touch, although we don't see nearly enough of eachother. We also formed a little group with two lads, S and J. We were all pretty close.

H and S made the Gathering, but unfortunately none of us know where J is. What a shame, it was so good to get 3 quarters of the group together and catch up on old times, but it would have been something else if it had been complete.

Anyway, next year is our 20 year anniversary of leaving high school. I can't quite believe it, I mean, I think I'm only 20 anyway!! And thanks to the wonder that is Facebook, I am making contact with more and more of my old school friends, and the plan is to organise a massive reunion Gathering for that.

Here's the old Gang

Don't we look snazzy in our matching dark Glasses!

To see more ABC Wednesday G posts visit here.