Chapter 253 - A Visit to the Neuro

Last Thursday we visited her neuro in Hot Air City. He suggested an apomorphine trial for her and says he will arrange for someone to call her about arrangements to have it done in Hot Air City. He proposed this once before but nothing came of it. She is not keen, having memories of a similar trial some 15 years ago in the Sun City in the West when her reaction was to immediately go to sleep for some hours after the initial injection and the neuro conducting the test cancelled the experiment. Also, she has a dislike to the idea of an injection pump. So do I; another physical difficulty. After hearing about her falling without immediate prior warning the neuro asked her to have a Holter Test (she will have a portable ECG type monitor attached for 24-48 hours) and to discontinue taking Deralin. He asked her why she was taking Deralin and as she answers every doctor who has ever asked, answered "It helps with the shakes". He is the first doctor to positively tell her not to take Deralin.

After the neuro we had some junk food & came home; she was not up to visiting her friend in the town.

So on Friday she made an appointment here locally to have the Holter gadget fitted, then rang our GP about ramping down the Deralin. As we had expected, when he rang back he said not to make that change until after the Holter test which will be fitted Monday week.

We had planned to head up the 4 lane yesterday to have lunch with friends but on Friday we cancelled because she felt she would not be up to the trip & eating in a crowded place. So yesterday afternoon to get out of the house for a short break I talked her into a walk around our village, in the cold & the wind. By the time we returned some 20 minutes later she was somewhat bushed from the effort, although she had seemed to walk OK using her walker. In the house she is having greater difficulty rising from her favourite chair, so I swapped it for the solid square chair with arm rests we were given for free, for which she needed a foot stool until I lowered the legs a couple of notches. She has decided to keep using that chair in front of the TV for a while longer.

There have been no more falls. She is shuffling more in the house, pushing her house walker in front, overflowing with pill bottles, hair care items, odd magazines & bottles of water. Although the weather is cold, the only heating we are using in the house are small personal fan heaters; usually she has no need and doesn't want heating on. When I checked on her a few moments ago she was in the bedroom wearing only a blouse & slacks "Aren't you cold?" I asked as I placed my hand on her warm shoulder "I'll put this cardigan on" she said as she pushed the walker toward the TV room, the cardigan trailing from the walker handles onto the floor. I bought her some special socks without bands (bands on normal socks irritate her legs & those I bought are for diabetics) so she is wearing them with slippers around the house. When she needed help removing them last night & noted the socks were quite warm & damp from her feet sweating.

Last Tuesday she brought home a large bundle of crocheted squares from Day Respite (what I refer to as her Sheltered Workshop) that she had been trying to complete & sew together (a project someone else had not completed) during the day but had lacked the room to spread the parts out, as she does on our lounge room floor. Since then she has been progressing with that rather than her usual quilting. She has returned to often watching a number of DVD movies, a pastime she once did a lot of.

Chapter 252 - Bundle of Bruises

The blood tests our doctor ordered she had last Monday morning. Several evenings later he scared the life out of her by ringing to tell her the results. The only bad result was her level of Vitamin D. She has been taking a Vitamin D with calcium pill but he says the amount of Vitamin D in it is insufficient. So he asked her to begin taking one only each day OsteVit-D which contains 1000IU and also Caltrate 600mg.

While in my dungeon on Friday afternoon I heard a crash. I found her in a bewildered heap on top of a kitchen chair laying on the floor. She was unable to get up by herself. I am unsure whether the noise I heard was due to the chair falling or her hitting her head on the pantry door which resulted in a large reddish welt and associated bump on the left corner of her head; the skin was not broken. Although she had a slight headache she did not want to take a Panadol. She said later there was a little blood when she blew her nose. Perhaps I should have taken her to the hospital. And now both buttocks carry very large bruises. Our kitchen chairs are spindle backed; one spindle popped out of its socket and I am unable to bend it to re-fit it into position.

A phone call initiated the fall. I tend to leave answering the phone to her; she has many more than I do and that is why we have 6 extensions on our copper line, one at every place in the house that one of us spends 90% of our time. However she has been preparing patchwork blocks at the kitchen table which is not within grasping range of a phone. Five of the extensions are cordless, sitting in their charging cradles all day & night. I decided this morning that we each must carry one of the extensions in our pockets rather than scrambling madly to answer phone calls, most of which are not of such importance that messages left on the answering system are not good enough. Many might say that we should rely on our mobile phones, instead of leaving them switched off, but at least I find the damned things that little bit too intrusive, especially when the trend is for callers to lazily ring mobile numbers before land lines since such gadgets tend to be answered no matter where & when the called person may be.

I am attempting to have her walk more, either on the treadmill or with her walker. Yesterday we circumnavigated our village, first time in forever.

Chapter 251 - Not Herself

A short time ago she went back to bed. She had risen about 7AM she had said; I heard her doing so as she turned on our CB radios, taking hers with her out to sit in front of her TV. The first in a long time that she has taken her CB from the charger; I keep telling her that she must do so whenever she rises before I do, but she usually doesn't, says she doesn't wish to wake me. That's why I pretended not to hear this morning. After I rose and showered she was in her favourite chair, having eaten a banana, maybe some toast. She told me she wasn't feeling well, she waved her hand across her stomach and chest, said she felt "full". She decided to return to bed, saying that she had "been awake since about 2AM." I tucked her in, she asked for her little blanket, wanted the T-Hub radio switched off and went to sleep.

Yesterday we saw "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen", a pleasant movie. We had contemplated attending a talk about the local wetlands until she changed her mind; less public, less crowded I suppose. She was not interested in going to the Club afterwards, only having taken her meds a short time before in the theatre.

During the week I mentioned to a friend that I was intending to go to Hot Air City next week to buy a solid chair with locking wheels. He suggested a wheelchair. No need & a brilliant idea! We have a collapsible wheelchair bought when we intended to go on an ocean cruise. I retrieved it from the shower in the spare bathroom, dusted it, removed the foot rests, to find it ideal for her to use in her sewing room! At last we have a use for it; perhaps she may become accustomed to being seated in one?

On Friday after seeing the doctor we bought some pillows at her favourite junk shop for the wheelchair. Not very satisfactory, needing a pillow square and firm. I found in one of my cupboards some pieces of foam which when glued together formed an ideal pillow base which she covered with fabric yesterday.

As indicated above, we visited the doctor yesterday to stock up on scripts & referrals; also to hear the results of her chest X-ray taken after she noticed blood in her spit - all clear on that and the doctor was non-committal about it. In regards to her more frequent falling (the physio had told her to speak to her doctor about the falls since the falls were not proceeded by dizziness) the doctor said to discuss it with her neurologist, although he referred her for another blood test to ensure she was not anaemic.

She still has a very large bruise on her left hip/thigh from the last fall. And she has more aches and pains than from earlier falls.

Time to check on her sleeping.