Relief at Last

No... not anything to do with the Siege of Mafeking, or shift work or massage parlours...

After 3 days of hell, the midge bites sustained during the garden party gig on Saturday are at last starting to go down! Phew!!!

The things are voracious! Whilst looking for ways of reducing the appalling itching I came across loads of surreal (and useless) tips. Dabbing toothpaste on them looks unsightly (minus one point) but does make your arm smell minty (plus one point) but does absolutely zilch to stop the itching (minus one million points...).

Also there was a mix of "use a mild acid like vinegar" and "use an alkaline like baking soda" - come on, make your minds up!

Then the really surreal ones - "Put an elastic band around the arm and snap it onto the affected area" huh? It went on to say, "...however the pain of this may not be preferable to the itching!". Well thanks for nothing! Minus two million points...

In the end I went into Boots for some antihistamines. The bloke ahead of me in the queue insisted on showing the assistant a couple of spots and whining how painful they were. I have at least 50 of the bloody things and was on the point of snorting at him when he finally decided to take the assistant's advice.

She looked at my arm as I asked for the same stuff and held out the money. "Now that does look like something to whinge about..." she commented.

Apparently it's only pregnant females that bite you but then are so overcome at your kindness in giving up a miniscule amount of blood that they immediately send out a signal to all other pregnant females who swarm around you and dive in for a snack.

And if you are playing guitar at the time it's not easy to brush them away or move yourself out of their vicinity!

Tigger R.I.P.

A sad week. On Monday after a period of looking and acting a bit off Tigger, our female cat seemed to be having problems standing up.

We took her into the vet and they kept her overnight on a drip and for blood tests.

I had to go to Newcastle for 3 days but in one of those did it happen for a reason things I started off with a cold on the first night and shrugged it off for a day but then was feeling absolutely wretched on the second night and when I woke up on Thursday morning. So I came home on an early train and Fran said the vet wanted to see us that night.

Tigger still hadn't eaten and although she had fluids from the drip she was very poorly. The blood tests showed her liver was the problem and if she wouldn't eat she was not going to improve.

The vet felt she may eat at home, but wanted her back in the morning for more medication. We took her home but she was in a state. Normally after a trip to the vets she can't wait to get out of the travel cage, but she would not budge out of it, nor would she eat or drink or do anything other than a faint acknowledgement that she was back with us.

Jess, her brother, took one look and sniff and ran.

Taking her out of the cage was a shock. Her feet folded under her and she struggled to rise, only to crawl straight back into the cage.

In the morning the options were to try a feeding tube for a couple of days but then if she didn't eat after that, there would be nothing else to try and it sounded intrusive and we felt after so long that we didn't want to put her through forced feeding.

So yesterday was a very sad day and we are worried about Jess who, unlike Tigger, has never since a kitten particularly sought out our company except for food and a bedtime stroke, but who loved to cuddle up with her for hours. He's now trying to find hiding places where she hasn't been and we just need to give him time and hope he grieves and then comes round.

We'll miss our Tiggie-poos, she was a beautiful and loving cat right from being a kitten in 2002.

Do You Know about Lyme Disease?

My friend Marlene, one of the Ladies-Over-The-Water has been battling Lyme Disease for the last four years and having to battle Canada's medical community for the right to be helped.

It seems that some of Canada's medical profession are so determined that "there is no Lyme Disease in Canada" that they will sue and hound out of the profession those doctors who are willing to treat it.

What is Lyme Disease? It comes from the bite of a tick. There is a typical bullseye rash - a red spot ringed by normal coloured skin with an outer ring rash.

Marlene's summary in her own words from her web site:

Infected Date: August 2007: I was taking pictures and was bitten by something, but did not pay much attention, thinking it was a spider.

Place: Near Picton, Ontario: Taking pictures of Dragon Boat Races in Bloomfield, in pretty Prince Edward County.

Diagnosis: Years later, Feb. 2010: Been sent from doctor to specialist to test to ER over months, with various diagnoses, medications and getting sicker.

