Believe it or not, I was back in the ER yesterday. If it hadn't been for the previous episode on Sunday night, I don't think I would have bothered. But my doc wasn't in, so I thought that I should err on the side of prudence.
When I had been playing my usual Sudoku early in the morning, I found myself missing a few squares and activating nearby ones. Hmm . . . I then realized that the tips of the fingers on my right hand were feeling a bit numb, for want of a better word. I did carry on with the game and was certainly able to activate the correct squares, but it felt like it required concentration.
Also, during the night I had sat upon the commode on one occasion rather than standing because I was feeling a little . . . perhaps woozy is the word or at least close to it. It had been just a hint of wooziness, but after the previous episode, I was being cautious.
Later, as I sat waiting in the ER, I also felt as though I had a band around my head. It didn't hurt but also felt numb. Once again, I fail to find good descriptors, for I don't know if a head can truly feel numb.
The young ER doc saw me reasonably promptly and put me though all of my paces, touching this and that and gripping the other thing, and even having me prove that my brain was still working by answering a few questions. Of course, they also had the results from the previous recent visit.
After they sent me on my way, it seemed like a good day to have a coffee in the park.
We carried on with our day by picking up groceries at two different locations, but I still feel a sort of band around my head, just over the ears and around and above. I get the weirdest symptoms, don't I? I just don't know what they are symptoms of, and no one else seems to either.
I think these episodes have been harder on Sue because all that she can do is to worry, which is something that she does quite well.
Yesterday was the follow-up to my June 09 prostate surgery. The Civic is a city hospital without a ton of parking. Shauna takes time off work to get us there so that I don't have to navigate the traffic and then search for elusive parking. We go by expressway, but it does get quite busy the farther we drive into Ottawa. With the dearth of parking, she drops us and heads to the mall.
This was to be a flow test. I was instructed to come with a full bladder and to bring water with me. Timing a full bladder isn't easy, so I began consuming water in the car. I left it that long because I didn't want to drink too early and arrive in dire straits. As it turned out, they took me right in, but I only had a small dribble. Back in the waiting room, I drank the container that I had brought with me and filled it twice more. About a half hour later, I was ready to try again, and a nurse came to escort me to urinate into the cone-shaped device that metered my output.
I certainly flowed this time: more copiously than usual and at what seemed to me to be at a greater rate.
I was then taken to a nearby, small and very cool, as in cold, room where they administered an ultrasound to determine how much water I had retained after urinating. The nurse seemed to think that was quite a bit, but the doctor later opined that was quite good.
Exit nurse. Enter doctor: not my surgeon but an urologist in training. She asked questions and noted my answers, all with her back turned while banging away on the computer. She asked the usual, such as how many times I got up at night. I replied, perhaps cheekily, that it depends on how long I slept. Lest she think me too impertinent, I hastily added that it was roughly every two hours on average, sometimes only an hour and sometimes three. I told her about my UTI and 'fainting' spell. possibly brought about by straining,. She didn't comment but kept typing.
Out she went and returned minutes later with the surgeon, who said that my flow rate was not great. I replied that it had seemed to me to be one of my more impressive flows. There wasn't much more jabber before he said that he needed to get in there to see what was going on. "No, not today, we'll let you know." Sigh, I will have to do this somewhat major excursion again.
If you haven't picked up on my situation, it is this. After my 4th prostate surgery in June, I had high hopes, but by only 6 weeks, I had regressed to something resembling my previous, sad state.
Things got better at the restaurant for an early supper. Shauna ordered a a barbequed chicken salad sandwich with sweet potato fries. Sue and I opted for a twofer: one appetizer, one desert, and two entrees for one price. Being charitable people, we shared the appetizer with Shauna. I assure you that all was very yummy.
I came across this meme not too long ago and parked it for a rainy day because I had many posts in the queue at the time, but I do get to the end of my thoughts sometimes, and here we are. Feel free to use and post.
Before we get to it, however, I would like to thank you for your comments and concern yesterday after the weird episode of the previous night. Although we don't know each other in person, your comments did mean something to me. I did have a good 7-hour sleep last night after just 2 hours on the wild night
It is odd synchronicity that I have a previously scheduled appointment with my urologist today. Aside from the regular agenda, perhaps he will have something to say about my UTI and about the episode in general and whether it might be related to my difficulty in urinating. It's always an issue, but that was a more difficult occasion than usual, and perhaps it could have triggered what happened to me. I don't know the answer, but perhaps he will.
Onto the meme. Feel free to also pick it up for a post if and when you need one.Good Morning.
It’s 5:40am, and here I am, calm in my chair after a weird and scary night.
The night involved falling, calling paramedics, taking an ambulance to the hospital, and some time in ER.
I got up ~2:30 to unowat. I was blazing hot on a very cold night. Then, I couldn’t get myself back to the bed. After falling onto the bathroom counter more than once, I somehow made it out the bathroom door and to the bedroom door. At that point, I was hanging on the wall, knowing that I couldn’t go any farther without falling.
I woke Sue, and when she tried to put a chair behind me, I fell over. I lay on the floor, knowing that it would be futile to try to get up.
Sue called 911. They came. BP and all was fine. I was coherent and able to answer all of their questions. I was able to eventually get downstairs to the ambulance for the very short ride to the hospital.
The tested me: BP, heart rate, EKG and so on and so forth. All was good.
The doctor said this kind of episode does happen. People get up in the night, perhaps strain to uriinate, blood pressure drops, and they keel over
So all was well, but they decided to check my urine before sending me home. It turns out that I have a urinary infection. They started me on meds and gave me a prescription to fill later this morning.
I was just in my pjs, so I can tell you that my teeth were almost chattering on the ride home as a result of the temperature going down to 7C/45F. The hot spell had just ended, and a cold front had rolled in.
I was home not much longer 2 hours after it all began. I plopped myself in my chair, and here I remain.
Sue brought me toast, and I am doing well enough, but I still don’t feel rock solid.
We're still getting our walks in early in the day — at least early for us. In cooler weather, we tend to walk before noon, but it's been getting very hot lately, so we try to walk early. It went up to 33C/91F here on Saturday, and since it's is always a humid heat, we really feel it.
On Friday it was coffee and selfies on a bench in the park before we strolled to the other edge of the park and back. After taking our usual selfie angle, which shows the setting looking upriver, we took a different angle. The advantage of the second is that it shows us on close to the same plane and keeps our proportions better without one of us looking tiny in the background.
Oh Lacey! What odious vehicle of human torture hath pulled onto your street‽
Surely your kind and beloved humans would not foist bath, brushing, and shaving upon your exalted body.
Alas! They did.
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| Washed and brushed with her hindmost quarters shaved. |
Me? I get the glare.
