Recovering Slowly At Home.

 
Dreaming with Open Eyes
The Vera, Silvia and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art from the Israel Museum.

It has been a very long and tiring week, being ill with a respiratory disease, made it very difficult for me to cough and clear my chest.

Tuesday was very worrying after I coughed for hours without shifting anything and it felt like my chest was being ripped to shreds.

Spat out a little bit of blood, which really worried us, Richie phoned the doctor who came right away.

The doctor had already visited us the day before and diagnosed us as having bronchitis and organised antibiotics from the chemists.

When she got here Tuesday afternoon, I had a temperature, the doctor thought that my bronchitis had become pneumonia and decided to send me to hospital,

But funnily enough by the time I got to the hospital and they took my temperature I no longer had fever.

I think that the prolonged coughing and being so congested caused the rise in the temperature, which peaked with the blood.

It looked more than it really was, a tiny bit of blood goes along way and it was very dramatic and scary.

Luckily it only happened the once, which was more than enough for me and for Richie, the OLVG hospital is a good, with excellent staff who checked me out thoroughly.

When they were satisfied that I was not in need of hospital care they let me go home, I felt like kissing the doctor who sent me home.

I am feeling extremely tired and weak now and look forward to this horrid infection getting better.

A Very Stressful Afternoon.

 
Reply To Red 1943.
Yves Tanguy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Tanguy

My appointment at the hospital today, went well or so we thought at the time, it was my first supra pubic catheter change.

There was a painful moment, which passed quickly, so I thought the catheter was ok, until Richie found the reason hours after my appointment at 10.30.

At 14.30 I felt bad, very warm and getting warmer, Richie discovered there was not a drop of urine in my catheter bag, yet I had drunk quite abit.

Starting with my pills, before we left for the hospital, which I took with a pint of cool tea, and then when we came home I drank a lovely fruit shake and shortly after had another big drink of tea.

Richie investigated, at first he could find no obvious reason; there was no kink in the tube which would stop the flow.

There was also no blockage of sediment in the top of the catheter bag which can be dislodged normally by Richie squeezing the top of the bag.

Then Richie tried to rinse the catheter with a small bag of saline solution, which for the first time ever did not work, that worried us both.

Me, especially as I thought at that point I would burst into flames that is how hot I got, not being able to pee since 09.30.

Richie decided to hoist me into the shower chair to investigate further; he hoisted me out of the wheelchair and took the wheelchair away while he got the shower chair.

As I hung in the hoist there was a small flow of urine and more once I was in our shower room, not surprising, it could not go via the catheter so the urine found its own way.

Richie again tried to rinse the catheter through and again no luck, then he suggested taking the catheter out and rinsing it through before cleaning it with a sterile swab and reinserting.

Richie did this and immediately flushed out a small blood clot, instant relief for us both, especially for me as once the catheter was inserted the bag started to fill right away.

.

Shame that the nurses had not been rinsed through my catheter, after putting the new catheter in, then maybe the blood clot would have been noticed right away.

It has been a very stressful afternoon after getting back from the OLVG hospital at lunch time today, now everything is ok and my blog post is written I am going to relax and enjoy the evening.

Looking Forward To Many Good Moments To Come.

Steel Foundry, Ijmuiden.

Jan Korthals (1916 - 1972)
Amsterdams Impressionist Artist.

It was a huge relief that my eyes were ok again yesterday, it really worried me tremendously.

The only way I could vaguely see my e-mails was to enlarge everything to 18 and then could just decipher my mails.

Had planned to go out yesterday afternoon, after my 10.00 appointment was finished and we had eaten and drank cups of tea, really had wanted to try out being steered by Richie.

We did not get any further than the front room as we were both extremely exhausted after the operation the day before and the visits to the University Animal Clinic.

  

I am recovering very well from the operation; the wound is very small and healing well.

Luckily I have had no pain and am extremely glad it is all over now, what a relief that it is done now,

Was impressed yesterday that the OLVG Hospital called to see how I was doing and to check that all was going well with my recovery.

Got the extra steering on back of the wheelchair and getting a new steering shortly for me to steer when I can using both of my hands.

