Merry Christmas

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Well the time is drawing ever closer. Santa will roast his behind if he attempts to come down our chimney on Christmas Eve. Dolores and I would like to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a Good New year. We are ready and today Dolores is busy putting out the Christmas decorations around the house. Milton and Dolores put the tree up on Saturday. It is a 9 foot artificial tree and it comes in three large pieces with 500 LED lights already attached to the branches. It is very good looking tree.

My sister Janet asked my recently to explain what the Hyperbaric treatments will be like.

The Hyperbaric treatments are still some what of a mystery to me. The hyperbaric unit is a large vessel about 1/4 the size of a subway car. There are nine (9) stations each with a large easy boy type recliner chair for the patients and room for a nurse and an orderly as well. The patients and the support staff enter the unit and it is put under pressure, I don't know to what depth each "dive" goes to or how long it takes to get to the required depth or how long it takes to de-pressurize. I'll fill you in with more details after my treatments begin. Each session is a total of 2 1/2 hours. There are big port hole type windows on each side of the unit and a large door at one end for access and egress. Additionally there are 2 flat screen TVs in the unit. I will be allowed to take in a book to read during the sessions.

Like I said, I don't know all of the details but I will let you know as I learn.

I am still gaining weight slowly and get out of the house a couple of times each day. Winter is with us and today is the warmest it has been in over a week. It is -8 C as I write. We have lots of snow and wild animals running around the farm. The moose like to eat from the ends of the hay bales. They are very neat the way they eat the hay and do not rip the bales apart the way the cows do. There a quadrillion coyotes and the dogs keep them at bay during the night. We hardly ever see them as they are mostly nocturnal unlike the moose and the dear.

Well, a Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family from our house to yours.

Love and Hugs,

Rick

Good News

Good Afternoon Everybody,

Well it is definite, on Monday January 10th I have my first Hyperbaric treatment in Vancouver at Vancouver General Hospital. As of this time I will have 40 daily treatments, except for weekends and holidays, and the last treatment will be Friday March 5th. We have reserved room 32 at the Jean C. Barber Lodge from Jan. 9th to the 5th of March. The wait for the news is over and both Dolores and I are happy that we can now make plans and get ready for the trip. It remains to be seen how I will hold up to the rigors of the treatments but, I am as ready as I can be and looking forward to getting started. I will pass on more details as the time gets closer.

Winter is still upon us here at the farm. Today is foggy and right on the freezing point. It snowed a couple of cms last night and I guess there is about 12 to 15 cms in total on the ground. David is feeding the cows daily from the hay yard and every day between 12 noon and 2:30ish we have no water pressure in the house because the cows are at the watering wells and we just have to wait until they are finished. For me it is right when I have my mid day tube feed so I'm not as inconvenienced as the rest of the household.

I am well and feeling much better these days and my energy levels are gradually returning. My weight has climbed back to 162 and the problems with the stoma and the infection there are all but gone. There is still redness around the stoma but no pain even when Dolores is cleaning it and putting on new dressings. The surgical wound is almost fully healed and the scabbing is getting to be smaller by the day. It looks like my problems there are all over.

For those of you in and around the Toronto area who know him, my really good friend from my high school days, D'Arcy Regan, will be 66 tomorrow. Happy Birthday D'Arcy.

That's it for now. More later on the Hyperbaric treatments as I get more information.

Love and Hugs,

Rick

On the Mend Again

Hello Everybody,

It's been awhile since my last post and in the interim I have had a minor set back and got an infection in the stoma where the tube feed goes through the abdominal wall. It was extremely painful and the tube would withdraw into the stoma causing a lot of pressure and pain. Dolores said the likely cause of the tube withdrawing was a hyperactive peristalsis which is the natural wave length of the intestine. She used her nursing experience to try various methods to stop the tube from fully withdrawing into the stoma but nothing worked. Finally we went to the hospital and they they took a swab from the stoma and the infection is VRE (Vancomysin Resistant Entococcus) an infection people are likely to get if they spend a prolonged time in a hospital. There is no known cure for the bug and it stays with you for life.

Once the cause of the infection was known I was put on Ciprofloxacin and within several days the infection started to clear up. At the same time we reduced the amount of Metoclopramide that I take by 50% and the pain subsided and the tube stopped withdrawing as it was. Unfortunately one of the side affects of the Cipro is an upset stomach so now I take Gravol to counteract that affect and finally I'm feeling better.

The surgical wound from when they put the new food tube in is finally starting to heal after over 4 months. It does not bother me at all any more and we don't have to put a dressing on it any more. It just looks ugly. Once again we blame this on the VRE prolonging the natural healing process.

Now it is back to getting my energy levels up and the desire to get out of my chair. Everything seems to take a great deal of effort. I have been trying to up date this blog for the last 4 or 5 days and could not seem to find the mindset to sit down and write it. I have finished my Christmas shopping and now I have to send the gifts out and again no energy to get the job done. Tomorrow I'll tackle that job.

On a positive side, I am feeling much better although I've lost a pound to 161. I have been able to get outside everyday although it is winter, lots of snow and it's chilly -10 today and -15 last night and really foggy. Today every thing is covered with hoar frost and it's a very white world here. With he cold the fireplace is on 24 hours a day and whenever anybody gets up in the middle of the night the fireplace is checked and stoked if needed.

I'll post again before Christmas and bring you up to date.

Until then, Love and Hugs,

Rick