Update 6

Hello again. An awful lot things have happened since my last post but mainly of a practical nature rather than to do with my health. However, I have been to the hospital for more tests and an MRI, and later on this month I am having an investigative procedure to continue to try and find out why I keep having these infections.

But since my list of drugs as above on the previous post I can now add a further two doses of antibiotics one being, apparently, a new one called Monuril, hotly followed by my old friend, nitrofurantoin. Whether the infection has gone I do not know and will not until I return another sample but what I have found, sadly, is that this time the nitrofurantoin appears not to have any effect on the pain. This could possibly be because I am having something of a relapse at the moment, although I feel I should note that with primary progressive Multiple Sclerosis I feel it is incorrect to describe my symptoms or the progress of the disease as as having any sort of remission. It’s one big relapse in my view. But I’m not meant to be getting hung up on semantics here.

So that is all there is to say at the moment but I just felt it was worth noting that the nitrofurantoin isn’t working as a pain relief. I know it is an antibiotic and therefore not meant to be pain reliever but I wondered, as indeed I think my GP was wondering, whether perhaps we had made a new discovery between us all. For instance Viagra was discovered to be beneficial in a completely different way to that it was intended for!

As a result of my GP’s enquiries tomorrow I have a telephone consultation with a gall – bladder specialist (I am sure he has a proper name – gastroenterologist?) tomorrow afternoon and then on Tuesday I have a cystoscopy. I think every bit of me must have been investigated inside and out but whether joined up thinking is applied………?

In the meantime the muscles in my leg are hardening to the extent I have little control of my right leg and walking becomes ever more challenging. Thank goodness we can get almost to the front door of places we visit and we really think twice about loading Mabel into the car because she is quite bulky. A trip down to Malborough a few weeks ago was a massive success not only because of the company and deliciousness but Mabel came too and I was able to join in with a little walk up towards the gallops. On Friday of last week I had a telephone meeting with a representative from DWP who was basically going through forms I filled in as a request for PIP.
I don’t yet know whether I have been successful in my request to retain some form of independence but I will keep you all updated. Fingers crossed. Whilst we have a staircase (shortly to be altered) I am still trying to get up and down stairs at least twice a day to try and keep some form of muscle tone going, or muscle memory or whatever it is that makes your legs go up and down. It is the weirdest thing to look at your foot and flex an ankle……..and nothing happens. It is only with extreme concentration and screwing up the sides of my face I can get it to move an inch. Ho hum.