Kitty’s Place

The question I have been pondering for 3 weeks. I have had a headache for the past 3 weeks. Not always intense but I wake with and go to sleep with it. Probably it is stress related but since it is better to be safe than sorry, I went to the doctor yesterday. She did a really thorough neuro exam and is sending me for a broad spectrum of labwork. I should have gone this morning but a migraine woke me at 4 am and I have spent the day in bed. My blood pressure was a little higher than it usually is, still well within normal range, pulse was lower than usual, still well within normal range. I should have written a report today that was to be in by noon, but it is not done. I have done the reading but my head just will not formulate my thoughts in a concise way, in swedish.

That is what Rusty was on Saturday after I removed 10 ticks from him. *laugh* Ibo took him out in the woods and then left him with me while he went to the airport. I was sitting at the table studying and put my hand out to pat him when I saw two ticks. I removed them and started checking and found a couple more. At last I went and dug out a lice comb I bought a couple years ago when lice was rampant at LL’s school. That yielded 3 more. Number 8 showed up when I was talking to Aunt Maud on the phone, 9 I discovered when we were on the balcony in the sun, it was the only one that had actually attached itself and then the last one I found shortly after Ibo removed the attached one. The dogs have had their tick medicine and we keep a close eye on them, but I have never removed more than a couple after a walk in the woods. I guess the reports about this year being a bad year for ticks, are correct.

On that topic, I am debating getting LL the vaccine for tick borne encephalitis. We looked into a couple years ago but the doctor felt there wasn’t much risk here. With the increased number of ticks though and the fact he is outdoors in the woods at school, I think it is time to re evaluate.

It was a nice weekend. Friday Ibo went to work, LL went to a friends’ house and I went in to school to study and do some photocopying. Saturday I studied, LL had a friend over and in the afternoon I went with both of them to the carnival. We stopped and dropped off a few things at farmor’s apt on the way, Ibo was picking them up at the airport at 1630 and knowing how tired they would be after 20+ hours of travelling, I thought it would be good if they had milk, fruit and yogurt to tide them over till they had caught up on some sleep. I got flowers and left them as well, it is always nice to come home to fresh flowers.
Sunday LL had another friend over, I did housework, Ibo puttered on the computer and then clipped both dogs. When he was done clipping fur, I clipped nails. Then I took the boys to the carnival and we went from there to famor’s for fika and saw her parents, who were on their way home to northern Sweden. At the carnival LL won a huge chocolate bar, which was a box with 2 kg of chocolate bars inside. He also won 3 more stuffed animals to add to the 4 he won previously, so it was a fun weekend on that front.

We had vegetarian chili for dinner and S & J joined us. We invited her to come along to LL’s dance recital this week, since Ibo has a meeting and can’t make it.

I am back at the books but taking a little break for a coffee and updating.

Tomorrow is my birthday, so does that make today my last day of being young? *laugh*

I passed the rewrite of my first exam, we all did. I think I was just so throw off first time around, but now I know what to expect.

Monday I went in and had my kidney stone blasted, something called Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. Because it is such a large stone, I have to go back next Monday and perhaps a third time, to disintegrate the entire thing. It was interesting how they did it and because I am a nurse, they explained things in great detail. I came home about 1700 and fell asleep. LL went to violin with farfar and came home and made himself something to eat and put himself to bed. I woke once to throw up about 2130. Tuesday I headed off to school but by noon I was so nauseated and sore I was not sure I would get home on the train without throwing up again. I called Ibo and asked if he could take LL to stamp club and luckily there were no meetings last evening, so he could. It was another sleepy evening but I had much more pain than the evening before. Of course I had been sedated on Monday with a hefty dose of tylenol, morphine and valium. *laugh*

This morning I am still nauseous and sore, I did take Rusty out for a short walk in the snow …. yes, I said snow. *laugh* We had enough last night that Ibo had to shovel this morning. This has been a bizarre winter and spring all around.

