I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy bits of it. Was lovely seeing the family. I ate some very delicious food. Lots of chocolate!!! Some good telly…
But oh I’m SO PLEASED it’s over!!!
Back to Planet Normal. YaY!!!
How are you all doing?
Pat xx (completely exhausted and sick to death rich food)
agree totally
I’m sitting here on the sofa breathing the deep inhalations of relief and satisfaction. Trips to Eastbourne, Tonbridge, The Southbank and the long stretch to Wallasey have been achieved with due proficiency, resulting in much enjoyment and indulgence. But here we are-back from the brink, sprawled on the soft red station of comfort. I may struggle to stand, walk or even stay awake but I’m struggling on home turf.
Back to my own version of normality. (What can I moan about now?)
Best wishes, Steve. x
I feel JUST the same Pat lol, i have found it really hard going this year…like you i was pleased to be with my family,but if i am with my daughter for too long we start to bicker (were too much alike) so i am really pleased xmas and new years over with for another year,trouble is it soon comes round again…
J x
I totally agree - lovely spending time with the family, playing board games etc., but it is just all too much at once at Christmas! Not at all in keeping with any MS fatigue management strategy I think!
Me too. I can settle down to feeling ill and hating the long cold dark nights again.
i’m the middle of more medical weirdness: blood tests where two of the thyroid markers say it’s overactive, and one says under active. After long confabs the biomedical have decided to look at my pituitary gland. I will be off to see the endocrinologist.
The angel on my right shoulder says that they may find a simple solution and give me medication which will help me feel a lot better.
The devil on my left shoulder keeps reminding me that endocrinology was where I went briefly four years ago before being handed on to haematology to be treated for lymphoma. I simply can’t face all that again. Hate it, hate it.
I thought it was too early to say thank goodness its over but reading Pat’s post a few mins ago phew!!!
Be safe guys M
oh no Kev, hope it can be sorted with meds for you.
J x
Poor Kev!!! One thing after another. Hope they get it sorted out very quickly!
Glad I’m not the only one who’s pleased to see the rear end of the festive season!!!
Pat xx
I couldn’t agree more, so glad its all over and done with for another year.
KeV, I hope it all goes well for you, will have everything crossed for a simple outcome.
Pam x
So a week before Christmas my wife drove us for four hours to stay for a few days with our daughter to watch our grandson’s Christmas pantomime and choir service et cetera and a wonderful time was to be had by all except that I developed a pain in my left foot below the ankle which was very sensitive to touch.
Anyway coming back home after three days my wife made an appointment to see the nurse at our doctors practitioners after it developed a blister which burst. This was on Thursday before Christmas. The nurse didn’t like what she saw and called the doctor who also didn’t like what he saw and made arrangements for me to go to the thrombosis clinic at the hospital 20 miles away on the Friday morning.
This I did and spent four hours being prodded and poked and scanned before being told that the four hour journey had probably brought on DVT and was given a carrier bag full of hypodermic needles for my wife to administer antibiotics daily to my stomach. I did have quite a painful weekend however when early on Monday morning I had a phone call from the wonderful nurse at the hospitals thrombosis clinic who suggested I should go in straight away. It was quite a surprise to then be admitted for three days hooked up to an intravenous drip and as well as my usual medication having to take water tablets to hopefully ease the swelling on my foot. (This meant that I could never wander very far from my urine bottle!)
Once home I then had to go and see the nurse about having my blister redressed which she thought had become infected so I had to go back again a few days later to find out the results of the swab. I also have to go back to the doctors for him to judge how much warfarin I must now start taking for at least the next six months.
Throughout all this it is the burst blister that is giving me the most grief but I should be grateful that it was because of that they discovered the deep-vein thrombosis which went from below my knee to above my stomach and managed to catch it before any further consequences.
I forgot to mention that my foot looks like a puffball with five little pork sausages sticking out as I also have cellulitis! The whole package makes it quite difficult for me to transfer from chair to bed via my ‘patient turner’
I have never before had so much contact with doctors, nurses and appointments here there and everywhere which put a big dent in our Christmas preparations!
So in order of the most painful currently it starts with the smallest being the burst blister, then the cellulitis then the deep-vein thrombosis all to be attributed to the master of ceremonies - my MS…
I did however have a wonderful Christmas at home with the family gathering of eight of us, all staying for a few days
.
I shall be glad however when everything gets back to some sort of normality!
Happy New Year!
