SKI-er or Sk-ater. We know how to enjoy ourselves

seven-day-weekend

Great News Francophile - what a relief!!!

Enjoy your break in France.

balmaiden

Brilliant news Francophile, what a relief for you and yours. Hope our MC and hers are o.k.

donny-gal

Great News Francophile - could not have had better news to greet me this morning.

Enjoy your time in France, we only have another 3.5 weeks then we will be driving through France to go back to the UK, struggling to know where to call home now, both seeming it
DG.

Francophile

Thank you all. I feel like Christmas has come early!!!

margaretclare

Great news, Francophile. Very relieved for you.

Well, DH is progressing bit by bit. Is only able to walk a couple of steps so far and still in great pain. They got him up for the first time on Wednesday. I was not madly impressed because they were trying to walk him in bare feet, and when I looked around, all of the oldies were being walked up and down by the physios in their bare feet. Not allowed on any ward I ever worked on - risk of infection too great, they're very hot on hand cleaning at every turn, but when you think of what can be brought in on people's shoes...

So yesterday he insisted on having his slippers on, and they found them from his locker. I've since learned that slippers are discouraged because so many of them are loose and floppy, and encourage the 'shuffling' rather than proper steps, that so many oldies are prone to. However, when he gets a bit more mobile I'll take his trainers in - he can wear them without socks and just slip them on and off.

I also was not impressed that he was still on an indwelling catheter 12 days after admission!! So again, he asked to have it taken out, and that happened last night. Now he's having problems with incontinence (spoke to him just now). This is what I expected, especially when they started getting him to walk, gravity takes over, the catheter irritates and you can lose the sensation of when you want to 'go'. I have known people go into hospital perfectly continent and come out again after being catheterised, never continent again. It happened to 2 relatives of mine, and it was a problem I had myself some years ago after bladder surgery. My bladder became extra-sensitive and it has taken me ages to re-train it. However, I reassured DH that this was what I thought would happen, he is better without the catheter in and do some bladder re-training. The urology team are helping him, so it's good, a lot of people are on the ball.

Yesterday he was taken to theatre and had a PICC line inserted: PICC = peripherally inserted central catheter, this is because there had been so much difficulty keeping an IV line in any of his veins. This PICC is a bit like when you go for an angiogram, it's in his arm but the end actually sits just above his heart. This is necessary because they've identified some of the nasty bugs that have caused all this, one of them is a bug that can cause bacterial endocarditis - attacks the heart valves - and they are giving IV antibiotics quite aggressively to hit these bugs hard. No good knocking them over and then letting them recover - that's why MRSA happens! IV lines and indwelling catheters are apparently a big cause of MRSA, routes that bugs can get in easily.

I'm just waiting for materials to be delivered for my new shower enclosure and new loo, builder coming on Monday. Instead of a 'step in' shower we'll have a 'walk in' with 35 mm clearance, a better shower enclosure, curved so no sharp corners, and also a better-quality loo with dual-flush.

I'm also ordering new furniture from HSL www.hslchairs.com - for DH, a handle recliner with a foot-raise so that his stiff knee can be supported. I'm ordering a standard one for me, not a recliner but to match. Well, there is a 4-6 delivery time, so given that we'll have Christmas upon us before we know it, I am posting that order off today. Not that Christmas matters all that much, but everywhere shuts down for a fortnight, so want to get it in. Am sending a cheque deposit - not paying by credit card and have the full amount taken up-front!

This is really as much SKI-ing as is going on holiday. It's about greater comfort and convenience for us - hopefully this is the last time we'll ever need to have the bathroom modified or buy new furniture.

seven-day-weekend

Glad your OP is slowly improving Margaret and hope his bladder learns how to work again soon.

I agree that spending money on stuff to give yourselves a better quality of life is just as much SKI-ing as going on holiday. It's spending YOUR money on what YOU want - not saving it for someone else to inherit.

Hope all continues well for you.

Savvy_Sue

So glad to hear Francophile's news and hope you have a great trip to France soon. And margaretclare, hope your DH continues to improve. One thing though:

margaretclare wrote: »

Am sending a cheque deposit - not paying by credit card and have the full amount taken up-front!

