OT Febuary Chit Chat

[Sunshine]

The past several days have seen very little walking, increase spasticity and two spasms.

Now I know why.

Urology just let me know that while the office urinalysis was clean, the 3 day grow out culture showed UTI.

Hoping with treatment the Walking will go back to baseline. Just like it did in December.

Doc is in surgery and will call in Rx this afternoon. .. I am glad he saw with his own eyes the pattern of chief complaints, the clean urinalysis, and then the UTI seen on culture, and the neuro decline while having the UTI... Maybe he wont write me off next time...

[Catdancer]

We had a blizzard here, too.. Didn't have the 12 inches of snow that Peg reported. Ours was around 4-1/2 inches. But white-out conditions. And a 131-car pile-up on a freeway near us. One person dead, 71 injured, 5 still in hospital. We travel that highway all the tideme to get from one city to another to visit TC's sister! The state police implored people to keep off the roads, but of course a bunch of people never listen.

The blizzard was on Saturday and Sunday. It was decent yesterday so we went off to the store to get groceries before the next storm is due -- tomorrow. Then another on Friday/Saturday. Seems like a never-ending winter.

Sunshine: Those "hidden" UTI's can be a real problem. Having one is what sent me to the hospital over Thanksgiving.. I had no symptoms except lost the already limited use of my legs. I hope your issue resolves quickly.

[stillstANNding]

I wanted to talk about Vit C. Jeanie, 4000 mg is a high dose of vitamin C. Although water soluable, Vit C in high doses can contribute to kidney stones, more in men than women but it happens. We only need about 75mg a day.

I do take 250 mg of Vitamin C, at the direction of my neuro, to acidify my urine to prevent UTI’s. I wonder if that might help Sunshine.

Also, I had been taking a good probiotic daily but my nutritionist told me that once a week is plenty so I’ve made that change.

Please ask you health care professional before doing either of these.
ANN

[Cherie]

The past several days have seen very little walking, increase spasticity and two spasms.

Now I know why.

Urology just let me know that while the office urinalysis was clean, the 3 day grow out culture showed UTI.

Hoping with treatment the Walking will go back to baseline. Just like it did in December.

Doc is in surgery and will call in Rx this afternoon. .. I am glad he saw with his own eyes the pattern of chief complaints, the clean urinalysis, and then the UTI seen on culture, and the neuro decline while having the UTI... Maybe he wont write me off next time...

I do EXACTLY the same thing! Clean UA and Culture then at 72 hours the culture is growing bacteria.

[Virginia]

Sunshine, sorry you have a UTI, but I am glad they have found it. I just finished my round of antibiotics yesterday and I feel better.

Cat, are you sure you don't live in Germany? That is how they drove when I was there and I mean in the fog. Early one morning there were 101 accidents on a stretch of road that I took to work everyday. It was foggy as could be, but that didn't slow the people down at all. The girls and myself that rode together could hear the cars crashing behind us. We finally pulled off the autobahn and stood on a bank. We avoided an accident that morning, but one morning we did not. It was very, very foggy so we took a back route to work. A big tractor-trailer truck hit us in the rear and knocked us out in a field. We turned over 3 times - end over end. Since then, and this has been a very long time, I can't stand to be in a car when someone is tailgating me.

Ann, glad to know that vitamin C might help with UTIs. I have not been taking it, but now I am going to start. To say they are uncomfortable is putting it mildly. I waited way too long to go to the Doctor with this last one.

I am cleaning house today and thought Laura was coming to do her part at 2PM. At 1:52 I got a call from her that she couldn't come (no reason given). She said she would be here tomorrow. I am thinking of doing her part myself, but then I would be mopping the kitchen and bathroom and I have had a bad back, which is now better. Do not want to hurt it again.

Missing Howie.

[stillstANNding]

Virginia, Laura seems to let you down pretty often. I am sorry she did not call you until the last minute. Don’t hurt your back. Dust can wait.

ANN

[Sunshine]

Thank you. I just messaged primary care doc about it. Could take a couple of days to hear back.

[Sunshine]

Virginia, i wonder if your bad back was actually a kidney infection.

[Virginia]

Sunshine, I have also wondered if something else to do with the UTI was going on because when that got better so did my back. I wonder if a kidney infection would get better from the medication she gave me for the UTI. I fussed about that medicine, but all in all something has helped me.

