MEDICAL MATTERS

[Marilyn]

I have to clean it and change the dressing, Stanley! It might be alright in your climate to leave things under wraps for days on end, but if you do that here your toe will fall off next time you do unwrap it!

Hope your friend improves. Sounds like she has had a bad time...

[Stanley]

Yes but don't pick it!
My friend has had a bad reaction to the surgery and is still very poorly but the consultant seems to be on the ball. She's on a morphine driver and drugs to combat her symptoms. Still being nursed by her mates.... Fingers and toes are crossed! Her husband is being very good and mailing us all daily and she knows we are rooting for her.....

[Tizer]

Today I've discovered that I have something more in common with Oetzi the Iceman of 5300 years ago. We've both been troubled by the stomach bug Helicobacter pylori which causes inflammation and ulcers. Oetzi

[Stanley]

I heard that report as well but take heart Tiz, it was an arrow that killed him! Avoid any activity connected with Toxophily......

[Marilyn]

Yes, well...we were on the wrong track with stomach ulcers for such a long time...

Did Oetzl have any evidence of ingrown toenail?

[Stanley]

He had straw in his boots......

[Tizer]

...and he had a fractured heel. Don't know about his toenails. He probably also suffered from parasites, e.g. bankers trying to sell him payment protection insurance, insurance salesmen wanting his personal details, people writing messages on his cave walls offering to improve his sex life.

[Stanley]

"Short brutish and nasty". That could apply to the life prospects of the poorest today....
My friend Sarah seems to have turned the corner, they have taken her off morphine and installed an intravenous feed into an artery in her neck which is pumping nutrients straight into her blood stream. They reckon that in addition to the shock of the operation, the morphine was inhibiting her ability to digest the ordinary liquid feeding. Not out of the woods yet but heading in the right direction....
I listened to a programme talking about the bad effects of working long hours on young people in the investment banks. Nobody worked longer hours than me at one stage and I think that what knocks the high flyers down is the combination of long hours and the high life. I seemed to survive without insomnia, depression and a breakdown in health, probably because I couldn't booze because of the job and was too tired and poor to have any high life!

[Stanley]

Sarah continues to improve. They are not going to move her from the new emergency hospital until they are certain she is stable.

[Stanley]

S has had a slight set back as her system re-boots after the operation. She took her first food by mouth yesterday, a milk shake type drink called Ensure. The consultant is keeping an eye on her but says it is a normal reaction after such a major operation. Fingers crossed!

[Stanley]

Better news of my friend this morning. She is still getting nutrients via a vein in her neck but managed some soup yesterday and had a good night's sleep followed by a shower. She has had a couple of short walks in the corridor pushing her drip on a trolley. The consultant says he isn't sending her to the general hospital, he's keeping her until she is ready to go home which could be this weekend if all goes well. Lovely news....!

[Stanley]

My friend continues to make good progress.....

[PanBiker]

Been to the docs with my dodgy shoulder this morning, the steroid injection did offer some relief but has not given full mobility back. I can't raise my right arm much higher than waist height so he's decided to send me for physio. He recommended going Lancashire way as if the physio fails you get a direct referral to the muscle and tendons department without having to come back via the surgery. He says it takes about six weeks to get an appointment.

[Stanley]

My old war wound in my shoulder is still with me. I took one Ibuprofen this morning and got instant relief!
My friend Sarah is expected home today after her major operation. It's a miracle.....
Later.... something struck me Ian which might be of interest to you. I was sat in the house feeling sorry for myself because the consultant at Burnley had told me that it was very likely I would never be able to raise my right arm above my head again when Fred Smith came in for his week's milk money. I told him what the doc had said and he advised me to get a piece of clothes line, run it over a ham hook in the beam and use it to pull my extended arm up above my head. The first time I did it I wet myself.... However, ten days later the consultant was astounded when he found I could raise my hand to the top of my head. He asked me how I'd done it and when I told him he said that if he told his patients to do that he'd most likely be struck off. I persevered and am happy to report that it cured the job....
Now I'm not advising you what to do, just telling an old war story about what happened to me.....
Another useful exercise which my dad did after a badly dislocated shoulder was to stand close to the wall and using your fingers make your hand into a spider and make it crawl up the wall as high as you can. That worked as well....

[PanBiker]

No doubt the physio will attempt to replicate some of the benefits you describe, we live in hope. For the record, I knocked the Ibuprofen on the head as taking 6 a day didn't even touch it.

[Tizer]

Ian, I hope your stomach survived the 6 ibuprofen a day. It would kill me!
I hope Stanley managed to get his hand back down off his head and isn't now stuck in that position.

[PanBiker]

Taken with food as per recommendation gave no problems but they didn't touch the pain. I don't do pills unless they do some good.

[Wendyf]

The physio at the Community Hospital in Nelson certainly helped Col with the pain in his back & leg.

[Stanley]

I can still put my arm straight up even though it's nattering me at the moment. Hope the physiotherapist has a piece of clothes line....
My friend is back home in her own bed but only allowed her freedom under strong instructions because she is a senior nurse and can be trusted.....

[Stanley]

Sarah is doing well but having to be restrained from feeding the cat. It involves bending over! I think she's on the road to recovery now.... Fingers crossed.

[Cathy]

Mentioning your friend feeding her cat while she is in recovery brought me echoes of when I was in the beginnings of recovery from an injury myself and I couldn't bend down - I used to put my cats feed and water bowls on top of a chest of drawers. Even tho my cat would look at me strangely, she soon adapted.

[Stanley]

That sounds like a good tip not found in Women's Weekly Cathy.... I'll pass it on!

[plaques]

Currently in the news is the Brazilian outbreak of the Zika Virus. They are now associating it with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Zika All this may sound a long way off but believe me it can happen to anyone in this country.

Ref: The rise in cases of Guillain-Barre has also alarmed health officials region-wide. The nerve disorder causes muscle weakness that generally begins in the legs and spreads to the arms and face, and can cause numbness, trouble walking and even limb paralysis. While most people recover in weeks or months, in severe cases the muscles used for breathing weaken so much that patients require life-support.
Anyone of any age can get Guillain-Barre, although it is very rare. It is thought to be triggered by an infection -- something as simple as food poisoning -- and happens when the immune system attacks the body's own nervous system.

Gastroenteritis can trigger this off and after a couple weeks of apparent recovery the symptoms of paralysis set in very quickly. Syndrome Because the condition is so rare any initial visits to your GP or hospital will probably miss it. Just keep this warning in mind if you go down with a stomach bug.

[Cathy]

My ex father-in-law had the syndrome back in the late 60's/earl 70's here in Australia. He just woke up one morning and was so weak he couldn't get dressed. He was whisked off to his doctor, and luckily his doctor recognized his condition immediately while he was still in the waiting room. He spent 6 months in hospital and then more time at home before he recovered .

[Stanley]

What a lovely start to the morning! Can cutting oil cause any of them?