This morning I poured 35 more little hookworms out on to a bandage and stuck it to my skin. Within 30 minutes I could feel the tell-tale itch, meaning that my new friends are burrowing through my skin where they will make their way to my gut eventually. I'm so excited! This flare has carried on for about six weeks now and I'm already sick of it.
And so I'm blogging today, mostly to mark exactly how I felt on the day I took the second dose of worms. I'm eager to look back in a few weeks or months and see the difference in my health.
I have been asleep most of this week. I don't mean that metaphorically, and I don't believe I'm being hyperbolic. I'm going to bed around 9:30, sleeping hard till 8, and napping throughout the day for a few hours at a time. I feel weak overall, like the weight of each dish I try to wash is too much. Like the bath towel I'm folding is way too heavy for me. I've been struggling with a migraine that comes and goes. It hasn't yet reached the intensity that triggers vomiting and temporary visual impairment, and yesterday I went for a head/neck massage that will hopefully stave it off. My right elbow is still very sore. The steroid injection a couple of weeks ago helped for a week, and then the pain on the inside of my elbow returned. Picking things up, carrying anything, texting, playing solitaire on my phone or just moving my arm suddenly triggers intense pain. Sometimes nothing triggers it - it just happens. It wakes me up at night, over and over again. I'm also having hot flashes again. I wake up over and over with my pajama top soaked through with sweat. I've had a few mouth ulcers, though not as many as I used to have. My cuticles have shredded, but healed again. My feet hurt a little, but not terribly. And I have a general sense of malaise.
My first inoculation produced a bounce about a week later. My fingers are crossed that this dose does the same. And maybe, just maybe, I'll bounce right into a nice long remission.
And so I'm blogging today, mostly to mark exactly how I felt on the day I took the second dose of worms. I'm eager to look back in a few weeks or months and see the difference in my health.
I have been asleep most of this week. I don't mean that metaphorically, and I don't believe I'm being hyperbolic. I'm going to bed around 9:30, sleeping hard till 8, and napping throughout the day for a few hours at a time. I feel weak overall, like the weight of each dish I try to wash is too much. Like the bath towel I'm folding is way too heavy for me. I've been struggling with a migraine that comes and goes. It hasn't yet reached the intensity that triggers vomiting and temporary visual impairment, and yesterday I went for a head/neck massage that will hopefully stave it off. My right elbow is still very sore. The steroid injection a couple of weeks ago helped for a week, and then the pain on the inside of my elbow returned. Picking things up, carrying anything, texting, playing solitaire on my phone or just moving my arm suddenly triggers intense pain. Sometimes nothing triggers it - it just happens. It wakes me up at night, over and over again. I'm also having hot flashes again. I wake up over and over with my pajama top soaked through with sweat. I've had a few mouth ulcers, though not as many as I used to have. My cuticles have shredded, but healed again. My feet hurt a little, but not terribly. And I have a general sense of malaise.
My first inoculation produced a bounce about a week later. My fingers are crossed that this dose does the same. And maybe, just maybe, I'll bounce right into a nice long remission.