Symptoms: Early on, flu-like symptoms, fatigue, headache, low-grade fever, stiff neck, knee pain. A rash appeared a week after the bite, but I did not connect the two, only took pictures.

Problem: Doctors are not trained to look for Lyme disease; there are no conclusive tests; in Canada, many doctors refuse to admit it exists.

Treatment: In March 2010, I started antibiotic treatment, which has to be long-term to have any effect. Things started improving and I was optimistic and grateful.

Update: On March 17, 2011 - abandoned by the Ontario Health Care System, because of a complaint against the specialist for "treating something which does not exist in Canada."

Result: Infections coming back, symptoms becoming noticeable, quality of life affected.

May is Lyme Awareness month: Please be aware of Lyme disease, that it is the fastest spreading infection in North America, and that everyone is vulnerable, even in their own back yards or city parks. How many more people have to be sick, disabled or even dying before something is done to protect patients and the doctors treating them?

Prevention:
Simple precautions can be taken, like wearing insect repellent with DEET, or using lemon and eucalyptus creams. Check for bites. Pay attention to symptoms. If found early, antibiotic treatment can prevent long-lasting symptoms and damage to organs. Fight for doctors to be aware, and for parks to put up warnings and information! Knowledge is power.

Now when Marlene said she had antibiotics, she meant having an intravenous drip - a bag permanently attached to her arm. The side effects sounded horrendous. However, she was starting to feel the benefit when her treatment was withdrawn due to the threat of litigation against her specialist.

Anyone travelling to North America needs to be aware of this and to check themselves and children for ticks, particularly following a walk through grass. See the Canadian CanLyme Association web pages for more details.

There's a month of walks and rallies going on in May across Canada and in America, Amanda has arranged a rallying walk in Virginia Beach on May 21.

Irritable? Downright Grumpy Bowel...

It's been something of a trying week...

At some point on Sunday I became aware of a twinge, a soreness low down in the abdomen. Admittedly we had been out for a meal on Saturday night which was mega in proportions and most enjoyable. But the soreness turned to pains and didn't stop.

By Tuesday I was thinking fondly of starting to whimper quietly and got myself down to the doctor who took a sample ("Ooh, your sugar's sky high!") and my temperature ("Oh, look at that! You're quite poorly!") and felt my stomach and abdomen ("Yeowwww!" - no, that was me...)

So my bowel was diagnosed as the culprit and I've been taking some rather sensationally sized pills and capsules since then.

... For your amusement I attach a scan showing my normal-sized capsules for the blood pressure and two of the socking pills they've given me for this... I ask you - does it even look humane?!? The first attempt wasn't too sucessful but at least I've managed to get used to the horrendous size of the tablets and so far the score is - down the gullet: 23 and halfway down the gullet and back to disappear down the sink: 1 - a clear victory I think...

The Ladies-Over-The-Water asked whether the doctor had diagnosed diverticulitis?

I can't recall the Doc saying diverticulitis - I thought she was saying she had to divert her gaze because of how cute I was...? Or was it something about divers being ticklish? No actually I can't remember her saying anything like that - it was more the description than any name and I was somewhat diverted anyway as the prodding really made me wince... I did sort of lock eyes with her in a fixed gaze but then when I started breathing again I was able to look away and begin to hear again. It is definitely not that bad today! But it wasn't that bad the other day until she tried to make her fingers disappear in an abdominal hole of her own making...

Illnesses and Ailments 1950s Style

More from the now-vanished Nostalgia web site. My very earliest memory is of an incident that happened when I was two. We had moved from living with Nana and Grandad to a terraced house of our own in Albion Street, Castleton. My Dad was ill and in bed. He had had asthma from being a young boy and he was particularly bad at this time. I remember running up the stairs behind Mum and going into their bedroom and seeing him hanging out of the bed in a state of collapse.