We have now studied, the cell, nervous system, circulatory system and tomorrow is respiratory system. It is an intense schedule but it is going well.  Next week is CPR but I am not sure I can manage it. Monday is out of the question as I am having eswl #2, Tuesday is an option if I am not in too much pain, but my real worry is my shoulder. It is much stronger now but I am worried it is not up to the compressions yet. I discussed this with our supervisor and she said if it is necessary I can observe and show them that I know the steps and then recertify in the fall when my arm has had a full year to heal.

I need to go into the city this week and have my second hepatitis b vaccine shot. It is a drop in vaccination centre, so I will try and make it there after school tomorrow.

Today I learned a new word. LL wanted to play on the computer, I informed him he had to practice violin, which needs to be done daily and he managed to avoid the past two days. When that was done, he thought he was free and clear to play. But I asked about his homework, which he brought home Wednesday and goes back Tuesday. He hadn’t touched it either. So I said it had to be done today since I am having surgery tomorrow and couldn’t help then. We did the math, getting a bunch of different size containers and figuring out how many of one size would it take to fill another size. When that was done it was time for him to write a poem. He whined and carried on till I said that he would not be allowed to go out with his grandmother if he didn’t do his homework. From the kitchen I heard him call out that I was a “glädjedödare”. This apparently means the equivalent of wetblanket, partypooper etc.

I used to remind him to do homework and violin every day and he complained that I nag at him, so I stopped. Now it is the mad rush to get done the day before. I hope he will learn to do some every day so there isn’t this cram session but I doubt it. He is just one of those kids that is slow at doing stuff and he needs to work at it every day to be done. At least he is faster in the mornings now since he wants his bedtime extended and we have said only if he gets up and gets ready for school in a timely manner. He is actually dressed and ready to feed the dogs when I leave for school now! Man it is hard to be a kid, so many rules and responsibilities. He told me today he had too much to do as a 9 year old. His responsibilities are to put away the cutlery when I run the dishwasher 3 times a week and feed the animals twice a day (and keep his room halfway neat). He gets an allowance of $7 a week for this. He does not believe me that other kids have jobs to do as well, even more than he does. *laugh* He also conveniently forgets that often I empty the dishwasher during the day so it can be a couple weeks between his doing it and that I help in the evening with the feeding because the dogs get medicine.

I saw my doctor on Friday. She agrees that I am feeling so ill and rundown because of the constant infection my body has been battling for months. I started on new antibiotics pre surgery but am still feeling rather punk; nausea, headache, general malaise. It should be better once the kidney stone is gone and I am infection free.

My fellow is away at a conference this weekend. He left early yesterday morning and met us at his moms for dinner about 1830. We were home around 2000 and he headed for bed at 2130. I tucked in LL, called in the cat and went to bed as well. We all were much more rested this morning when he headed out for day 2.

LL and I went to the library yesterday to pick up a book he reserved. He reads like I did at that age, voraciously, in both languages.  We passed a flea market in the town square and he found a Star Wars game for $6 and a bunch of books that were $1 each. So he has reading material for a week or two. *laugh* One of his purchases was a coffee table book of nature photography. He bought it for the library at his school since they are outside and study nature so much. He is a thoughtful kid, even if he is pushing the limits as part of being 9. *laugh*

Now I have to get back to my studying and listen to my son complain about having to write nicely. He hates writing, part of it is that he is left handed I think and the other is that it is too slow a process when he knows he could type it up so much quicker. *grin*

LL has made plans to hand in an empty paper tomorrow in place of homework, since it is April Fool’s Day. *laugh*