Ann, I got busy and finished the dusting, which I had started - all over downstairs. I did upstairs yesterday. I then vacuumed the master bath and kitchen and moped them, then I cleaned the kitchen counter tops and the kitchen sink. I had already washed two loads of wash. I still have to make my bed with fresh linens for tonight. Tomorrow I will vacuum the rest of the downstairs. There is no way I could have done all of last week - close to what I have this week. Oh, I also took out the recycling and two bags of trash.

Please, please, please hope that I do not pay for this tomorrow. I was so mad with Laura that I kind of let that anger spur me on I guess.

[agate]

Laura kept you waiting until almost the last minute to let you know--that's really annoying, to be treated that way.

Apparently a UTI can go to your kidneys without your being aware of it. A lot depends on how you're feeling. If you start having back pain, chills, nausea, instead of just the urinary tract symptoms associated with a bladder infection (frequency, burning, hesitancy, etc.), your kidneys may be involved, as I understand it.

I had some of those grim symptoms with several UTIs but whatever antibiotic I was given for that UTI must have worked because it did clear up my symptoms.

Well, one time, there were a couple of different bugs found in the culture and the trick was to zap both of them. I did have to have two different antibiotics for that one because the first one didn't clear up the infection.

Nothing was said about kidneys in connection with any of the UTIs I've had but with some I felt especially miserable, with chills and a feverish feeling.

Then I had an IVP that showed a lot of scarring in the kidneys, and I was told that that is an indication of frequent infections--so I concluded that some of those UTIs must have gone to my kidneys too.

I looked up antibiotics that are prescribed for kidney infections, and they are the same standard ones prescribed for UTIs. Which ones you get, and what dosage, probably depends on how sick you are. Some people have to be hospitalized with kidney infections but others don't.

I had a friend who was susceptible to kidney infections and landed in the ER quite often with them. They can be very serious and even fatal. You don't want to treat them as if they're nothing but I'm just saying that UTIs can involve the kidneys but if you take the right medicine properly, it can knock out the bacteria without developing into anything really serious.

[Virginia]

I think you hit it on the head Agate. You know I had been feeling unwell for quite awhile. The day I went to the Doctor I had a fever and I had chills. I could hardly wait to get home I felt so bad. My back was hurting and I bought a heating pad to put on it. I am still sitting with a pillow at my back just as a precautionary measure until I finish all the housework tomorrow, which is vacuuming the downstairs and washing one more load of clothes. But what a difference in the way I feel. I did not really start to feel this well until yesterday, which was my last day on the medication, so it took the full week of it to take care of it.

I have had a lot of UTIs, but this one was different in that my back became involved really bad. Just hope it doesn't come back.

I will pay myself for todays housework. I would have had to pay Laura, so I will pay me what she would have made.

I wish Ann would tell Peter to come and do my ironing - that is if he likes to starch.

[stillstANNding]

Virginia, he just left for work but I will ask him. In general, he does not use starch but you get to watch him iron.

ANN

[Catdancer]

I have a person who clean for me. She has occasionally had to cancel, but there have always been good excuses, good reasons. We've called and cancelled her coming, too, also for good reasons. She has always come as scheduled, or re-scheduled. I'd probably fire someone who repeatedly didn't show up when I expected her.

It snowed again yesterday and overnight..another 4 inches. We have piles of snow 6 feet tall. I think the groundhog is frozen in his den! It looks beautiful out...but it's cold, in the single digits. I long for spring!

[Sunshine]

If it were me, I would tell Laura that She does very good work, but you need someone more reliable. That you would like to continue working with her, but that you depend upon her due to your disability. If she then continues to stiff you, let her go and find another person.

BTW, i do not stay when my housekeeper is here. But, then again, I have known her 30 years and trust her.

[agate]

Yes, I'd have problems with someone who wasn't showing up dependably. It's too much of an inconvenience. I'd have to set aside that time and wait for her to arrive, then keep waiting maybe because she/he didn't show up on time, then make new arrangements, and in the meantime the work would go undone. A particular problem if the work was to include laundry that really needed to be done.


Catdancer, it's been so cold around here that that groundhog's shadow must have frozen. More snow in the night and it's still on the ground even though it's nearly noon.