That one scene fades into another where I am looking out of the window of "Aunty Sally" our next door neighbour, watching the ambulance come for him, emergency bell ringing.

Sirens did not come into use until much later and in 1956 ambulances, police cars and fire engines had an electric bell on the front to clear traffic. There was much less traffic anyway and very few of those very few cars had a radio, much less some form of personal music player in their car to block outside sounds out.

Dad's lung had collapsed with the strain of trying to breathe. He was taken to Rochdale Infirmary where the doctors said if the traffic lights had been on red he would have died on the way to the hospital. I only mentioned this memory to Mum when I was in my 30s or 40s and she said it explained why I used to have nightmares after that day for a few weeks. She said Dad's face had already turned blue. My memory is just black and white and I hadn't remembered that.

When I was seven I started to develop asthma myself. Trying to run more than a few steps brought on the most horrendous attacks of it. I could breathe in but breathing out had to be forced and I wheezed and gasped for breath. Aerosols were rare for any purpose - for inhalers they definitely were not in use. The remedy was to measure an amount of liquid into a glass bubble affair with a rubber bulb underneath. The bulb forced the liquid into a fine mist spray which came out the top of the glass bubble into a tube which led to a hard black plastic face mask which covered the nose, mouth and most of my cheeks and chin. It took around 20 minutes hard pumping on every inward breath to calm an attack.

It seems an incredible amount of time now when modern inhalers have an immediate effect but once the aerosol inhalers came in, the old type were still sold with the slogan "An overdose would be beyond the strength of an average man"! Asthma shaped my life from age 7 until my twenties. I was unable to do most sports so have never had an interest in them. Instead I took up music in the shape of the guitar at 12.

For a couple of years I went to a chest clinic at Rochdale Infirmary two mornings a week. I suppose I'd be between 7 and 9. All I can remember is a group of about 20 kids all around the same age, some of whom seemed to have nothing wrong with them and others who were the same as me, and one or two who wheezed and gasped all the time. We did gentle exercises, lay on mats for an hour's sleep then had a competition to see who could blow a bit of cotton wool the furthest along a table.

As a result of those exercises I now have a lung capacity in excess of most healthy people!

I seem to remember sitting with goggles on huddled around a very bright light, which would have been a sun lamp. Sunshine was thought to be good for all sorts of ailments. Some schools were built with special glass that didn't block UV rays - kids tanned as they sat in class... When Ventolin came out I was on it for 25 years, taking 2 puffs at least 8 times a day, more on most days.

An earlier visit to the infirmary came when I was 3. Dad was cleaning out the gutter at Castleton and looked down to see me rubbing my eye. He was horrified to see it bulging out of the socket and, unable to see the cause, took me up to the infirmary. I can't remember this incident at all, but he told me years afterwards that the doctors had taken from the back of my eye socket a long piece of string that had fallen from the gutter into my eye and my rubbing had wound it around the eye inside the socket.

All I remember about the event is that after coming from the infirmary he told me I'd been very brave and that he would buy me any record I wanted. I had no idea what I wanted but we went to one of the two shops in Rochdale that sold records and I stood looking in the window at a display of lots of 78rpm discs, pinned up on a display, pointed and said "That one..." What he bought me was Don Lang's "The Witch Doctor" which I still have in my collection of 78s from that time.

It was important to catch some of the childhood illnesses early. Mumps was a case in point - horrible symptoms in post-adolescent males! If you caught it, your Mum would tell all the other mums and that night after school you had all your chums round to play in a darkened room whilst the grown-ups sat anxiously waiting for the swollen glands to appear...

We had polio jabs and sometimes took the polio vaccine by eating a lump of sugar or a jelly baby that had been squirted with it!

At least some of the real child-killing diseases had been got rid of. As a child, Dad had caught Scarlet Fever. He had been taken into hospital and not allowed visitors at all as it was so contagious. "When it was visiting time all the parents would gather at the railings around the hospital," he told me. "Nurses would make you stand at the window and tell you to wave at your Mum and Dad. Even if they were there, they were so far away you couldn't make them out in the crowd, but you waved anyway... I was lucky - lots of the kids died."

