Cellulitis!!!

Hi everyone,

Joey - Im glad you are all moved in now and settled in your new home - its great that you have the space to use your chair!! Hope that things are settled properly now for you all and you didnt suffer for all the hard work of moving - i will catch up on everyones blogs soon - It has been a bit rubbish this end but some bits have been great too!!

Odette and Louise all i can say is again i am so sorry that i have been rubbish at blogging recently! For parts of this recent absence from the blogging world i have been feeling a bit run down and not myself and at other times - i dont have any excuse except that i have been visiting some friends around my end of the country and also visiting my familt where i celebrated my pretend birthday (and got to celebrate with my mum and dad!!!)

I wanted to give you a very well overdue update!!!

Sooooo, last week i drove around 580 miles across my surroundings in yorkshire visiting various good friends of mine - some in hospital others at home!!! unfortunatly by Sunday i was yet again shattered!!! I had a restful day on sunday - but thought nothing really about my left foot aching!! It gradually got more uncomfortable as the day and evening went on but there didnt look to be anything wrong with it so of course i just put it down to pushing myself too hard and tried (and failed) to get an early night!!

On Monday morning S came to get me up etc and i went to move my foot and got a sudden pain. I pulled the covers back to see that my left foot was twice the size of my right foot and was bright red (it was also red hot to touch!!) S was gonna leave me in bed but I wanted to have a shower so I hobbled to the bathroom. Walking was incredibly painful!! I called the GP and requested a home visit as there is no way i would have managed to put weight on it much!! I managed to organise my prescriptions to get picked up by the pharmacy and get my new medicines and all my regular ones delivered for the next day. My GP came round at lunchtime, she came in when i shouted for her too come in :) Dr W took one look at my foot and asked how long it had been like that etc - given the fact that i have had 6 courses of antibiotics for the phlebitis in this foot and only just finished a course she was slightly concerned it had now turned into cellulitis!! I was given a script for two lots of strong anibiotics which she insisted i had 3 doses of that day so my neighbour went to the pharmacy for me then brought them and some shopping home for me :)!! My GP had said that i should see an improvement within the next 24 hours and that if it was not improving the next day to contact the surgery or go to A and E.

Tuesday rocked up and no - it wasn't any better but i hadnt slept properly as it had kept me up all night so i decided to get a lie in catch up on some sleep - keeping it raised all day and see how it was today!!

This morning came round too quickly too!! R came this am to get me up and i couldnt stand my foot was now three times the size of the other one and incredibly sore to put on the floor!! Anytime that i put my foot off the bed in a sitting position it throbbed!! I kept it raised again!! by lunchtime - despite the fact my bedroom window was open and my fan was on full the sweat was dripping from me. My skin was clammy and i felt really nauseous, which then proceeded to full blown vomitting!! I took my temperature 41.4 (rather high!!) I then took some paracetamol and some antiemetic (cyclizine via sub cutaneous injection- stings like hell - but works quickly!!) I then called the surgery! The duty doctor called me back an hour later (lunchtime ish!!) and told me he would call in and see me between 4 and 6pm!!

It took me an hour to get dressed and a further 25 mins to get down the stairs. By which time my brother, his fiance and my nephew arrived outside my house stopping for a quick pit stop on their way back to my parents house from J's parents house!! They had brought a mate with them too :) I had a brief chance to cuddle my nephew and had just started to feed him a bottle when the GP rocked up outside!!

The crowd in my living room dispersed into the kitchen/utility room and let the doctor in on their way through!! He wanted me to go into hospital for IV antibiotics (I know it was stupid now - i know that but at the time it seemed like the best thing, really!!) I told him i didnt want to be admitted!! He outlined the risks of leaving things as they are etc - i outlined the fact that i am very susceptible to infections and usually come out with worse than i go in with etc!!! After he had reviewed my notes - he agreed to a plan of action. I could stay home this evening on the provision that if the foot is the same tomorrow i will go in to hospital for the IV's!! I was going to see if I could push it to friday but as the paracetamol is wearing off and i can feel my temperature rising again, i think i will probably see sense and go in tomorrow afternoon! :( I was hoping to be able to get S to clean for me on thursday afternoon but im not sure i will be able to do it all!! I will see tomorrow - i am still secretly hoping that the rubbish oral antibiotics i have been taking for almost a week to kick in and knock this infection into the ether!!!

