30 Mar: Readings & Comments & Grumbling

5.4  / 97    Fasting         07:59:03 - Should be 'overnight' as I went back to bed.
5.9  / 106   Fasting         11:14:49
7.9  / 143   Post-Breakfast  13:04:22
8.7  / 156   Random          14:03:38 - Really felt quite ill at this point
5.7  / 103   Pre-Lunch       14:51:08 - Took a nap and felt better
5.2  / 93    Pre-Tea         18:29:32
7.7  / 138   Post-Tea        20:40:23 - Fish & Chips

I feel like crap! My side aches and hurts. Boris the VAC hasn't shut up all day. I really have a lot of fluid this time around and he's doing his job, I just wish he weren't driving me slowly insane.

My side started hurting last night and hasn't eased up at all. I had a dressing change today and underneath everything, my back is quite a bit red - I had the nurse take a picture with my phone camera so I could see it. We decided it was wise to get on some antibiotics so I managed to get the very LAST available appointment with anyone at the medical centre I go to. As I couldn't very well show him what was under the vacuum seal, I showed him the photos the hospital took last Friday and then showed him what it looks like this Friday. He agreed that antibiotics are the way to go and gave me a prescription.

I'm still worried about them having to open the wound pockets/tunnels up in my back - I'm just afraid it'd be really painful. The logic behind it is good, but my fear doesn't want to know about logic.

Anyway, I'm tired and grumpy and Rod's on his way to bed so I shall join him. G'night!

28 Mar: Readings & Comments

5.0  / 90   Fasting         10:59:40
5.9  / 107  Post-Breakfast  13:32:10
6.6  / 119  Post-Lunch      16:08:01
4.2  / 76   Pre-Tea         18:27:58
6.1  / 109  Post-Tea        20:41:55

I'm drinking a cup of guilt free hot chocolate with toffee. It's got all of 46 calories but you sure wouldn't know that by the taste. Yum.

Yesterday the plan was to meet Rod down at Colonades - I was going to take a bus there as he would be where I needed to be so I figured we could save on petrol if I just met him there in the first place. Well that didn't happen. He finished classes early so came home to pick me up. I was still finishing the 'chores' I wanted to get done, and the doorbell rang. It turned out to be his brother, who'd just dropped his car off to get the breaks fixed. So we offered him a beer and had a nice visit then dropped him off at his house on our way.

Boreass (my vacuum pump I have to carry around with me) of course let everyone in line at Centrelink know of his existance by making rude noises. I had a much nicer person this time and they even told Rod how he could submit the forms for me. We've done that in the past but he got yelled at for it once so we haven't been game to try it again. Now we know how to do it without getting hassled. That's nice.

We shared a lunch in the food court, literally. It was a $7.99 meal with noodles and your choice of two different dishes with it. I picked lemongrass chicken and Rod's choice was the thai stir fry beef. We shared this together and it really was quite enough for the two of us. I then stopped at 'Just Cuts' and got my hair cut while Rod wondered around and picked up our weekly lottery tickets (1 lottery ticket for Saturday Night's draw and two crossword scratchies). My haircut didn't take very long at all - maybe 15 minutes. Then we went to Big W where I bought my self a new pair of slippers for this winter, and then Woolworths for our groceries.

Speaking of slippers... Pam, if you're reading this... When I was visiting you, you gave me a lovely pair of black slippers that it turns out are really two slippers from 2 different sets. I've looked at them and though they look like a pair, both have different manufacturers! The left slipper has a butterfly design on it, and the right side has a bow. So I reckon somewhere in your house is the OTHER pair. Should you find the other pair, please pass them on to Diane to put in the box to send me. I really really like these and have worn them out. And I accidently wore them to the Mall yesterday, but being cute and black, people probably just thought they were lovely shoes of similar design... I hope!! (Here's me walking around with tubing coming out of me and into a black box I'm carrying and I'm worried people might notice I'm walking around in black satin slippers... right).

While in Big W, my phone rang. It hardly ever does that! It was the Lymphodema clinic ringing to ask if I'd like to participate in another Tai Chi study they're doing. Just the other day, reading old mail, I was reminded that I'd asked DiabetesSA about the cost for their 10 week Tai Chi course that I'd like to take and looked up when it starts (the end of May) and thought by then I should be able to participate. The cost for the DiabetesSA course is $40, and the biggest problem is I'd have to take a bus into the city and then to Hilton. This is a fairly long distance from home - at least 45 minutes by car, longer by bus. So, taking part in the Lymphodema trial, it's closer to home, easier to take one bus to get there, there's no cost involved, and they pay for transportation costs (I think it's $2 per trip). How cool. And they have two trials set up. One starts in May, and the other starts in July. So if I'm unable to do the first one (which I would certainly HOPE I'd be able to do), I can do the second one. I do Tai Chi on my own, following the instructions from my last Tai Chi Lymphodema trial I was in, but it's good to have a course now and then to refresh how to do things and make sure you're moving correctly and haven't assumed a bad habit or something. No, I haven't done any Tai Chi since I developed the abscess, but I'm thinking I can start to gently do most of the routine without too much of a problem. Tai Chi is very gentle and I'm sure a little gentle stretching isn't a bad thing for healing. I shall have to talk to Marg about it though to make sure it's OK.

Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned, but I've made an appt with my GP for a fasting blood test, HBA1C and cholesterol as well as a pap smear. That's for next Monday morning.

So today I did have my dressing changed, and bless her, Marg, the wound specialist accidently tore my skin when taking off the tape. She didn't mean to, but she didn't realise just how fragile my skin is there. It's only a small cut, but OW. She felt so bad, and then Marion, the only other American I know here and a nurse in that section made comment that I had the patience of a saint. I thought she was nuts but she was referring to my overall entire experience with dealing with wound infections since having my first surgery. OK, on that count, she's probably right, but if you have a look at the very bottom of this entry you'll find a very apt quote from one of my personal heroes - Helen Keller on the topic.