Stephen
Took it easy this year! Not enough rich food actually! no Christmas cards sent,very few received thank god, tree taken down today, and wait for it… My living room and kitchen are tidy!!! Long may this live.
G.p rang this morning urine clear,blood test all good except for inflammatory markers high so further investigation into abdomen pain needed, Consultant has put me on Prednisolone 500mg 5 day treatment to see if helps with sudden mobility issues, received them tonight so will start them tomorrow. Here comes Wonder woman I hope!
Pauline xx
So pleased I’m not the only one, Christmas is very over rated, too many people spending money they don’t have. Now I have Grandchildren it has some magic again but the pressure parents are under to spend hundreds of pounds on one item is unbelievable. How often is there a new model iPhone or iPad or Xbox the list is endless and everyone wants the latest model. This years Christmas present will be out of date in a couple of months!! My Grandchildren are to young yet but it won’t be long, the three year old plays with a paper artist app on my phone, I have no idea how she found it and learnt how to draw and erase with it but she does.
Hope they find the problem and can treat you quickly Kev, listen to your Angel she’s cheering in your corner.
Jan x
Sorry Stephen and Pauline it took me so long post I missed both your posts.
Pauline I hope the Steroids work for you and Stephen…bloody hell you don’t do things by halves do you, hope your Christmas excitement is over with and you have no further problems.
Jan x
Good Lord Stephen!!!
What a thing to happen. Sounds like a complete nightmare… but on other hand you have been very lucky as of course if it had moved up to your heart or brain… well you wouldn’t be here to tell the tale. So a thank God for the NHS!!! And thank God for the blister!!!
But must have been very tiring and frightening for you? Or did it all happen as if in a dream and you’re only realising the enormity of what happened now?
Hope the swelling has gone down. MS certainly knows how to create chaos in our lives.
Best wishes to you and hope you are feeling much better now.
Hugs, Pat xx
Fingers firmly crossed Pauline that the med’s do the trick!!!
And very pleased you have tidy living room and kitchen. I know how much it does my head in if my place is untidy!!! It’s almost as if the mess adds to my general sense of confusion!
Hope they find the reason for the abdomen pain and can get it sorted quickly.
Thinking of you,
Pat xx
Oh Stephen I just read your post, bloomin eck’ get better soon, like Pat said thank god you had the blister.
Pauline xx
Morning all, oh, it’s afternoon already!
Sorry for my negativity yesterday, I had a bad one and it got to me. Thanks for all the sympathy, and my head is in a better place today. Compared to Stephen I really have had a pleasant enough Christmas. Hope things are improving for you, Stephen.
But I am still glad it’s done for another year, and the nights are getting shorter. We’ll be hearing bird song again soon- blackbirds often the first to start in January.
Decorations come down this weekend, so Wol will return without the snow.
Hello everyone,
thank you for your sympathetic replies to my pre-Christmas whinge which sounded like something along the lines of “on the first day of Christmas my MS gave to me…”, So I thought I would give you an update and brief resume of the more memorable moments!
First and foremost the area around my blister it’s much less painful and my foot doesn’t look as if it’s about to explode.
My wife says that she can actually see my knee and ankle and my calf doesn’t feel as rigid as a tree trunk, so it’s all looking good now.
Because of the bank holiday the results of my swab hadn’t come back but I’m pretty sure that had there been anything untoward I would have known by now. On the whole I’ve been very impressed with the way that I have been helped through the NHS system although the initial introduction into hospitalisation was a bit disconcerting as I was first put into an ’ admissions ward’ which was a bit like the bar in the film Star Wars, all sorts of people being shipped in and out throughout the rest of the day and night - some people had been there for couple of days. I was put on a proper ward sometime the following day as a bed became available, all standard procedure apparently.
After the first meal I had there, of the choices available, I always chose sandwiches - 'nuff said!
When I was being discharged from the thrombosis clinic the first time and my wife was given that carrier bag full of boxes of a hypodermic kit which she was told needed to be injected into my stomach every day to which my wife replied “so I’ve got to take him to the doctors every day?” To which the nurse replied “no, you’ve got to give it to him”. Well the expression on my wife’s face will live with me till the day I die. She looked like a rabbit caught in headlights and I laughed so much that the poor nurse thought I was choking. Fortunately she does it very competently as there is plenty of spare flesh around my stomach due to my ongoing Toblerone diet!
So I feel as if I’m back in the land of the living just in time for the start of the FA Cup third round this afternoon!
Regards,
Stephen
Dictated using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Where the spelling will be guaranteed but grammar arn’t.
pleased things are improving for you
J x