MEDICAL MATTERS

[LizG]

Pleased to hear it Wendy. Flu is awful. Tiz is right, once you've had it you never call a bad cold 'flu'.

[Marilyn]

I've had the "real" flu. Couldn't even get up to shower for days as I was too wobbly. Hubby got the doctor after a week...he ordered an ambulance and I was carted off to hospital for a further week on a drip. It was really embarrassing to be loaded into an ambulance in front of neighbours, looking like crap, having not even had the strength to comb my hair in days.
I had to think about getting up to go to the loo for about an hour beforehand because it seemed to require super human strength.
They would only give me a sheet in hospital, and I spent the week in a darkened room with a fan blowing over me. I thought I would freeze to death, but it was because of a high temp. I even had a Lumbar Puncture. Just awful.
Hope you feel better soon kid.

[Wendyf]

I've just had a good clean up and combed most of the tangles out of my hair. Back in bed now (after a practice walk up and down the room) wearing clean pyjamas and sporting 2 tidy plaits.
One of my main worries has been about getting the doctor out when the house is in such a state! We normally have a clean and tidy guest room that I imagine using for doctors visits (not that we have ever needed one) but it is piled up with stuff at the moment.

[Marilyn]

Doctors don't worry about mess, Wendy. ( trust me)
Nobody gets sick and reclines in bed in a spotless house!
I actually missed a step before. When the doctor arrived at my home and rang an ambulance, he actually kneeled down by the side of my bed, held my hand and said a prayer. I don't believe in God, but I didn't protest. I often wonder why...

I bet the horses know there is something wrong with "Mum"..Sparky and Dennis ( and the hens) will be wondering why "Dad" is suddenly doing the feeding and care. Don't worry...they will survive.

[Wendyf]

Ah, it shows how bad I've been that I just haven't worried about the ponies. Luckily the weather has been OK for them, but I can see from the bedroom window that they are covered in mud...that won't do them any harm though. I get a twice yearly inspection from the charity Sparky comes from, due any time now, and I did wake up worrying about that this morning!
Thank heavens Col didn't come down with it as well.....we would definitely have been up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

[PanBiker]

You are sounding a bit more feisty Wendy which is a good sign, you are starting to take notice of your surroundings. When you are properly poorly you don't give a monkeys. If you think you need the doctor get him or her out, bugger what the the place looks like they are attending the patient not viewing the property for purchase.

Watch that chest, Sally ended up with pleurisy a few years ago with being sedentary for a few days with a very heavy cold, not nice and you don't need that on the back of what you already have. Scrambled egg was our start up "food of the gods", it took half an hour to make it though, hang in there. The doc would enjoy a trip out into the country, its a lovely day.

[Tizer]

"Thank heavens Col didn't come down with it as well..."
Perhaps that's evidence that the vaccination worked for him. Was it his first flu jab or has he had previous ones?

[Wendyf]

No Tiz, Col has been having them for years because of his diabetes.
I think you have to be pretty poorly to get a home visit these days. When Col was going through the nightmare of constant infections after his bladder op he once had a high fever with uncontrollable shivering & sweating ...he wasn't even lucid, yet when i rang the surgery they asked me to get him down to Earby. Next stop was the hospital! We realised when it happened again that it was a reaction to one particular antibiotic, but it took a while to convince the doctors.

[Tizer]

That's good for Colin, he's built up strong resistance over the years of flu jabs. You're next for the resistance-building but at least you won't get this strain again!

[Stanley]

Glad you're improving Wendy. Give it time. Don't push your luck!

[Cathy]

Marilyn maybe you should explain that the Hubby who left you so sick in bed for days on end wasn't your dear Mr Feb.

[Marilyn]

Eeee...you are so right, Cazza. ( Twas hubby No 1...not Febby).
Febby has never really known me to be sick...though we have now been together over a quarter of a century!
( mind you...he has been thru the wringer with his own health)

[Stanley]

Janet was telling me the other day that the combination of rare cancers that she has is the first her three oncologists have treated so they have no proven treatment path and in effect they are playing it by ear. She has complete confidence in them and thinks they are wonderful. By the way, all the treatment and support she is getting is free.

[Wendyf]

Booked a doctors call back this morning, concerned about my continued raised temperature and crackle & pop breathing. The doc wants to see me down there later this morning but just brief conversation with a doctor seems to have done the trick.....my temperature is falling already!!

