Thank goodness for our NHS

I have been waiting months now for my injection into two vertebrae in my neck to help with the pain I am getting.  Making sure an appointment did not arrive in the post whilst we were away  I rang the appointments centre and told them.  All was well I believed so imagine my shock when we arrived home from our cruise to see a letter stating that I could go in on the 22nd July, yikes......... we are away in the motor home touring Scotland, as I clearly told the girl on appointments.  Something went wrong so I was gutted that it may be I go to the back of the queue for refusing a date.  Well somebody was on my side.

I rang the pain management clinic and spoke to a lovely lady and asked if I could be given a cancellation.  Problem was I needed to know five days in advance as I was to come off warfarin and go onto self injections of heparin.  Was the time scale workable.  Yes it was, they had just that morning had a cancellation so today with an INR of the accepted 1 I went down for my injections.

The whole procedure went very smoothly and I had a laugh with the surgeon that carried out the procedure and the staff.  They said I was easy to work with which pleased me.  It wasn't a painful procedure, more uncomfortable as he needed to press down on the very place where my neck hurt to begin with.  Well actually that isn't  quite true.  While I thought he would inject into the side of my neck on the left he explained that no he wouldn't .  Pain is a strange thing, where we perceive the pain is coming from is often not the place so he actually went into my spine on the right.  He was very pleased as he showed me on the x ray where the needle went right into the joints of my spine, a brilliant result.  So after a short, very short in my case rest as I had not had any sedation it was home and here I am.  I have to rest today and not allowed to drive for 24 hours.

It can take up to 4 weeks for the full effects to work and I was also told that it may feel worse before it gets better.  I can go with that, just grateful for our wonderful NHS staff who made it all go swimmingly. So another job done.

Heart monitor results

Well not good but not unexpected either.  I have said I knew I was deteriorating so when the results came back and said there was a deterioration in how my heart was coping, sometimes slowing down, palpitations, speeding up too fast, all of these things made sense to me.  So where do we go from here?   My local doctor was going to talk to Sheffield about the results and also send them on.  The secretary of two of my specialists have told me that they will make sure these results get put in front of the two I have been seeing most of recently, Robin who ordered the tests and Charlie, my doctor who is in charge of the study I am on and who rang my local doctor to try to chase up the results.  I am due in for my last study appointment in the middle of September for two days and I have no doubt something will be decided on and will begin to be put in place then.

Very good U tube explanation of ph for the newbies

Some of the new ones that come onto Facebook have difficulty in showing or telling their friends just what PH means.  Many have family and friends who believe they are "putting it on" so I was pleased to see this on u tube today and would ask them to show it to anyone who has no concept of ph.

Pulmonary Hypertension: A challenging cause of shortness of breathK. Akaya Smith, MD, a pulmonologist at Penn Medicine, discusses dyspnea, shortness of breath, and how it is one of the most common presenting conditions of p...youtube.com

Even for the patient themselves it does give an insight into just how our hearts and lungs work and why we are so compromised when we get this disease.  It is rather a long explanation but it has diagrams and the woman talking about the condition, and indeed other conditions that affect the heart and lungs is very good at explaining it in a clear and concise manner.

Scotland

As we head off to Scotland for around three weeks I have once more got to have my INR done en route.  The first time we went we had to do this and it worked well.  I hope it works as smoothly this time and there are no complications with trying to get my INR up to an acceptable level, there shouldn't be but it is always a worry when we are not in familiar places.

Packing again, and how I hate this but at least once I have decided on the things I need, very little as we do have laundries at most sites I shall leave it up to my better half to load up the motor home and I shall go over to Leeds to meet up with my son and hopefully his delightful girlfriend Anna for a bit of a natter as we won't see one another for almost a month.

America

Once again the pure evil that was carried out in Dallas four days ago is so hard to comprehend.  It appears that this was about race and creed, blacks versus whites.  Yes I  know there is so much more underlying but I am not a journalist just somebody sad to see killings such as these.  Where will all this madness end.  I wish somebody had the answer but I don't  believe there is one.  Every day when I open my paper or read the news I am expecting to see such terrible things, such atrocities carried out in the name of religion or colour, it saddens me.  I fear for our children growing up in a world like this.  My son told me I wanted an ideal of going back to the 1950's, well yes he is right.  There has never been a time in history when killing didn't go on but now it is just so common place we all expect it and just turn the page, or turn over the news.  The world has become a place of corruption and argument in almost every avenue.  That to me is the saddest thing.

Andy Murray

Andy Murray went on the win Wimbledon again for the second time  This Scot, who I make no bones about saying I just love did Great Britain proud.  He has learnt how to accept the publicity, how to talk to the people behind the cameras and now comes across as a nice guy and a great ambassador for tennis.  Well this is how I think but my doctor will say differently, she can't stand him!  Oh well I love him and am pleased he came through.  Since becoming a husband and a father he has grown up more and become more comfortable in his skin, i hope he goes on to win many more grand slams and another Wimbledon winner, we shall see.  I hope so.

Sports Day

How I would have loved to have been able to go to this as it is the first sports day for Izzy but alas I am told no, I need to rest and anyway I struggle to stand for any length of time.  Grandad has gone and her mommy so I look forward to the tales when they return afterwards.  I love my grandaughter very much but would be the first to admit she will never be an athlete, she takes after me in this regard.  My only hope is that she enjoys it and doesn't get upset if she gets beaten and that she always congratulates the winner with good grace.

Archie

This is our baby, born during the horrific floods in Calderdale in the bathroom of his grandparents house.

How time flies.  Now six months and a few days old he has two teeth, loves to pull himself up and stands holding onto furniture, rolls over, but not yet mastered the art of rolling back and has the most beautiful big eyes.  He is a sunny natured baby and I am so very proud of him.  His mommy Jess takes him swimming too so that is a great thing to do at such an early age.  I just love this little man.

Update of sports day

One first, one second and one third.  One very proud grandma here writing this!  So unexpected!

Rory her boyfriend is not in love with her now, he loves Violet and Daisy but Harry still loves Izzy so she is fine about that. Kids, one for the journal.You can see how happy she was at her sports day, she is the one with her mouth open wide with laughter.

Onwards then to swimming and she did so well that we are all soon proud of her and she is taking the intensive swimming lessons over the school holiday for one week.  Well worth the effort to raise her game.  

Ending on a funny, well I think so

When I had finished having the procedure on my neck the nurse pushed me into a side room.  She asked me if I could raise my legs and was shocked as my legs were immediately raised almost to her face.  She obviously didn't expect this but what she said next made me realise why she didn't expect it.  She then said "well you can get dressed now but I make no apologies for saying this to you.  I always stay in the room when really old people like you are getting dressed after having the injections in case they take a turn!"  I always thought I looked ok for my age.  Now old maybe to her, she is around late thirties but REALLY OLD, I ask you.  I bit my lip to stop from laughing.  Wonder what she will think if people consider her really old when she reaches my age.  

Warm love to each and every one of you and thank you for the likes and shares.  All keep well.

Carole xxx