Alcohol tolerance

Yay. I'm becoming a cheap date. 1 x 330ml 5% lager + 1 x large 275(ish)ml glass of wine and I was feeling a bit pissed at the weekend. Now, you might say "lightweight", or perhaps "gayboy", I would say "bargain". Sur-weet. Just don't invite me on an all-dayer.

Methotrexate Diaries III - Folic frolics

And we're into the zone. Let me explain. Methotrexate doesn't start to take effect until at least 3 weeks into treatment.They actually say 3-12 weeks, but like anyone else desperate to experience some respite from the pain and discomfort of this shitty disease, I'm trying to keep optimistic and hope that I'll be one of the ones that sees an effect sooner. I guess that also means that the same window applies to side effects. Bah. My glass is half full, but some c**t has put a hole in the bottom.

This is the beginning of my 3rd week, so it's blood test time. Because I'm a Methotrexate newbie, I've got to come to the hospital for my bloods. That's a 50 minute drive, and I was wincing for the last few miles at the pain in my Achilles.

I thought I'd come early to minimise the impact on my day. It's bloody heaving ('scuse the pun), I've taken my ticket: number 63. In fairness, it's moved from 44 to 52 whilst I've typed this.

Oh, by the way - broadly, the point of folic acid is to reduce the likelihood of side-effects. I need to understand how so a little more, but that's the gist.

Beep beep. 63. That's me.

Methotrexate Diaries II

.....and we're into week 2.

More lovely little yellow pills down my neck. Why eight? Why not one big one? I imagine it's probably to allow finer dosage control and so they don't have to make different sized tablets, but still...

No side effects so far, apart from the crushing boredom of alcohol abstention. If, like me, you are an avid drinker, you may find the tools at http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/tips-and-tools/drink-diary/ useful. I spent some of my Saturday evening this weekend measuring out wine in a jug and doing unit calculations. Pathetic. It's enough to make a fellow cut it out altogether.

I also spent an unusually sober evening watching New Model Army. It was surprisingly tolerable; just not as enjoyable as when I've had a nice lovely leathering of booze.

It's supposed to be up to 3 months before I'm likely to notice a difference from this course of drugs. Last weeks my achilles was as painful as it's been in a while, so roll on 3 month's time. Jeez. It's not healthy to wish one's life away like this. Not healthy at all.

Methotrexate Diaries I

Methotrexate, Day 1

Well, it's actually Day 2 now. I started taking methotrexate yesterday, and thought about keeping a diary of the journey. Oh all right, it's not a journey, it's just a bunch of stuff that happened [H Simpson].

So, despite my conviction that I was seconds away from a fatal seizure all day, it never happened. Every twinge, every little ache, had me thinking "is this it?". And they say men can handle illness. Pshaw. I really need to wiki "fatal seizure" to make my feigning more convincing.

But, onwards for now. As I sais, it's Day 2, and it's a folic acid day. Now, on the one hand, I'm scared shitless of the side effects of methotrexate. So much so that I can't bring myself to read the rest of the leaflet and not sure that I ever will. More about that later. But on the other hand, I'm supposed to take folic acid on the days where I'm not taking methotrexate, and I know the consultant told me why and what for, but with the influx of information at the time, I for the life of me can't remember. So, I'm nicely parenthesised by my own ignorance. How refreshing.