Wednesday, May 14, 2008

 

14th May. It goes on and on and on........

It is Wednesday afternoon - another day of pain and troubles!

So, what could be nicer than sorting some pictures of our sons and grandchildren?


This photo is an old one - taken on Katya's birthday, last October. She is now more than seven and a half. Liz gave us a disc of photos she has taken during the last few months.


This week was the start of the new school year in Thailand. Jessica has moved into the Junior School. She is in the English speaking school.
She will be seven in July.

Little John is ready for his first full days at school. He is not yet three and a half. He attends the Thai speaking school, just as Jessica did at first.
He needs to become more fluent in Thai.

Ashley walks home from school with Katya, through the attractive and interesting buildings of the university. There are good views over the town from there to the hills on the other side.


Jamie has a laugh with his children.
Now - what do I have to laugh about? Not much really! Oh woe is me!
I have now seen a GP - a doctor at our surgery who I have not met before. He was kind and as helpful as he could be.
The result of the appointment is that I have to accept the pain of my ribs.
I would never have thought it could be so bad.
But I wish he could have accepted the significance of side effects of the drug tramadol. He was rather non committal about tramadol, but seemed happy for me to use my stored up Co-Proxamol.
Here is a list of known side effects of the drug - I have starred the ones I have noticed.
Disturbances of the gut such as diarrhoea, constipation, nausea, vomiting or abdominal pain *
Dizziness *
Drowsiness *
Headache *
Sweating
Awareness of your heartbeat (palpitations) *
Increased heart rate (tachycardia)
A drop in blood pressure that occurs when going from lying down to sitting or standing, which results in dizziness and lightheadedness (postural hypotension) *
Skin reactions such as rash and itch *
Blurred vision *
Dry mouth
False perceptions of things that are not really there (hallucinations) *
Nightmares
Confusion *
Changes in mood *
Slow, shallow breathing (respiratory depression) *
Muscle weakness *
Difficulty passing urine

I think the doctor should have acknowledged these things. He even suggested that I should ask a hospital doctor for a brain scan because of the increased headaches, which is a side effect on the list.

I have been talking to Jo about tramadol. She was put on it after her accident, on the same day as ours. She has had no other drug to intermingle with it like I have, but knew something was wrong and after 10 days determined to stop the drug and then noticed bad effects of withdrawal symptoms.

She commented that I have expressed things on the blog that she has felt herself.

I will not take it any more - trouble is really bad pain has you reaching for anything to ease it.

The one positive result of my appointment is that I have had my first B12 injection. These will be every 3 months.

The paperwork and phone calls continue - and there are so many agencies dealing with our case. Bill is never sure who has instigated what.

He has talked with the solicitor today and they are wondering why they have not received a form back from me about my injuries. Well, they didn't send one.

They will probably get an independent doctor to see me after about 8 weeks. Hopefully my pains will have eased a lot by then.

The insurance company have not yet received the engineer's report about poor Ruby (the car). The insurance people think the engineer is being rather slow. But he has to itemise every bit of damage and calculate the parts and labour costs for putting each thing right - and hopefully will then decided that repair costs would be too much.

Bill has been looking up how much a replacement car of the same age would cost us - because this is the amount that the insurance company ought to pay out. He will also contact our local Citroen garage to ask how much they could sell one to us for. We have to do this because the insurance company will perhaps try to get away with paying us less than they ought.

We got an advice note today from the car pound, explaining the costs of recovering the car from the hedge, the daily storage charge and then the costs of disposal. These have been copied and sent to the insurance company.

It seems to be never ending.

And so, I guess, does this blog. Sorry! My next task must be to write a heartfelt account of my injuries, effects, trauma etc and how it is made worse by all my recent history. This will go to the solicitor, who will then seek some compensation. I am not into all this compensation grabbing really - but then, when it come to the point, £3,000 would be very useful. Jo suggests that is about what I might get.

Right - Bill has made the mid afternoon cup of tea. I will stop and drink it. I shall be glad later on that I have written the blog this afternoon - my evenings have been disappearing in a haze of exhaustion and confusion.


14th May. It goes on and on and on........
posted by Grandma P on Wednesday, May 14, 2008