sooooooo - sorry its a bit of a rambly post!! I will be going into hospital tomorrow or friday then for a few days to a week of antibiotics on my poorly foot!! (unless the oral antibiotics are slow starters and miraculously cure this over night!!!) least this way i will be able to pack a couple of sets of PJ's and some clothes too!!
Im hoping to take the laptop in with me so will hopefully still have contact with the net world whilst i am in there!! if no laptop i will still have my mobile so i will have a form of internet but albeit a rather slower connection!!

KSD and wheezy tux are currently not very well WT just out of hospital and KSD still in so you guys i am sending you both big hugs (((((hugs))))) and loadsa lv!!

I hope that everyone else is ok! take care everyone
lotsa lv Rattles Xxxx

Busy week and wheezy weekends

Hi All,

Hope you are all well, Joey - how was the house move?? Hope that it all went well and that you managed it without upsetting the apple cart too much (so to speak!!) I am on my way to my parents in a few hours time - its nice not to have to spend 12 hours on the coach anymore - that journey was just awful!!! Now I have Percy it means I am able to have a restful day and then set off once the traffic has died down after tea!!

It will take me around 2 hours to get back to my mum and dad's house!!! Since I got Percy, I have visited several friends. I went to see a good friend in hospital in Burton and another great friend in Grantham (three times!!) and I also visited two friends in Leicester for the first time - they were fabulous and I had a really lovely afternoon last thursday. The down side however of all this travelling round the country is that it seems to have rather upset the old lungs a bit!! They have been rather grumpy the last 5 or 6 days. Over the weekend it started with just getting breathless really easily, and gradually escalated to a rather irritating wheeze and tight chestedness over the last few days. Needless to say that I havent been sleeping that well since about monday really!! Last night was the worst and I literally didnt sleep a wink all evening. The most soul destroying thing was just starting to nod off through sheer exhaustion as S came to wake me this morning!!

S looked really concerned this morning when she realised that the whilstling was my chest wheezing. She kept asking me if I was OK, I felt shocking but I didnt want to worry her so kept saying I was fine. I had a few nebulisers in the hour and a half she was here this morning.They settled things a little bit and made my chest feel less tight and uncomfortable but didnt totally resolve the wheeze. I havent done much at all today and I have taken things really really slowly as I really dont want to end up back in hospital. I received a phone call from social services this morning as S was leaving - It was about the fitting of my hand rails - they wanted to arrange a time to come and fit them, and arranged to come at about lunchtime. They are now fitted - an extra one on my stairs and one on the outside of my house as I do struggle with the steps, particularly when I'm not feeling well! I also had a visit from some rather lovely firemen :) They asked if I wanted some free smoke detectors fitting - Of course!!!! They fitted them about an hour ago and so all that was left for me to do was to plonk a microwavable meal in and then eat and pack for my trip home to my parents.

Im all packed finally and as always recently got distracted by flippin facebook and the game farmville - blimey - that is sooooooooo addictive!!! I have just got to sort out my medications for my trip the next few days and then load up Percy!!! Then Im on the road!!

Im still rather chesty and I fear I may be getting another chest infection as my chest is rather mucusy and grotty!!! Im just hoping that my parents dog doesnt set the old allergy off too much as I do generally come back from my parents poorly as I am very allergic to their dog - I have dosed up on anti histamines and I am hoping that I can avoid kicking the old asthma off whilst I am there - I have also dosed up on the old vitamin C in the hope that if I am coming down with a chest infection I can kick that into touch quickly too!!!

I have had several conversations with my solicitor about my tribunal case too. Its all going OK though I am convinced that my ex employers are trying to stitch me up on several points - My solicitor thankfully is very very good and has been my rock through all of this - I will keep you all posted as and when things happen with the tribunal stuff!!

