You can keep your socks on

was looking forward to some sleep last but had to have catheter replaced at 3 a.m. and again at 4 .m. (oh joy) due to bladder infection.

Yikes, sweetheart. The dreaded, sadistic catheter. Maybe I can kiss it and make it all better...

[crosses legs]

[looks other direction]

Oh the tears are welling up.

I put on Dys' nice thick bath robe to go feed Garage. Sally was walking along, sniffing his robe. Maybe in that Sally mind, she thought that Dys would appear.

Honey, if you don't come home on Monday, I will find a way to sneak Sally into your room.

I never understood why hospitals will not let the patients get some rest at night. That's an important part of healing.

This is Sally practicing being sneaked into Dys' room.


Diane, when I was in the hospital recovering from surgery in the 1970s, Butrflynet sneaked my cat into my room. She hid her under her jacket and slipped her under my bed covers. The cat stayed very quiet and we never got caught.

I think Sally is too big to sneak in and Fred is too noisy to hide. However, Dante might get away with it.

BBB

That was the one thing I absolutely hated from my surgery. I had to have the catheter in for 4 of the 13 days I was in the hospital. With all the changes and cleaning and tugging and pulling involved in maintaining it, I was extremely swollen and sore and begging for it to be removed by the 3rd day.

I'm sorry you're having to endure one, Bob.

Be relentless about insisting everyone who touches you or anything in your room washes their hands, and not just with that foamy alcohol stuff. I read somewhere that that soapless alcohol stuff is suspected of being one of the reasons infection levels in hospitals are on the rise.

Ah ha, found the article. If the sanitation gel contains less than 60% alcohol, it is ineffective in killing the germs and viruses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/health/21cons.html

Very good advice, especially on Sundays when the quality of care is at a lower level.

BBB

Great news to hear Dys will be coming home soon. I'll send some infection clearing vibes your way!

mrs h's hemoglobin count was quite low after the operation (just 3 months ago) , but she has now recovered 50 % of the loss . the surgeon told her at the recent checkup that she is recovering very well but that total recovery takes at least 6 months - by which time she'll probably back to her normal level .

to increase iron intake , i suggested that instead of bacon and eggs for breakfast we use a bacon "subsitute" , namely beef tenderloin . i have to congratulate myself on this excellent choice <GRIN> .
we both enjoy our breakfast even more !

btw we just came back from shopping and even though it's well below freezing , went for a little walk around the neighbourhood .
chicken is in the oven now and the smell is making me hungry .

so how would the dys feel about having some steak for breakfast ?
all the wishes from your frigid neighbours .
hbg

I keep checking and reading up. This crazy rollercoaster looks like it'll be ending a nicely positive note! I'm glad Dys has a laptop.

Blimey, just caught up.


Dys....CAN YOU STOP SCARING US ALREADY!!!!!


I hope the goddam bladder infection is gone....you keep drinking water, hear???

Yeah....I also.

And I can KICK!!

More hugs for (((((((sweet stuff))))))

You really trust these quacks and their minions, don't you? Okay, the man goes to the hospital, with a broken hip and lots of optimism. Before he's out, he's got an infection from the surgical site, pneumonia, and a bladder infection. Now, they charge him for fixing their screwups. A crooked mechanic in a nationally franchised muffler shop would blush, but you trust these guys.

At this point, I do trust medical professionals more than I trust Dys to effectively self-diagnose and self-treat.

I don't like hospitals any more than anyone else does, but there are some damn good doctors and physiotherapists and occupational therapists and nurses and other medical professionals out there. You'd be foolish to think you know more than they do. There are certainly individual exceptions, but on the whole I do trust medical professionals more than I trust people with Dys' medical history to self-manage.

It's all well and good to not want to die in a hospital, but not taking action and getting treatment that can prevent an early death, well, I think that's just stupid. And encouraging people to think they can self-assess and self-manage is stupid, unkind and cruel.

Much of this could have been prevented by appropriate medical care and intervention some time ago. The hip fracture can't have been unanticipated, given the relationship between smoking and decreased bone density at the hip with age. old news There's a reason a couple of us were making comments of concern about the leg pain some time ago.

There are risks and benefits to every procedure done in the hospital. Sometimes the benefits outweigh the risks. Health professionals are human and their goal is to give patient care and healing. We aren't miracle workers.

I'm being uncommonly quiet, since I don't want to do a drama number on my point of view, which the folks concerned know about.

On this last roll of cynicism from Roger, it is just plain wrong in at least one of the instances.

I have a bias. I, like ehBeth and Martybarker, have known many superb health professionals, probably in the hundreds. I've known two really bad ones.

I guess I get defensive because sometimes healthcare is a thankless job. I've been called in to the hospital in the middle of the night to work as a team to save someones life and have them verbally abusing you as your working as quickly and efficiently as you can.

Yes infections happen, but what are the alternatives? Some pts immune systems are stronger than others.