Anyway, this time Marg did the measuring to see how far the pocket goes, and found that it's a circular tunnel that goes to my spine, and then curves back around and returns to the opening. We won't know until I've had at least 2wks therapy with the VAC, but if it doesn't appear to be making a difference, she said they may need to open the pocket so they're dealing with an open wound instead of a closed one. They would still treat it the same way - with the VAC system, but would be able to use the better black foam and it would heal better and faster. She also said "I know you don't want to hear this but..." and she was right. That's a worry. I mean where the current opening is, it's near my side, and I can sleep ok. If the back is opened up... well. Hmm. When the dressings were done on Friday, she went with what Awen (another nurse) told her about where the pockets go on the inside. Today she was doing it herself and found that it continues on, much to her disappointment. She also, like every nurse or doctor before her that's measured it has told me just how large an area it really is. She said it doesn't look like much on the outside, but inside, it's just massive. Sigh.

Our roast turned out very nice today, and right on time too this week - 6:30pm instead of 8pm.

I'm in the process of updating my glucose pages on my website so I can have some details to print out for my appointment on Monday. It's not finished yet, but hopefully I'll do some work on it tomorrow.

Anyway, I guess that's about it. This is two days worth more or less, so that's why it's so long.

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in the world.
-Helen Keller

26 Mar: Readings & Comments

6.3  / 113  Bedtime         00:06:51
6.4  / 116  Fasting         08:43:39
7.7  / 138  Post-Breakfast  11:39:11
5.4  / 97   Pre-Lunch       13:32:34
4.2  / 76   Pre-Tea         18:42:43
7.0  / 126  Post-Tea        20:45:53

Well I didn't have a dressing change today, even though Marg, the wound care specialist at Flinders phoned me to see how I was going and even she thought I'd be having a change. Instead they'll see me at Flinders on Wednesday to do the change and possibly I'll only need to have the dressing changed once a week. It is, after all, a totally vacuum sealed area. It's probably better to have less opportunities for germs to become present. Not that Boreass would allow any germs - he'd just suck em right out of there.

I had my usual crumpet toast with peanut butter today, so am a little surprised at having a 7.7 reading for post-breakfast. Maybe I spread it on a little too thick, or the other possibility is that I had a mandarine flavoured green tea and perhaps the mandarine green tea isn't as effective. Probably too much PB I'm betting.

I did a lot today, but nothing worth writing about. Basically I managed to do some kitchen tidying and other odd jobs, plus I actually cooked tea tonight (a lamb and veggie stir-fry). Tomorrow we're going to have another go at having a pork roast again. Last week it wasn't done until 8pm.

I am feeling more 'energetic' and less crappy finally. Just don't want to overdo it.

Oh, one of the things I did today is convert the movies that I took on my USA trip with my camera and phone camera into a format I could view on the computer. Boy am I disappointed. I got a bit of Steve drumming, a snippet of conversation with Terry, a bit of life at home with Pam and Ron, some of Diane's house on the outside, and all the rest was Fira's drum and fife corp in Canada. No conversations with my kids, no great videos of anyone really. If I were to do it again I'd do more video of PEOPLE I love. Glad I have photos, but video with sound would have been so much better. Oh well.

I have to put in my fortnightly form at Centrelink tomorrow and may go get my hair cut too if I'm feeling up to it. Also plan to do grocery shopping. By time I finish I reckon I'll be glad to be home and have Boreass off my shoulder!

One of these days I need to catch up on actually replying to Email, doing some invoicing and catching up with some paperwork that's threatening to grow over my desk. Meanwhile though, Rod's bushed and has headed off to bed, and so I shall be following him shortly.

25 Mar: Readings & Comments

5.3  / 95   Bedtime    00:07:14
8.0  / 144  Overnight  03:18:37
6.3  / 114  Overnight  05:17:49
5.9  / 106  Overnight  08:03:31
5.3  / 96   Fasting    11:17:21
5.9  / 106  Pre-Lunch  14:12:41
5.3  / 95   Random     18:05:02
5.1  / 92   Pre-Tea    18:58:33
5.3  / 95   Random     20:07:22
7.1  / 127  Post-Tea   21:19:51

As mentioned in the previous entry, I woke up VERY itchy in the night and also had a fairly high BGL considering my current lowered BGLs the last few weeks. I stayed up and drank a few cups of green tea and got the readings down. The odd thing is, there's a reading at 8am that I don't even remember doing. How odd.

We had a BBQ lunch with friends today. It was lovely and we took a bottle of wine to share. I had a moment of intense dizziness later in the day (6pm or so) and did a reading, but my glucose was fine. It passed quickly. I do wonder as I'm still not as well as I think I should be, and I look pale in the mirror, at least to me.

Anyway, for tea we had left over pizza from last week that I was clever enough to pull out of the freezer earlier today. I went to check what time I did my pre-tea reading by checking the monitor and absent-mindedly pricked my finger since I had the case open without even thinking about it. So I had a random reading about an hour after tea - I wasn't going to waste the drop of blood! So that's 2 readings I did today that were without my thinking about it - the one at 8am that I must have been up to go to the loo or something, and the one after tea that was just doing things by rote. It's a worry.

So my post-tea reading was a little 'high' at 7.1, but considering it USED to be twice that when I had pizza, I think I'm making process. And 7.1 is only 2 points higher than my pre reading so that's actually quite good, and it's below any danger marks (at 7.7 your body is being damaged), so all in all I'm pleased.

Tomorrow the RDNS nurse, Michelle (who is now my regular week nurse) will be coming in and doing a dressing change. I'm not looking forward to it - it's basically everything in that step-by-step photo in a previous entry), but I'd be freaking out about it even more if I didn't know who it was that would be doing the change. I like and trust Michelle.