Anyways - I am going to have to sort out my meds and finish the last few bits of packing so that I can set off on my jollies!!!

Speak to you all soon
Loadsa lv Rattles Xxxxx

Birthdays!!!

Hi All,

Hope your all well, and are getting on OK - Joey - hope the move is going well and Louise hope your break is going well!!

I had a great birthday in the end!! I was listening to radio 2 whilst I was out and about and caught a fab song called 'when you go' by Judie Tzuke - its fab - all the songs from her were great, see her website - here. I spent an hour with my mum and dad and then drove Percy back home to have a lovely meal with two of my great friends! I also met up with another new friend i haven't seen for a few weeks!!

Yesterday I had my first meeting with the group at my old counseling place! It is a group for fun and confidence building and was great really - i got home quite late though so didn't sleep very well - I'm quite tired tonight now lol!!! Today was an emotional day really after getting up early and stuff I got a call from Dr R - she organised a finishing off session for our work for today, I bought a thank you card and then headed to my appointment. I was fine at the appointment - it was hard not crying as i feel she knows a lot about me and my back story now, its hard when you go to any sort of NHS therapy service as the continuity is just not there - you get used to one person and learn to confide and trust in them and then they leave.. Its beginning to be the story of my life now - my support networks leaving half way through. Its very hard! Its not the Dr's fault as that's just the way the stupid service works with rotations! I feel as though I need to continue with the work we did with someone now whilst i am in this frame of mind as if i delay i don't think i will be able to go through it with someone else as it was hard talking to Dr R - its very hard trusting someone and then talking about personal things!!! I dunno - I'm feeling a bit strange at the moment, really teary for no real reason - I think the enormity of everything that has been happening the last few weeks has finally hit me!!

Anyway- on the tribunal front - we (my solicitor and I) are going to ask my ex employer for reinstatement of post on reduced hours with breaks for meds and nebs through the day - i am not bothered about compensation as it has only ever been about my career and the principle of what they did!!! I will keep you posted on how things progress!

Hopefully catch up with everyone soon!
Lotsa Lv Rattles Xxxx

Percy!!

Hi All,

Again I apologise that I have again neglected you all. Its been a little crazy recently so I thought that I'd update you all and let you all know what I have been up to.

I'm feeling a lot better than I did a few weeks ago but I am on the whole much much better.

After getting home from hospital I had a few days of resting, caught up on my sleep and then felt so much better once I had had a couple of days proper rest - The hospital is not a great place to rest lol!! In fact its the worst place to rest!! I was in the bay right next to the nurses station - its the bay that they put people they need to keep an eye on (I always end up on that bay and it frustrates me everytime!) It is usually filled with the patients who are a certain age and wander - even though they cant wander too well. This admission was no exception!! I shared my little 4 bed bay with several patients during the course of the month -

Several shouters - these are not great room mates as they seem to wait till your fast asleep before randomly shouting stuff out and waking everyone up!!!

The dementia patients - Many different challenges with these whether it be them wandering over to your bed thinking its theirs or routing through your cupboards or just generally being totally confused.

Wanderers - These are the ladies usually >80 years old who are very unsteady on their feet, have a history as long as the Argos catalogue of falls and yet still insist that they need to walk about. This category further divides into those that wander lots during the day but sleep at night - these are not too bad and it is possible to cope with these roomies and then those that wander only at night or both!!The ones that wander at night can sometimes be stopped by locking them into the beds - putting the cot sides down etc etc - however there are a few crafty elderly folks that cannot be stopped even cot sides dont stop them - they manage - somehow to clamber out of the bed and unsteadily wander round - occassionally resulting in another fall which further extends their stay in the hospital and means they stay in the high observation bey for even longer - oh yes - I had one of these wanderers this admission - welll, several really but one in particular!!! grrrrr!!!

