French Living: Back on Skis

The 19th December 2014 is a day I will remember for a long time, long after the aches have faded that's for sure! One year and three days previously I had been to the doctor on the start of a journey through Lyme disease and on to full-on rheumatoid arthritis. Through pain relief treatment building from paracetamol to opiates, a fortnight of antibiotics for the Lyme infection, buckets of steroids at various doses for months and then finally starting a potentially life-long course of methotrexate, I have tried to focus on the thought of skiing again.

Powder Eights in 2012-13  Will I do this ever again?

French Living: The Medical System

A year ago today I decided that I could no longer explain the pain and swelling in first one knee and then the other as mere old age, wear and tear or the perennial problem with dislocating knee caps.  Especially as it had then spread to my ankles and shoulders!  So it was off to the doctor.  Well, off to find a doctor.

When we moved to France in our early forties I'd always thought that a first foray into the health system would probably be the result of an accident of some sort: falling while skiing or biking or, worse case scenario a crash on the motorcycle.  Failing that, it would be five years in and a smear test for me.  Ghastly in any language.

So, this post is about the system, how it worked for us, and not the reasons for the visits.  

French Living: Lyme Disease. Fifteen Days Since Diagnosis

Tomorrow is the last day of the course of antibiotic injections against the Lyme bacteria, and apart from the area just below my waistband becoming increasingly bruised and painful it has been a fairly easy process.  There was the one comedy evening when a power cut rendered the electric gates into the Cabinet Infirmier resolutely closed against us and the nurse.  Good job we had light in the back of the car, I take the drugs with me, the nurse had her needles with her and there weren't too many passers by!

French Living: Lyme Disease

So although being told you have Lyme disease at seven in the evening on Christmas Eve is perhaps not the best news, I was expecting a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, so it was actually quite a relief.  RA was the conclusion of the doctor after an initial examination, and had been mine too, after lots of internet time.  The blood tests were carried out to confirm the diagnosis, and the test for Lyme was only done as an after-thought as I had had no other symptoms of the disease.  Indeed, as we pay something for each test, the doc was quite happy for us to omit that one if the cost was too high.