Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Shingles.

Shingles, a nasty little blot on the human form not to mention a painful one.
It comes from childhood chicken pox, where the virus leaches into the nervous system and remains dormant until triggered. It then multiplies and travels along the nerves to the skin and erupts into blisters.
Usually the rash and blisters appear around the waist and on one side of the body but it can appear on the face and head. The pain is intense, throbbing and keeps on going for weeks or months. There are complications of light sensitivity, flulike symptoms, adominal pain, diarrhoea, chills, fever, swollen glands or joint pain, headache, confusion and drowsiness.
Researchers believe physical and emotional stressors weaken the immune system and contribute to the onset of the disease. If it hits the eyes, there is the danger of drooping eyelid, loss of eye motion, corneal ulcers and vision problems.  If it goes into the ear, bad bad news. 

Guess who has Shingles? Not me, thank the Great Goddess but mother. Doc Marvin noticed a small scaley patch on her forehead and sent for the proper medication at once. She didn't remember having Shingles before but me, being the file for all things Mother, rang the surgery to tell them when and how severe. It's really weird that on Tuesday when I was there I was telling her about Shingles and the new treatments and what causes it.
STRESS, 
Annie Joyce of the glass cutting voice, dying beside her because the shit doctor wouldn't do anything.
New roomie (2 died in the last 6 weeks) is not only a sleep talker but if she wakes up, she walks and Mum's been ringing the bell for the nurse in charge. I did my block and told mum to let the woman fall over.
Old roomie's memory is now so bad she can't remember if day is night or if she had dinner. Middle of the night and she's asking mum to ring the bell because she hasn't been fed. She did have her own bell but they disconnected it. She then used the bed up and down control instead until she upped it too much and slid out onto her ample backside causing midnight mayhem.
The lovely tea lady, who has been giving mum crumpets for supper and buying them out of her own pocket, was dobbed in by a snitching bitch on staff when it was none of her business. Guess who was extremely upset on hearing about this and stressed out that a friend was in trouble.

The old girl also has congestion in the chest, another complication and her immune system isn't the best. Don't talk about nutrition, snitching bitch has been doing the cooking while fat useless chef has been off sick. The only time a meal was good was when an agency chef was brought in when snitching bitch was also off sick.  I know why she really looked forward to that crumpet supper.

I noticed a spot on her face last week but put it down to some idiot bringing in flowers with pollen when I've repeatedly told them she's allergic to pollens. And I noticed how drowsy she was during the afternoon and since joint pain is always with her, didn't take much notice when she said the new lifting machine was making it worse. I'll see her on Friday and I'm taking crumpets with me, with her name on the packet.

Just to round off the post, I'm going to kill the person who walked a camel along my nature strip last night, in the dark.  It had to be a camel, it left enough crap to fertilize the entire Sahara Desert. There was hardly enough room to park the bin and not have to wade through it and I only just got the bin out before the storm hit. 
And not a fecking piece of chocolate in the house. I tell you shredded wheatmeal biscuits do not de-stress. Tomorrow I shop and I'll be looking for the biggest piece of lemon meringue pie I can find. Speaking of tarts, anyone catch last night's Great British Bake Off? I tell you green-eyed Rob with the dark hair can bake my cookies any day and I thought I would just drool over the cakes. 

15 comments:

Elephant's Child said...

Aaargh. I really hope it is not lying dormant in you too. You have stress enough to cause a shingles outbreak to rival the Great Plague of London.
Thank goodness for Doc Marvin (and how I wish he could be cloned).
A camel or an elephant crapping on your lawn?
I missed Great British Bake-off last night - but will look forward to the repeats - thank you for the reminder.

River said...

Shingles!!
Oh dear god, this is the last thing your poor mum needs right now.
I'm so sorry to hear this.
I hope snitching bitch gets a nice case of it though.
Or maybe not....shingles is pretty bad, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I'll settle for snitching bitch to eventually fall under the car of one just like herself when she is in a nursing home.
Thank goodness for Doc Marvin! I hope someone is working on cloning him.
I don't watch bake-off shows, they make me want to eat cake.
I hope your mum actually gets the crumpets.

River said...

Uh oh, I meant care not car.

Amy Pond said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amy Pond said...

Oops -- here is a more direct link to his diabetes web page.

http://www.drfuhrman.com/disease/Diabetes.aspx

Amy Pond said...

Oh and it might help to have this webpage, regarding Fuhrman's Member Center, which might turn out to be a great support group:

https://www.drfuhrman.com/members/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fmembers%2fdefault.aspx

Just giving the link here in case it helps.
That is all now. Best wishes.

Fen said...

ugh your poor Mother. I've never even had chicken pox!!

I'm with River, baking shows make me want to eat baked good, very not good for the willpower!

Ann ODyne said...

jeepers Coppy I got a startle when I saw 'shingles' and even now I can't say I am relieved it isn't you, because it's you mum.
My friend got it in her eye FOUR years ago and is still doing the vile and costly drops 6 times a day.
I hope everything comes good at Don't Turn Your Back On Me Harvey.
X X

JahTeh said...

EC, anybody who's had chicken pox has this virus just waiting to bust out.
I love the British show because they give a history lesson on baking. Rob is the one with the fumble fingers who dropped the entire chocolate cake on the floor but his green eyes are just divine.

River, I have my own spy network down there but we have to be careful about exchanging info. I love watching because I know I'm never going to be bothered cooking cakes again.

