Strange Day.

 

Danny Sillada.

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

Strange day today, we are both very spaced out because of lack of sleep last night, poor Spike had a terrible night last night.

By the look of his urine this morning, which is very cloudy with a tiny bit of blood in it, he has a bladder infection.

As I get them so often we are very alert for the signs of one happening, poor little Spike for getting one so very quickly.

But no wonder he could not settle last night, it was like he was in great discomfort, shame as

he was doing so well.

The anti inflammatory drugs and the painkillers were working so well that he was standing and walking yesterday.

But this infection has knocked him right back down today, and no wonder they do the same for me too.

Organised immediate antibiotics from our own vet, Richie just gone to get them now so hopefully the effect is immediate and Spike will get some relief tonight.

Friday Richie has to take him for an MRI and next week he will have his operation, so two next week mine on Monday, Spike next week Friday.

Richie will have two post operations to look after, hopefully both will be helpful for Spike and I, hope it will restore Spike and take away my catheter worries.       

If Only Being Positive Could Help We Would All Be Cured.

John Wotipka.

http://www.slowart.com/articles/wotipka.htm


http://www.slowart.com/limner/htm/gall-art/wotipka/index.htm

It was excellent meeting Heather yesterday, she was here for three hours in the afternoon, and she is a delightful young woman, a credit to her parents and to her country.

She is very intelligent, calm and self assured, I think she would be an excellent person to have in a team; she struck me as being a practical and capable young woman.

It is a shame that I am so handicapped; otherwise it would have been a pleasure to have had her stay here.

Mind you being young and adventurous as she is I am sure she prefers the hostel and her independence.

I enjoyed Heather’s visit and felt good after she left, her coming by gave me such a boost.

Glad I did not chicken out and instead invited her to come by, glad that I did not miss out on meeting my friend Jeannette’s daughter.

It brought back many happy memories of Heather’s mother Jeannette and our lives in Reading in the 1970’s.

After Heather left I got Richie to put me back in bed, not longer after I was ensconced in bed I got anxious and quite sad.

Think that was probably because Heather’s visit brought back memories of Reading, and a time when I was healthy and fit.

Not like now where I am so aware of the progress of this stinking disease, think yesterday was also difficult because my hands were so painful and difficult to use.

Did not feel good at all, got the usual early evening hot feeling which I recognised as one of the signs of a bladder infection.

Decided to take antibiotics last thing, this is a better time for me as I always feel nauseous if I take antibiotics during the day which makes eating very unpleasant.

When Richie emptied my catheter bag he agreed with me taking antibiotics as my urine was very smelly another indicator of a bladder infection.

By the time the light went out I was not so anxious, but still enough to keep me from sleeping for hours.

Kept my eyes closed and was convinced that any moment I would drift off to sleep, but that did not happen.

Finally asked Richie for some THC vapour which instantly did the trick and the next thing I knew I was waking up having finally slept.

Pleased that despite my anxiety about the progress of my MS, the THC helped me to sleep.

It was difficult to get myself to stop worrying, kept telling myself to stop as there is nothing I can do to change my situation.

That in a nutshell is what makes this and other incurable progressive diseases so difficult to live with.

If only being positive could help we would all be cured.

Here Comes The Sun.

Sun Art.

Another cool day today, hope it gets warmer soon so I can enjoy a roll around in balmy weather.

Mentioned yesterday that I was thinking that now the Foley catheter keeps coming out I will need a different one.

To do so I have to undergo a surgical procedure, to have a supra-pubic catheter put in which can be done as an out patients operation under local anaesthetic.

This is not an easy decision for me as I think that the least surgical interventions the better in my opinion, plastic surgeons will for sure not be getting rich on my money.

Feel that I have to take action now, as the Foley catheter keeps popping out, this is no problem if it pops out in the bathroom, because it gets moved as clothes are pulled off.

It is a problem when it happens when I am in bed, it is really not nice to wake up lying in a pool of urine.

Seems to happen when I have a huge spasm, most times the spasm has been because I need to go to the toilet urgently.

A couple of times it happened as a result of a huge leg spasm which turned out to be caused by toe nail problems.

Once the nails were trimmed and the in growing nail was removed my legs were calm again

Seems from a couple of responses that the supra-pubic catheter does not solve the problem of leakages or bladder problems.

Even heard awhile ago that a couple of people had more bladder infections with the pubic catheter, plus more blood clots in their urine.

One said that her friend had the supra-pubic put in because the regular Foley catheter was causing too many UTI's..

She warned me that there could be more stones and gunge with the supra-pubic catheter and I would need to regularly see a urologist to make certain that there is nothing wrong with me.

Apparently the gunge if it remains in your bladder can cause spasms, which does not sound like a nice prospect.

Suppose that the answer will be a regular course of antibiotics as the way to sort this out.

It is worrying as I do not have that many bladder infections now and was hoping for even less with the supra-pubic catheter not more.

And additional medical appointments are not my favourite things, would rather sit in the sun than in a hospital waiting room.

And another said that the SP Catheter will not prevent all the problems, as she still occasionally woke up in a wet bed caused she thought by spasms.

Think that I am going to research some more before I get myself booked in for the operation.

Right now I intend to enjoy the moment and am going to post this and listen to the radio and enjoy the fact that I can glimpse a hint of blue sky and sun.

After a gloomy cool dark day with rain showers the sun is coming out which is really a beautiful sight.

Wonderful Sunny Day.

Indian Art.

It is a wonderful sunny day today, if a trifle cold certainly got colder last night, even then I did not need the duvet.

As it was too hot and sticky, for some reason it was enough having 3 thin fleece blankets on me.

Today I think that I had better take some antibiotics for a bladder infection as Richie says my urine looks cloudy, looks like I need to take them tonight.

Going to get this sorted asap as I do not want a flown blown bladder infection in my life, explains the swings in body temperature yesterday and today.

This afternoon I have felt cold all the time, Richie is quite the opposite and the weather has been bright and sunny all day, so think it is just me and my infection.

If I do not take the antibiotics quickly, the catheter gets blocked and can pop out and also when Richie takes my leggings off, which is a pain.

This situation is so delicate, I am constantly expecting something to happen, and something not pleasant, as soon as a nice little plateau has been reached something else happens to change things

Today I have been involved all day with emails from my internet provider Online who claims that I did not pay March or is it April and who sent me an overview of supposedly my payments which bore no resemblance to my payments at all.

Problem is they do not seem to be checking my payments, just seem to have their script that says I owe them one or two months and they are ignoring my proof that I have paid..

If it were really so that I have owed them from March, then surely they would have cut me off by now, bloody hell most of the afternoon has been spent ringing my bank and answering Online’s many mails.

As it stands it looks like I will have to pay them 29, 50 Euros that I do not owe them, hate this situation but there is no real communication with them, in order to reach a conclusion.

I keep getting the same answer, feel they have consisently blanked my side of the story all day and

Going to leave it now and finish this get pictures and post and try and relax and enjoy this evening.

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