Ancient Nebulisers

I had outpatients today and had to have my annual bloods done. This meant I had to fast from 9pm last night (not really sure why I have to do this!). They then took 15 tubes of blood from me, I have no idea what they are all for, I know one is to check for clotting and some are to check vitamin levels etc. It took her three attempts to get blood from me, they can't be taken from my port, again not sure why! First she tried in the crook of my arm, then in my right wrist and then my left wrist where she was successful. She said often when people have fasted it makes it harder to take blood, she thinks it might be because they are dehydrated. Anyway we got there in the end!

I also had an ultrasound to check on my liver etc, I have one of these about every 2 years. I had to wear a gown which I have never been made to do before, but it turned out better as no jelly then got on my top or bra. The stuff gets everywhere because she moves the scan thingy over your ribs and back and you end up covered! It doesn't hurt, infact it tickled when she was doing it over my ribs. The only time it hurt abit was when she was ramming it under my ribs to try to get a picture of something, but it wasn't exactly painful.

My fev1 is down to 36%, I can't believe it! My stats are 97% which is good and my weight is down abit at 53.3kg, not surprised really, my appetite has been abit poor lately. I have come to the conclusion that my appetite just goes whenever I am stressed or excited. Because I don't feel unwell the doctor said to just see me in 4 weeks and to call them in the meantime if I start to go downhill. I might just be having a bad day or it could be because I have missed two days of nebs...

Yes you read it right! I-neb nebulisers require disks for them to work. The disk has so many cycles on it and each time you use it, it goes down one, when you get to zero you need another disk otherwise it won't work. I use 5 cycles a day, 4 for my tobi (each tobi dose requires two cycles on the I-neb) and 1 for my Dnase. So a disk with 120 cycles lasts me just over 3 weeks. I have to call the company when I need new disks, can you see where this is going....? In all the moving house madness I didn't realise I had gotten very low and on Saturday I noticed I had 2 cycles left. Whoops! I left the company a message to pick up on Monday and some more disks arrived on Tuesday. But that left me the weekend and Monday with only a Porta-neb to use and one chamber when Tobi and Dnase should be done through different chambers as one stops the other working.

This is me not looking very impressed using the stupid porta-neb to do my Dnase, it took about 20 minutes. I then gave the chamber a good wash and used it to do my Tobi the next day. When you do tobi through this ancient machine, you have to sit with a tube going out of the window which isn't very long, so other people do not breathe it in. Well it took over half an hour to go through, I got bored of sitting right next to the window looking like I was smoking a bong and turned it off in the end. You don't get these problems with the I-Neb! Anyway I decided I wasn't doing it anymore, it takes the mick, no wonder people never used to be compliant with their nebulisers! So I threw the thing back in the cupboard and I hope it never makes a re-appearance anytime soon!

I went out on Saturday night and had a great time. Then went to my Nana's for lunch on Sunday, I was so tired, I just wanted to sleep! Pete's cough is not going, infact it seems to be getting worse, I am terrified of catching it. I have a weeks worth of Amoxicillin in 'Gemma's pharmacy' cupboard which he is taking. When I was on it I had 1g (1000mg) three times a day, I've given it to Pete and even though the instructions say the average dose it 250mg a day with severe infections at 500mg (what the heck are my infections then?!), since the tablets are in 500mg that is what Pete is having three times a day. If it is an infection it should hopefully clear it up and before anyone lectures me on giving someone else my medication, Pete was put on amoxicillin for a manky toenail he had and my dad was put on it for sore tooth, they give it out for anything and everything! Just call me Doctor Gleave..!

We are having a house warming party on Sunday! I hope I don't get too stressed! If it goes OK we might have one for family towards the end of May, this one is for our friends.