Christmas in the Monsoon

I have enjoyed lots of Christmas festivities this year. Parties, presents and listening to lots of Christmas carols. It hasn't mattered that I can't go out in the sun, since it has been raining most of the time. We even had a flood just before Christmas day, with some of the worst hit areas being close to my place. The nursery which I like to go to to look at their collection of water fountains, has been closed since the flood, as it was underwater (the water mark was 1.5m on the walls) when the nearby reservoir overflowed during high tide.

I have been having some problems since I got back from my trip to Perth. One problem has been vomiting. I have been waking up during both my afternoon and night sleep with sudden and uncontrollable vomiting. It was rather messy and Mummy and Daddy quickly learnt how to jump out of bed in the middle night to catch it before everything gets soaked. I felt fine otherwise so I wasn't too bothered by it. I went to see a gastro specialist and she thought it was most likely the result of a viral infection which was lasting a long time, given I am immuno-suppressed. Since it gradually got better, this seemed most likely, although there was still a little bit of ongoing vomiting. Then about three days ago, it suddenly got bad again. As it has been about two months since we returned from Perth, I guess the doctors will need to take a look at what is going on inside my body. This means either a Barium X-ray or an endoscopy will be required. I think it may more likely be the latter, as I generally refuse to drink anything other than water, so drinking the large amounts of Barium milkshake required (and holding it down) is probably out of the question!

The other problem, which the doctors tell me is unrelated, is that I have had a lot of spots come up on different parts of my body. The first round involved just a few. They were like huge pimples and were very painful when touched. Three were on my head (under my hair) and one on my leg. I was put on some antibiotics as this was most likely caused by a bacterial infection. This helped clear them up but I now have three spots on my head where my hair is not growing from where those pimples used to be. Then after I stopped the antibiotics, another round of spots popped up, this time many more but not such large ones. This was also in the last few days, so I've started another week of antibiotics to try to get the infection under control.

Meanwhile, and most importantly, my monthly checkup (blood test) came back with my counts being in the right ranges. My GVHD seems to be better at the moment. I have gradually reduced my dosage of steroids, so fingers crossed, I will be completely off steroids in about one to two months. I can then work on cutting back my other main drug, cyclosporine, which is also used to control the GVHD.

Thanks again to all those who gave me presents. I really had 12 days of Christmas, as Mummy and Daddy let me open a present everyday (for the past two weeks). I now have very many toy cars and trucks (from a 3cm Mercedes Benz all the way through to my own battery powered car which is longer than me). For those who sent presents from overseas whom I could not thank personally: thanks Niklas & Simon, I really like to use the Lego Police you sent from Denmark to chase around all my other cars and trucks when they the break traffic rules! Thanks Henry, Gillian and Daniel for the nice Rainbow fish book - I already have the jigsaw puzzle story book, which is one of my favourites, so it was nice to read a full story involving the same characters.

(I will upload photos of my kiddy Christmas party when the photo lab reopens in the new year).

Have a Happy New Year!