Middle of the Night

Well it's 3:45am or 4:45am if it were yesterday (we changed the clocks here tonight). I woke up ITCHY where the tape over my wound is, and so rubbed some cortisone cream around the tape and then followed up by using my favourite moisturizer cream on my back as well, then took an additional Telfast 180mg tablet - I'd taken one at midnight. For those of you in the USA, Telfast is Fexofenadine Hydrochloride (Allegra) and is a non-drowsy antihistamine. Since I was by then awake, I got up and took my BGL - it was 8! So I'm having my 3rd cup of tea as I type.

All my administrations worked as I'm no longer as intensely itchy. It's still itchy, but not nearly as bad as it had been. It's nearly tolerable now. Frustrating. I worry that the tape thats used to seal everything is something I'm allergic to.

I also noticed that I seemed to bde generating a lot more exudate (that's fluid from the wound area), but it could have been just the difference from having been sleeping and sitting up and moving. I've often noticed more leakage (before the vacuum system) when I become more active after having been inactive for a little while. I have to admit to a bit of fascination when there is fluid in the tubing - I sorta enjoy watching it get moved through the tubes and sucked into the back of 'Boreass' (the VAC machine). I reckon the tubing should have lights. It'd be more fun to watch. :-)

Anyway, just had a yawn. Will go have a smoke (it's only 12c outside - COLD) and then back to bed.

24 Mar: Readings & Comments

5.0  / 90   Bedtime    22:49:27
7.8  / 140  Overnight  04:24:17
6.2  / 112  Overnight  05:42:09
4.8  / 87   Fasting    13:02:25
6.3  / 113  Pre-Lunch  15:53:04
4.5  / 81   Pre-Tea    19:10:04
7.9  / 142  Post-Tea   21:32:28

I cheated and had a few chocolate covered honeycombs last night (in American speak I think these would be referred to as chocolate covered seafoam). Guilty! And it showed in my overnight reading, so I had a couple cups of green tea before going back to bed.

And then I actually SLEPT all the way until 1pm!! That's the latest I've slept in AGES and the most sleep I've had in one hit for a long long time. So maybe there's something good about having that new vacuum pack. For lunch Rod and I each had a roll with ham and cheese. It was quite nice. We plan to have a half roll each with the remaining ham for our snack tonight. Tea was curried noodles (for me) and cordon bleu. No, I didn't make it, it was the frozen type and we cooked it in the George Foreman.

I have some pics to share. First of all meet Boreass, pronounced Boris):


I named it because it snorts like a wild boar, and I have to live with it for the next few weeks with it by my side constantly so it may as well have a name! Boreass is heavy at 2k or about 3lbs and is the machine that goes with my vacuum seal for my wound.

Next, this is my new doona cover set:


I'm really pleased with it!! Note: Click here to see the full image.

An RDNS nurse came this afternoon and checked out Boreass and all my connections. All is well.

I didn't do much exciting at all except for chatting online with Diane most of the evening. That was fun and in between I read Email. Gee my life is so exciting at times!

Anyway, Rod's gone to bed so I think I'll follow. Can't wait to enjoy the luxury of a doona that actually fits our bed. :-)

23 Mar: Readings & Comments

5.7    / 103  Bedtime    23:30:33
5.2    / 94   Fasting    07:45:38
5.3    / 95   Random     08:26:11
4.0    / 72   Pre-Lunch  13:51:19
9.2    / 166  Post-Tea   21:18:22

I woke up earlier than usual this morning because my new doona had wet spots from my wound leaking. Blech! Fortunately it seems to have not left anything visible. I felt really awful for the first couple of hours I was up, but my BGL was fine (that's the Random reading) and I wasn't running a temperature. Maybe it was just nerves over the whole vacuum procedure.

As I knew we'd be out until at least 2pm and I've had 2 or 3 times now where my BGL has been low after my clinic appts, this time I had a second light breakfast of the same thing (1 slice of crumpet toast with PB) at about 10:45 this morning. This seems to have worked as I was 'only' down to 4.0 by time we got home. As for the high reading for my tea tonight, well. We bought some lovely buns today, and I decided I wanted a 'Filet O' Fish' sandwich as part of my usual Fish & Chips. Now, I should have taken into account I was having a whole lot of extra carbs in the form of the bun and so not had as many (or any) chips (fries). I didn't even think about it. Then because I'm now on this machine, I sort of forgot to have my usual 2 cups of tea afterwards. Between the two, it really shows. So I've had a couple of cups of green tea and will check my reading again at 10:30 and make sure it's lower. Luckily because of having low readings the rest of the day it didn't mess up my averages for the day.

The appointment went well today. The first nurse I saw was the one who had liked my bookmark, and I had hers all made up. This one I made with embroidery thread (all 6 threads together) and the top and bottom had a neat pink star after the beads. She loved it and talked about the cool 'bling' and then came up with the idea it could be used as a wrap around a barrette for her hair too. Great idea. I'll have to make a few of those to sell.

The wound care specialist came in and this time I thought to ask if she belonged to a group and gave the name... she was a little surprised and said I sure am, I'm President! I smiled and said Hi, I'm your web host. That was fun. It's the official Wound management organisation for the entire state, so I was in very good company. They know their stuff! They had me on my left side so they could work on the right side where the wound is. The hospital photographer came in. I knew him from having my before and after reconstruction pictures done. He took a before photo of the wound itself which shows it very clean, and the area above it (or along side as it's sideways) shows where I just had the stitches out. The photo is here ... but don't look at it if you're squeamish about things. They then went through the procedure and too step by step photos so that they could be printed for the RDNS nurse and the wound care specialist wrote step by step instructions on it. As I had the copy for the nurse, naturally I did a scan. Now this scan really is NOT for the faint at heart, and you have to remember this is my side, and please ignore all the extra flesh on my body. Hopefully it will all be melting away as I stay on a good diet!