Perhaps "nostalgia" isn't quite the word for this entry...

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Traumatic Time at the Vet's

No, not for the cat... For me.

Tigger has had a urinary tract problem. It started last year around this time and she was really bad then - we thought for a while we might lose her, but she recovered and we knew this time to spot the early symptoms and to get her to the vet's for a couple of injections.

Last night we took her for the second one and they were running a bit late with a place full of dogs. Tigger was safe enough (or should that be, the dogs were safe enough?) but she straight away started a continuous growling and yeowling and the dogs started to get nervous...

Which is ok, except that I am slightly allergic to dogs. We were there over half an hour and when I came out my eyes were sore.

By the time I had driven home my eyes looked like this!

I had to spend the night flat on my back with two cotton pads soaked in cold water over my eyes. I put my headphones on and just listened to music. Fran kicked me a couple of times claiming I was snoring but seriously – how could I have been when I was listening to music?!?

Anyway this morning the swelling has gone down a lot but I think I might find some things to do that don't require a lot of staring at the computer screen!

And Tig is so pleased to be home she's cuddling her brother, Jess, which he is suffering without complaint...

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Danger Zone - Sneezing Man, Bunged Up Cat!!!

Yuck! I've got the sneezes. Don't actually think it's a cold as I don't feel ill. Not Swine Flu 'cos there's no grunting... Could be an allergy.

Miss Franny is threatening to fit me with a nose bag. But I'm not that hungry, Fran...!!!

Am nursemaiding Tigger the cat too. Poor thing has got cystitis. Not well at all. She's finding it very hard to go to the loo. Tigger and Jess are seven years old, brother and sister from the same litter. For seven years they have eaten from the same bowl, pooped in the same litter tray and shared everything. Now Jess is learning that means sharing medical diets...

We bought them a new tray so they could have one each and lined it with newspaper. Jess thought it would be excellent to sleep in...

Flu Shivers And Shakes

Poor David my foot... He gave it to me didn't he!

Ah well, best mates should share stuff, but I'd have been as well pleased if he hadn't! It's a bad one though, first week I did absolutely nothing except curl in a ball on the sofa, drink, cough, sweat and feel awful...

This week the feeling awful is receding but the cough certainly hasn't - goes off into anti-breathe paroxysms of prolongued wheeze and expellation until I go light headed with rather less delight than... er... other things that can make me light headed...

Club Night

Last night we played the Highfield Road Servicemens' Association club in Blackpool.

Poor David has been suffering since the Saturday gig with flu and looked as though he should have been still in bed really but we gave them a good night and a chance to exercise their vocal chords singing along to country, folk and sixties songs, finishing up with Quo's Rocking All Over The World.

David explained he looked a bit rough due to being on heavy drugs (Lemsip) and the audience gave us a rousing burst of applause at every song ending and afterwards as Fran was standing by the pile of equipment we were ferrying to the car across the road many of them could be heard saying how much they had enjoyed the night.

So did we...Even David was back to his usual self after a few songs and the adrenalin had shaken off the flu for a while!

I've Not Been Well, You Know...

I've had a bit of a bug...

Apparently there's one going about that gives you headaches, sore throats and ties your guts in knots.

It's had me for two days and whilst I'm now back at work, I'm still croaking and losing my voice so I'm working from home so as not to spread it about. Uncommonly non-generous, I know, but there you are.

I must have looked bad on the first day because Fran was actually sympathetic. I think...
"You look a bit queer..." is what she actually said...

By day two when I lost my voice she had changed to: "That's good!".

Our daughter, Gill, came round to visit after work yesterday and said something like "Are you being pathetic?"

I croaked indignantly that I couldn't talk properly, which evoked the response: "Ooh - that's an improvement...!"

Huh! Women just don't understand how we men suffer with illness...