When is a cold not a cold?

When you have cancer - apparently! When I went on to the 'maintenance' medication I take daily, way back in August 2022, I was reminded that it is a chemo drug so I would need to contact the oncology triage unit if I experienced any of a number of symptoms which could suggest I had some sort of infection. Being a generally reasonably healthy kind of person - with the one obvious exception! - I read the leaflet, then put it on one side and pretty much forgot about it. Until this week.

I'm not exactly the stoic kind when I'm ill, but even I hadn't expected Wednesday to go the way it did. I woke up feeling unwell, and headachy; having had a sore throat for a few days and feeling considerably worse by early afternoon, I realised I should probably call the triage unit. Approximately a bazillion questions later, I got asked to go in for blood tests and so they could see what was going on. So my hospitable bag was dug out from where it's resided behind the settee since we moved in here last summer, and off we trundled.

Long story short - it looks as though it's a virus! And I was a bit dehydrated so had 800ml fluid by IV while waiting for all the other results to come back. So that's definitely good news - but not quite how we'd expected to spend an evening.

Thursday was spent doing a lot of Nothing, and I managed to read a whole book, so that felt like good progress, and today is better again as I've actually been awake since about 9.30am and have finished another book I've been reading. Unfortunately my husband has now come down with the same bug, so is feeling utterly sorry for himself today.

No kayaking for me tomorrow though, as I don't like going out when I'm not feeling properly up to it, for obvious reasons. I had vaguely considered signing up for the Hasler (race) this weekend, but has decided against the moment I found out there were portages even in the lowest division, where I race! (Portage means getting out of the boat and carrying it past a lock or other obstacle , then getting back in, and is not something I can do with any kind of speed or confidence!) I'm now VERY glad I hadn't signed up for the race and instead will look forward to the racing opportunities in the new year!

So, onward and upward. I have two more books and one cat with me, as well as the dog, so it's a cosy afternoon ahead...