I'll be vacuum sealed for at LEAST two weeks, probably longer. However, this is supposed to cut down on healing time by at least 50% so better 2 or more weeks with this than 6-8 weeks otherwise.

It's basically a drain that's on the outside with a portable machine that keeps a constant negative pressure on the wound -- ie, a vacuum seal. This is a drain with the same type of tubes as I've had when I had my mastectomy and the reconstruction, but it's attached to this machine that collects the fluid and keeps a constant vacuum on the wound. The machine has a battery that can last up to a day, but it has to be plugged in at night when I go to bed to recharge. The vacuum is worn/used 24hrs a day and it has long enough (!) tubing that I can have the machine on a counter and take a shower while it's still in use. I had to borrow a safety pin from the next door neighbour so I could pin a gathering of the tubing to my shirt so I wouldn't have to carry it. I can't seem to find my sewing kit anywhere since moving.

The machine itself is in a case so that it is worn like a purse when moving about. It's not exactly light though - it weighs nearly 2 kilos. Unfortunately, the machine arrived from the company with an empty battery so tonight I've had to be plugged in where ever I sit, but after it fully charges overnight I shouldn't have that problem. When the canister that collects the fluid is full, the machine will sound an alarm and tell me on the reading it's time to change the canister, and since they taught me how to do it and I have spares it'll be no problem. The one good thing is that aside from seeing fluid in the tubing, because there's a cover on the machine you can't see the canister. I always hated that when carrying around drains and the drain bottles - that you could see all the icky stuff.

It's sure like revisiting mastectomy and reconstruction all over again though.

My dressings will be changed only on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays now. From what the wound specialist told me, and the instructions she wrote out, I have 2 bits of foam that are put inside the wound - both touching each other, and placed so they are part of the contours of the inner part of the wound cavity. They then put another bit of sponge on top - making sure that all three foam parts touch each other. This is then draped with film to create a seal. A small hole is cut in the center area where the sponge is, and the 'trac-pad' (the part of the machine that connects to me) is put on. This part connects to the wound/sponge and has the tubing that connects to the machine. This tubing connects to another tube that is part of the canister system. When I change the canister, I clamp both tubes and disconnect them between the areas that are clamped. I then put another canister in the machine and attach it's tubing back to the one from the wound, unclamp and turn the machine back on.

It does hurt a bit more, but it's not too bad. I'm sure to get accustomed to it. It does make some strange noises at times - a bit like a very loud grumbling tummy. The only real hassle so far is realising after I've plugged into a wall socket and sat down that I want various bits and pieces that I forgot to bring with me. I'm sure I'll get the hang of dragging it around in no time though - and hopefully will begin to remember to bring all the bits and pieces I want with me before sitting down and getting comfortable.

Oh, I just got Pam's joke about Hoovering around! Haha! Sorry, I'm a bit slow lately.!

I do think it's funny that I can't even run the darn vacuum cleaner and yet here I am attached to a ... vacuum. How absurd.

So we came home, I plugged in and then realised I wanted a zillion things and was about to unplug the machine to go get and do those things when Rod came in and said he was ready to go do the Target thing to find a doona cover and run a few misc errands. My machine said it had 3 bars so I decided to go with him. Damn good thing too. He got sticker shock as all the good doona covers were over $100. We finally found an aisle of mark downs and I found one that I kind a liked that was marked down to $65. On a whim, and because I had another package in hand with no price on it, I went to one of those pricing stations and did the bar code. The one that was marked $65 actually scanned at $40. The other one turned out to be a sheet set and I hadn't noticed. Good thing the scanner told me. So I got a nice teal coloured cover with two pillow cases for only $40. We then ran into some cheaper ones at Coles (our local grocery store) but they were $39 and as Rod pointed out, we got a $130 cover for only $40 instead of a $39 one for $39. Good point darling!

I also picked up some multi-vitamins today so that should help too. My HB count was 111, and they said they consider you anemic at 100, so I was close, but not nearly as bad as a few weeks ago. So the iron tablets I was taking the last two weeks have helped. I ran out the other day, but the vitamins I bought today has this included in it so I'm set.

Anyway, that's about it. Oh, suppose I should do another BGL to make sure the tea worked and include that here... 5.0 ... lovely the green tea did it's job. :-)

22 Mar: Readings & Comments

6.4    / 115   Bedtime         23:38:26
4.8    / 86    Fasting         08:09:39
6.3    / 113   Random          09:56:16
6.7    / 120   Post-Breakfast  12:32:05
4.4    / 79    Pre-Lunch       14:23:16
7.3    / 131   Pre-Tea         17:06:56
5.7    / 103   Post-Tea        19:42:48

Wow, 21yrs ago, Mike and I got married. It just seems so long ago. How can that many years just go so quickly?

I got up early with Rod at 8am, but went back to bed, so the Random reading at almost 10am was my actual pre-breakfast reading. I wanted to have a later breakfast today as I knew I'd be at the treatment center until at least 2pm and I was right. By time I got home my BGL was 4.4 and I really could feel that I needed some fuel in my system. After my lunch, I checked Email, had a quick smoke and then went and tried out the new Doona since it arrived this morning. And I really wanted a nap, so I took one. Rod didn't come home until about 5, and he brought KFC home with him. This was a bit early for our usual tea, but it was lovely. I then made a beaded bookmark for one of the nurses at the clinic (she'd seen mine and admired it so I asked if she'd like one), and followed that up with watching Neighbours (an Aussie TV 'soap' I'm addicted to). I spent the evening reading Email and looking up what they'll be doing to me tomorrow.

