Wonderful doctor.

Had a dreadful night last night, lay awake for hours and would have woken Richie up sooner but really felt I could still drift off ok on my own.

When the birds started to sing realised that sleep would need the help of some THC, called Richie’s name and he heroically got up and fetched some.

Did the trick as after not too long I finally went to sleep, feel abit seedy today but not surprised.

Must try for an earlier night tonight and think we should manage that and switch the light off at 1 am.

Still sounds too late and it is, we really need to go to sleep at midnight.

Think that part of not being able to sleep last night was that I had been quite stressed since Monday, when I knew our GP would be coming by at 1 pm to replace my catheter.

It is a procedure that I do not like, but as always Dagma, our general practitioner did it with her usual delicate touch.

We were talking all the while she removed the old catheter and inserted the new catheter, I told her about the horrible time BobRobert has been having with his catheter changes.

BR @ The Wheel of Fortuna

http://spinfortunaswheel.blogspot.com/

Told her that 3 times 30 cc of sterile water was injected into the catheter and this caused all sorts of problems as you should not inject more than the recommended 10 cc

He was having dreadful bladder spasms, the catheter was leaking, and the increased pressure was causing bleeding and increased the bladder infections.

A nightmare which gave BR a lot of unnecessary pain and discomfort every minute of the day and night.

Our doctor was horrified hearing this story and emphasised how important it was to get precisely 10 cc into the catheter.

It is amazing to think that this mistake happened three times, as soon as the first catheter changes resulted in so much pain and discomfort this should have been investigated.

Surely the first time the catheter was changed and it resulted in so much pain, I would have thought this would be the moment to review the steps taken in the process.

Which should have revealed the elephant in the room was the 20 cc of extra sterilised water in the catheter.

This was discovered when they were at an Urologist appointment, finally after wanting to run a whole battery of tests the doctor actually listened to them.

And on examining the catheter discovered that is held 30 c and not 10cc, she removed the sterile water and injected the standard recommended 10 cc.

This had an immediate effect and over the days after BR’s situation has improved tremendously.

He has now changed to another Urologist who was immediately friendly and helpful and treats them well, sounds like a good doctor to see.

Makes all the difference to be seeing a doctor who treats you well, have been fortunate to have good doctors here in Amsterdam.

My first doctor took me as a patient before I had health insurance; he was an old fashioned socialist and did not like having to check whether someone was insured before helping them.

He rejected that thinking and instead went out of his way to help people who did not have health insurance.

Dr de Jong was a great doctor, the last time I saw him was at the Commemoration of the February Strike of 1941 against the Nazis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_strike

http://www.verzetsmuseum.org/tweede-wereldoorlog/en/kingdomofthenetherlands/thenetherlands,may_1940_-_february_1941/the_february_strike

http://goamsterdam.about.com/b/2009/02/24/honor-the-february-strike-in-amsterdam.htm

Dr de Jong went every year, as did the doctor who replaced him when he retired, a sad day but that is life,

My next doctor was Dr. Wempe a great doctor, a very fierce looking woman who I discovered was also very sweet and understanding and supportive to me.

Sadly we had to find another doctor when we moved, which I found very difficult, if I had been able to I would have stayed with Dr Wempe but we were out of her district.

We had another set of good doctors Drs Bos en Tibosch both outstanding but when we moved into this adapted apartment we found we were just out of their catchment area.

So we changed again and got Dr Vennema, he looked like a doctor from a TV series, he was good but on the verge of retirement so we got Dr. Dagma van Wijngaarden who is absolutely wonderful.

She is the best, she is very engaged, very easy to talk to, she treats people well and she is very supportive and always willing to come and see me when I need her.

Not bad such a doctor and she never looks like a doctor either like yesterday she came to change the catheter in a glorious outfit that was a delight to see.

It is nice having a bright and vivacious woman come round and talk to me about where she went on holiday while swiftly and deftly changing the catheter.

Was a relief that it all went well yesterday and I am not too surprised that the downside was I was too awake from all the undercharged tension anticipating the doctors visit.

Today I am going to take it very,very easy hope you do too