She has to dwell on survival until living gets to a point where she can breath.
Lori is one of the smartest quads on the list and I have no doubt she will
handle this. God cant help a stopped train, as long as you keep pushing you
will reach the next stage of life. My offer to Lori or any person in here. I
have a fair share of knowledge and will talk to anyone in need on the list.
Maybe I cant do more than listen, but we should be helping each other more.
After 7pm my minutes are free.
Ron
On Sunday, April 10, 2016 6:48 PM, Larry Willis <lwillis82...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Lori, your post just leaves me speechless. My heart goes out to you. Sometimes
life, especially quad life, seems more than the human spirit can handle. It may
sound trite, but turn your heart toward God and hold fast to His promise. Above
all, don't despair. Please don't dwell on all the negatives in your life. It
will bring you down like a rock. Try to stay positive. You are in my thoughts
and prayers. God bless.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lori Michaelson <lorilivin...@gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, April 10, 2016
Subject: [QUAD-L] Just a question and a statement
To: quad-list <quad-list@eskimo.com>
I have been lost without my beloved husband who was absolutely everything for
me. My primary caregiver [while hiring morning caregivers and teenagers to
clean for us], a computer software/hardware engineer who used to work for NASA,
a photographer, a genealogist, a mathematician and statistician, pretty much my
doctor without being able to write prescriptions for me because he went to
medical school and worked in the medical field for several years before getting
his degree in mathematics because of the time he was going to medical school
there was reversed discrimination going at the time - colleges taking "persons
of color" to meet their quota over white/Caucasian Americans.
I had everything on June 10, 2012 and the next day, after a cardiac arrest and
unable to revive, I lost all of that and more. We shared our love for Golden
retrievers and we used to love to do things together both indoors and out.
I was doing better when I was able to live with family until they wanted me to
"move on" and I have fallen apart since.
After moving back here is unaware my husband and I lived for 11 years and
whereby the weather and the accessibility is awesome but I had no idea that,
over the last couple years, primary care physicians are not taking patients who
are on pain medications and Medicare certified home health agencies are being
discriminatory when it comes to a quadriplegic if they're only insurance is
Medicare.
I began to have my symptoms of a UTI last Thursday and need to get a urine
specimen to be set out for culture and sensitivity. My husband used to purchase
the urinary test strips to, every once in a while, and just for the hell of it
and for curiosity get the results for my urobilinogen, glucose, ketones,
bilirubin, protein, nitrate, pH level, blood, specific gravity and leukocytes.
He could read those test strips because he used to be a cheap slap technician
and did not for a living so I knew how long to wait for each and every result
for each of those things (less than 30 seconds however). He could not do a
culture and sensitivity because, obviously, we did not have the laboratory with
laboratory, the slides, the petri dishes and everything else required.
After his passing, I began to have more non-systemic UTIs. This is probably
because different people begin to do my bowel regimen and even though they were
as clean as possible... I knew my husband would do a better job and making sure
I was clean down there. That was clear since I did not have any non-systemic
UTIs prior to his passing.
I now feel so alone whereby I feel that my family could have "shared the care"
but they wouldn't and I have so very little family left (2 much older sisters
and 2 nieces).
After moving to Arizona the first nurse who changed my catheter insulated the
balloon inside my urethra and I discovered this after she left and it was left
in my urethra for a good 45 minutes before she could get back and I am
suffering from the consequences of that even now. I have had spontaneously
urinary leaking around the catheter. My urologist (who is familiar with there
are neurogenic bladders) is at a loss as to what to do except for to increase
my oxybutynin (which she did do the maximum dose) but it has not solved the
problem completely.
She offered to increase the size of my catheter but there are pros and cons to
that. A bigger size Foley catheter will stretch my urethra even further. Yeah,
I know, I could go with a suprapubic catheter but I have never had any problems
before that nurse did that to me and since my urologist has been in my bladder
twice to remove stones (the last one was in late 2012) she says my bladder
looks like a bladder that has never had a catheter in it - it looks like the
bladder of an able-bodied person who has never had a catheter so why her fix
what is broken.
I will get rid of this nonsystemic UTI with whatever antibiotic she gives me
after the results and go from there because things were getting better until my
pain began.
This is the second nonsystemic UTI have had since moving here in the middle of
January. My nurse was scheduled this Tuesday for my catheter change and I had
my urologist order taking a urine specimen for culture and sensitivity to treat
whatever is causing me pain but now she wants to change that to Thursday
because of a mandatory agency meeting and I was okay at the time she told me
that on Friday but that was before my pain got worse and my catheter did not
want to irritate and my sediment buildup is horrible.
I am so exhausted with everything. Absolutely love this town but not the
treatment I am getting for people who are supposed to be helping me. Long
story... can't go into it because it is so long.
~LoriC4/5 complete quad, 36 1/2 years post
On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 12:34 PM, Eric Olson <whee...@wi.rr.com> wrote:
try being married. LOL!
On 4/10/2016 8:29 AM, john owens wrote:
How is everyone doing this morning? I hate being single it sucks very badly.
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