Updated: 26/08/2004; 19:49:34

 07 August 2004

Spy Kids

On our walk today we were playing Spy's.  The kids used my Pocket PC to get instructions from Spy Central, and the camera to spot losts kids, (who glowed green), and other enermy spys, (who glowed red).  There were several model planes flying on the beach and they 'radioed' the owners to get them to take out the spies and rescure the kids.  They spent the rest of the day playing spys up in the twins bedroom, we are just off to go scooting on the promenade on their 'hover scooters'.

- Posted by Steve Richards - 6:47:20 PM - comment []

Beach Walk

Tessa, Anna, Jenny and me went on a long walk today.  The weather was glorious so we trekked to Fairhaven Lake, the kids had an Ice Cream, (I am on a dairy free diet), and then we walked back along the beach.  I bought a very cheap low resolution camera last week and the kids clicked away with it as we walked.  Most of the pictures were rubbish, bit I liked a couple of them.  One was one of my favourite cafes, right on the beach:

The other was the library at the end of the road.

- Posted by Steve Richards - 4:46:28 PM - comment []

Nic asked for some more details on my early history of Stills

There is a great message board available for people who suffer from Still's.  Nic responded to one of my articles asking for more info on my early history.  Here is my answer:

It just started out of the blue.  I was in London at a conference, I started with a sore throat in the morning, by lunch time my legs were hurting, I managed to walk to the train in the evening, but could not get off the train by 10:00.  The doctors had no idea, and just gave me anti-histamines for a week, but they had no effect, after a couple of weeks I was mobile again, although it took 6 weeks for symptoms to really damp down.  After which I was essentially symptom free for 18 months.  I had a few aches and pains but I did not really relate these to the Stills flare. 

When I had my second flare it too was triggered by a sore throat, again it was not diagnosed, but this time died down after about 2-3 weeks without medication.

My third flare was about 12 months after and was also triggered by a sore throat.  I managed to get into hospital this time, it was much worse, and they said I had strep throat.  It took about 3-4 weeks to get a diagnosis, of Stills and then they put me on the steroids.  Within 2 days I was out of hospital although it was a few weeks before I was well again.

Last year and early this year I had 2 flares that were not triggered by a sore throat, interestingly they did not have the high temperatures either, just the pain and fatigue and loss of concentration.

However the last of these flares has taken a very long time to clear, its been over 6 months now and I am still on 20MG of steroids, and still in a bit of pain.  Also every time I get the slightest bit of a sore throat, or cold or cough I have a mini-flare again.

There is more detail in by blog.  I have a category specifically on Stills.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0135175/categories/aosd/

- Posted by Steve Richards - 4:25:41 PM - comment []