Family Matters

[Stanley]

Keep the bulletins going Maz and give him my regards.

[Marilyn]

He is happier in himself...but his kidneys have taken a big hit and aren't behaving themselves, so they are the concern just now. Unfortunately it is due to the antibiotics and the dosage needed to kill the bug.

[Marilyn]

Some improvement today...

[PanBiker]

Good news Maz, I hope it continues.

[Moh]

Sorry David is ill Maz. give him my best and tell him all the guys on here are thinking about him.

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz's parents have had their house buildings/contents insurance premium hiked up to £1300 by Saga! She got on to the local broker and he's found them similar insurance from Royal Sun Alliance for just over £500. These price hikes are common now, especially for loyal, older customers but the insurance companies won't give up even though they've been exposed for this wheeze time and again on TV and radio. It doesn't say much that's good about Saga's attitude to the elderly!

[Marilyn]

Best thing you can do is vote with your feet...take your business elsewhere.

Just noticed the post above related to Febby.
He is back at work three days a week, has regained his lost weight and looks better...however he isn't himself and I can tell he isn't well. He has no 'get up and go', is generally in bed by 8.30pm, and doesn't have the energy to do much.
I worry that something is brewing.
I just have this feeling there is something lurking that we are yet to overcome. He feels the same way.
Time will tell...

[Cathy]

David is trying to get back to his normal routine too quickly. The body knows what it needs and will push for it, even if the mind wants something different.

Maybe he could try 1/2 days at work. I understand that people who have worked full-time for decades find it very hard to suddenly 'have to' slow down, but when your health is at risk, you just have to. His body will feel much better and his peace of mind will be his reward.

[Tizer]

Maz, I'm sorry but I missed out completely on your story about David and his infection. I've now looked back and your initial post was on the day we went on holiday which is why I hadn't caught up with the tale. Poor man, septicaemia is very nasty and luckily we don't see as much of it these days due to cleanliness and antibiotics. Years ago one of my cousins kept a caravan on a site, I think near Garstang, and he took wife and kids there every weekend for a glorious time outdoors beside the river. It was great for him because he ran his own business and had a lot of stress. One Monday, after a weekend at the `van, he suddenly collapsed at work and they all thought he'd had a heart attack - one minute fine, the next he was at death's door. Ambulance and flashing lights to hospital where they found he had septicaemia. It turns out that he'd cut his foot paddling in the river with the kids, only a minor injury and (he thought) not needing any visit to a doctor. But the cut allowed bacteria into his bloodstream where they produced toxins which reached a high enough concentration by Monday morning to almost kill him. Antibiotics cured him and he was back to normal afterwards (but no more paddling in the river).

Not related, but in the 1990s there were outbreaks of blood poisoning type infections in various places around the world in people who had recently cut themselves while bathing in the sea or on the beach. It was found to be a virus (Vibrio vulnificus) and it caused a lot of trouble because not many doctors knew about it at the time. You don't hear much now...but it's still out there (like Jaws!).

[Marilyn]

Dave's is Type A Streptococcus Pyrogenes.. (I am not sure how to spell Pyrogenes...but it means 'pus' according to the bug doctor)
I had a Strep throat about four months ago ( whilst we were on holidays in our van!) but we really don't know if he was affected by that. It generally causes pneumonia in older persons which is usually fatal apparently. His became Septic Arthritis very quickly.

And, like your friend, he got sick alarmingly quickly. He thought he had a cold ( no sore throat at all) and went to bed. About three hours later he tried to get up to go to the loo and just crashed to the floor, face down, and could not move. I thought he had had a stroke at first, but the words he was mumbling into the carpet made sense, so I knew it wasn't a stroke, plus he was that sweaty it had to be an infection.
Scarey stuff.
I believe ( from what I have been told) that there is quite a bit of Septicaemia about lately, though I don't expect it would all be due to Strep.
The problem is that they can just about kill you trying to save your life in the early stages before they know what they are fighting and can tailor the antibiotics. They identified the bug from pus they took from his elbow joint.

[Stanley]

Infections are strange. I remember when I survived the NAAFI meat pie in 1953/54, the doctors told me that they wished they had my immune system because basically that was what had saved me. After a life spent in contact with various nasties connected with animals I wonder whether what we are seeing is a consequence of being in an environment which is too clean. Perhaps it's this lack of exposure that makes us more vulnerable to opportunistic bacteria....

