Amber update - good news and I'm back to happy again

Post vets update

So it’s confirmed Amber has had her second stroke, or in doggy terminology – canine idiopathic vestibular syndrome. She was given a steroid injection last night and has a new medication to take twice a day. I double checked the date of her last one while we were there, it was the weekend of my birthday March 3^rd so she went 8 weeks between them. The vet said that in comparison to other dogs she had seen this wasn’t too bad (Our friends dog Jake was much more severe last year and he’s on the same meds and mostly back to himself again now) so fingers crossed. She did have the ‘quality of life’ discussion with us but agrees Amber is happy if wobbly and now is not the time.

I’m feeling more myself today, I’m a little sad because it would have been my brothers 44^th birthday today, Facebook is both kind and cruel in showing the photos of Ian’s 40^th as a little cruel in asking me would I like to wish him happy birthday – goodness knows I would.

So the rest of the week - now I’m not a blithering mess.

I have a 4 day weekend coming up. Monday is a bank holiday here in the UK and I booked Tuesday off because I’m back at the hospital for my eye check up at 11:45 and it seems a shame to not take advantage of a long weekend.

We don’t really have anything specific planned, but I’d like to get those bits and bats around the house started that I’ve been threatening to get on with for ages (I’m sure this idea will horrify Gareth) I’ve booked extra dog park sessions for the beasties which will make them all very happy.

I’m actually feeling pretty ‘serene’ today for want of a better word, I think I’ve finally caught up on the sleep that I’ve missed for the last few weeks. Bob is in the car not the office and the sun is shining. I’ve got loads done already this morning, I’m on plan for my eating regime and I’ve only had my one cup of coffee per day. I’m working my way through my first litre of water and I haven’t missed an eye drop at its required time. Gareth’s working from home, so Amber has him there and I’m not worried she might be trying to get up or down the stairs in her wobbly state.

It’s all good.

Sorry for being such a worry wart yesterday and sounding so down. I’m back to my usual happy self today.

Tracy xx

3 years 50 weeks - Month 48 blood results are back

Highlights for this month’s bloods

1.      My thyroid is still ‘barely’ in the normal range ….  Although right at the bottom end so Hyper remains a challenge.

2.      Neutrophils and Monocytes are still misbehaving

3.      Lymphocytes remain satisfyingly in the lower end of the normal range.

Sending bloods on to the neurology and doctors as usual long with an enquiry to see if there’s anything they can do to understand why the Neutrophils and Monocytes are always high, they’ve been that way for many months now and I’d like to know why so that I can project manage getting them right again (as I do with everything)

Eye update – Still going with the drops and the gel stuff, I’m cautiously optimistic that they might have been mistaken about the sight loss being permanent, either I’m adjusting to it really well or my left eye is so blind I can’t see the difference any more LOL. I haven’t had the horrible zig zag rainbow lights in my vision since last Thursday and no pain killers either. So fingers crossed when I’m back on May 7^th they have some positive / good news for me.

Amber is back at the vets tonight, she had another stroke yesterday and is off her feet again, she seems okay in herself, although her tongue pokes out most of the time and when she’s just woken up she can only walk in circles and she looks very drunk when walking. I hate it when she falls, but she just shakes her head gets back up and starts again. Animals are so much more resilient than people. Last time on day 3 she improved back to normal so we are keeping our fingers crossed that tomorrow will be a better day for her. In the interim I feel physically sick just worrying about what the vet will say.

The weekend was quiet and peaceful in comparison to last weekend, no frantic dashing around or visitors. I made Lamb HotPot yesterday for Sunday dinner and it was pretty awesome with plenty for leftovers – sadly I then forgot to put it in the fridge and it’s currently still sitting in the pot on the cooker top - so that’s buggered that plan up.

The rest of the week seems a bit of a blur right now, I guess a lot will depend on what the vets say about Amber.

I’ll put another update our later this week when my head is a bit more organised, I’m pretty scatter brained right now wondering what they’re going to say to us.

Sorry xx

In the interim here's the blood results xx

3 years 49 weeks - life returns to something vaguely resemling normal

Oh dear I’ve just read back that last post that I thought I’d done pretty well in the dark courtesy of Siri …. Apparently not, it’s garbled there are some ery odd things here, but I’m going to leave it as evidence that Siri is an idiot and I was pretty blind at the time.