Life is rolling along at breakneck speed. Our first term is divided into two section, nursing and medicine. I started with the nursing section, lots of ethics. It started out ok, but it was obvious a couple weeks into the course that my eyes were not up to it. So I put things in motion to be declared sight handicapped. It took until the end of the first half of the term, but I am now in the system as having a sight injury and have access to all course literature in the form of talking books. As of last week I have all the books in that form. It has been a help but I am such a visual person that I feel I don’t get as much out of the talking books as I should. I have 3 years to get used to it. *laugh* I felt very confident in the first section of the nursing, was not hindered by language and felt I had understood everything. Then I went in to the first exam and had a complete panic attack, resulting in me only answering two of the four questions and one of those I never completed. It was a real ego buster. But I just squared my shoulders and moved on to the next section. As I expected I got U (the swedish equivalent of F) on the exam, but the fact I got VG (an A) on the next exam gave me back my confidence. In the interim I had finally received the talking books and using them to review, I prepared to rewrite the first exam. I did that last week, went in, did not panic, answered all 6 questions, wrote 9 pages and am positive I got at least G (a passing grade). It went well with the final part of the nursing course and I started medicine a couple weeks ago. We started with anatomy and physiology and I am feeling good. This stuff I know and it has not changed since I studied it 30 years ago. There is stuff that is new of course, when I studied in the 70’s, DNA was not a big thing except to scientists, but now it is part of our basic A&P curriculum. Very interesting though and my reading of the American Journal of Medicine over the past years means I had a good grasp of it already.

I have gotten into a routine of using the hour on the train either way as study time and that is working well. Routines are taking shape at home as well. Everyone is involved in their various activities but we manage to have family time as well which is great.

We were at a day long political function yesterday. Anna had a gift for my fellow, she got him a book about a well trained dog. *laugh* There were lots of laughs over that.

I finally have a time to get my kidney stone blasted, April 7th. The continuous urinary tract infections have taken their toll and I am exhausted and have a fever the majority of the time. I will have to continue taking the antibiotics for a month after the treatment and then I never want to see an antibiotic again in my life, I have been taking them every other week now for almost 6 months.

My birthday is coming up as well. I have not planned a party, I don’t want a party and I absolutely refuse to organize one as is the swedish way. This is my 50th and I want to spend it as I want, school, dinner out with my fellows and then studying for the exam the 11th. *laugh* I will say that I will be very upset if my fellow ignores this. 50 is a big deal here in Sweden, I have had any number of free gifts in the mail, the two grocery stores I shop at have send coupons for free cake, one of the cruise lines has sent a certificate for a free cabin on a cruise to Helsinki. But when it comes down to it, I just want a bit of family time as a celebration.

Majong is growing up, he goes out now. I took him and showed him where he could go around from the front of the house to the back and all the cats play in the bushes and field at the corner of the row houses. He travels back and forth between front and back and comes when I call him. Rusty is as loving as ever, but needs more stimulation, time is limited with school. I start my training program tomorrow for this years 10 km run so I will take him along. Susan stopped losing weight on her diet food so we started her on a new one this week. The biggest problem is her sneaking Rusty’s food if we don’t keep an eye on her.

That is about all I have to update. *laugh*

Wow, it has been over 3 months since I last posted here. How did that happen?

So what has gone on all these weeks? I healed, I wrote the university entrance exams 3 weeks after my accident, I had a horrid time with my arm and my sight but now I can lift my arm over my head, tie a bow behind my back and do up my own bra. My sight is still a bit off, I no longer have blurring and I saw an eye specialist last week who said physically everything is fine. But she noted exactly what I was aware of, there is a small delay in focusing when I look from one thing to another. She felt that would also get better shortly though.

I needed 0.7 on the entrance exam, I got 0.9. I sat with my right arm in a sling and holding the paper a few inches from my face for the 5 hours I wrote, but it was worth because I got a place at the university I wanted, in the first round. I did not finish the studies I had started at the adult education centre though. I couldn’t manage with my eyes.

So this past week I started at university! In 3 years I will have my degree and be licensed to work as a nurse here in Sweden. It feels great and I am already deep in researching for the first presentation, next Friday.

