like ichor in our veins

I've been having some problems since before the attack in May (someone tried to choke me, yay) and a few weeks after the event, I developed when felt like swelling on the right side of my neck, down my shoulder, arm, and even parts of my chest. It made breathing Not Great and I went and got checked at the walk-in for it. They didn't really find anything and couldn't order tests for neurological stuff etc bc that's not what they're for unfortunately. So, they advised I try and see my GP to get tests run.

Then the heatwave hit and I refused to risk me ending up in hospital if doctor decided sth wasn't right (our hospitals are the Worst in summer bc AC always breaks and the windows are big and never really let air in so it's just a big ol brick kiln with radiators on even in summer too). So I waited that out until this week and-

I finally saw the doctor yesterday (Wednesday).

Thanks to multiple issues with the NHS, both pre- and post-COVID, trying to get an appointment at my GP's office is like impossible since it's been "call on the day at 8:00" for years now (even to try and get a meds review done is next to impossible even though they call you and tell you to make an appointment for it!!!).

However, if you're lucky, you can get to see the doctor if you go in-person to the GP's office and they have an open slot for you on the day to slip into. I had the dentist on Tuesday and after I thought, "well the GP is just 20 steps away from the dentist so might as well give it a try" and, shockingly, the receptionist legit was like "oh we can pre-book you one" like- since when?

Me @ the universe: holy shit they can do that now???

Anyway, naturally I said the socially acceptable version of "yes fuckin please omfg yes fuckin please" and the receptionist managed to book my an appointment for next day (Wednesday) at the over-capacity clinic (sad thing that they have a clinic for over-capacity but, honestly, kinda very thankful for that fact rn) and I went yesterday and- honestly? The doctor I saw was absolutely brilliant.

Like, brilliant brilliant.

I come in, tell her what my issue is (tingling across my face, possibly swelling along right side of my neck and body, etc) and she checks if I've had bloods recently because that's usually a good place to start from (spoiler: I haven't in two years, oops) and then!

Y'all! Then, one of the first things she asks me is how I am when I'm on my period and if that affects me. Like... I have NEVER been asked that by a doctor before (legit, even when I've gone in with actual period-related complaints I've not really been asked how it affects me compared to when I'm not having my internals attacked with a chainsaw with ghost pepper sauce slathered on it). Like, never had a doctor actually question me about the fatigue I experience during period and other things like nerve pain etc. Never. And especially never had a doctor even bother to consider the potential complicating factor of period in relation to my other conditions.

But she! actually! asked! and I was able to actually tell her that: "yes, actually, absolutely I have heavy af periods and I feel a thousand times worse across the board during them especially my joint and nerve pain and fatigue" and she actually listened to me and believed me right off the bat (no, 'are you sure' or dismissive vibes at all).

She took that on board and then, considering;

the way my periods make everything Worse, my fibro,

the fact that I have bilateral instead of unilateral tingling on my face (typically) ruling out some neurological concerns

and also the lack of bloods for two years at this point for her look at.

She orders me blood tests because she wants to see what my levels are when I'm not on my period and (if I remember correctly) what they are when I am on my period (legit never had any doctor even think of checking that before like, holy shit). Because, she wants to rule out any potential deficiency-related reasons for me to experience the bilateral tingling on my face (which she expected for me to tell her was decreasing over time but was more 'concerned' when I told her it's not fading so much as sometimes it'll be slightly tingly on my face and other times it'll be like I'm wearing a mask that makes the entirety of my face from the nose-down tingle) before moving on to trying other things that may simply be signs of my fibromyalgia treatment needing to be changed (like increasing my nerve-pain medication dosage).

If there's nothing deficiency-related causing my symptoms then she wants to try my nerve-pain meds because one of fibromyalgia's symptoms is paresthesia (basically abnormal sensations similar to 'pins-and-needles', tingling, or mild numbness that the central nervous system causes because it goes hyper when processing nerve signals sometimes).

If it's not my fibromyalgia causing it (or changing my medication dosage doesn't help) then she's going to do further investigation which could mean scans and more blood-letting.

A fun little complicating factor which may, ultimately be the culprit for all of this is that I have a congenital heart defect. Well, my arteries do. One of them, at least.

Basically, I have a narrower brachiocephalic artery of the carotid that sends blood and oxygen to my brain (the brachiocephalic artery branches off into two directions: one for the brain and the subclavian which goes to the right arm) there's also possibly a compression issue there but, since I've had physical evaluations (at the walk-in especially) that don't suggest any sort of blood flow problem, that's less likely unless the nerves near the carotid are being compressed. Which, may eventually mean I get an actual MRI (not an MRA like I got in May to check if I had a tear in my artery aka a carotid artery dissection. Which, tbf to A&E for doing their job, props to them, that was a major concern after the CT scan I got and ended up keeping me at the A&E overnight and well into the next day. The doctor refused to let me leave bc there was serious risk that I could have a fuckin stroke or need a stent to prevent a stroke and they needed to get an MRA done to really make sure they knew what was going on with the artery in the right side of my neck and that led to "surprise, it's not a tear; your inner-artery is narrower than normal and means there's a bigger gap between the inner- and outer-artery which we couldn't tell on just a CT scan, you're fine!" 36 hours of being awake after most of a day awake and, like, 4 hours sleep prior... That was not a fun experience at all).

So yeah... Anyway, by some miracle, I was able to get an appointment for blood tests today (Thursday, woo) and I'm gonna have so much blood drawn from me (rip me, I guess) before, probably, ending up with a repeat blood letting when I'm next on my period. I probably should have mentioned to the GP when I'm next on but I didn't think of that at the time lol.