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