My week with MS

Can you smell it? I surely can. Last year I planted two hyacinths in the big pot near the back door, and this year they have popped up through the feather grass that has taken over the rest of the pot. Since the cat (who shall remain nameless, due to the mysteries of all things feline)  decided to lie on top of the feather grass, it looks a little worse for wear. It will need to be thinned and propped once things warm up out there.  I digress. The smell of Spring greets us as we open the back door from those beautiful blue blooms shooting up through the grass; they are holding strong in the rain as they are mostly under the eave, and protected. This is the pot they are in, but this was taken about four years ago in the Summer, so you'll have to imagine the mess it is now. Even though it smells good.

Birds seem to be a little confused this year. I heard sounds of mating as early as February, so now they are laying their first clutch of eggs. DH has seen, I think, four eggs that have been dropped on the ground. Mama and Pops don't seem to want to sit on them. Two were dropped from the house that is just up on the wall above this picture. Perhaps it's due to our weather this Winter/Spring. We have had one (1) day in the low 70's, and that was Easter Sunday. Since the middle of March it's been in the 50's, maybe reaching 60 a day or two; the night time temps have been in the high 30's to mid 40's, with few exceptions. Perhaps the birds don't yet have an ample food supply to take care of caring for their young. Or? Or perhaps some other bird or critter reached into the nest and stole the eggs. Ew. Sometimes it's  horrible to contemplate the vagaries of nature. But it seems to be happening in more than one nest.

Our daffodils came up, and immediately got rained on, mowing them over. DH went out and propped them up, but they were not strong because they are crowded. I tell him every year that bulbs are the plants that keep on giving - if you dig them up and separate them every few years. We should have daffodils all over the place. Alas.

So, on to April Fool's Day. It got me! I guess I should say that I played the joke on myself; I forgot to set my brakes on my walker and I was sitting at the sink in the bathroom washing my hands and when I leaned forward to return the bar of soap to the soap dish, Just like that, the walker scooted backwards right out from under me. It happened so fast had I thought of it I would have grabbed something, but HA, I had soapy hands and ... well, I ended up in a heap on the floor.

 Just a few days before I had mentioned out loud , "Gee, I've been doing pretty well lately. I don't even know when was the last time that I fell.*jinx*" And, boom. 
Start counting April 1. Six days with no falls.  
I have noticed, though, that my walking really sucks. I'm not lifting my feet properly. So I do need to pay dear attention so that I don't fall when I'm alone in public. [Note to self: Keep phone charged and with you at all times. Firemen are good at picking up middle aged disabled women, and getting them back on their way.]


Also on Monday, my new urologist refused to renew my Macrodantin Rx, saying he wanted to see me first. I don't see him until May 9. It pissed me off (pun intended) that he would change the status quo of my meds before  seeing me and discussing it first. He could have renewed it for just one month. I mean, really. So, on Friday when I sprang a leak, my first thought was obviously the lack of my palliative bladder antibiotic. Makes sense, doesn't it? 

Well, doesn't it?

So, after I wet pissed my pants and was changing clothes, what do you suppose happened next?        Take a guess, I'll wait.                             

I am changing into clean pants and...       my catheter falls out!            

Now, take a moment to contemplate this situation.        I know!  
     
Obviously,  the balloon had popped, and that's why I was leaking; the catheter wasn't all the way in my bladder, it was slipping out.  So, after I slipped off my clean pants, I put on a pair of Depends (again, I know!), and was left to considering my options.

1. Do nothing until Monday, then go see my PCP.
2. Go to the emergency room. DH remembered Dr. M. saying that if this happened, it needed to be reinserted quickly or I would have to have the operation done over again. How long before it started to close back up? We didn't know.
3. I didn't want to pay the co-pay for an E.R. visit, so I called an urgent care facility which would cost just $35.  Turns out that they don't handle that kind of urgent care. The nurse said I would have to go to an E.R. A stupid rule, in my opinion.
4. Going to an E.R. on a Friday night at 8 PM didn't seem like such a great idea to me, especially since it was raining, and we all know what happens to traffic around here in the rain. Between drinking, partying, and accidents, the E.R. was like full to overflowing.
5. Call my friend Kathy, who knows about these things. She's had hers longer than I've had mine, and it turns out she had had the same thing happen, about eight months ago. Her wait in the E.R. was seven hours, and they had a very difficult time reinserting. Long story short, she had two catheters at home, and all the stuff needed to insert one. It was 8:30 when I called; I was over there in half an hour. My cath had been out for more than four hours.

 So, we drove over and she had it all in a bag, and we came home and DH got to play nurse. It was a little tough getting it in. I could feel it poke through the bladder wall, which never happens at the office, so things were starting to close up. But, by 10:15, I was all dressed and good to go; I called Kath to tell her all was well, and Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

I'll be calling my Urologist's office on Monday. I want a prescription for a spare catheter kit and catheter to have on hand in case this happens again. And, again, I wonder why they don't give out this information freely when we are early in the process. I mean, seriously? It's no wonder health care costs so much in the U.S.; I shouldn't have to go in to the Dr's office to have this done. I can't insert one myself, because I have numb fingertips, and let's face it, I'm fat and incredibly near-sighted. I can't see over the belly when I am sitting up, and I can't see the opening when I am lying back. But DH did a spectacular job (having witnessed the process at the office once when there was just a male nurse present), so I will be looking into having DH do this for me in the future.

Of course, this means getting my ducks in a row - gathering the proper supplies, and all that. But I think it is doable. And I think it will save me some money in the end, if insurance will pay for all the supplies.

With a chronic disease like MS, the fun times just keep coming. You need to take them in stride. It doesn't help any one, especially you and your loved ones to get angry. In hindsight, I realize that DH was more upset about this than I was. He was the one who remembered what Dr. M. had said about the opening closing up quickly, so he was the one who felt the stress. He didn't want to hand me the phone to make the calls to Urgent Care, or to Kathy, but I told him to take a damned breath and give me the phone, and in the end he saved the day by being a good nurse. Oh, he even boiled the water since we didn't have any sterile water to fill the balloon. Boil the H20, let it cool, and fill the syringe.  Should be good, right? I guess I will find out on Monday when I talk to the nurse.

Good Night, TTYL, and Be Well,