MEDICAL MATTERS

[Stanley]

I have been boasting of late about how well I am under the Wendy Diet. Pride comes before a fall! Yesterday I had to get a stool out to get my kitchen clock down to put it forward an hour and on reflection I extended my right leg a bit too much as I got down. It was 3PM before it struck home and from then until first thing this morning I had a miserable time. Couldn't sleep properly and had a hell of a job getting dressed this morning. Between 3AM and 5AM I gave my thigh two good rubs with Voltarol and just before 5AM I took two Paramols. I could tell the hydrocodeine was working so I fought my boots to get them on, got rugged up, grabbed my shepherd's crook and set off to see if we could get to the Green so Jack could have his morning delivery. I was painfully slow but Jack never pulled once, a perfect gent who obviously realised I was not as other men. A smart pup!
S, mission accomplished and I shall look after myself. I'll take two more Paramol around 9:30 and we will have another walk, how far will depend on how I feel. At the moment I think the walking has done me good. This came on quickly and in my experience this means it will leave me quickly. I hope so!

[Big Kev]

I trust you are taking it easy today...

[Stanley]

I have Kev and the good news is that it has worked. Just slept like a log for three hours after taking a Paramol and the pain is almost gone. It's still there but vastly reduced. I shall take a view later but might not take any more hydrocodiene , I think it may have done its job. Good riddance!
(I shall take it easy again tomorrow...... Just in case!)

[Big Kev]

A good idea

[Stanley]

No more painkillers yesterday and a good five hours sleep last night. Leg 100% better this morning but I shall treat it with respect for a day or two! I think it may have been something as simple as a displaced nerve because it's recovered so completely. Whatever, I am glad to see the back of it!

[Whyperion]

I had a re-think on the non-drinking and heart affects, I wonder if they checked coffee consumption , I realise that now even a small amount of caffiene (I have always had fairly weak milky coffee) is affecting heartbeats, and probably did for the last 30 years.

[Tripps]

No more painkillers yesterday and a good five hours sleep last night. Leg 100% better this morning but I shall treat it with respect for a day or two! I think it may have been something as simple as a displaced nerve because it's recovered so completely. Whatever, I am glad to see the back of it!

I hope you'll be ordering one of these Safety steps
for future expeditions to your wall hangings.

[plaques]

Some while ago Tony Blair suffered a heart event where he was rushed off to hospital, bare in mind Prime Ministers are not supposed to get ill. At the time it was thought he was suffering from arrhythmia and was soon back at work. Later Cherie Blair said that there was nothing wrong with his heart and it was due to the excessive amounts of coffee he was drinking. Arrhythmia, heart palpitations and ectopic beats are very common and can be triggered by all manner of things including coffee.

[Stanley]

David, It won't surprise you to know that safety steps had occurred to me.....

[Stanley]

I ordered a set yesterday, small enough to hang behind the under-stairs door and be easily accessible.
Looking back over the last few days I am again convinced that the worst effects on my body come not from the actual circumstance, whatever that was, but the painkillers that I took. Very good for pain relief but they interfere with my natural defences and I get random residual pains that are nothing to do with the original injury. On the whole, painkillers and Stanley don't get on well together. I am far better off without them!

[Tizer]

There was a radio programme the other day about how drugs are safety tested on young people even when they are being prescribed for older ones. Older people are more likely to have side effects and reactions to drugs and it's only now that there are beginning to be some safety studies taking in the elderly.

[Stanley]

Good point Tiz. My tolerance for anti inflammatories of any description, let alone morphine based compounds has reduced sharply as I get older.

[PanBiker]

Nursing a lower back pull at the moment, it's stuffed my physio routine somewhat for the time being! I did the damage on Wednesday I reckon with a 75L bag of compost that we got when we were at B&Q. Pain didn't kick in until Thursday though. I cant bend very well so my exercise routine for the stenosis would help here as they are also for lower back and core. I might take some painkillers to allow me to do the routine. As it is at the moment, if I got down to do them I wouldn't get up.

