Tag Archives: sick

Shingles – a painful experience

Posted on September 26, 2017 | 9 comments

Until I got shingles a few weeks ago, I didn’t know what shingles was. So let me first explain what it is.

Shingles is a painful rash which is most common in older adults and people who have weak immune systems because of stress, injury, certain medicines, or other reasons.

Shingles occur when the virus that causes chickenpox get activated again in your body. After you get better from chickenpox, the virus “sleeps” (is dormant) in your nerve roots. In some people, it stays dormant forever. In others, the virus “wakes up” when disease, stress, or aging weakens the immune system.

I had chickenpox as a child but never thought about it until now.

A few weeks ago, I started to have some pain on my left shoulder blade. The first few days, I thought it was due to me sleeping in a wrong position. But the pain didn’t go away after a few days, instead the pain was more intense and at times it was so severe that I was comparing it with labour pain.

When things didn’t get better in day 4, AS insisted I should go and see the physiotherapist and I am so thankful that he did. I was planning to wait a few more days before going to see a doctor otherwise.

So I went and saw my physiotherapist, the next day which was day 5. I explained to him what is happening and explained to him that I can’t remember doing anything in particular but I feel like I have very deep muscular pain for a few days now.

While he was giving me pressure point massage, he saw 4 small rashes on my back, like a pimple had just started.  He examined it closer and was sure it is Shingles. He asked me if I have been stressed later.

There was a lot happening at my work so it had definitely made me stressed with a few sleepless nights as well. But I didn’t think that it was so bad that my body would get Shingles.

Next day, I went to the GP and he confirmed that I have Shingles. He was glad that we caught it early so I can get the special medication (only in first 72 hours of a rash showing up) which was going to heal the rashes sooner. Also he told me to keep taking paracetamol if required, for the pain.

The medication did help the rashes to reduce and it slowly disappeared but the nerve pain didn’t go away so I had to go back to the GP. He prescribed me with codine and panadeine forte which was a relief but I was out of action from work for 10 days.

When I took those medication, I didn’t feel the pain but I felt like a zombie sometimes. I had headache as well as dizziness.  As we always do, I googled to check how long the pain was going to last and it was saying that for some people , the nerve pain lasts up to a year.

I was really scared to read that but thank god, my pain reduced in 2 weeks and I was able to function just on Panadol after that.

Anyway, I am all well and good now. I just wanted to share my experience with you all in case this helps anyone to diagnose the Shingles early. Please do not ignore any pains and aches, just go a GP straight away.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

P.S: Do not forget to nominate your favourite blog . NEPALIAUSTRALIAN’s Blog Award 2017

 

9 Comments

Posted in Health, Personal

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Winter is here

Posted on July 1, 2016 | 2 comments

For another year, winter is over in Games of Thrones (how great was this season especially episodes 9 and 10) but Australia is in the middle of winter and I am not the happiest person these days.

e2d4f-i_hate_winter_by_chinga

It is so cold every day and the rain and the wind make it worse. The sun rises late and sets early giving us less time in a day.

I am sure you all know my distaste for winter from the various posts in the past but I don’t like it even more now as I have a child. With the start of winter, Chhori caught a cold and she had fever for few days. We had to take her to the doctor when her fever didn’t go away for a few days.

Winterlightrink460

After Panadol and lots of caring, her fever went away but she was left with a running nose for almost 3 weeks. Then I caught a cold as well so we were both sick at one stage. When I was feeling I was going to be OK, my flu came back making it impossible to sleep at night. In that 3 weeks, AS and I had to take time off from work to look after her. She was not eating well and it was really hard to see her suffer.

snowboarding (17)

Not everywhere in Australia is it cold like this though. When we went to Gold Coast for holiday, I couldn’t believe that the weather was so good in May. We went to the beach every day and the water was warm and Chhori and my in laws had a great time playing with water and sand. We were even in an outdoor pool and it was fine.

gold coast (1) gold coast (3) gold coast (4) gold coast (5)

I know this winter won’t last long as the weather will change eventually but waking up to a cold morning every day, I can’t help but hate winter.

I am just praying that this winter will pass without Chhori getting sick again.