On the Doona, well... you could say I blew it, but I feel good about it. Our old doona covers didn't fit the doona we've been using. They've always been too big. I assumed the doona we had was for a double bed and that our covers were queen sized. Nope. Apparently all these many years we've been sharing a doona for a SINGLE bed using doona covers that were for a double bed sized doona. Long story short, the new queen sized doona is PERFECT for our bed. It nearly reaches the floor on all three sides (mine, Rod's and at the foot), and we will not be fighting for the doona this winter. I'm so pleased. BUT! Now I need a couple of queen sized doona covers as what we were using are now too small. And new sets aren't cheap. They're about half what I paid for the new doona itself. But they are also the centre piece of the room, so it's a worth while investment. Besides, having anything WHITE around Rod is just plain foolish. He really isn't one for being able to keep anything white for very long at all (minutes, sometimes seconds!). So the plan is to pick up an inexpensive (cough, cough) one tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully we'll find something nice that doesn't cost a fortune. I've looked online and didn't find anything that I liked the price of let alone the design.

I sent links to Rod and my sisters for the VAC system, but I'll add a couple here for anyone else reading in...

http://www.kci1.com/867.asp
http://www.kci1.com/29-A-107_Freedom_Brochure_1-05.pdf

More tomorrow as we see how things work out.

Vacuum Sealed?

Always willing to be a guinea pig for cool techy things, a doctor said he'd really like to see my wound in back with a vac pack on it and away they all went to sort out the details. Apparently it will be something inside my wound, plus outside it, along with a little machine that keeps it vacuum sealed. How interesting.

What I really wanted, and didn't get yet was antibiotics, but hopefully tomorrow. They did note that I was very white (I really am feeling like crud) and so ordered a blood test to test to see if I'm still anemic. I've been taking iron tablets, but ran out of those night before last. I was very anemic earlier when I first went in with the abscess so should be interesting to see what the results are. I also had them send a copy of the results to my GP ... it's so cool they use Email for these things these days.

They took out the other stitches today. But no, aren't going to stitch up the other yet and i'm glad of that.

Anyway, I'm feeling like crud, so will go unpack our new doona and pillows and hopefully go visit fairlyand. ZZZzzz.

21 Mar: Readings & Comments & Oh Crud.

4.7  / 84    Bedtime         23:39:32
6.8  / 123   Fasting         09:49:51
7.4  / 134   Post-Breakfast  12:49:39
7.4  / 134   Pre-Lunch       12:49:39
6.7  / 121   Post-Lunch      15:30:19
3.6  / 64    Pre-Tea         18:36:57
6.9  / 124   Post-Tea        20:39:32

I was supposed to do my Post-Breakfast reading at 1pm, but Rod came home and was going to have his lunch so I decided to have mine too, so did my post-breakfast reading a little early and also had lunch about an hour and a half earlier than I suppose I should have, but would rather eat with company than alone. This may have had an effect on my very low reading before tea tonight. Both yesterday and today I just had a sausage roll for lunch, both times fairly early in the afternoon and both days of course I had low readings around my normal tea time.

For tea tonight we had curried left over pork. Instead of rice, Rod just wanted buttered bread, so I had noodles... oh my, what a nice treat. And you can see it didn't take my levels too high either.

Got on the scales today. Last week it was 86 kilos. This week it's 81.5. Yay me!

Now for some not as nice news...

Today I found out that the nurse who was supposed to see me yesterday just 'crossed me off the list' without telling anyone else she had no intentions of seeing me. !!!!! This caused considerable scrambling when I rang yesterday and today Michelle (who will be my regular nurse from now on) made comment about being understaffed today... reading between the lines, I think the one that crossed me off her list got fired. I did say that I didn't want her as my nurse as how could I trust someone who does that?

Unfortunately, it appears I have an infection. There's a green tinge to my dressings that wasn't there until now. And tonight I've started running a fever. I have a note from the nurse about the change for when I see the doctors tomorrow, and they are to write any new instructions for her so I'll have that for her on Friday. Meanwhile though, I don't think I want to be stitched up tomorrow if I'm showing signs of an infection in the wound. I don't think it'd be too good to healing if they were to do that.

Big Heavy Sigh.

Hey, I wonder if this is why I was feeling grumpy yesterday. Today I'm just very subdued and tired. And I took a nap from about 3pm to 6pm today too.

20 Mar: Readings & Comments

4.3    / 77    Bedtime         23:53:18
5.2    / 93    Fasting         08:26:23
7.2    / 130   Post-Breakfast  11:35:31
5.5    / 99    Pre-Lunch       12:36:35
5.4    / 97    Post-Lunch      15:27:52
3.8    / 69    Random          17:36:37
5.2    / 93    Pre-Tea         20:04:45
5.4    / 98    Post-Tea        22:11:36

HEY look at that! Only one reading over 100 in mg/dl format! That's AMAZING! I'm so pleased. I can't say this is from any change of diet though as I am still using the same lowish carb and higher protien diet I've been on for a fair while, plus using 2 cups of green tea after each meal.

I had my usual crumpet toast and peanut butter for breakfast, a sausage roll for lunch, and then around 5:30pm after a quick trip to the grocery store I thought I was feeling a bit hungry and I'm glad I checked. I think 3.8 is the lowest I've had to date. For my snack I had the heal of the crumpet toast loaf and some cheese. Tea was very late as we didn't get to the grocery store until later in the afternoon to pick up veggies so the roast didn't get put in as early as we'd of preferred. We had a pork roast with potatoes, gravy, carrots and onions. (YUM). Tomorrow we'll be having left over pork in curry sauce (also YUM).

I've already written about being grumpy so really have nothing more to say although I should mention that these readings really make me happy - no being grumpy with these results!

