I have seen a lot of these in the last few days. I have been visited four times a day by nurses who have administered massive doses of antibiotics with a large syringe taking three to five minutes each time.
I have had visits to Kendal hospital and lost count of how many other needles I have had stuck into me as well as blood pressure, temperature and heart readings taken, and more than anything else I have lost count of is the number of times I have been asked for my date of birth. A further complication is a nasty wound I sustained across the inflamed part of my ankle when I caught a branch between my legs during my walk a few days after inflammation started. Then, at home, drying the tent out on the lawn the carbon-fibre hoop pole under tension flicked out with a life of its own and lashed me again on exactly the same spot.
Today a further review visit to Kendal hospital established that the inflammation has receded, so I have now reverted to antibiotics by capsule instead of injection, and the cannula has been removed from my arm.
I am still doing the daily self injections for the blood clot and have a further appointment in ten days or so for another scan, as well as other appointments with my GP's practice nurse for dressing the wound, and a further review appointment at Kendal.
While I don't believe in the concept of a God-head figure who controls all aspects of life, I find the act of praying for the well-being of others to be of great benefit in easing my anxiety when faced with news such as yours. I hope it is of benefit to you, as well, for you're the one who really needs the support.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes for a speedy and complete recovery, Conrad.
Martha
Sorry to hear this Conrad. I hope you are back out soon.
ReplyDeleteBloody hell Conrad, you look after yourself!
ReplyDeleteJJ
Progress indeed. Wishing you a continuing recovery. Dangerous business this walking malarky. Very best wishes.
ReplyDeleteThe Crow - Thanks Martha. I welcome anything that has the remotest chance of improving things, and I might even indulge in a bit of faith that your prayers will be answered, but like you that faith does not extend to "the concept of a God-head figure."
ReplyDelete-------------
Alan R. - Thanks. I do have plans!
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John J - Thanks for your robust wishes.
I have said before that I think I need a caddy on my walks to carry the iPhone, iPad, compass, map, guidebook, munchy bar et al that all seem to keep interacting with my walking poles, which themselves have a life of their own falling over wherever they are set down as if magnetically attracted to earth, and which also have a propensity for getting left behind in cafés and shops. I'm not fit to be out really.
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coastalwalker - Hi Ruth - thanks. I think I'll take a nurse with me next time?
what an extraordinary catalogue of misfortunes, calamities and rigmaroles - I am glad to read of your renewed confidence in your attendants and that the treatments seem now to be working steadily: very debilitating - and will definitely need careful assessment and gentle rehabiliation when the 'triple-whammy' is healed.
ReplyDeleteTo this end, and to enable you to resume your peregrinations asap, I have been musing on the various needs you mention, and offer the following single but multi-purpose, historically tested and proven device - with details of how each requirement and its specific solution is met:
to whit - one donkey
(young, healthy and, absolutely essential, malleable)
(plus blinkers - to avoid fright on steep cliff-edge paths)
(a mule might do but even harder to bend to your will)
- to perform or enable the following
a/. transport aid when weary
b/. freight aid to carry
i/. larger tent with side opening and awning
ii/. solar panels with capacity to charge several
mobile and led lighting devices
iii. cooking stove etc. and emergency gas canisters when
c/. gas generator and compressor fuelled by mix of donkey and other animal dung found by the wayside fails to work (or feedstock is in short supply)
d/. saddle adapted to carry winsome (nubile optional) nurse, her paraphernalia and fermenation apparatus to manufacture custom DNA-typed antiboitics on the go (might need a trailer)
e/. 1:25000 OS (or IGN) maps of your complete route in case of failure of 'bii' above or lack of sunshine
f/. pen and paper to record travels with donkey (ditto failure of bii)
g/. scythe and/or machete (not enough power available for chainsaw)
h/. saddle cloth to double as sit mat (tripling up as prayer mat)
i/. a. m. e. n.
that will be a tale to blog about!
