The First Symptoms Appear

 A deserted Cardiff Bay in lock down

Around Monday April 20 2020

After living with lock down for five weeks the first symptoms began to appear. I was needing to wee more often but it did not feel like cystitis as there was no burning sensation. I wanted to wee a lot but not much came out and it seemed to to come from far back in my bladder (if that makes any sense at all? ) Maybe my bladder was not emptying properly? I was beginning to feel bloated around the stomach. A week later I was starting to have acheing pains around my womb that were similar to period pains but of course they couldn't be at my age!

I realised that I had lost half a stone in weight without thinking about it which I was quite pleased about. I put it down to being more active and exersising everyday, doing a yoga session everyday and eating lots of fruit and vegetables (I'm a pescatarian and eat fish very occasionally). I was 9 and a half stone. Now I am around 9 stone. As I was stranded at home I could shop for healthy food instead of doing the massive amount of driving I used to do (as a free lance musician) and snacking on unmentionables in the car.

Monday May 4 2020 

So after drinking lots of water and trying to flush this thing out I rang the doctor for a phone consultation and she gave me a course of antibiotics for 3 days to get rid of cystitis (even though I did not think it was that). After the course finished the bloated stomach feeling came back, feeling full even though I had hardly eaten anything, slight nausea. I started taking paracatemol to ease the back pain and the ovary pain.

Tuesday May 12 2020 

I rang the doctor and she gave me a 7 day course of antibiotics and see if that would clear it up. By Friday15th May the pain in the abdomen and around the ovaries had returned. There was a bloating feeling after eating any food with lots of loud gurgling from my stomach and now I felt nauseous all the time. My stomach felt as tight as a plastic football after eating anything. The doctor thought I had viral gastritis and the antibiotics had damaged the lining of my stomach and that was why I felt nauseous.

I waited a week after the end of the antibiotics to see if would clear up on its own (ever the optimist!) I looked up on the internet what foods to avoid that would aggravate the stomach lining. My bladder seemed to be working OK now. I was still taking paracetamol regularly to ease the pain. During this time I had days where I would lie down on my back with a hot water bottle on my abdomen or back to ease the pain reading countless novels or watching movies or tv series. Anything to distract me from what was going on in my body. Some days I could go for a walk and other days I just had to lie down. There were some times when I forgot to take the paracetamol and then I felt miserable and stupid because I was in pain and it would take a couple of hours for the paracetamol to take the edge off.