A week ago I had a CT examination, primarily of my adrenal glands because of the hyperaldosteronism. The scan showed a small (1 cm) adenoma that might well be the cause of my problems. I have an appointment with the nephrologist on Thursday and he will decide what the treatment is to be.
I was so focused on this that at first I didn't notice something else in the scan results: a large amount of pleural fluid in the right lung. This also appeared in the chest x-ray from Tuesday although in a lesser amount. In other words, there definitely was something wrong with my health in the past week, and the pain in the back was probably due to the accumulation of the pleural fluid.
My regular health is now near enough back to normal: I didn't feel well enough to go swimming on Friday morning, but I did swim yesterday. The first length was delightful: the water temperature was a bit below comfortable so this adds an extra frisson. But after about ten lengths, my timing was getting progressively worse and I stopped after sixteen lengths. At home I napped for about an hour as well as eating a few sandwiches. Hopefully next week will be better.
A few nights ago I recorded a tv show about how to improve one's immune system. What tips did this programme give: don't drink alcohol (check); sleep well (check); eat properly (check), exercise (check) - in other words, I'm already doing what the programme advises. One fact that I didn't know is that a high (3+) neutrophil to leukocyte ratio is bad for one's immune system; there's a medical term that I have momentarily forgotten that became important for Covid-19 patients [toxic shock syndrome or Cytokine storm] - the immune system reacted so strongly to the infection that it overwhelmed the body (something like anaphylactic shock). Five out of the six people examined in the show had an NLR well over three at the beginning of the programme; most managed to reduce it a little during the six weeks that they were monitored.
I looked at all the blood test results that I have from the past 8 years and discovered that there are values both for neutrophils and leukocytes, so it was a simple manner to extract the values and calculate the ratios. My normal ratio is 2.0, which is very good. Strangely, the one time when it was significantly higher (3.1) was exactly one year ago, just as we were coming out of the first Covid-19 lock-down. Apparently the psychological effect of that lock-down was to create neutrophils as if my body thought that it was under attack. Further evidence that the mind has no small effect on the body.
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