2007 Over and Out

Well that's 2007 over with, and on the whole good riddance! There have been a few highlights but they were against the backdrop of Lorii's failing health. Lets hope that 2008 is better. I hope all of you had a good year and that 2008 is a better one for you too.

Photography

Dog Walkers III
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder

Went out to try my new filters today. I got a neutral density filter and a R27 infrared filter. It turns out the beach is not the place to experiment with infrared photography, and the neutral density filter did not alow me to slow the shutter as much as I wanted. I did manage to take a couple of good pictures; the one here and another that you can view from my flickr site.

For those looking for news on Lorii. Bizarrely she hurts more now than earlier, but this is probably things healing up and letting her know they are back! She's not quite up to making the trek up the steep attic stairs to the computer. But as soon as she is, Lorii will be e-mailing you all to let you know how she is doing.

Christmas over...

Well we all got great gifts; Lorii got a wood lathe, I got a flash for my camera, Jake got a limited collection of manga books and Katie got an easel.

A good time was had by all, though lorii is still in a lot of pain. Her tummy is still very swollen and she is in a great deal of pain. Her analgesics are only just covering her pain. She was seen by the surgeon on Christmas Eve who was very happy with her. Unfortunately the fibromyalgia and diabetes mean she is going to be slow to heal.

Drain Removed

Well Lorii's drain has been removed, though not because she had stopped bleeding, but because it was dislodged. We are not sure what is supposed to happen to the fluids now, but she goes to see the surgeon on Christmas Eve to check all is well. At the moment she is feeling very sore, tired and nauseous. I've been running around, like a fly with a blue bum, trying to make sure we have all we need for Christmas and look after Lorii. If I don't get a chance to post again before Christmas have a good one and I hope you all get the prezzies you were wishing for.

Home

Well Lorii is home! She it still pretty poorly, and has a short list of things she is not allowed to do; anything. In truth though this does not matter as she is so deprived of sleep and so full of medicine that I don't even think she wants to do anything. For now though I'm just relieved that the worst seems to be over, and that Lorii can now start the long road of convalescence.

Blood

Blood
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder

Unfortunately Lorii's wound has not stopped bleeding. We've nothing official to go on but Lorii is pretty certain they will be going back in Monday afternoon. All a bit of a downer really as the nurses are all saying things like, "We have to try to get you out for Christmas." Lorii is very tired, probably due to the loss of blood, and upset at the prospect of another operation.
I'll post again once we know what the doctors plan to do.

More from the Vic

Well Lorii seems to be improving, though she is still draining a lot of blood. It looks like the surgeon carved her up good and proper when excavating her left ovary. She seems to be surviving on 10ml of Orimoph every two hours now. Lorii had been hoping to be discharged on Monday, but if this bleeding does not stop that seems unlikely. On the positive side the hospital may enable her to jump the queue for a place at the pain clinic. This could help her manage her ongoing pain caused by the fibromyalgia in a way that has less of an impact on her daily life.

Scanned

Lorii had her scan today. Didn't seem to show much. Asked operator why Lorii was so bloated. The response was to point out that morphine makes you constipated. So I turned to Lorii, "You hear that dear, You're full of..." You can guess the rest. Lorii had another fight for her pain meds today too. Some junior doctor stolled onto the ward and reduced her morphine by a quarter without even a look at her. Some arguing and a helpful Sister sorted it out before I left for work.

By the way...

I've just been looking at the stats for my blog. It's funny how we are always told that sex is the biggest thing searched on the internet. Well despite the fact that Lorii and I together make locking slave collars for the BDSM and fetish market, and have links off this blog to the Wyred Slave site. Also despite having referred to these products in the blog, and used words that Masters and Mistresses looking for that all important fetter would use in searches is our range of restraints the most hit on search? No! The most used key words are "Star trek ships" closely followed by 1812 Overture! Go figure!

Hospital news

Lorii stopped bleeding into her drain the other night, so the surgeons did not open her up again. However they put three litres of blood in and only took one out. Her tummy looks 9 months pregnant and she is still in a lot of pain. They are planning now to do a scan, though they have to wait for a slot in its very busy schedule. The morphine Lorii has be prescribed has been coming in varying amounts and doses, depending on which nurse is handing it out. All in all she is not a happy camper. Add to that that she looks set to stay on the ward for the next five day at the least and we are now wondering if she'll make it home for Christmas.

Lorii Latest

Under the Bridge
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder

Lorii has not had too smooth a ride since the operation. Last night some jumped up nurse took into her head to refuse her her medication. Causing Lorii needless suffering. I've spent the day putting across my displeasure to various Doctors and Nurses at how she has been treated to date.

Now I've just had a call from Lorii (I'm at work) to say she has been put back on Nil By Mouth as they're thinking of going back in. Not good. Apparently they are not happy with the amount of blood in her drain.

More news as I get it.

Lorii

Lorii had her operation on Monday at around 1.00pm. She had both her ovaries removed as well as her womb, though her cervix was left in place. Her right ovary had a cyst on it. Her left ovary was attached to her abdominal wall by many adhesions caused by the endometriosis. She is in a lot of pain and has a morphine pump she can use to inject 1mg every five minutes. When I first got there the five minutes were not passing fast enough. But by the time I left at 9.00 she was sleeping comfortably, waking only to push the button before returning to sleep.