Grumpy

I woke up a bit foggy this morning at 8:30am, to a rather bleak and blah looking day, and my mood just hasn't improved all day. It's 3:15pm and I'm still waiting for the RDNS nurse to get around to change my dressing. We need some veggies for a roast we're having and I'd like to go with Rod to the grocery store, but it's looking a bit like I'll be sending him out and staying home to wait. I just rang them, and they won't be on after 4:30, which is the time I suggested they come, and was told the nurse would ring me in five minutes. Well it's been more like 10 now, and the phone hasn't rung yet.

But I wasn't grumpy about the nurse/dressing situation to start with today. It's more a case of it just getting to me rather than my usual cheerful attitude. For the first couple of weeks as I became more and more ill, I wasn't well enough to have much of an attitude one way or the other. Once it was diagnosed and I had surgery, I've taken things pretty much in my stride. Today though it hurts a bit more, probably because I did 'too much' yesterday, and I'm just bloody sick of it all. I mean, who needs an infection and abscess in an area that had surgery two YEARS ago? What the hell happened in that surgery 2 years ago? Did they leave a sponge in or something? Did the nasty fall I had last May when I landed on my back cause this? Or is it just a random mystery never to be resolved? I didn't ask for this. I didn't need to loose so many weeks out of my life to waiting around to have the hole in my side dressed daily. I normally don't whine or complain, but this really has gotten to me. Looking at the bright side, at least it's not cancer or any other kind of weird illness.

Harrumph, instead of calling, the nurse has just drove in. Will grump some more later just to get it out of my system.

...

Well that was nice. The nurse that came wasn't my regular nurse, but she was in the office at Lonsdale which is just up the road less than 2 minutes away and so she volunteered to come take care of me. And once she came, Rod and I went off to get our veggies for the roast. Some veggies. The total came to $76! We pretty much did our grocery shopping for the week though.

And when we got home, there was an Email from a neighbour down the road - a friend of Mum's - who had noticed the RDNS cars at our house the last few days and Emailed to ask if we were OK and if there was anything they could do to help.

Gee it's hard to be grouchy when there's nice people around offering help and support!

So I guess I'm a bit less moody now. Still tired and sore, but I guess that's to be expected.
Anyway, it might be time to take the roast out, so I better go see if I can help Rod with it.

19 Mar: Readings & Comments

5.4    / 97     Bedtime         23:51:04
6.6    / 119    Fasting         09:35:21
6.3    / 113    Post-Breakfast  12:17:27
4.7    / 85     Pre-Lunch       14:14:57
5.9    / 107    Post-Lunch      16:06:58
5.2    / 93     Pre-Tea         19:27:55
6.7    / 120    Post-Tea        21:41:42

I've decided I quite like this blogging site. It works for me. It's easy to update and just seems to work without too many extras. This was after having a look at Yahoo's 360 which seems like a knock off of MySpace.

I did some housework today. I started the day off with a slice of crumpet toast and peanut butter, and then tackled a few things that have been on my mental list of things that needed doing. One of those things I probably shouldn't have done was vacuum. However, I used the light rechargable vacuum and it has the advantage of being easy to use plus you can't really over-do because it's battery lasts only long enough to do a very quick job through the house. And that's really all I wanted to do.

Just as I was about to reach one of the harder to vac rugs, the doorbell rang and was the nurse to change my dressing. Great timing. This was a new nurse, and she preferred to work in the dining room with me sitting up. That worked fine for me, and the bandages are much more comfortable because of it. I had two bags of stuff from Hospital @ Home and RDNS so I had her sort through it and take back stuff we're not using (like some dressing covers I'm allergic to). We consolidated it down to only 1 bag, and she's ordered some smaller dressing padding rather than the larger ones that were in my kit. She was here for about 45 minutes so that gave me a good break from vacuuming and I went back to it after she left. I only had about 5 minutes more work to do as it was.

A few days ago I did laundry and as there was Doona cover in the cupboard I'd never noticed before, I had Rod put that on the doona. Well that lasted only one night, as it fit the doona perfectly, but it didn't fit our bed. We ended up having cold feet as we turned it sideways so we were both covered. It turns out (and this wasn't really a total surprise to me) that we've been using a double bed sized doona with queen sized doona covers. Let's see if I can explain this for the American readers. You know the nice comfy comforters you put on beds? The Aussies have a better way. They have a duvet or doona that is the 'inside quilt/comforter part' and then there are doona covers you put on them. Sorta like two sheets sewn together to make a cover for the comforter. Then you only have to wash the cover, not the whole comforter. Apparently Doona is a brand name. Anyway, one of the online stores we get Emails for has doona's and today the queen sized one came with two feather pillows and free shipping. I checked my PayPal account (the site accepts PayPal) and ordered one. This one is 50% down and 50% feather, and is quilted. Now, before you start mumbling about allergies, I've been using a down doona for 10yrs now without any significant allergy problems, so that's not a worry for me. I'll be very pleased when it arrives. Our bed is a double, so having a queen sized cover seems to make sense - more comfy for both of us and no fighting over who has all the covers. It'll make even MORE sense when doona inside it is also queen sized!! Here's the link to what I bought: http://www.dealsdirect.com.au/p/50-down-feather-queen-size-duvet-doona-2-duck-feather-pillows/

I had the same lunch I had yesterday as there were only 6 more frozen mini spring rolls and a small container of cottage cheese so it was an easy choice. Rod came home shortly after and after discussing the doona on sale I went and bought it. I answered some Email, and then went off to take a nap -- all the extra stuff I'd done in the morning caught up with me. Rod woke me up and together we made tea. He cleaned and sliced the potatoes for me, I made the cheese sauce. He grated some cheese for me. For the chops, he suggested I put them in a foil lined pan and just cover them with thyme and rosemary and then close the foil, and put it in the oven with the potatoes. What a nice EASY tea. After half an hour, I opened the foil to let the meat brown and gave it another 15minutes. We didn't even need to wash the pan the chops were in as the foil kept the moisture and juices in.