Amy P, the room she has is lovely, floor to ceiling sliding door and window looking out to a native garden and the bird bath we gave her. It's the best view in the place, she'd never move. And because it's by the entrance, there's always someone to stop and chat.
About the Diabetes, like I said if they'd stop moving the goalposts it would help. Have you ever tried carb counting then carb exchanging with carbs of a lower value? I tell you it would drive you to chocolate but joy, I have found sugarless chocolate which is allowed. I bet it tastes revolting.

Fenstar, school holidays and kids, stay away from the germ ridden beasts. My nephew was 37 when he got chicken pox and they isolated him in hospital he was so bad. Age is no barrier to bugs.
Stuff the anti-vaccine pushers.

Annie O, about the same level of hysteria your email gave me. Bad in the eyes but really terrible if it gets to the nerves in the ear. Ma also has chest congestion and still cheerful enough to ask for a cake tomorrow.

Amy Pond said...

JT, I removed my first comment because I was uncomfortable leaving my personal info up there. I am not a good blogger.

I copied the Fuhrman links here from that comment so that if you ever do decide to look it up, the info will still be here.

-------

JT, I am sorry your mom has to deal with the roommate issue over and over again. I don't know what the financial situation is, but the only thing I can think of is to try to get your mom a single room. It must be emotionally hard to see roommate after roommate fail, and really hard on you too.

Otherwise I am sorry but I cannot help much, except to explain once more how I think you are a great person who is going thru a long rough patch. The problem is that I didn't get much sleep the other nite after I commented, nor the next nite, even; I absorb other people's problems too much for my own good, and so I will need to step away in order to get things done in my own life. I thought long and hard about commenting again but wanted to tell you a couple things more, then I may not (probably won't) comment again. I have lived thru a lot of the same stuff. But I have a difficulty processing blogs (note, I don't have one) for a lot of personal reasons, including that my memory is way too good, plus I want to help everyone under the sun, so while I am working on solutions to other people's problems, wondering if I should or shouldn't write something, they are already onto something else, doing fine-- and I worried for nothing.

About friends, well, I will tell you from my own experience that most of us indeed lose some friends during times like this.

No, is not fair-- but it happens.
As for the diabetes, I'm going to make a suggestion that maybe you might hate me for making --OR might really want to know about... it all depends on what you want at this point. I don't judge at all here; I am overweight and thank goodness not diabetic yet.

I had a friend with diabetes said the meds made him gain weight, which really sucks. ***BUT HERE'S THE THING --listen to this: That same friend did tell me when he was on an island off Greece for a few weeks, and eating their diet there, he had no problems with his blood sugar. He was in his early 60s at the time. He did not keep it up when he got home, tho, and the diabetes returned.

So, I thought I would give you the information about Dr. Fuhrman. He appears on our educational television in the U.S. and he has books. You might want to look at his diabetes page on his website, and read the comments about his diabetes book on amazon. The book was a New York Times bestseller so it must be at least decent, I would hope. His lectures on TV are convincing. The thought that you can reverse diabetes type 2 with diet is really encouraging. Maybe there are groups out there to join online, too-- I don't know.

http://www.drfuhrman.com/disease/default.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/The-End-Diabetes-Prevent-Reverse/dp/0062219979/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379544032&sr=8-1&keywords=The+End+of+Diabetes

My best wishes to you, JT. I think you are a great person and I think you deserve to treat yourself well. You are worth it. I hope what I provided here helps you in some way. Keep up your great humor; that is the real key to survival.

River said...

@Amy Pond; you said "not diabetic yet"
As if you expect to become diabetic later?
Otherwise, why the "yet"?
Take steps now to ensure that doesn't happen or at least minimise your risks.
Try the Greek diet?

Amy Pond said...

Sorry for my comment about your mom's room. I thought that having people die in the room was a bigger problem but I misunderstood what the complaint was.

Yes, they do keep moving goalposts. Science builds on itself and old ideas are discarded as new things get known. I just thought that the info might be of some help in case you wanted it.

I spent a couple hours drafting my comments; that is how much I don't wish to write hurtful words or flippant words. I honestly thought you might want to look into the Fuhrman thing because it appears to be very different, and he has reversed diabetes in his patients.

Honestly my best wishes but not much else I can offer then.

JahTeh said...

River, there is a condition called 'pre-diabetes' or insulin resistance which can go into full blown diabetes but can be helped with medication and diet.

Amy P, I was coming back to comment again about your friend and his Greek diet. I would say it was not only the diet but the stressless holiday he was having.
We have a brilliant researcher here at Monash University who's written very easy to read books on Diabetes and low GI foods all of which I've read. And there's the ultimate cure of Bariatric surgery which I will never consider. Scientists couldn't work out why this surgery worked with just a small intake of food but now they know that it alters the gut microbes so they're working on a pill that mimics this action. News out this week is why people who lose an enormous amount of weight and put it back on within two years, (google AJ Rochester). It's because the stomach nerves to the brain that tells it that it's full are permanently damaged.
Don't stop commenting, your opinions and thoughts are always welcome.

Jayne said...

Coppy, go ask Dr Marvin about the shingles vaccine, for yourself. Might be too late for your mum to have it, but ask anyway.
Hope your mum has a mild dose, it's horrible xxxx
As for snitching bitch...! There are not enough words to convey how petty this creature is and she should stick her nose up her own arse to investigate the megatonne of bulltish that makes up her soul.

JahTeh said...

Believe me Jayne, I don't get close enough to the old girl to catch anything.
I've seen too many relatives with germs slobbering all over their loved ones to even kiss her hello. She's inside, I'm from germ central outside so I like to be careful.
At least we know who the two snitches are and are careful not to say much when they're around.