[Wendyf]

The doc thought my chest infection needed antibiotics, so I have a 5 day course to take.
I asked her if I needed to still try and reduce my temperature with paracetamol now that the associated aches & pains had gone and she told me not to bother if I was comfortable, that an elevated temperature is the body's way of killing the bugs....their optimum temperature being that of a normal body, so she was of the same opinion as Stanley.
I've done well today, and have only just retired to bed. Col got a bit cross with me, but I went outside to feed the hens and ponies this afternoon, it was such a lovely day and I needed to breathe cold, fresh air! Dennis wasn't pleased to see me, and amazingly he turned his back on me when I went out with their food bowls! He wouldn't even look at me...I've never, ever known that to happen before. Weird.

[Marilyn]

Well...I'll be, Wendy.
It was instilled in me that it was the opposite!
I am going to have to research that. Tizzy should know though...and maybe he will clarify if bugs and viruses raise our temperature because they prefer a higher body temperature to thrive, or, as Wendy's doctor and Stanley have said, the body's response is to raise the temperature to kill them off.
( it's what I was taught in training)

[PanBiker]

Glad you are on the mend Wendy but I'm with Col on this, don't overdo it too early. Dennis will forgive you all in good time, let Col be his best mate for a bit, take care.

[Marilyn]

Sue would know too...maybe they can both enlighten me.
We have guests staying and any moment now I shall be putting the pinnie on to cook eggs and bacon.
I've been diving on and off various sites trying to find what I am looking for...and it is true they are all saying what your doctor said Wendy.
Forgive me, but I get very annoyed when medical people tout the same message parrot fashion. I'm not saying it's the wrong answer by all means...
It will make interesting breakfast conversation anyway!

[Stanley]

The ruckling in your lungs when you breath is a good thing Wendy. It's the lungs making mucus to carry the waste matter in your lungs away. Drink plenty of water to keep it as liquid as possible and welcome coughing, it is good. The faster you get rid of the muck the better. Covonia original bronchial balsam is excellent as is inhaling Vicks vapour. Old fashioned but effective!
Maz, I think we both may be right. A slightly elevated temperature doesn't damage the body but forced cooling is needed for higher fevers because above a certain level I think our brains suffer.
One bit of good news this morning is that my friend's inoperable prostate cancer will probably lose its race with old age. He is to have further tests to confirm this.

[Tizer]

Dennis wasn't pleased to see me, and amazingly he turned his back on me when I went out with their food bowls! He wouldn't even look at me...I've never, ever known that to happen before. Weird.

He doesn't want to catch your flu, Wendy!

I saw the doctor last week about my hearing aid because I'm having trouble due to my hearing getting worse and also to the decline in sound quality on TV and radio. He agreed that I might need it upgrading and said he would put my name down for an appointment with an audiology department. Today I received a letter from NHS telling me how to make an appointment by phone at one of the relevant departments - none of those on the list accept online appointments. I've just phoned and my name has been put in the queue and I''ll receive a letter with an appointment at the nearest one. But I'm told that there is a waiting list of 36 days and that department has one of the shortest waiting times.

[plaques]

The last time I went to the audiologist asking for a review on my level of hearing the locum insisted that my hearing couldn't have deteriorated in 2 years and that all that was the matter was the air tube connecting the two parts was probably leaking. So after changing these and putting the hearing aids back in he said in a great big booming voice that people outside in the bus queue could have heard. "IS THAT BETTER". I gave up. Now I just say "pardon I'm a bit deaf", that usually works for the next five words.

[chinatyke]

...Today I received a letter from NHS telling me how to make an appointment by phone at one of the relevant departments - none of those on the list accept online appointments. I've just phoned and my name has been put in the queue and I''ll receive a letter with an appointment at the nearest one. But I'm told that there is a waiting list of 36 days and that department has one of the shortest waiting times.

What a way to run a service, but that's why it's called NHS - National Horror Story.

Did you know that Health services have 59 Quangos employing over 20,000 people and costing 3.488 Billion Pounds?
That is £3,488,000,000 controlling the health service.
Source: http://tpa.typepad.com/bettergovernment ... e-uns.html

[Stanley]

China, sitting there in China and sniping at our NHS isn't the best way to be nice to people who rely on it and are perfectly satisfied with their personal experience, like me. I'd be blind now if it wasn't for the prompt way their emergency procedures got me in and on the table. Yes, the media is full of horror stories but these are a minute part of the whole.
Tiz, I also am convinced that young people speak too fast and that the sound quality of TV and radio has deteriorated but is that my fault? Is my hearing getting worse? Funny thing is that when I'm listening to a machine running I am still good at diagnosis.....
How's it going Wendy......

[Wendyf]

Starting to feel a bit more like normal, still coughing and slightly overheated but wanting to be getting on with life! I look as if I have been preparing myself for Hallowe'en...all gaunt faced and hollow eyed.

[plaques]

China's link on quangoes failed. Try this Quangoes