Tomorrow I'm making a pork roast. We only buy meat when it's marked down and somehow managed to have about 4 roasts in the freezer and I decided it was time to cook one. So for tea day after tomorrow it will be curried left over pork.

I think we'll have an early night tonight. G'night!

18 Mar: Readings & Comments

5.5    / 99    Bedtime     00:37:58
5.4    / 98    Fasting     10:47:30
4.6    / 82    Pre-Lunch   14:42:16
5.1    / 92    Post-Lunch  17:11:13
4.7    / 85    Pre-Tea     18:26:11
7.0    / 126   Post-Tea    20:40:53

My results have been pretty good lately. Even looking at the 'Big Picture' averages on my website you can see my levels have really dropped. I wonder how much having the infection gone (which they tell me had to have been 'brewing' for months) has made a difference?

I am feeling better but still have moments of tiredness and I got dizzy a couple times today (bent over to put some dishes away and stood up too quick).

For breakfast I had one slice of 'crumpet toast' which is something new and considering it costs nearly $2 for 6 crumpets and crumpet toast comes as a loaf of bread, it's pretty economical if you keep it in the freezer. Anyway, I had it with peanut butter on it. Was nice.

For lunch I had 6 mini spring rolls and about a cup of cottage cheese while reading a book.

I experimented with tea tonight. This was the first I've made our usual Sunday night pizza in a few weeks. This week I made it "Adam's way". My friend Adam has his pizza with no tomato sauce - just a bit of garlic olive oil with cheese on it followed by your regular pizza toppings. The reason for this experiment was to see if it improved my BGL readings which are normally quite high on Sunday nights after pizza. And it worked. my after tea reading was only 7.0 compared to as high as 13.8 in the past. I even had 3 slices instead of 2 like I should have had, and still the results are good.

I had my dressing changed today by the RDNS weekend nurse and tomorrow will have a 'regular' nurse that I'll have all week. Rod spent the day working on his resume and a job application that I helped proof read. I really enjoyed helping with this. I forgot how much I love words and making them all fit together nicely. I should do some writing of my own.

My plan for this evening is to read another couple hundred comic Emails. I'm still catching up from my trip to the USA last year. I'm now up to nearly Christmas though, so maybe by Easter I really will be all caught up.

15 Mar: Comments

I'm nearly out of testing strips - I've ordered some that should be here by tomorrow, hopefully, so meanwhile I haven't done a lot of testing. Just my fasting and once this afternoon when I was feeling really off (I was very very late in having lunch).

Tuesday I put in my fortnight centrelink form and gave them the medical certificate that came in the mail on Tuesday. Ugh! It had a trick question on it ... "can patient look for work 8 hours a week". I don't have to look for work. I'm on a Personal Support Program. Didn't matter, the bitch doing my paper work said:

Oh, we have to report this and no we won't accept this medical certificate.
So we said give it back. we'll bring in a correct one.
No she said, it's in our possession now I have to file it.
But it's no good - what's the point?
Doesn't matter. You just go get another one from your GP, but this one has to be filed.

I should have stood up and showed her the gaping hole (it's 10 inches DEEP!).

So yesterday in the mail arrived another medical certificate from Flinders. This was a slightly different form that still had the trick question on it, but in another place (and filled out correctly), and was for the same time period as the bad one. I hadn't asked for it, so can only guess two nurses asked two different doctors on Friday. Wish that one had come first though.

Today I had my treatment appointment and saw the doctors and had a new form for them to fill out for this week and got it filled out correctly. A nurse measured the cavity that they've been packing each day and it really is 10cm deep. It goes from my side to my spine. It's apparently looking good though and this week they will pack it lighter, and all being well next week they will stitch it up the rest of the way. I'll still have nurses coming in all week to do the dressings, but starting tomorrow it'll be the RDNS rather than Flinders Hospital at Home nurses. RDNS is a fee based system but the fee isn't too bad - $24 a month.

I had no problems with turning in the two certificates at Centrelink today aside from it being well past my lunch time and feeling a bit woosy.

My friend from Breaststroke had her check up at the Flinders breast clinic last week and her doctor asked about her scar on her back (she had same reconstruction as me). It was the first time he'd ever asked about it. She mentioned me, not by name, but that I'd had emergency
surgery for an infection in the area and he told her that yes, he and the other breast surgeons have been consulting with the registrars and my original surgeon on my case. I've apparently been a topic of conversation there all last week. I sort of knew that as on my way
outside one day I saw one of the nice breast care nurses and she mentioned she'd 'heard' I was back in hospital again.

Well I guess that's all my news for now. I'm off to go read my comic Emails. I've been accumulating them for months now, so may as well spend sometime healing and getting a chuckle here and there.

12 Mar: Readings & Comments

7.2    / 130    Bedtime      23:47:16
5.9    / 107    Overnight    03:39:23
6.4    / 116    Fasting      08:21:44
6.3    / 113    Random       09:41:16
10.0   / 180    Post-Tea     21:19:56

I'm home and recupperating from having emergency surgery last Tuesday night to open and drain a large abscess that formed on the right hand side of my back. Basically I had cellulitis (a skin infection) that didn't respond to the antibiotics I was on that formed an abscess underneath the area of my back where I'd had surgery 2yrs ago for a breast reconstruction (tissue was moved from my back to my front to form the reconstruction). It is a large deep wound that they are healing from the inside out as to avoid a recurrence of the infection. According to one of my nurses that come in daily to change the dressings, this had to have been brewing 'for months'.

I came home from the hospital on Friday and I've been taking it very easy as I'm not really up to doing much. Unfortunately the last two days I haven't felt very good at all - very fatigued - and I have a swollen gland under my chin, so I don't know what's up with that. Currently I'm just pretty much taking things a day at a time and doing a lot of sudoku puzzles and reading a lot.

