BASKETTCASE

It's ages since I blogged.  I have been a bit bored with myself, tired and frustrated by inactivity.  The worst thing has been an ongoing urinary tract infection.  I came out of hospital with a 'full house' of dipstick positives, (except sugar), an inconclusive culture result, and a 3 day course of ciprofloxacin.  From the start it has been difficult to tell how much of my pain was due to the operation and how much to the infection.  I had a scary do one afternoon when I retired for my afternoon nap just before the Knees took the children out for the afternoon and Dave went to Tesco.  The pain was worse than usual but suddenly became frightening, so that I could not ease it by any change of posture, and even taking a deep breath hurt.  I really thought one of my anastomoses had leaked, and sent for the doctor.  I think it is only the third time in my life that I have done that - twice on the two occasions when I obstructed.  It did eventually settle with a codeine and I stayed in bed until morning.  Since then I have had several telephone conversations with my GP about the urine infection.  She prescribed a week of trimethoprim.  This appeared to produce a remarkable improvement in the bowel symptoms, but after the first couple of doses no relief from the painful wee, so yesterday I made an appointment and took myself on the bus to the surgery.  I told her I needed to speak face to face to see whether she was laughing at me.  She assured me I was not being pathetic, and I thinj she meant it.  I am now back on ciprofloxacin, which yesterday seemed very hopeful but today is no better.  I think there is some underlying problem here, either with trauma from the operation or with the stent in my ureter.  I certainly don't think they will let me start chemo until it is sorted.

Tomorrow we go on holiday, so that will be something more interesting to think about.  I am disappointed that I am still so uncomfortable but I think the best plan is to go back to taking regular paracetamol and try to ignore it. 

Mary-Ann and Dom have Rachel and Dave staying with their two children, and they all seem to be having a lovely time.  They went to High Lodge yesterday and are at Gressenhall today.  We plan to BBQ this evening.  It is very windy but not really cold, and the children have been having a great time on the trampoline and the scaffolding climbing frame that Dave put together for the boys last week.  I really think they should wear hard hats, but so far nothing worse than a few leg and back bruises.  Both our boys are in love with Faith, so little Evie from school has some competition.

Last week we had two BBQs which went well outside on the patio, so tried for a third on the third of August.  Before Dave could even get the meat on the grill the heavens opened.  We had pushed our luck too far!  It was a real thunderstorm, so the food was cooked in the oven, but between bursts of rain Dave rushed it out to get a bit of smoke!