Finally Feeling Fine

Good Day Everyone,  

Well it certainly had been a while, hasn’t it? I hope you’ve all been keeping well. As some of you may know, I have been quite ill ever since we returned from Japan in April. What I thought was an episode of my usual post-travel arthritic fatigue and exhaustion turned out to be dangerously low levels of haemoglobin. Haemoglobin is the protein in red bloods cells that transports oxygen around the body and therefore vital for the body to function normally. After several weeks of exhaustion followed by the onset of pretty severe hair loss it transpired that I had a haemoglobin level of 5.8 (normal for women is about 11.5-16). To put this figure into context, doctors typically initiate a blood transfusion when levels drop to 8-7 so 5.8 was seriously low. According to the doctor at levels of 5.8 I was in real danger of collapsing or having a heart attack which is why I ended up in hospital at the end of May. 

After a brief stay in hospital where I had a blood and an IV iron infusion I was starting to feel better. Then tests in June revealed that I had a benign (non-cancerous) growth which partly contributed to my anaemia. As the growth was quite large (about the size of an apple) I ended up having surgery recently to have it removed which meant another stay in hospital. 

I’m now recovering at home and I have to say, despite being bandaged up and not very mobile, this is the best I have felt in months. It feels so good to be back at home and be able to do simple everyday tasks because prior to the blood transfusion I had become sooo weak that I couldn’t even feed myself...scary! I’m now taking iron supplements and my haemoglobin is up to 11.8 which is finally in the normal range. My hair loss also seems to have eased somewhat and I can see lots of little hairs, about an inch long, sprouting all over my scalp. I’m hoping over time, as I get healthier, my hair will grow and thicken as it has thinned considerately and having scalp psoriasis for most of my adult life hasn't helped :o( 

So now that I have more energy, I am finally getting round to sorting through our Japan photos and I’ll be sharing our Japan experience via a series of blog posts called Japan Journals over the course of the next few weeks. I also have lots of exciting posts about Singapore and Malaysia from when my friend came to stay in May and no doubt there will be some makeup and beauty related posts coming your way too so stay tuned ;o)

Finally, I couldn’t end this blog post without saying a massive thank you to all the staff at the hospitals that did such a great job of treating me, people that donate blood and save lives, my amazing hubby for taking such good care of me over the past few months, our friends both in Singapore and back home in England that have been sooo supportive and caring, and everyone that has prayed for me, sent me positive thoughts and virtual hugs :o) You all helped immensely in keeping my spirits up. I am looking forward to the future now and getting some kind of normality back in my life as well as regular blog posts coming your way :o)

Love Sheen xxx