Well, further to my post the other day, I went to see a GP. She wasn't my normal GP, but in a way it was better to see her as she was the one who pointed me down this path and got me to be diagnosed. Obviously there was a bit of a gap between when she saw me last and now, so she read my notes and the letters on my file.
Luckily I had written down everything I wanted to discuss with the doctor and I passed it to her at the beginning of the appointment. Straight away she said: "this is far beyond GP level to deal with, I'm really sorry. There's no way I can help you in 10 minutes, even if we had a whole surgery. However, I'll do what I can." She was fantastic, even though she hardly did anything, it went better than I hoped.
My antidepressants have been doubled, I've been given free access to swimming and I've also been signed off work for 2 months. I'll break the news to work tomorrow and get a short letter written to them too, which I'll post with the sickness forms. The doctor didn't even ask me if I felt able to work, she told me I wasn't fit to work at all and signed me off straight away before she looked over the list.
The bad news is, because my fatigue has gotten worse, she wants me to have a full-board blood test to make sure my thyroid is ok. I hate blood tests, needles, anything like that. I always feel worse coming out of having a blood test than I did before having one. So my plan is to get it done ASAP, get it over and done with so it doesn't bother me for days and days. I also have to go to the opticians about my eyes and talk to them about what's happening there. I'm going to wait for that though, as I want to pick up some new glasses when I go!
I feel this sick leave is progressing and helpful and a positive thing. Occupational Health said to me that sick leave was detrimental and I should stay working as long as possible, but what if working is causing me more problems? I don't think that was taken into consideration at all. Funny that a doctor sees it straight away and says "With depression and anxiety alone you shouldn't be working, the fact you can't physically cope with working makes the mental issues worse. You're not at all fit to work!"
I hope the swimming is good, I hope it's short 15/20 minute sessions and not an hour long, or I will struggle. However, the free sessions sound fantastic and I can't wait to jump straight in. I have no idea where it's held, but as far as I know it's not at the public pool. It's a shame Dad won't be able to come with me, because it was really good when we went swimming together.
Well, it looks like a lot more blogging will happen as I'm not at work for a couple of months! Hah, yeah right.
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