No post yesterday as Pete was incredibly angry and upset and in pain - which affected me and he also involved Martin.
Following our agreement on Tuesday that Pete would get back to exercises etc., he suddenly seemed to get a lot of pain in his leg that evening and it all fell apart - bad temper and anger. Of course the urine infection wasn't helping, but why he suddenly got such bad leg pain after being ok for a few days remains a mystery. I think all this anger really tenses up his muscles as, after he had taken himself off to bed, I heard him calling me (although he can't shout, he just makes fairly loud noises) and went through and found him lying on the bed with his right leg stuck up in the air at an angle of about 45 degrees!! It was absolutely rigid and wouldn't bend but after a couple of minutes it did relax and come down. There is no way he could have held it at that angle absolutely straight of his own volition! He can hardly lift it off the bed and certainly cannot get it straight like that!
On Wednesday the doctor rang and, although no results had yet been received, he did do a prescription for a different antibiotic, which we duly collected and Pete started taking early evening. Pete seemed happier now but his leg was still giving a lot of pain, and had throughout the whole day.
Yesterday was the worst day, culminating in Pete more or less ordering me out of the room because I wouldn't take him to A&E which is where he wanted to go as the antibiotics hadn't kicked in yet and his leg was extremely painful. No matter how much I told him he hadn't even had the tablets for 24 hours and the pain was because he had done NO exercises or walking for over 2 weeks. Martin went in and also reasoned with him and told him no A&E. Martin googled it and said to give him some muscle relaxant tablets we still had from the last visit to A&E and told him to walk about for a few minutes (which he didn't!!) as the pain was due to his muscles having no exercise for so long. Anyway, Martin then had to go home and Pete went to bed in a very bad mood and very worked up and tense. Pete was also trying to blame the pain on the antibiotics.
I took the opportunity to ring my sister, who was a nurse, to ask her advice. By this time I was in a bit of a state myself but she was very calming. She agreed the antibiotics would not affect his muscles and also confirmed they would take a couple of days to take effect. The muscle pain was due to loss of tone through no exercise. After a long chat with her I felt so much better and so went to see what Pete was up to. I told him what she had said and repeated he would have to wait a while for some relief. He then dozed off until I went to bed and seemed calmer but still upset.
Today we woke up to the Pete I know and love! The leg pain was easier (had got worse because he was so angry I think) and during the day the antibiotics have kicked in. He has done a fair bit of walking around during the day - so, phew, things are now much calmer!
My sister, the fount of all useful information, also told me about jigsaw apps on the iPad. We have downloaded one so far and it is very good, can choose from 24, 48 or 96 pieces and a variety of subjects and can even make a jigsaw from one of our own photos!! We also found an app for 'spot the difference' puzzles - these are all so good for Pete to get his brain functioning well.
So, a light at the end of the tunnel at last!!
No comments:
Post a Comment