Sitting badly

It's been a busy few days. Lots of visitors, and I've experimented with reducing my pain medication a little. To be honest that hasn't worked very well and I've ended up quite achey sometimes. I realise that the prime cause is when I sit on a normal chair without my back being supported properly - it means I'm using my stomach muscles constantly and when I get up afterwards it really hurts! I'm going to take care that when I'm supposed to be relaxing everything is better-supported as otherwise it means I'm not up to taking walks etc. at other times.

I managed to scare a few people by putting a slightly thoughtless 'status update' on my Facebook website. I said "Dave is really disappointed by the IVDA results from yesterday". Now most people knew that IVDA is the student-dance championships and that I was referring to my old team, Oxford, having come second to Cambridge. Unfortunately a small minority thought that IVDA was some medical term and worriedly sent messages or had to Google the term before finding out what I meant! Quite amusing with hindsight, but it shows I have to be careful.

I've been very pleased that my eyes are now very white indeed. In fact its hard to spot the yellow now unless you look right in the corner of my eyes. This is as good as, or better, than any time since I was first diagnosed with liver problems back in 2005. Carole and I have a little bet on what my blood test levels are going to be this week but we're both optimistic!

I am a little disappointed that I haven't been able to reduce my pain medication yet. I guess I suspected that I'd be down fairly significantly by this point. Still, the wound looks like its healing very well for the most part, so I'm happy to take whatever is necessary. The only thing is that the strong painkiller does have some side-effects and I think it makes me a tiny bit unsteady and shaky at times, as well as not being very healthy for my digestive system. I'll keep experimenting with lower levels occasionally so that I can bring it down bit by bit.

I've been in touch with my school this week to try and organise remote-working. I'm going to start doing a few little projects for them from home just to start getting my feet gently back under the table and feel a little useful. I'm rather looking forward to it!

Otherwise the only other things on the schedule this week are that I'm in clinic on Thursday for my clinical trial randomisation and usual checkup, and i'm hoping to somehow get to Oxford on Sunday to watch lots of the ex-members of the oxford dancesport team come out of dancing retirement and come back to take on the current members for a fun-match. Can't wait!