Do you have a love or hate relationship with winter. I know lots of people who love winter but I am definitely not one of them.

Take care  and have a great weekend !

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

2 Comments

Posted in Australia

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The worst feeling in the world

Posted on April 12, 2016 | 13 comments

Chhori has been sick for the last few days and I feel so helpless. As she can’t talk yet, she can’t tell us what’s wrong with her. Poor baby has been vomiting after nearly every meal.

It all started Saturday morning. We were having a good Saturday morning until we had breakfast. As soon as Chhori finished her breakfast, Weetabix and milk, she vomited it all out. It was not just a normal vomit but this was like a projectile where she vomited out everything she had just eaten.

chhori

We cleaned her up and checked her to see if she had a fever or anything else. She seemed OK and she was happily playing with her toys as normal. So we decided it may be something in the breakfast she that couldn’t digest though this is her normal breakfast. Sometime it is normal for babies to vomit.

In the afternoon, we did some house hold chores sand prepared lunch. We fed Chhori first as she didn’t have much to eat the whole morning. She was good and finished everything on her plate. I was happy as she seemed all ok and eating again. But within a minute, she vomited again taking out everything she had.

I was worried at that stage but we were not too sure what to do. Our normal GP is on holiday and we didn’t want to go to the hospital yet.

We cleaned her up again and checked if she had a fever. She seemed normal and wanting to eat what we had in our plate. We thought it is a good sign and she is willing to eat so we gave her some rice and veggies and she seemed ok.

She was ok the rest of the day and I was relieved when she didn’t vomit after her dinner. She was playing with my nephew and was her happy self.

chhori (2)

Sunday morning at 2 am, I breastfed her and she went back to her cot to sleep as normal. But within a minute, she vomited, and a big amount too. She vomited the milk she just drank and everything she had for dinner. It was bad to see her all covered in vomit half sleep.

We both woke up and cleaned her up, her cot and our bed. She was awake at this stage but didn’t want to go back to sleep so I was carrying her whole time. As soon as AS finished fixing up our bed I took her to our bed and, we were contemplating what to do at that time of night.

Emergency department in the hospital is not a very good idea as it will be a long wait. We had that experience last time when we took Chhori to the hospital so we decided it is best to call the the 24 hour GP. We have a special service where a GP will visit you at home after hours. We called them and they informed us that the next available GP won’t be at our place until 7 am in the morning. We decided that it should be ok.

In the meantime, Chhori was calm and went to sleep in a few minutes. At 6 am, our doorbell rang and it was the GP.

Chhori (2)

He checked Chhori properly and told us that it may be some king of gastro other than that she is fine. It was a relief to hear that as I was worried it might be something more serious. Sunday morning she was mostly fine expect she vomited a small amount after breakfast.

Our whole weekend was over just making sure Chhori as OK. I am glad she is doing well so far. But it was one of the worst feelings to see her sick and in pain and we were so helpless.

I am sure there will be more instances in the future when she will be unwell but at least when she is able to talk I hope we can help her more. But a baby who can’t speak and can’t tell you what is wrong makes parents feel helpless.

I hope all you had better weekend than I did.

Take care.,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

P.S: Do not forget to nominate your favourite blog. NEPALIAUSTRALIAN’s Blog Award 2015

13 Comments

Posted in Being Mum

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Rush to Emergency

Posted on June 22, 2015 | 29 comments

I had read somewhere that bad moments don’t make bad mammas but now I have my doubts.

As a new mum, I doubt myself lots of times; I am not sure whether I am the doing right things; whether I am taking care of my baby properly, whether my way of feeding is correct, whether I am changing her correctly and similarly there are many more doubts in my head when I am looking after my daughter. I worry that what I am doing will affect her later in her life.

Most of the time when Chhori smiles or holds onto me it makes me feel great and I forget about all the doubts. But then something happens that breaks that momentary illusion and make me again thing that I’m not as good a mum as I should be and that is one of the worst feelings to have.

Chhori (3)

A few weeks ago, I was home with my mum as usual. We were in our living room, mum was watching a movie and I was checking something on the laptop and Chhori was just lying on the ottoman. This was typical of my afternoons. The ottoman was next to me and from time to time I was talking to and playing with Chhori.