Christmas was lovely, we had lots of fun, the kidlet was spoiled as were the rest of us. But Ibo got sick over the holidays and ended up with pneumonia. He is now on the mend but still tired and pale. I was sick with fever most of the holidays and the reason became clear when I had an ultrasound last Monday. I have a 1.5 cm kidney stone lodged in my left kidney. It is causing the ongoing urinary tract infections I have been having since October. I started on a new round of antibiotics and finished them yesterday. I am now waiting for CT of my kidney and then they are going to attempt to blast the stone. We spent New Years with Ibo’s dad. He was away at christmas, he made a trip to Mecca. He came home with pneumonia and was really not well but once he started antibiotics he perked up.
Llywellyn is well and happy. He has violin lessons two evenings a week, dance one evening a week, scouts every sunday, stamp club on evening a month and craft club two evenings a month. So he is a busy little boy. Now that I am going to school and making an hour and twenty commute each way, I am up a bit after 0500 and out the door by 0700. I get home between 1700 and 1800. So LL comes home himself from school and will be going to dance on his own since it is a 1600, but we will try to be here to take him to everything else.

That is a short recap of the past 3 months. We did lots, had lots of fun, lots of laughs and enjoyed life. What more can a family ask for? *laugh*

Monday I was to Danderyd. I had an 0930 appointment and had arranged to miss my first class of the day. I missed them all. It was 1330 by the time I was done with my xrays and doctor visit. The doctor said he was going to give me a prescription for something with codiene in it and told me my arm was not healing, it was actually worse and I am not to move it at all except to change clothes. He mumbled something about the sling and working but I wasn’t sure if it was that it was working or not working. Then he said make an appointment for a repeat xray and visit next week.

After I left his office I sobbed for a bit. I had taken tylenol before I left home at 0800 but didn’t have anything with to take after that and I was in pain. I have to say now that the pain I was having was excruciating. Added to the underlying pain were constant severe spasms in my upper arm and then the achiness of not used joints on top of that. I was not sleeping more than 2 hours at a stretch, had at least one time a day when I was hanging over the toilet retching from the pain, it was awful. I had been to the district nurse on the 4th, she took out my stitches and she suggested I try Voltaren since it is now available over the counter. I did try it and helped reduce the swelling in my arm which eased the pain for a bit, but then it came back full force and voltaren every 8 hours with tylenol halfway between the voltaren doses just kept me at a level where I could funtion but not concentrate for any length of time. But there was a light at the end of the tunnel, the doctor was going to give me something more effective for pain.

I stopped at the pharmacy when I got back here at 1530, there was no prescription (they are all sent electronically these days). I checked again after I got LL from school … no script. I went back tuesday morning, nothing. So I called to the hospital and heard back from them Tuesday afternoon. The nurse said there were no notes written from my visit the day before but she would speak to the doctor and he would send in my prescription. I asked about the sling and she suggested I speak with their physiotherapist. So I called her and surprise, she answered directly and was so pleasant and helpful it restored my faith in our health care system immediately.

So the story is this: I have a crack in the bone of my right arm and an entire muscle group is stretched and torn. The sling I am using is the type that is best for this type of injury. She was surprised I had only been given tylenol for pain, said that I was likely having very much pain (understatement of the year *laugh*) and that she could see on the computer that my prescription had been sent to the pharmacy. She also said she would see me in a couple weeks and gave me some hints to make things easier with the sling. Mostly what was good to hear was that once I got the new pain sedation, it would relieve the underlying pain, which would let me relax, which would stop the spasming. which would help the underlying pain ease up. *laugh*

So Tuesday I got my pills, the swedish equivalent of Tylenol #3. I took two at bedtime, since they are to be taken “2 pills, 4 times a day, for pain relief”. I slept the entire night, it was wonderful. I took two more when I got up around 0700 and by the time we dropped LL off at 0800, I was nauseated, sweaty, dizzy and feeling like I was in clouds. So I came home, threw up, let the school know I was not coming in and fell asleep. At 1100 the phone rang and woke me, it was a friend who I had arranged to meet at school. So she came here instead, we had lunch and a visit and that was nice. I realized once I was no longer drugged up that 60 mg of codeine is a bit of a whopping dose for someone who is not used to taking strong medications. This is what I took when I had the big kidney stone and then it was only one at a time, not two. So I cut back to taking only one pill but I am taking them every 4 hours and it is helping the pain. I am still not functioning though, 20 or so minutes after I take one, I am so light headed I have to lie down and then I sleep for a couple hours. On the good side, the pain is less, if I am sleeping I am resting my arm and my body is getting to use it’s resources towards healing. On the bad is that I have missed school this week because I am not in any shape to be there. I have two tests to write tomorrow and I postponed a third to next Friday and there is a fourth that needs to be written before fall break. I honestly don’t know how I am going to do it, at this point my swedish is failing me as a result of the sedation, but I need my arm to heal properly, I can’t nurse if I have a shoulder joint that dislocates easily. I will just have to have faith it will work out.

