General Chat

Although looking back on it, it did start in 2012, but nothing like 2013.

In January Dad went for a doctor’s appointment and ended up in hospital for a week. It was his heart again {or so they thought} In March he was back in hospital. His health was going from bad to worse, until April 21 when he was back in hospital because he had blood in his urine. Our hospital tried their best but they haven't got the specialists that Kelowna has so they transferred him down there. Apparently he has a very rare disease called 'Wegener's Granulomatosis'. It is an autoimmune disease which affects the heart, lungs & kidneys. Affecting only 1 in every 30,000-50,000 people and usually attacks people half my Dads age. So, although they were treating his heart problem, that alone wasn't the problem after all. The beginning of May he started with dialysis plus other drugs to attack his rebel immune system. {What else would you call a system that is supposed to protect your body and ends up fighting with itself.}

Fast forward to Nov.

Anything is going along beautifully, Dad is getting stronger, and apparently he is very close to getting off dialysis, cause his kidneys are working again and -------------------- he gets the flu shot! {Raise your hand if you think it is a good idea to gave a person a virus, even a died virus, to a person with a very weak immune system to fight it!} Three days later he has the flu GASP fever, shivers, high temperatures the works. He is back in the hospital with severe dehydration.

He said the next time he has to go to the hospital he will kill himself first. My Mom is working herself to exhaustion looking after him.

Mom says my sister has once again put her life on hold in order to come and help, well what about me! Maybe I didn’t have much of a life outside of the house, but I did have one! Today I was supposed to go to a training but I don’t go, and couple weeks ago I don’t go to a meeting, plus I am always here to help them at night, Judys not.

Sorry for this but I know must people won’t mind that I posted this -- and if you do ‘tough toenails’ :-P

Oh dear RMS. Can't beat a good grumble. I am in much the same position but not through any illness. I am pretty well tied to home now that youngest has moved in with her 2 little ones. I do all the school and pre school runs and don't have hardly any time for myself.
There you are not the only one putting the world to rights :-D :-D.

Seriously I do hope things improve for you and get appreciation you deserve. <3

We've had a horrible 2013... and more, the awful things started happening just over 12 months ago.

I hope 2014 will be better...... but by what I was told last week, I may have a rotten few months ahead :-(

Grin and bear it? I don't feel like smiling much.

Oh you poor people, I too have had a dodgy year but nothing as bad as yours Shy, and Lady Scozz.


Shy, I am so sorry your Dad is so poorly, it's awful to see your Mum working so hard to help him and to have to see him undergo such treatments as he has had. Stupid indeed to give him a flu jab, who decided on that?
It's sad that your sister is being held up as a paragon of virtue and you aren't being recognised for your help too. Try not to get too upset about it, parents don't always see things for what they are and because you are on the spot, you are not considered to be putting yourself out so much. However, to keep your sanity you need a break from things as much as your Mum must do so maybe sit down with your Mum and sis and try and work out how you can better manage the care so you can all have time out and not feel guilty or blamed.
Whatever happens, feel free to come on here and have a good moan, if it helps.

Scozz, hope things turn out better than you expect but again, come on here and moan or chat about things if it will help at all.

La Gooner, of course I don't know the full story but from what you say your daughter is rather putting on you, is there no one who can hae the children one afternoon after school or something so at least you have one day a week when you can go out or do what you want. I know it's difficult when there are young children needing help but what happened before your daughter moved home, she must have had help from somewhere then or if she is now out to work, she will have to try and pay for childcare sometimes to give you a break.

Best of luck to you all and hope 2014 will be a better year for you and for us all.

Lizxxx

Hi Liz, she is at college at the moment. They are at school and preschool but still my time is taken up with getting them there as daughter does not drive and we could not get them places in the villlage :-(

I've just been diagnosed as having Hypocalcemia.

It's taken years for them to find this out... after seeing many specialists, having lots of tests, including blood tests & xrays.

I've got Lupus, which doesn't help.

Hypocalcemia is, basically, low levels of calcium; I also have a low level of Vitamin D, which aids in absorbing calcium. I'm not supposed to go out in the sun much (because of the Lupus), doc now says I have to sit in the sun for 10 minutes every day. The blurb the doc gave me starts by saying Hypocalcemia is caused by poor diet! No way! My diet is good, and I have LOADS of calcium, including at least 1Kg of yoghurt every week.

My GP has no idea why I have this, I see a specialist on Tuesday.

Hopefully something can be done to help, I don't want brittle bones........ and all the other horrible things that can happen!

:-(

I'm fed up.

Same in our house this year has been a test of any families closenest .....

But look at it this way we are nearly out of 2013 and NONE of us will see a 13 again!!! Coz thats the only good I can find!

Mine will continue into 2014 as I was beaten up and the case goes to court Jan 2nd
How can someone plead guilty when there are 5 witnesses of which she also assulted!!!

La Gooner, hard for you both to juggle everything then, shame the children couldn't get into a local school. Hope things get easier as time goes on.

Scozz, sorry about your new diagnosis, my friend has Lupus and the doctors thought I had it once but it was fm and cfs.

I have vit d deficiency due I think to my habit of staying up all night and sleeping in the day. I have found the yogourts called Cal-in + useful as they have vit d added to them. I am going back to my doc to ask for a blood test as haven't had one for ages and if still deficient I could have an injection of vit d which helps too. Hope your specialist visit comes up with something useful.

Kemp, sorry to hear you have been beaten up, hope you feel better soon. Do you mean the assailant will plead not guilty or guilty? At least the case comes up soon in the new year and might be over with quickly so you can look ahead and hope for better times.

Lizx

Well, it is good to know that our family isn't only one that 2013 dumped on.

Liz, the health authority said everyone who has dialysis needed to have their flu shot plus all the people who take them there. So for the first time ever I have gotten one, just for my Dad. As of yesterday if you went to the hospital you needed one too. Haven’t figured out if they mean just the visitors or the people who end up in emergency. Knowing Interior Health they probably jab you has you walk through the door.

I do agree with KempinaPartyhat, you do get to see how close the family really is.

I was supposed to see the specialist today at 11.45am......

Got a 'phone call at 9.30 this morning...... he's been called away, now I can't see him until 17th. They're lucky I didn't decide to leave early and go shopping first!

grrrrrrrr!

I guess another two weeks of limping around isn't going to make much difference.

:-(

Didn't anybody tell you that limping is good for you :-D

Around here you always see people limping or on crutches, a good bet is they either sprained their ankle or broken their leg skiing. So LadyScozz just tell people you just being skiing.

Skiing!

I hate snow, but I'm good at apreski :-D

Believe it or not, I used to be a member of a ski club :-)