To say that whilst I was in the hospital I spent most of my time on high alert as to whether my roomies were gonna stand up wander and do themselves a mischeif is a total understatement. I think the longest I went was 4 days with about 2 hours sleep in the whole time. I felt ill and had a temperature and was taking slow release morphine among other things - Im sure I was seeing things and iI kept talking to nurses etc then when I looked round they weren't there - needless to say I never mentioned that to them for fear they'd think i had gone bonkers too - then that same night I totally crashed out and slept so heavily I forgot where I was and aparrently I became one of the dreaded shouty patients lol!!!

Anyways, During this latest admission I was just generally worn out physically, menatlly and emotionally - I came home just feeling totally exhausted and drained. During the admission my arm got a nasty cellulitis infection which I actually still have and i still have a rather pronounced phlebitis! Some of my cannula marks are still rather sore and I have phlebitis in a couple of them still - I think this is still from one of the nurses who doesn't listen!! One of my favorite nurses on the ward I was on said that when a patient says a drug stings you take a mental note of it but when several patients say the same thing you take notice and try and make it better. Well the really lovely nurse - she could give me cyclizine without it feeling like cyclizine - never ever stung at all!! She was so gentle, diluted it and gave it very very slowly over a minute or so. Other nurses just seemed to be in so much of a rush they didnt listen when you say it stings a lot and injected it sooooo quickly that it felt like they had put red hot acid into your bloodstream - it then burnt its way from cannula to your heart and you felt it all the way round!!! Very very painful!!!

Anyways - I went to eye casualty on wednesday as after my appointment at my GP surgery on the tuesday they saw my wacky pupils - my eyes have been doing some very very odd things recently with one pupil being very much larger than the other - it was checked out at eye casualty and I am all ok so no worries!! Once I had finished at eye casualty - I popped up to the ward and took some chocolates, toffee and a card. They are so lovely on there. The sister in charge bless her didnt recognise me at first in my clothes as oposed to my PJ's :-) I also saw the student nurse who was looking after me when I was there - she is lovely too and I really hope that the rest of her course goes well - she has all the great qualities that a good nurse needs - compassion, care, knowledge and she is a fab listener - also very good at holding your feet down whilst evil doctors canulate your feet but i will forgive her for that lol!!! I had a cup of coffee made by the student nurse - she makes the best coffee :-) I sat and had a little chat to some of the staff on the ward before popping up to the ICU - I didnt go in as its bad enough as a patient up there to be brutily honest - but i wanted to take a card and some chocolates up to them as they have looked after me several times before and I was so grateful to everything that they do and have done for me!

On Tuesday - I went and picked up my new car. I got him on the motability scheme and he is just amazing - i finally have my independence back again which is just fabulous. I have done so much driving round since I got him (He is called percy by the way - hense the title of this post) :-) On wednesday - i popped to see my friend in grantham and had a lovely couple of hours with her then on friday I went to manchester to the trafford centre with a mate from AUK - we had a great time it was funny - she had to push me in a chair though as they didnt have any electric ones grrrr - dont think I would have managed to walk all the way round there its massive I just wouldnt have managed without borrowing a chair from shop mobility! I got home late last night and slept really badly last night.

My carer left me in bed today as I really didnt feel that well - I think I have overdone it a bit the last couple of days!! I have enjoyed just having a rest today though its been really nice and calm!!

Tomorrow is my birthday!! Eeeek!!! Another year older! It is something that has very much snuck up on me this year - I am looking forwads to going for a nice meal with two of my good friends!! We are going to a lovely country pub that i havent been able to get too for a while as i havent had a car!! It will be a lovely day i am sure but i really do miss my family. My family and I are going to celebrate my birthday in a couple of weeks when i get back there!!! Im looking forwards to seeing Harry Potter for my birthday too!!! :-)

Anyways - that brings me up to date again - I am really sorry for my neglect there is just no real excuse i can give except that I have just been trying to recharge my batteries and get myself fit again. Its also been a very odd week getting used to my carers and used to the new routines of things etc etc.

On the tribunal front I received a letter asking me to give dates that i definatly couldnt make a tribunal. I hope to hear exactly when the tribunal will be soon and as always I will keep you posted on this little fight for justice (so to speak!!)


Take care everyone hope you are all well.

Lotsa lv Rattles Xxxx