Never Give Up.......Motor Neurone Disease.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Christmas wishes....

Christmas comes but once a year…

This is a time for peace, friendship, harmony, companionship and also a time to be able to spend it with family and friends. Christmas is celebrated right round the world and has the ability to bring together people of different races and religions.
It is primarily a time of year for children to see and feel the wonder of a tradition that has spanned many hundreds of years. It has also been known to bring to a halt two countries at war with each other for a game of football in no-mans land. After the game was over the fighting continued.
Christmas is the time we bring out the decorations and dress up a tree, be it artificial or real with coloured balls, bells and streamers. It is a time for people to put aside their differences, their feelings of right or wrong and meet with open hearts those members of their families who have a disability and are unable to take an active part in the festivities.
It is a time to smile, laugh, sing and remember times gone past. A time to look back and think of all those who have helped you.
I would like to say thank you to all the carers, world wide who have made not only my life so much easier to bear but to all of us suffering from a disability, be it terminal or not.


I wish you all a Merry Christmas…….

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Xmas

Hi everyone. Just a quick note to say I am feeling well. Wound has been healing and is looking good. I have been fed through the peg several times and I find it fascinating. So much easier.

I would also like to take this time to wish everyone a "Merry Christmas" and hope that family and friends enjoy the time they have together...... Robert A Coutts

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

The "PEG"

A new stage in my life starts…

Wheeled into the operating theatre about 11am Tuesday morning 27th November. Twenty minutes later its all over and with Jan walking beside me I am taken up to the medical ward where as it turns out I am to spend the next two and a half days .
The procedure to insert the peg had gone well but shortly after being taken to the ward I was allowed to have something to eat. This was too soon after the procedure and my body reacted by going into spasms of intense pain. Later that day I was allowed to partake of the evening meal and within the space of half an hour the pain returned. A close eye was keep on me during the night with the peg being flushed out every four hours.
The same story followed with breakfast .( most of which I was unable to eat ,so I was given a Fortisip via the peg.) Jan turned up about the same time as the pain returned. So, I was looking forward to lunch which duly turned up. Having eaten and had a drink I needed to go to the bathroom so was moved into the appropriate chair and wheeled in. Jan had to leave at this stage which was fine but within half an hour I had the most intense pain I have ever had in my life. ( if this is anything like having a baby I don't want any part of it, I was thinking)
A shot of Morphine soon had that under control. And again that night some more pain.
I was keep in two days and by the morning of the third was feeling much better. Jan took me back home that afternoon.
It is now a week since peg was put in and have had a few restless nights as body was sore but the sleeping is improving. Walking with the frame has become so much slower as trying to not put pressure on to the wound site.
Do I have any regrets about having the peg put in….NO. I have read plenty of stories for and against having a peg but it all comes down to the individual concerned. Sure I had a lot of pain and wound is still sore ( and slightly inflamed but that is being monitored ) but I went into this with my eyes wide open and still believe that in the long run it can only help me with quality of life and a certain independence.

So, anyone with ALS/MND contemplating having a peg put in all I can say is go for it while you can. It may become your life line....


FOOT NOTE
I want to say thank you to all the staff at Lower Hutt Hospital , you were fantastic in the way you cared for me....