Dam you Gimmer for planting that seed! Have now gone to check Amazon to see if they do one day delivery on donkeys!
DeleteSorry, I haven't kept up with your travails. Only recently back from North Wales where we spent a sum of money (dinner, accommodation for one night, brekker) that, five years ago, would have sustained us for a week touring France and staying at single cheminée logis.
ReplyDeleteI have a gruesome fascination in knowing where you stick the needle in these self-injection sessions. And how long it took you to become habituated. I apologise for mocking your embryonic problems in an earlier comment; now I recommend you adopt the style of Maurice Herzog, sitting in his tent on Annapurna, snipping off his blackened fingers and toes with a pair of kitchen scissors. Being a Frenchman he was required to record these events quite laconically, and rose manfully to the challenge.
Perhaps your most remarkable detail in the above post is the last "a further review appointment in Kendal". I assume this will be a non-medical meeting arranged specially for those who blog. To ensure you're straight on all the details and have got the spelling correct. With some rough figures as to what you're saving by not living in a country where they make you pay for all this.
I face some surgery of my own shortly; each day I take a walk round the garden to work up my laconicism. To quote the old Beecham's Pills slogan, being laconic is "worth a guinea a box". No going to excess; remember, God created you an Englishman and it's presently payback time.
Gimmer - Good plan. But, I have an inherent fear of equine animals. I am ok with dogs, so perhaps a similar programme on a smaller scale with a St Bernard?
ReplyDelete----------------
RR -I was issued with fourteen syringes at Lancaster and shown by a nurse how to administer the first one.
The next would not be until 4:00pm the next day, so I had plenty of time to think about it, and those thoughts had me envisaging something akin to committing suicide, BUT, salvation was at hand. Having summarised the unsatisfactory events of my Lancaster visit in an email to my gp he had me into Kendal hospital that next morning pronto. "Ah" I thought, "now I will be able to get a nurse to do the next one for me".
When the time came the nurse suggested I should do it myself while she and daughter High Horse watched. I was in a no-win situation, that is if I wanted to retain any kind of macho image, so I just went for it in a very positive manner, resulting in applause, and strangely to me, surprise from the two female onlookers.
The "gruesome" detail: pinch a layer of the subcutaneous fat, below the belly button, so that it presents a tight surface, stab, inject, hold for a few seconds at the end and withdraw in a straight line. After that subsequent enactments have been a bit of an anticlimax, especially as there has been no audience, but then neither had Maurice.
I must say there was no hesitation! It took me over half an hour when I had to do it after Katie's birth - and that was with the added motivation of being allowed to go home with my newborn once I had done the deed.
DeleteI'm late to this.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear of your plight, Conrad and wish you all the best for a full recovery. I know exactly how you feel about injecting yourself - I had to inject EPO for a year. I never got used to it - it was a hideous thing to do.
All the very best
Alan
Alan S. - well it it was all worth it for you. Another TGO challenge under your belt and another one in the pipeline. Those pictures on the link on your last post of windmills in Scotland are horrific, it's a while since I've been north and it has really put me off. I'm looking at walking the east coast going north next year picking up from Dundee after my Fylde Coast walk a couple of years ago, but I'm not sure how much that will be affected by the blight.
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to keep your 'eyes right' then, Sir.
ReplyDeleteThe East coast is plastered with turbines.
:-(
i'm not sure if it is protocol to comment on your reply and to add to another's comment
ReplyDeletebut
if you have a equine issue, and as I don't think even a big St B would be able to carry the burdens envisaged additional to the regulation VSOP
how about
a llama
or
a yak
both useful during and after - milk, yoghurt, wool - and then, if desperate . . .
putting expedition planning to one side - how's it going now?
gimmer - Been there, done that:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dropbox.com/s/mkcnj6fo5ic22oa/LlamaCHR%20copy.jpg?dl=0
If that Dropbox link doesn't work copy and paste into browser.