[Marilyn]

They said hubby's immune system was low and that is why it grabbed him, which is why he is being loaded with Vitamins by his doctor.
We have a little running joke around here as we have named his doctor "Doctor Pill-pot".
Tallboy in our bedroom is covered in bottles...a hypochondriac's paradise! None of it doing any damn good and horrendously expensive...

[Tizer]

It's easy to forget how Strep. pyogenes was a major cause of death before we had antibiotics, through diseases such as scarlet fever and rheumatic fever. Very infectious and it can get into the body through infected teeth and gums as well as the more usual routes. It's still a big cause of disease and death in the less developed parts of the world - Wikipedia says: "It is estimated that there are more than 700 million infections worldwide each year and over 650,000 cases of severe, invasive infections that have a mortality rate of 25%". It makes you realise how important it is to take care in the use of antibiotics to prevent resistance developing.

[EileenDavid]

My friend had septicemia when she was young caused by chicken pox. Her body was marked because of it. She spent months in the isolation hospital. One of my brothers had both scarlet & rhumatic fever my mam nursed him at home and none of the rest of us got either. He didn't get septicemia but in later life it is thought that it weakened a heart muscle. Eileen

[Stanley]

Tiz, you've reminded me that when Mr Pinder advised extracting all my teeth when I was 23 he said that they were poisoning my system. I remember thinking afterwards that I thought he might be right. Small improvements all round and I felt much better. Of course, perhaps the constant low level infections were massaging my immune system! Complicated stuff.

[Cathy]

I seem to remember years ago reading an article on tooth fillings (amalgam ?) and it said that eventually it causes people problems, all sorts from feeling lethargic to migrains. Can't be good.

[Stanley]

I think that was mercury based fillings Cathy and of course one of the advantages of pot gobblers is that you don't have 'em! Can't help thinking that even though dentures are frowned on these days there may be advantages that aren't immediately obvious. One thing is certain, when you pop them back in after a good soak in strong chemicals they must be sterile! You can never reach that level of cleanliness with natural teeth. I remember a vet once telling me that the bite most likely to cause an infection was human!

[Tizer]

As always, there is more to the fillings story than meets the eye. The safety of mercury amalgam dental fillings depends on whether the amalgam is made properly. Correctly made amalgam is safe because the mercury is bound in a form that cannot poison you; badly made amalgam is not because mercury can leach out. Dentists are taught to do it properly, so if you have a trained dentist the fillings should be safe.

The US Environmental Protection Agency states: "Since the 1990s, several federal agencies have reviewed the scientific literature looking for links between dental amalgam and health problems. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is little scientific evidence that the health of the vast majority of people with dental amalgam is compromised, nor that removing amalgam fillings has any beneficial effect on health. A 2004 review of the scientific literature conducted for the U.S. Public Health Service found `insufficient evidence of a link between dental mercury and health problems, except in rare instances of allergic reaction'." http://www.epa.gov/hg/dentalamalgam.html

[Stanley]

Isn't it nice to have an opinion you feel you can trust, based on evidence! These pesky researchers and scientists have their uses after all!

[Marilyn]

You are permitted to have a little giggle over this...

Hubby has been back in hospital a couple of days. As I was preparing to leave him and come home from visiting him, he asked if I could take a couple of pairs of his undies home to wash.
No problem? Did he have a plastic bag?
Not on him...what was the problem with just sticking them loose in my handbag?
No! If I have an accident on the way home I wont be found with two pairs of used men's undies in my handbag! They will think I am some kind of weirdo.
He says that only I could consider such a scenario...but would he travel home with a pair of my used Bridget Jones' shoe-horned into his wallet?

[Stanley]

I know I'm going to regret this.... What are 'Bridget Jones'?

[Marilyn]

Showing your age, Stanley.
they are 'rather enormous' knickers, as worn by Bridget Jones ( movie).

[EileenDavid]

Are they not also known as Magic Knickers. Once attended a wedding and the father of the bride kept going on about magic knickers. Eileen

[Marilyn]

maybe 'magic knickers' are those that disappear on command!

[EileenDavid]

I think the magic knickers are supposed to work like the old fashioned elasticated corsets to hold the lumps and bumps Eileen