But paying by credit card gives you far more protection should anything go wrong! And yes, they take the full amount up front, BUT you don't have to pay for a month, at least. So I always use my credit cards for large purchases. Waiting for my new Fridge Freezer, next week, but that's a necessity rather than a SKI-ing upgrade, IMO, as the old one is starting to leak! :eek:

Merrywidow

You are so wise 7-D-W - Ski-ing or Ska-ting is all about doing the stuff you love - holidays are as much pampering oneself as those lovely treats. Just round the corner from my Ford garage is a fantastic fish/shellfish restuarant with food to die for. While my car was being serviced I treated myself this week with Oysters and a whole crab (half into a doggy bag for supper) it leaves me with a glow that lasts for days - my little bit of heaven. At their prices it wasn't something I would ever have allowed myself in leaner years. That was my treat after missing out on Galicia this year.

Merrywidow

Hi Margaret - you are very quiet - I hope everything is OK. How is hubby doing?

margaretclare

Thanks, MW. It has been a long story. 3 weeks yesterday DH was admitted to hospital with what turned out to be an abscess in the replaced knee joint, the one that had been replaced 3 times, the last time 2 years ago, apparently all healed up but never completely right - a low-grade niggling pain, now we know why. He nearly died. On the mend now, and was told by the orthopaedic registrar 'you don't know how lucky you are to be alive'. He does know in fact, because as he puts it 'I went to the edge and looked over, but I was brought back'.

Anyway, his knee joint has to be reconstructed, it can't stay as it is now. In the meantime he has been fighting this major infection which has made him so weak, and also he's been very anaemic, had another 3 units of blood last week. But just now, the plan is to re-mobilise him and then to allow him home, but go back sometime before Christmas for the reconstruction. With a knee replacement there are 3 components, the top and bottom ones are still there but the one in the middle was removed because the consultant said 'infection finds places to hide'. And he has to have that piece put back so that he has a knee joint that can be used.

Well, I have been SKI-ing with a vengeance. I ordered new curtains for the front room to be made, approx £400, my SIL will hang those for us. My new chairs from HSL about the same time. My new shower enclosure and new loo are lovely, that was £1980 in total, with materials and labour. I'm having the bathroom floor laid tomorrow morning - SIL brought the material surplus to another job, I just had to find someone local to lay it for me. I've been shopping at Waitrose, bought new bathroom mats, fruit cut up ready to eat for him, all those kinds of things. Last but not least, I've been in contact with 'Molly Maids' http://www.mollymaid.co.uk/ who are coming next Tuesday to do a complete spring-clean so that this house is thoroughly clean, all the things I can't do and in any case, have no time to do. Well worth the money. A shroud has no pockets etc.

My life now revolves around those 2 precious hours every afternoon, which are never uninterrupted because someone always comes to do something. Parking at that hospital is dire and I've formed the habit of going there an hour early, to get into the car-park and I sit listening to the car radio. People at church have been very kind and supportive but, mostly, a lot of people who want to know the details wouldn't understand anyway. It's not something most people can relate to. They understand strokes and heart attacks, they understand people going in for surgery and coming home again. They even understand people being treated for cancer, or dying of it, they understand dementia. But this has been something unusual. It absolutely came out of the blue, was something we never thought of or expected at all.

Yesterday a lady came round from the rehab team. They were proposing to bring him home for an hour, see how he coped, see what fixtures and fittings he might need, then bring him back. I think myself that's torture. Once he's home he wouldn't want to come back, except for the planned knee reconstruction in a few weeks' time. She proposed putting grab-rails by the front door. I've seen these - white plastic, just like in the bathroom. I was told by a police officer once that these are a dead give-away to anyone with nefarious intentions - 'someone elderly or disabled lives here' and there are those who will target people they think are vulnerable. Sad but true.

He still has the PICC line in situ but now he's down to 1 x daily IV antibiotics instead of 4 x daily, and the District Nursing Service can do it once he's home. There is still some evidence of infection in his blood but they monitor it daily and it is coming down steadily, day by day.

Now he needs to mobilise properly, off the zimmer and on to crutches. I took his own crutches in at the weekend but he was told yesterday it's a question of 'balance'. So hopefully he'll be allowed to use the crutches soon, then he'll be away. Once he can go to the loo himself, that will be a big step forward.

I got rid of the other chairs via the local Freecycle.

Me, I just feel tired. Tired, tired. You wouldn't believe how tiring all this is. Thanks for the kind thoughts.