Apologies for nearly 3 weeks of silence, but the eye injury turned out to be far more serious than we had ever imagined it would be. The Ulcer in the gouge in my left eye was infected. It took 5 days of drops on the hour, every hour 24 hours a day just to get it a little under control, then another 4 days of every other hour 24 hours a day. Over the Easter weekend it came down to every 3 hours and as of Tuesday I’m down to every 4 hours but also have a gel thing that has to go in 3 times a day as well.

The infection has caused some scarring to my cornea which the Ophthalmologists think is permanent and has caused about 25% sight loss in my left eye.

Fortunately I guess as I (very badly said in the last post) my left eye is the rubbish one anyway so 25% of not a lot isn’t really the end of the world. It’s been quite disorientating learning to see around it, the headaches and light refractions around any light surface distracting. But all in all ….. could be worse.

Having a ‘blind’ bit in my eye isn’t how I thought it would be, it’s not dark for starters, it’s like a piece of frosted bathroom glass is in the way, it’s a light bit of frosted glass that I can’t see through but it’s not dark.

I’m back at the hospital in a couple of weeks for the next review, so more on that one later.

I went in on Tuesday and tried to get my monthly bloods done, sadly the  new nurse couldn’t get blood from me, either I turned into a stone, or she had performance anxiety trying to do it in front of the trainee nurse J So I now have a massive bruise in my left inside elbow bit.

It was Gareth’s 40^th birthday on Friday, a surprise visit for him by his parents and a surprise dinner with friends on Friday night. It was a lovely weekend although not without its challenges.

Sunday lunchtime we tried to drive down to Portsmouth to see Gareth’s grandmother and were witnesses to a very serious head on collision on the A33 and spent a lot of time out in the sunshine helping look after the injured the police, fire and ambulances were magnificent and were impressed that the head on collision was so well organised when they got there (Off Duty poolice traffi cofficer, ex army, first aid trained program manager co-ordinating the post accident activities - we were awesome),  

Then an unplanned taking apart of the spare bed frame and dispatching it to the tip because it was completely broken, a trip into Reading to disassemble another bed frame and bring it home and reassemble it in time for Gareths parents return from Portsmouth.

By Monday all I wanted to do was sleep and get over the 4 day weekend J

I’m back in work now after a whopping 2 weeks off, the first sick note of my entire working life – seriously never had one before until the ripe old age of 47 – that must be worth some kind of achievement badge J the 4 hour drops and gel cycle is manageable now and I’m starting to feel something vaguely resembling human again.

Back to the doctors tomorrow having drunk a gallon of water to see if this time they can get blood from the stone J

Hope everyone’s having a great one, much love xx

3 years 46 weeks - OMFG the week of hideous pain

Simply where to start ....

It’s wednesday I can finally see again so I’m updating the blog.

 It should be said that any mistakes that I made in this weeks blog on the Responsibility of Siri and not my crap typing

 Okay let’s start with what I’ve already told you about the spine guy and getting my left-arm sorted    Had he mentioned in our previous discussions that he was going to directly inject into the nerve cluster  then I might of been a little more apprehensive    I went in there expecting pain free loveliness and getting over my fear of being stabbed in the spine   This was not the case

When someone injects directly into your nerve cluster, it’s a little bit like being electrocuted like what you see in movie torture scene - it really bloody  hurts.  Especially when whimpering in pain you beg him to stop so he does. You’re now trapped - you can’t move, just lay there and swear and then tell him to get in with it. In totial the agony actually lasts the best part of three minutes whilst electrocution feeling continues   Fortunately as soon as they remove the needle everything went back to normal pretty quickly and it seems to have done the trick so far.

 The surprise horrifically painful thing

I should start by saying that given the choice I would go back to the spine guy and let him do ^^^^ again another 2 or 3 times before I EVER go through the next bit again.

 We are walking round Costco on Saturday with Gareth’s mum and dad when my eyesight started to go very weird   I could literally see light trials from the fluorescent lights a bit like being in a nightclub without the good music and nice dunks.  by the time we left I realised my left contact lens was becoming painful I took it out and thought no more of it.  Sadly by that point the damage was already done.

