0

24 February 2012

Posted by DMC on 25 February 2012 in Diary |

I am pleased to report that I had a reasonably comfortable night, with minimal pain in my hips and shoulder. Ironically, the worst pain was in my knees which I believe to be arthritis and nothing is, or can, be done about that except, perhaps, to have a keyhole operation on each to clear out the rubbish back, frankly, I’ve had enough operations soldiers put up with the discomfort. .

When I was with the pain consultant yesterday he looked at my medication and decided that I was taking very little pain killer. He suggested that I dropped the 2000 m.g paracetamol if it was doing no good and increase the amitriptyline from the current10 m.g. He said I could go as high as 70-75 m.g, provided there were no adverse side effects. He described these adverse effects as flushing, sweating and bad headaches. I told him that I already have the odd surge of flushing and sweating, presumably from some reaction. from one of the other pills. Anyway the idea is that I increase the amitriptyline to a point where it becomes an effective painkiller up to the maximum prescribed dose barring adverse reactions. Last night I took 20 m.g. of amitriptyline and will stick to that for the time being to see if that can control the pain.

One of my readers have written to say that her husband has been given a chair cushion and the mattress called REPOSE, which apparently he is finding very comfortable. (See yesterday’s comment on entry). Accordingly I contacted my Occupational Therapist to see if I could try out this REPOSE and she said that this was more to do with the District Nurse and she would pass on my request and, no doubt, the nurse would come and visit me to discuss.

Yet another trip was planned to Addenbrookes Hospital today, this time to the Eye Clinic for a normal follow-on check-up after my counteract operations. I tried to get this appointment on the same day as the pain clinic but the consultants work on different days so it was not possible. Anyway, I was told to be ready at just after midday for a 2.30 appointment. I closed down my computer and having been put into my electric wheelchair went and sat in the hall waiting for the ambulance. We waited and waited, but having been picked up on previous occasions at a time passer which I was supposed to be at the hospital for my appointment, we were not overly concerned. Paul was with me and I asked him to ring the eye clinic, which he did. Their first response was that the ambulance was on its way they couldn’t say what time it would arrive. When it came to 2 o’clock Paul rang again and this time made more of a fuss so that the receptionist called the hospital transport only to learn that they had no record of the request and therefore there was no ambulance coming to pick me up. This is pretty disgraceful considering’ ‘my lovely’ had telephoned seven days before the scheduled appointment, confirmed it again yesterday and made a final call this morning. On each occasion she was assured the ambulance had been booked.

When I was settled back in my study. J. I telephoned the clinic coordinator and informed her that I have a home visit from an optician and could I not get him or her to check the cataract. She agreed I could ,so, the least, I don’t need to go back to Addenbrookes for a check-up..

Another lovely day. but a few degrees cooler than yesterday. After all the nonsense over the ambulance it was too late to sit in the garden too late to sit in the garden with a cigar.t. There are snowdrops in abundance with the bright yellow celadine scattered here and there .the winter roses are still going strong and the daffodils are now well on the way to blooming when the weather permanently improves.These rare warm days in the winter make one realise that spring is not far away.

With all this business about visits to Addenbrookes. I think the following medical notes found on forms filled in by NHS staff might give my readers a little amusement. This in no way is meant to denigrate NHS staff as many other body of people, we all make mistakes but click here to see these.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Copyright © 2008-2024 D. Mark Cato's Blog All rights reserved.