Off to the hospital

I need to have IV antibiotics as I'm quite 'toxic' according to my blood test. And anemic. Great. Anyway, will be in hospital but have no idea for how long or even if/when I'll even get a bed (I could spend a few days in the emergency room (it happens) waiting for a room. So be good, play nice, and if you get into trouble, don't blame it on me. :-)

It's worse. But something is being done

Tonight the swelling has popped the seams of my scars in back. The redness, hotness and swelling covers the entire area where I had the reconstruction surgury in back, and is wrapping around the side. I *walked* to see a doctor today (it's not far, but when you feel like crap, it's a challenge). My doctor was booked full. So I saw this other guy who didn't think it was cellulitis but ordered blood tests and a chest xray. Of most interest is that he is having dinner tonight with the two men who did my original surgeries, so he'll be describing it to them and getting their view point. And he's never seen anything like it.

I'm still running a fever, I still feel like crap, and now the skin on my back hurts at every move. Earlier today it didn't hurt sitting in the car. Tonight it's seemed to have grown a new swollen bit that made me 'uncomfortable' all the way home.

We went to a free seminar for a free feed tonight all about how to make money on the internet. What a bunch of scammers, but people were going for it. Still, after 90 minutes of BS, the food was good. I so could have done with just a night at home though. http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/734301

I have to organise a ride for my doctor appt tomorrow morning. Today that didn't work so well - our neighbours are always home... but not this morning.

I'm going to do my BGLs (convert them from the monitor to the computer), but won't do a posting here. The values are definitely out of range (normally for being ill). I have been trying to be good and have nutritious food, but I have to admit, most of the time I can't even be bothered to make myself a cuppa tea.

2 Mar: Readings & Comments

7.7    / 138    Bedtime     01:46:50
8.1    / 145    Overnight   03:25:12
6.4    / 116    Overnight   05:24:15
5.7    / 103    Overnight   08:33:43
7.2    / 130    Fasting     11:02:36
8.2    / 148    Post-BF     13:36:16
6.7    / 121    Pre-Lunch   14:43:30
5.6    / 100    Post-Lunch  19:20:19
8.1    / 145    Post-Tea    22:14:17
6.6    / 118    Bedtime     00:05:46

I was up several times overnight with a fever, and sad to say it's back again. I also had it earlier today and was in bed with the doona over me when it was 37c outside (I was freaking shivvering).

As directed, I've been careful about diet today, and actually did make something with the new food processor that we'll have for our bedtime snack. And it's completely wonderful tasing and not an ounce of naughtiness (aside from the taste!).

Anyway, must go. Other half is out having a smoke.

Quick word with doctor

I couldn't get in to see the doctor today - he's booked solid. And it's just as well because it's 37 outside, with not a bit of humidity. You people in Georgia might think that's a good thing, but when the wind comes straight from the desert north you really know you're not in Georgia or Michigan.

So I asked the receptionist and she put me on hold until he could come to the phone and he said what I'm taking should be fine, but the most important thing for me to do is to be careful about eating so that the diabetes doesn't further complicate things and make it even worse.

Am better than I felt this morning. My other half came home from his uni courses and is now sound asleep snoring. We're due for a cool sea change (when the wind shifts from the hot north to coming from the cool antartic south) this evening. Can't wait.

Meanwhile I'm just puttering ... in the real world as well as at the computer. Doing things as I feel like it and often quiting just as quickly (when I'm not well my attention span is worse than a kid with ADD, I swear, and I should know).

Off for a smoke and then maybe chop some of the mini apples we have (from our own trees) and try them in the new food processor along with some plain SF yogurt and cinnamon. Sounds tasty, and cold. And maybe chop some more apples and make some homemade applesauce that's not made with sugar.

Still running a fever

ARG, this is the umpteenth time I've been up tonight. Had fever start after shower and it 'broke' about half an hour ago leaving me drenched. So much for the shower. Still have a small fever as per the pattern I've been having. Up, up, up, then a break and lots of sweat, down to near normal, and then repeat pattern. I'm so tired of this. And worried I should see the doctor about the cellulitis in case the antibiotics aren't strong enough (tomorrow being Friday and all still running a fever and all). Have already cancelled my other usual friday plans due to this and the fact it's supposed to be 37 tomoorw. It's the middle of the night here and was hoping to see my Sis online to give me some good advice, love and a bit of 'mothering'. She's probably at work today though.

Anyway, must try to get some sleep.

1 Mar: Readings & Comments

6.8   / 123    Overnight   01:51:52
6.1   / 109    Fasting     08:40:48
11.9  / 214    Post-BF     11:38:06
8.1   / 146    Pre-Lunch   13:31:29
6.0   / 108    Post-Lunch  15:44:41
4.6   / 82     Pre-Tea     19:05:44
13.1  / 236    Post-Tea    21:43:11

Am still a bit funky feeling. An area where I had surgery a couple years ago has been bothering me a lot since last weekend and last night Rod noticed that it looked 'bruised' to him. To me it looks like the outline of the area is very red and hot, with the centre having more fluid than usual. It feels tight to move the muscles that are there on my back. Tighter than normal. And it does hurt. So, I think I also had/have cellulitus (it's a skin infection) as well as the sinus infection. He says it looks better today, so apparently the antibiotics are working. Good. Like I needed anything extra like this!

I bought a mini food processor today. It's not as large as I'd of liked, but the price was right. I spent the day working on the BGL area of my website, mostly on the 'admin' side, making things a little nicer/easier for myself. Last night I wrote a little script that lets me take the information from the database file that Windows stores and manipulates the information into a format that can be uploaded to the MySQL database server, which it does. Then I go to the web site and add the 'event' that goes with each reading and any notes. Takes less than 5 minutes for the whole process, and it took longer than that to add all the data manually from the keyboard.

We both want to jump in the shower and head off for bed so I best end this here.