30 June, 2011

The Good and the Bad

Bad first? Well, I haven't started my novel this week thanks to a dose of pertonsillar cellulitis (a bit of a sore throat to you and me). I thought I was just making a bit of a fuss, but went to the GP in the end and ended up needing intravenous doses of antibiotics and things like that. So I am looking forward to a week of destroying my stomach lining with copious amounts of aspirin, on top of two different strong doses of antibiotics. The thing I'm finding most distracting today however, is that my throat is too swollen to allow my soft palate to lift when I swallow. This means that when I drink, a large quantity of the fluid goes up my nose which gives that fizzy"just jumped into a swimming pool without holding my nose" feeling. This is almost certainly made worse by the fact that I'm one of those 1-2% of people with a bifid uvula hanging at the back of my throat, instead of a nice normal one (see picture*).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatine_uvula#Bifid_uvula
Anyway, more importantly - the Good. I can't give any details for another three months, until the organisers announce the results officially, but I have been informed that I have won another short story competition. Apparently there were over 150 entries in this one, so I'm very pleased with that. I also received my first assignment back from my tutor. It was very straight-forward so I wasn't expecting any trouble, but it was still nice to recieve positive feedback. Now I just need to find time to crack on with Assignment Two in between taking tablets and trying to get my fuzzy head in gear to write my novel!


*This is not a photo of my throat. If it was then you would see the left side of my throat being bright red and swollen so it nearly touched the uvula!

5 comments:

  1. ooo man this picture disturbs me for some reason.

    CONGRATS though! and hope you get better soon!

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  2. It's a bit freaky isn't it? Nobody even mentioned I had a forked uvula until I was about 14! Apparently it means I was probably a near-miss for having a cleft palate, so thank God for that!

    Beginning to get the shakes as a side effect from the antibiotics. I swear antibiotics take away one problem and give you several in return!

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  3. My mother (who was once one of the finest nurses the nhs had to offer) used to take every opportunity throughout my childhood to drill into my head that I should go to the doctor if I am ill. Her theory is that it's better to go a hundred times and find nothing than to dismiss the one thing that turns out to be nasty. Regrettably my auntie passed away recently because she did the latter - I'm glad you went to the doctor, and hope you will feel better soon. Antibiotics seem to be getting much better these days.

    But what better medicine than the news of winning a writing competition! What a wonderful piece of news - I'm so pleased for you.

    HC x

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  4. Thanks HC. I was taking the official NHS advice and advice of the pharmacist by not going for a few days but in the end it was obvious that I needed to see a doctor as I couldn't swallow! I absolutely love antibiotics - I feel like a different person this morning (nausea and muscle tremor aside). I can't believe how after 4 days of pain, an hour on a drip can turn things around so quickly. God bless doctors! (And yes, good writing news is good medicine indeed!)

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  5. Congratulations again on the writing front!
    You put in the effort so you deserve the rewards and there aren't many around that can have that said about them.

    Sorry to hear about the throat issue. It can be a real downer when everything else is going so well.

    I had my gallbladder removed last December which was a bit of an issue but I got over the discomfort afterwards by remembering the pain I had been in for a few years. I couldn't have 'keyhole' unfortunately because the damn stones were clumped together.

    On the upside ... I was able to sit at my keyboard within two days. Yay!

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