Sunday was just horrific I had my eyes checked I was told it was a scratch keep it clean it would be okay but I was so sensitive to light and the pain was so awful I didn’t know what to do with myself

 There wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to get into work on Monday those electric lights they have in offices burnt my eyes, by now left side of my face felt like i had been rabbit punched to the side
Of my face - my eye was so painful I didn’t know what to do  When I hadn’t slept at 3 o’clock on Tuesday morning I dragged Gareth out bed and to the hospital.  Confirmed (again) Scratched my eye but quite possibly an ulcer as well -  we left the hospital at 7 am with instructions to return for the eye A&E at 9 am  -  sleep is for girls

 Was confirmed at the emergency eye clinic not only do I have a big gouge on my left Iris there is an ulcer there   I now have many types of drops one of which has to go in every hour on the hour 24 hours a day

 I woke up today and I have almost no sight in my left eye it looks like someone has put a brick through the windscreen of my vision and I can see almost nothing  Neadless to say when I phoned in this morning to my boss I was in tears he’s just told me not to bother for the rest of the week. I’m back at the emergency eye ward tomorrow at 1:15 pm to see how it’s coming along and I’m hoping that the loss of vision is the ulcer feeling And not permanent sight loss.

 Now before anyone gets excited and thinks this has anything to do with Lemtrada  it’s just something that happens to people who wear contact lenses.  It’s an extreme reaction to something getting under my lens and scratching my eye  Needless to say my vanity is simply not that big and this is not the first eye injury  as a result of wearing soft lenses however it will be the last.  I’m simply not willing to ever go through this again   My eyesight might be rubbish my left eye might be my very rubbish eye  what is rubbish  as it is I can see through it and I’m not willing to risk that.

 So apologies for a strange update but that’s all I’ve got right now sitting here in the dark talking to my iPad with one eye closed and the other mostly closed to hide from the light of the iPad screen

 Hope you’re all doing well much love xx

3 years 45 weeks All is good with the world

Date night was awesome, if you haven’t seen the trailer for Fisherman’s Friends, take a look at it on YouTube, go see it and enjoy. It was everything I hoped it would be, funny and poignant, nostalgic and heart-warming. And yes it also made me cry, but then these things usually do. I’m sitting here typing about it 7 days later and the little pictures playing through my head of parts of it are still making me smile as I type.

Animal updates:

·        Bella has been ‘done’ and had her follow up appointment, she’s been a dream and not nibbled at her wound or stiches and isn’t in the mood for zoomies yet.

·        Murphy had his check up on his awful leg injury and whilst still looking rather odd is healing nicely.

·        Amber’s blood tests came back in normal parameters

Friday I’m in Theatre getting stabbed in the neck to try and encourage the disc which is trying to escape back into where it should be. I’m incredibly nervous after the whole getting a lumbar puncture debacle at Basingstoke hospital back in 2014 when was diagnosed (something I don’t think I’ve ever shared on here but I didn’t want to freak people out – the incompetence of one team isn’t something that everyone else should be measured against) It’s being done by the top guy in this area, it will be fine, I’m being silly, ignore me.

Date night this week was last night, a trip to the Six Bells for a lovely Indian meal after a surprise trip to the vet with Bella for a vaccination that couldn’t be done which completely buggered up our plans for the evening and dinner. We came home and I promptly fell asleep on the sofa – I am a rubbish date I think LOL

Apart from being stabbed on Friday, we also have Gareth’s parents coming for the weekend so there needs to be a flurry of doing laundry between now and then and as usual I’d really like to have done some long overdue bits of work on the house too – a bit of touching up paintwork where it’s been Bella chewed, but that’s not going to happen. I’ll put something ‘slow cooked’ on before I go to the hospital so it can just be dished up later. Saturday I’m going the BBQ route because that’s just how we roll, perhaps Greek Lamb marinated in lovely yogurt and mint goodness.

MS-Wise – everything is on an even keel, pretty normal and very ‘dull’ for want of a better word. I guess when we have MS, Dull and boring is good, it means that nothing is going wrong and causing us concern.

It’s got to make for pretty dull reading though. I’ll admit these days I start my weekly update and think what the heck do I write that won’t make people think YAWN. I’m not going to stop, but I guess I’m acknowledging and apologising for the simple truth that there isn’t more exciting things to tell (although the ‘post stabbing in the neck’ one next week might be more interesting)

Gareth’s 40^th is also coming up on the 19^th, finally his age will start with the same number as mine – it’s been a long 7 years with him being a thirty something and me being 40 something, I now get just under 3 years of relative peace until the big 5-OHHHH happens when all the micky taking will start again. Once again I find myself wondering where the heck all that time went, how can it be – then I read back through the last few posts and think – yup Tracy, you’re an old fart better get used to that LOL

And on that bombshell (if you didn’t watch UK Top Gear of old this phrase will mean nothing to you)

I’ll stop now and admire the lovely sunshine outside the office window, AND THE SNOW THAT IS FALLING ….. gotta love a British springtime xxx

And just because it makes me smile, here's a daft picure to leave you with xx