Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Not so comfortable

I was clearly a little complacent when I reviewed the events of the last year over the weekend. I woke up yesterday with a stiffness around the neck. That's not a new problem - it's been coming and going all year and some people might say "stiff-necked" describes me well! I've been developing upper body exercises to keep me supply around the shoulders. Why it came on this year is a mystery - is it allergic inflammation or a problem caused by something missing from the diet?

My feeling is that taking Singulair has helped to resolve the problem sometimes, suggesting it's an allergic inflammation. I did so yesterday but unfortunately I moved my head sometime during the afternoon and pulled a muscle. It meant all yesterday evening I could barely walk, talk or even move without screaming in pain. I took two paracetamols - that's acetaminophens to Americans - which seemed to help. Today my neck is very stiff and wedged to one side.

I have a second theory today because I'm also quite cold and shivery. We've had a cold spell and a fall of snow but the house is not that cold. Maybe it's a bout of flu. As with the common cold, it may be hard to tell what's happening. For the past couple of months I've mixed with people with colds and not caught them - that's unusual for me and I guess is the result of an over-active immune system. I wonder how Singulair affects this - is it damping the immune system? Unfortunately I seem to have lost the patient information leaflet. Maybe I can find a down-load.

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