Then suddenly from the corner of my eyes I saw Chhori sliding off the ottoman and she fell on the carpeted floor even as I rushed to pick her up. It felt as if my heart leapt out of my body at that moment. The next second she started crying loudly like never before.

That was the first time Chhori rolled onto her side and we were not expecting it at all. I didn’t know what to do. I just tried to console her and checked her to make sure she was not hurt. I was almost crying myself and my mum was trying to help me calm Chhori down.

To make sure that she calmed down I fed her for a few minutes until she stopped crying. After that my mum took Chhori from me and felt her head, hands, legs to see if Chhori would cry when any specific part of the body was felt. Thankfully Chhori did not cry and we hoped that nothing was injured  In that mean time I called our local GP to take her there but as it was Friday and our normal GP was fully booked and suggested I take the baby to emergency instead.

I called AS and told him what happened. I assured him that there was no injury so he wouldn’t freak out.  But I still asked him to meet me at the hospital just in case.

My mother and I took Chhori to the emergency and waited for the doctor. By then Chhori was already her normal self, smiling and looking about with interest. I was kind of sure she was alright but still wanted to be 100% sure.

After a few minutes wait, it was our turn. The doctor did some normal check and told us that she was OK. He also told me that it is normal for kids to fall and they have many cases like that every day. He assured me that I am a good mum and accidents do happen sometimes so not to feel as if I let Chhori down.

He still wanted us to remain at the hospital for 4 hours for observation. He wanted to make sure that there was no brain injury from the fall. It was the longest 4 hours of my life as I was worried. I was praying that everything was OK with Chhori. She looked happy and was playing with her daddy and grandma.

Chhori (2)

Finally the 4 hours were over and Chhori was officially fine. She got the all clear from the doctor. We were all so relieved.

It was one of the scariest experiences I have had after having Chhori. I hope not to have to visit the emergency department ever with Chhori.

I am sure I am not the only mum who has been in such situations so please share your story and make me feel a bit better.

Hope you had a great weekend and take care, everyone.

 M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

29 Comments

Posted in Being Mum, Our daughter

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Conjunctivitis

Posted on August 29, 2014 | 8 comments

I recently had Conjunctivitis in both of my eyes and found out that until you have one, you don’t know how annoying it is.

Conjunctivitis is an inflammation of the conjunctiva, a thin, transparent layer covering the surface of the inner eyelid and the front of the eye. It is caused by bacteria or virus. Mine was viral. Symptoms include eye redness, a discharge and swollen lids. It is contagious.

I started getting itchy eye on Saturday afternoon but I didn’t think of it much and went on with my day but at the end of the day it was swollen and so red that I was in pain. I went to bed that night hoping it would get better but instead woke up with my left eye swollen and so full of mucus that I couldn’t open it. It was so painful. I went and used hot water to get rid of the mucus and finally was able to open my eye. It was still very red so AS insisted that I go and see an eye doctor.

I am glad I went because he diagnosed that it was viral conjunctives and he gave me antibacterial eye drops just in case it was bacterial. He also told me it would take at least seven days for it to be completely gone and I should rest at home so I don’t infect other people. He also advised me that if things got worse in the next few days I should go to a hospital straight away, which sacred me.

Anyway, I started using the eye drops but in the meantime manged to infect my right eye too on Sunday. Therefore, by that evening I have two swollen red eyes.

On Monday morning, I could not open my both eyes and all I wanted to do was cry. I woke AS up and he helped me to go to bathroom. It took me a while to get my eyes open properly. There was no way I would be going to work that day. AS went to work but when he got back home he took care of me and pampered me.

It took the next 48 hours using the eye drops every couple of hours in the day for my eyes to get better but they are still not 100% yet. I still have slightly pink eyes and they are a bit itchy too but no more mucus and I feel more comfortable in front of the computer and TV.

My lesson learned from my infection, good hand washing, especially before touching the face, is a key to preventing most cases of conjunctivitis. I could have not infected the both eyes if I had been more careful.

Anyway, it is a rainy Friday today and I am excited for the weekend 🙂

Take care and enjoy the weekend.

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

8 Comments

Posted in Health

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