In other news, my fellow is going away for 2 days, so I guess I will be sleeping in my clothes, since he helps me with my bra and tying up things. *laugh* The kidlet is also going away to a sleepover at the Scout hall. He is excited about that. The optical place just called and the new lenses are in for my glasses. Rusty is eating better, Susan is frisky and I have offered my fellow’s sister Majong, since she is catless and missing hers. Even LL said “yeah that would be ok if she borrowed Majong”, when I mentioned it …. I don’t think he knew I was joking. *laugh*

Am sick as the proverbial dog. Have had a fever, sore throat, sore joints and sore ears for a week now. Fever recedes and then spikes up to over 40 for a few hours and then recedes again. Have missed too much school but am to ill to concentrate at the moment. Here’s hoping this hits the road soon.

Today I am tired. I was up till about 2230, hoping my fellow would come online but he didn’t. He did call to ask me look up something for though so I got to say goodnight. About 2 a.m. the dog and cat decided it was time to chase each other and they woke me, then the alarm went off at 0530, so I really did not get well rested.

I was some stiff this morning after yesterdays 10 km, but no time to rest since I am single mom again for the next 10 days. I was up and walked the dogs, got the kidlet organized and we were out at the bus stop a bit over 7 am. Then it was off to school for me once the kidlet was settled on his bus. I had an 0815 class. Between classes I came home and took Rusty out for a 2.5 km walk. I was hurting but I figured it was best to keep moving. *laugh* I have to say that by the time I was done at 1445, it was an effort to actually move. However the bus pulled up to the bus stop as I came around the corner, so I had to run for it. Picked up the kidlet, stopped and got a few groceries and we came home. I took the dogs out after we ate and played with them. Now it is coming up on 2000 and I am totally wiped out. Sadly I have at least 2 hours worth of homework/studying to do before I can go to bed.

Tomorrow the kidlet has a dentist appointment, so we actually get to sleep a bit later. He will be sleeping over with his grandmother tomorrow night because I have a meeting to go to. First though we will be grocery shopping. I have a meeting on Wednesday as well but I will have to miss it and then there is Thursday, when I have a class till 1700 and then another at 1800. I will have to see if farmor can pick up LL. It is just a constant logistics puzzle when my fellow is away. *laugh*

I did it. I did Tjejmilen, the 10 km race in Stockholm that I set as a goal last summer when I decided to get fit. I walked it, didn’t run this year, but next year I will be jogging it. It took me 2 hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. I did not come last, but that would not have bothered me, I was not competing, I was fulfilling a goal. It was the nicest feeling when I crossed the goal line and they announced my name and I got my “gold” medal. I am very proud of myself for following through on this and for my weight loss of 35 kg! Now I will continue training, walking and jogging and do this race again in a years time. *smile*

Yesterday was the kids party at our apartment complex. Even though we moved to the house my fellow is still on the condo association board and he roped me into planning. It went well, the kids and the parents all had fun and it was nice to see old neighbours and catch up with them.  But I forgot to change my shoes after shopping for the food and prizes and spent the afternoon in heels so my legs were very tired by the time the party was done. Which was one reason I walked today instead of doing jogging/walking as I originally planned. But it was worth, everyone enjoyed themselves.

Have had my first week of classes. Went well. Lots of homework though. *laugh*

Next week will be busy, I have a couple meetings and an evening class to go to. Then next weekend we will go out to the nature reserve for a “birthday” party. Right now though I am going to pull down my books and put in another couple of hours on homework. Then it will be an early night, I am a bit tired. *laugh*