It was a good appointment yesterday morning, I will get the new steering to try out for a short time and if it works for me will get that installed.

If it does not work well for me then I will get other systems to try out, so feel reassured that action will be taken when it is needed.

Spike is doing much better; he is cheerful and taking part again which has cheered up Marleen, who obviously missed their interactions.

Spike is moving around better, he has started trotting around a lot more indoors and even running in the park.

His wheelchair will be here tomorrow, we are both looking forward to Spike's wheelchair coming and seeing him run again with it.

I am taking it very easy today, slept right through to 11.30 this morning, obviously needed to catch up with my sleep.

Last night I fell asleep instantly as soon as Richie had turned the light off, think that today the last traces of the anaesthetic has worn off.

Looking forward to many good moments to come.

No Hesitations Or Worries.

Experience.

Robert Lohman.
Cubist Male Figure Oil on Canvas

Robert Lohman (American, 1919-2001) 

Well today Stadsmobiel worked well, the bus was here at 09.55 and the driver came up and helped me into the lift and into the van.

When we got to the OLVG hospital, in the centre of Amsterdam, on the Prinsengracht, Richie deactivated the motor and pushed the wheelchair backwards onto the lift ramp, once on it he reactivated it again.

This worked very well and I got off again with no problems which was good, no better than that, it was brilliant,

Reversing n the mobility bus onto the lift ramp is scary and had me very worried for weeks now, was such a relief that Richie could sort this out for me so easily.

Really gave me a much needed boost, the appointment went very well, nice doctor, she explained everything to me.

The op has been rescheduled for 22 November at 11.00 and it has been decided because of my pain and spasms, Dr.Hovius wants to give me a total anaesthetic.

This is apparently not such a heavy one as I will be brought round quite quickly and after two hours of recovery time I can go home again.

Feel pretty reassured by the appointment with the urologist, it was extremely useful, she told me that it was a routine operation which took 20 minutes.

What a relief to have finally had the appointment felt like a huge weight rolled off my shoulders today.

Woke up calm today, I have been worried about the appointment and the whole procedure and today it was going to happen so no need for me to worry anymore.

This worked well and I was very relaxed and ready to see the doctor, onwards and upwards without any hesitations or worries.  

Feeling Lucky Today.

William Blake.

It was brilliant seeing Gareth and Paul, strange to think that our friends are already back home in Wales, their visit to Amsterdam was over much too fast again

Today is another could, wet and windy November day, slept pretty good last night, think the lavender oil helped me drift off.

When Richie drew back the curtain this morning I wished again that we could change the colour of the glass.

Am convinced that pink windows would be so much more cheerful during the winter months, have tried to convince Richie to stick pink transparent plastic over the windows.

That way even a grey day would look pleasant.

He does not think it is a good idea which is a shame and there is no way that I can convince him otherwise.

Ton Peeks from the RCA (Rehabilitation Centre Amsterdam) came by today to check the healed pressure sore and again he was very pleased with how good the skin looks.

I have been waiting to hear back from the neurologist’s assistant Dr. M. Temmings from the OLVG Amsterdam, he had responded quickly to my request for information about LDN.

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

He suggested that I could either have an appointment at the polyclinic or I could have a telephone appointment.

I mailed back that I would prefer a telephone appointment and got an immediate out of office response telling me he would be out of the office until the 16 November, and then never heard anything more.

Have sent a couple more mails and finally got a reply from Dr Temmings today, telling me to ring the hospital for an appointment.

Wish he had told me this on 10 November, and then I would have called to make an appointment the very next day.

Shame about these constant miscommunications, last year Dr Temmings told me any time I wanted to discuss my condition I could mail him for a telephone appointment.

Oh well that is life, tomorrow I will call for a telephone appointment, perhaps I will get one with the Neurologist Dr Kalkers herself.

Why talk to the monkey when I can talk to the organ grinder.

Will post more as soon as I have spoken to either Dr Kalkers or the assistant Dr.Temmings.

And who knows perhaps this time I will manage to get some information from a neurologist.

It has not happened so far but I am feeling lucky today.