Wednesday 3rd August 2011
Had an appointment to see Dr Blake that evening. Normally
when you see a GP you’re allowed seven, maybe eight minutes consultation time.
I was in there for half an hour….
“How’re doing”, asked Dr Blake.
“Not good”, I sighed.
We started first on my painkillers and their side effects.
“Try reducing the Gabapenin to 500mg”, she suggested, “if
that’s still no good, go to 400mg but no lower than that”.
We then moved onto me feeling low.
“Have you thought about counselling”, she asked.
“I doubt that will make any difference”, I replied, “I
already know what’s causing me to feel low and talking about it won’t help”.
“It’s sad about what happened to your hip”, she said, “I’ve
known you for a long time and you’ve never let anything get in your way. You
had such determination”.
I nodded and sighed, “that’s why I’m finding things hard
now”.
I then explained about my struggle to keep my weight down.
“Could it be possible for me to see a dietition”, I asked,
“because I’m not moving around I’m not burning off the calories. I’d like to
see how I can go about reducing my calorie intake”.
Dr Blake shook her head, “you seem to be regulating your
diet ok so a dietion isn’t going to help. What would you say to me referring
you to see a neuro physio. They will be able to advise what exercise would be
best for you to do”.
I was still doing the exercises that Caren from Silver Cloud
had given me so a couple more wouldn’t hurt.
“I’ll also refer you onto the exercise programme”, she
continued, “a personal trainer from one of the local gyms will put together a
training programme for you. It could be in the gym, in the pool. How does that
sound?”.
“Sounds good”, I replied.
“Come back and see me in two months”, said Dr Blake, when we
had finished our long chat, “hopefully the paperwork for the physio and the
exercise programme will have gone through by then and that the reduction of the
Gabapentin will be doing some good”.
I hope so…..
