I’m home from an incredible holiday in Scotland! Two weeks of island hopping, paddle boarding, wildlife watching, and lots of hiking. We did a road trip around the Isle of Arran, then onto the Isle of Gigha, then onto the Kintyre Peninsula, then across to the Isle of Bute, then finishing the holiday down in Galloway Forest Park. A total of seven ferries and three very beautiful Scottish Islands. Honestly, we’ve both completely fallen in love with the Scottish Islands!
The weather, well it did start nice, but by the second week, it did go a bit wild on us, which left us with a few sleepless nights. But a trip to Scotland without some wild weather just wouldn’t be right, right?! Oh, and our fridge and toilet broke on us, so it was all one big adventure! Especially when you have a bladder like mine, and always have to get up throughout the night in need of a wee! There was me walking to the toilet block in my Snoopy pjs, at 2am, in 40mph winds, and heavy rain. Not the most happiest of memories, but certainly a memorable one!
Oh, and there was the instant of us deciding we wanted to leave the Isle of Bute, as the weather for the foreseeable future was strong wind and heavy rain. But catching a boat off the island in strong winds was probably not the brightest of ideas! Especially, when Calmac was on the verge of cancelling the ferry due to the winds. But we made it off in one piece! Just felt a little drunk from the swell in the water!
Here’s a little photo dump from our two weeks:
My Eyes
You may remember me mentioning in my previous blog about my severely dry eyes, and how I had to pay an emergency trip to the opticians when my vision became blurry and painful. After the optician saw how dry and inflamed my eyes were, they referred me to the eye hospital as an urgent case to be seen.
The following week, the eye hospital rang me to come in, the day before I went away to Scotland. It was one long morning at the hospital, putting yellow dye in my eyes, getting bright lights shining into my pupils, things stuck into my eyelid so they could see the inflammation. She also checked for infection and eye ulcers and dry issues increase your risk. The test were not pleasant, but honestly, they were brilliant with me!
The doctor explained to me how the surface area of my eye is bone dry and there’s a lot of inflammation. She explained how this cannot be ignored and must be treated acutely. Ignoring dry eyes could lead to me losing part or all of my vision. which is a scary thought!
She explained how it’s my Sjogren’s attacking my gland that produces the lubricant of my eyes, hence why my eyes are bone dry. So to treat it, she has put me on Ciclosporin eye drops, which is an immunosuppressant. I didn’t even know immunosuppressant eye drops were a thing! It’s horrible stuff though! It hurts when you first put it in for about 10 minutes. My eyes go bright red and look so sore! And not only that, you know it’s not a good medication when you are told to put pressure on the tubes at the side of your eyes, near your nose for 2 minutes, just to try and prevent it from getting into the rest of your body!
Along with my Ciclosporin, she changed my dry eye drops to Visco Tears during the daytime, and Hycosan Ointment at night. She also prescribed me a two-week course of steroid eye drops, just to get the inflammation down, and help my eyes settle on the Ciclosporin.
4 Different Eye Specialist
Honestly, it’s quite a worrying time for me at the minute with my eyes. I seem to have multiple issues going on with them: dry eyes, inflammation, muscle weakness, blurry vision, double vision, headaches, and still not knowing if my Hydroxychloroquine is harming my eyes. Because of all my different issues, I have had to be referred to four different eye specialists, including the eye nurse, who I will have to start seeing regularly to get my vision monitored. Honestly, I didn’t even know there were different eye consultants. I just thought there was an eye consultant, who see’s everything to an eye! She explained to me how I’m going to become a bit of a regular patient at the eye hospital!
It’s frustrating about my Hydroxychloroquine! I’m still on the lower dose and still have no answers. The eye doctor made it very clear to me, that my dose is going to stay lower for some time. How they need to run a lot more tests on my eyes and ideally want to treat and get to the bottom of all my other issues first. I understand where she is coming from, but I’m struggling without that higher dose! My illness isn’t under control and my face at the minute is a mess with rashes! And just maybe it could be the answer to why my eyes are worse at the minute too?! Hydroxychloroquine is one of the most successful medications for controlling Lupus and Sjogrens. It’s one of the first medications you get put on when diagnosed with Lupus and Sjogrens.
I know looking at my Scotland content, you probably find it hard to believe I am struggling with my health. But it just shows you, that photos and videos don’t paint the whole picture! I climbed one mountain the whole trip, which left me feeling slightly unwell for days after. Normally, I would climb a lot more, especially being in Scotland! The walks I did do were easy walks, yet I found them hard! We then actually came back from our Scotland trip two days early, as my body in the end told me enough was enough! So I’ve actually spent this weekend listening to the wolf and resting at home.
But despite the challenges the wolf gave me on holiday, I did not let him ruin our trip! I see the greatness in the things we did, and ignore the pain he caused in between.
Busy Week Of Medical Appointments
That’s it from me this week! Next week I have three medical appointments to look forward to! My Dermatology appointment, which I have a lovely face full of rashes to show them, my routine bloods, and my yearly asthma checkup.
Until next week,
Goodbye for now.
Emma
xox
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Want to catch up on my previous blogs, head to: My Weekly Lupus Diary