The state of Lorii's ovaries would explain most of her abdominal pain. I may be counting chickens, but hopefully once Lorii has recovered from this operation, the removal of the cause of the endometriosis may allow her other conditions to laps into remission. if so this could vastly improve her quality of life. Lets hope hey!

I got Lorii a Nintendo DS Lite for Christmas, but when the operation date came through I decided to let her open her present early. Now I'm just waiting for her to be well enough to start playing Tetris!

The story so far...

Mayor and Katie
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder

Well the picture is of Katie picking up her exam certificates and lots of prizes from the Mayor of Blackpool.

Other news;

Lorii now has a wheelchair. She is not confined to it but it is there for those days when the pain is too much for walking. It got it's first outing to Ikea the other day. Made Lorii do a double-take when she rolled in front of a mirror and she saw herself.

Lorii has her pre-operation assessment tomorrow, with her operation on the 10th of December. We have had a chat with the surgeon and she has put a lot of Lorii's concerns to rest. However she is still looking at a week in hospital and convalescence over Christmas.

I have built Jacob a fitted bedroom. I'm pleased with it and Jacob is chuffed too. He just needs a new carpet and he'll have the first finished room in the house!

We now have four cats! This is getting ridiculous. We now have a ginger and white tom called Lemmy/Chairman Meow and a tabby called Bob.

More news when I have the time....

I am alive!

Life has been very busy of late. So I have had no time to blog. Lorii had a further CT scan yesterday, will share results once they are in. Her wheelchair arrive yesterday too. That's a lot crap so soon after her birthday. Lorii does not need it all the time, just for trips out when the pain overtakes her and stops her walking. The kids are now officially adopted, so I can stop being nice now! };o)) Katie has a new laptop for college that is better than my computer. It even has a newer version of Mac OSX than mine. Jake met one of the Dragons from Dragons Den and won a £70 pound grant for his woodworking business. I'll do this all again properly when I have the time.

Sleep; What's that then?

Hello World! Long time no write I know, but I've just been so busy. Lorii's parents have been on holiday, and it has driven home to me just how much they help. Lorii has been going in to the hotel this week and with George away that means I have to take Lorii in. So 4 hours of sleep a night if I can get to sleep by 3.00, which I rarely do. Tomorrow (What am I saying it is tomorrow!) I take Katie into work, at 9.15am; It's 4.15am as I type this!

Lorii went to hospital and has been told she is to have a hysterectomy. Soon I won't know a woman with a womb! No date as yet but with a 3 month waiting list we are looking at early December. Later this month Lorii has another CT scan to look at all those lumps in her lungs. I'm a little less worried about those since the Lupus diagnosis as it could explain what they are; scar tissue from an occasion when the Lupus turned on Lorii's lungs.

Lorii has a really heavy cold at the moment, which seems a bit unfair to throw at someone as poorly as Lorii. Plus she can't take any cold cures as they all seem to contain paracetamol and would cause her to overdose if she took her needed co-codamol. Ho hum.

Jake gets to meet one of the Dragons from Dragons Den on Monday. I've told him to ask for lots of money! You never know....

Fireworks III

Multiburst
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder

Well I got to see some fireworks this year. :o) The Portuguese put on a good show as part of the World Fireworks Competition, and I got to try out my new camera. Mainly it highlighted that I need to learn a lot more. Especially on how to control it in manual mode. However I did get a few decent results, though a lot did not work. This was not due to my bungling but the strong onshore wind; which made both the camera and tripod shake as well as deforming the star-bursts.

Shell Drop

Shell Drop
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder

Well I got lucky! There was one date on which the World Fireworks Competition is held that I could attend; last Sunday! I'll post pictures once I've sorted them out; I got very trigger happy. Anyway I was walking down the promenade to find a suitable spot to set up the tripod. I was keeping one eye on the sunset, as it was turning out to quite a good one. But kept noticing that the seagulls were all flying around with shells in their beaks. Puzzled I watched closely as the bird circled above my head before dropping its shell and immediately diving after it. With the crack the shell made the penny, as well as the shell, dropped. The gulls were smashing the shells open on the foot of the sea wall. Now while I'm sure the whelks were not very happy about this I hope you'll agree it made for a nice photograph.

Toby Playing

Just a short vid of Toby playing with his favourite toy. If you want one of these for your cat you can get them from Lorii's ebay shop on the right.

Qualifications

Pyro China 1
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder

Well the good news is that Katie got her exam results today and they're excellent. Four B grades, four A grades and three A star grades. Katie is the first student ever to get A star in both English Literature and English Language at her school. Everybody is made up for her though bizarrely Katie is most pleased with the B she got in French. After a poor spoken test Katie had not been expecting to do so well.

On a slightly less happy note I have just noticed that the World Firework Competition, that is once again to be held in Blackpool, is going to do it's thing on Friday nights. I'd been really looking forward to trying my new Nikon out and seeing if I could better the results I got last year (See above). But with me working nights that's going to be out of the question. Ho Hum.

Adoption

Well tomorrow I'm off to court to see the judge. Nothing bad though, just adopting the kids I've been raising these past few years.

Lorii has been told by the doctor to start the process of registering as disabled. A bit of a downer that, but at least once registered we should get some tax breaks and some better parking spaces.

Well as I'm up early tomorrow, and I'm only just back from work, I'd better get to bed.