[Stanley]

I know the feeling well Ian. Consider chucking your pillow out. Worth a try!
Later..... I was thinking about you as I set off on my morning walk. My criteria for assessing the day is whether I have pain, am I breathing well and can I stride out safely. All was well this morning and I remembered what Arthur Morrison told me many years ago after I had refused any surgery or intervention on my back which was lousy, I had severe back pain for most of my life. He told me I had done the right thing and that God would cure my back as I got older..... It took 70 years but he was dead right! So my message is to have patience, stop lifting heavy weights and eventually you'll most likely get to where I am now. Not as limber but bending easily and no pain apart from the occasional episode where I have ignored the rules!

[PanBiker]

no pain apart from the occasional episode where I have ignored the rules!

That's the problem Stanley, as a young bloke, for the first 20 years of my working life I did a lot of lifting and shifting. Our workshop was upstairs so everything had to go up and come back down. I know all the rules and didn't make many mistakes, it was expensive if you damaged or dropped someone's pride and joy, CRT based TV's didn't bounce very well. 26" wooden cabinet models would weigh well in excess of a cwt and were pretty unwieldy on top of the weight.

I'm mad with myself because I know the rules and still did it wrong, it's easing a bit, I could get my socks on OK this morning. I think I might go for a walk. I need to do one anyway as a benchmark for my physio.

[PanBiker]

Did 4.5 miles this afternoon on a Weets circular. Pleased to report that the exercise regime seems to be having an effect as I had no symptoms from the stenosis until I got back down to Standridge, that was at about the 4 mile marker which is a lot better than previously on exactly the same route. I managed an extra mile before I noticed a slight turning in of my right foot which can give rise to tripping. I didn't feel overly tired on my right leg either which was another previous symptom.
I will relay this to Sam when I give her a call as arranged this next week, we'll see what she has to say.

[Stanley]

Sounds like progress......

[Wendyf]

Col got another nasty bladder infection following his 9 month check up a couple of weeks ago. It has proved resistant to oral antibiotics so he was packed off to a&e at Blackburn yesterday morning. He finally got an iv drip fixed at 1.30am this morning. It looks as if he might be in another night. I will visit armed with good food, (nuts, olives, boiled eggs, and a BLT in a high protein Lidl roll) he was offered only cereal or toast for brekky ...no special diets catered for then!

[Marilyn]

Best of Luck Col. Our thoughts are with you.
( know the feeling.... had to take food in for hubby last time too)

[plaques]

Antibiotics by definition kill bacteria including gut bacteria. My normal reaction is to go off food completely and finish up losing about 7 lbs in weight before I'm anything like right again. Just give Col anything he fancies.

[Wendyf]

I have retrieved him from Blackburn together with a 10 day course of one of the "last resort" antibiotics. Fingers crossed.

[PanBiker]

Sorry to hear about Col Wendy, I hope he picks up now he is back at home.

For myself, I just booked a follow up with Sam for physio, she had left a note on the booking computer to re book with her if my exercise regime had made an improvement or to book a double appointment with her and her colleague if not. I have managed to get in the week before I start my exams invigilation so good in that respect.

[Stanley]

Give Col my very best wishes Wendy. I don't know whether he gets the pain I had when I had my last brush with Cystitis if so double sympathy! I had less pain with a fractured skull than that! I was lucky in that I had a lady as my doctor, Dr Duggilby, at the time and she hit on just the right AB to zap it. I have never had it since (touches wood and crosses fingers).

[Tizer]

I'm glad you've got Col back, Wendy. Take good care of him!

In the past I would never have thought that in this country we would be talking about using a `last resort' antibiotic. Where have our leaders been all these years when they should have been preventing this situation arising?

[Wendyf]

Actually, the infection might have responded to penicillin but Col has it on his records that he is allergic to it. We can't remember how this got onto his records, it might have been that he came out in a rash once, but when he suggested giving it a try the doctor refused.....because it was on his records.