Chapter 281 - Pain
Her leg pains are unbearable, cramps in the outside of her calves of both legs, even in her buttocks. Seems OK while she is in bed but becomes excruciating as soon as she begins to rise. Monday last week I had her ring for an appointment with our normal GP; booked out for days, asked for our sub-continent replacement to learn that he had left the practice, yet there was a replacement, a woman, from a country up north. She was wonderful! Communicative, listened well, showed concern, was very careful seeking approval for some of the PD meds, gave a script for Panadeine Forte to take 2 only on going to bed, not a miracle cure perhaps.A test for racist bias in our society would be to determine preferences of patients for Australian or foreign born medical practitioners. On the whole, I have personally found foreign born (or of foreign descent) to have better skills than the local variety. After the appointment we shopped, returned home and forgot her physio at the hospital.
An active/passive pedal exercise machine I ordered arrived. This to overcome the complete lack of exercise, except for the once-a-week physio session. She likes it. She can either run it in powered mode where the machine moves her legs or she can push the pedals against the static force of the machine while seated in her chair, although perhaps she should sit more upright on a kitchen chair. So each morning she does a session on it. Too soon to say whether it is a help, but anything is better than nothing. She needed the wheelchair to get to the loo this morning (first time in a week), her steps were so small and painful that an accident may have occurred with delay. Although she sat there while I did some Wii exercises and had my breakfast. Then later she pushed herself out to the back room in the wheelchair to begin peddling. Then when she needed to shower, the shower chair was needed, as every morning this last week.
On Thursday we attended our local PD Group after which we had lunch at the Club. She had coffee after the meal, a fact she latched onto after we returned home and she began needing urinate every 15 minutes for about two hours; I didn't count. Our friends, in town from Big Smoke, were embarrassed for her, not seeing that these things happen, although I must admit this was a little extreme. She said later that she was "present yet not involved" for the remainder of the evening. She blamed the coffee (she never drinks coffee these days) the Panadeine Forte, not taken since, and I wondered about a UTI, but the phase stopped as quickly as it started. The loo visits, her sweating, worried our friends, who suggested checking temperature and blood pressure. Temperature was normal, and although within her usual fluctuations, so was her blood pressure. She failed to finish eating parts of her evening meal. Maybe I'm too blase about her changes in condition; to me it's part and parcel of her PD. All the same, the sooner she sees the PD nurse again the better.
On Friday afternoon our friends returned again when matters were "normal". I suspect they do not associate her changed condition with PD and the medications. That evening she ate normally and maybe went to the loo once. Our friends suggested that the statins, as Crestore, she takes for cholesterol may cause her cramps. I had forgotten that Lipitor had had that immediate effect a couple of years ago, so now she has ceased taking the Crestore, yet so far I doubt there has been any change in the cramping.
Yesterday I took her to Respite for the day while I attended our computer club (I am one of the conveners) in the afternoon. I heard her telling someone later that I take her to Respite when I need to do anything. This was the first time I have done so; on Tuesdays, her regular day, is more for her benefit to have social contact, even though some of the other participants have slight dementia, and it maintains her interest in hand crafts. After last Tuesday she brought home a quilt the group had constructed; requiring our Town's emblem, so I was volunteered to create a design and then stitch it eight times on the quilt. I hear they liked the result. At home she has been making a quilt that was well on the way to completion when she decided to add extra complexity and since then she has pulled the whole apart several time; I just home she does not discourage herself in her attempts.
An active/passive pedal exercise machine I ordered arrived. This to overcome the complete lack of exercise, except for the once-a-week physio session. She likes it. She can either run it in powered mode where the machine moves her legs or she can push the pedals against the static force of the machine while seated in her chair, although perhaps she should sit more upright on a kitchen chair. So each morning she does a session on it. Too soon to say whether it is a help, but anything is better than nothing. She needed the wheelchair to get to the loo this morning (first time in a week), her steps were so small and painful that an accident may have occurred with delay. Although she sat there while I did some Wii exercises and had my breakfast. Then later she pushed herself out to the back room in the wheelchair to begin peddling. Then when she needed to shower, the shower chair was needed, as every morning this last week.
On Thursday we attended our local PD Group after which we had lunch at the Club. She had coffee after the meal, a fact she latched onto after we returned home and she began needing urinate every 15 minutes for about two hours; I didn't count. Our friends, in town from Big Smoke, were embarrassed for her, not seeing that these things happen, although I must admit this was a little extreme. She said later that she was "present yet not involved" for the remainder of the evening. She blamed the coffee (she never drinks coffee these days) the Panadeine Forte, not taken since, and I wondered about a UTI, but the phase stopped as quickly as it started. The loo visits, her sweating, worried our friends, who suggested checking temperature and blood pressure. Temperature was normal, and although within her usual fluctuations, so was her blood pressure. She failed to finish eating parts of her evening meal. Maybe I'm too blase about her changes in condition; to me it's part and parcel of her PD. All the same, the sooner she sees the PD nurse again the better.
On Friday afternoon our friends returned again when matters were "normal". I suspect they do not associate her changed condition with PD and the medications. That evening she ate normally and maybe went to the loo once. Our friends suggested that the statins, as Crestore, she takes for cholesterol may cause her cramps. I had forgotten that Lipitor had had that immediate effect a couple of years ago, so now she has ceased taking the Crestore, yet so far I doubt there has been any change in the cramping.
Yesterday I took her to Respite for the day while I attended our computer club (I am one of the conveners) in the afternoon. I heard her telling someone later that I take her to Respite when I need to do anything. This was the first time I have done so; on Tuesdays, her regular day, is more for her benefit to have social contact, even though some of the other participants have slight dementia, and it maintains her interest in hand crafts. After last Tuesday she brought home a quilt the group had constructed; requiring our Town's emblem, so I was volunteered to create a design and then stitch it eight times on the quilt. I hear they liked the result. At home she has been making a quilt that was well on the way to completion when she decided to add extra complexity and since then she has pulled the whole apart several time; I just home she does not discourage herself in her attempts.
posted by Kilpike | 10:01 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home