Husband health update.

[curiouswombat]

S2C was back at the doctor's yesterday, as they had all the test results back. Actually they wanted to see him on Friday, but he was at work Thursday and Friday nights, so he was asleep. Anyway - yesterday the doctor said that actually the tests for clostridium were negative - but he has some sort of inflammatory thing going on in his guts, as a serum indicator of inflammatory response which is usually 0.2 - 0.6 is 20!

So the doctor thinks he must have some other sort of infection, possibly coupled with diverticulitis, and the husband is on two more lots of anti-biotics. I hope these ones help. He still looks rather pale and peaky, and still had quite a lot of tummy ache, poor thing.

He has to have his blood tests repeated in another week, and I guess at some time the doctor will possibly decide to have scans or X-rays done to see if he has got any diverticulae. (A diverticulum is a slight bulge in the gut wall, forming a little 'pouch' which will sometimes get bits of food stuck in it. This can just irritate it, causing it to become inflamed, or it can become a point of bacterial infection - which again is a point of inflammation.)

I can't even give him much hugging - he hurts too much.

One problem is that it is difficult to know what is the best thing for him to eat. His natural preference is for spicy foods, he is still feeling quite hungry, and so I am still more or less cooking normally. Tonight I did a variation on one of his favourites - chicken 'mole poblano' - in a chilli, chocolate and nut sauce - but now he is lying down, with tummy ache - so maybe I better do 'bland' for a few days!

Comments

[opalescence.livejournal.com]

My mother has diverticulitis. Please pass on my get well wishes to your hubby. That's worrisome for both of you. He must be miserable. Take care!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

He is rather miserable at the moment - poor thing. he will read all these good wishes for himself later, I expect.

[sharelle.livejournal.com]

Virtual hugs (gentle ones) for your poor husband. I hope Speaker feels better soon.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I think he looks a wee bit better than last week, hopefully this lot of meds will settle it down more.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Oww! My Mom had diverticulitis. Sending healing vibes along to poor S2C.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I'll get him to read all the good wishes later, when he gets up from his nap.

[frimfram.livejournal.com]

Poor S2C - send him best wishes from me.
And I hope you're bearing up alright with the man-tending. Your recent post on the subject didn't make him sound like the model patient.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

He sat in the GPs waiting room yesterday for almost two hours - they had not marked him on the computer when he went in, and he 'knows you sometimes have to wait a while' - so despite the fact that forty or fifty other people came and went, he didn't ask why he hadn't been seen 'I didn't know if any of them were seeing my doctor, I thought they must be seing the others' - the only excuse for him is that he was tired, having been at work all night, and he isn't well.

I am not a terribly tolerant nurse when I'm off-duty I think - the sooner he is well the better!

[manoah.livejournal.com]

If it is indeed diverticulitis, I would avoid nuts. Those crunchy bits can't be good for him. Hope he feels better soon.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Good thinking - the good news is that most of the nut content in that particular thing is peanut butter.

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

Is he OK with eating probiotic yogurts? The 'good' bacteria will certainly help with the fact the antibiotics will be killing off the bacteria in his gut (good and bad). If he can't stand yogurt, something like Yakult is a good alternative and will help with the healing and hopefully calm him gut down a little bit.

*sending gentle hugs*

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I've got him on Actimel at the moment - I'm not sure how much good it is doing, but it can't be doing any harm. He likes the taste of Actimel strawberry, so it is the most acceptable thing.

[quinara]

Please let him know I hope he feels better soon! (And don't let yourself get run off your feet!)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I am really not likely to get run off my feet - I am a most uncaring wife! I will point him at these good wishes when he gets up from his nap.

[green-maia.livejournal.com]

I hope he feels better soon!

*Hugs*

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

So do I - he is miserable, and I tend to be rather unsympathetic - I have enough of being sympathetic at work - which is horrible, but true!

[samson28.livejournal.com]

*Hugs* Hope he feels better soon.

I hope he isn't driving you to madness though, I know what my partner is like when he isn't feeling well - he drives me up the wall. :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It's the groaning that gets to me....

The only thing is he usually groans at regular intervals anyway - so it took me a while to notice that he was groaning about anything more than usual!

[gillo]

Poor Speaker. At least we can give him virtual hugs. I hope they find the right treatment quickly.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

So do I - I think the diverticulitis is a distinct possibility, so hopefully the treatment will settle it down.

[kathyh]

Sending virtual hugs to poor S2C and supportive vibes to you as having a sick husband is no fun. I know it's tedious but I'm afraid I've learnt the hard way that bland foods are best when you have a stomach problem. Hope he feels better soon.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I am hoping that this lot will continue the improvement that he was starting to show by the weekend. Constant tummy pain and tiredness is not good - I lived like that for ages until I realised that my IBS is mainly caused by wheat intolerance, and really do feel sorry for him.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad he doesn't have a clostridium infection -- my bbwoof had a bout with clostridium difficile following gall bladder surgery earlier this year. It's highly infectious and difficult to cure; I'll take diverticulitis instead any day!

Still, poor Speaker. If he complains about the bland diet, just remind him that if he had gone to the doctor as soon as he felt ill, maybe he would never have become so ill in the first place. Silly men.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I am glad it isn't clostridium difficile as well. If it is diverticulitis it will settle, and may not recur for ages - and next time he just might go to the doctor's without the aid of a cattle-prod!

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

I hope he feels better soon. Diverticulitis is no fun. The rest sounds miserable, but at least these days they don't write off everything that's similar to an ulcer and suggest diet changes. I remember how surprised everyone was when they found out lots of these stomach problems were infections.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I will be relieved when (a) the doctor decides exactly what is wrong, and (b) he is back to his normal self. Diverticulitis I understand, and whilst it is no fun, at least we will know what the problem is.

[desdemonaspace]

Ach! The poor wee thing. I think it's so romantic that you're such a good wife, and a nurse and all. It has a nice symmetry with his African years and malaria and all. Not that he's delicate, you understand! Sometimes I shouldn't use words, as Xander would say.

::changes subject; points to virtual tea icon::

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Honestly I am not the perfect hovering wife - I have that rather sensible streak that nurses have - if you have something simple wrong take a couple of pain-killers and get on with it, if it isn't going away see the doctor! I will however quite happily chauffer him to appointments because I can see that if you are tired, feel ill, and don't like driving at the best of times, you might not be very safe on the road.

Tea gratefully received.

[moss6886.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. I really hope it's not diverticulitis. Buns' uncle had to have a piece of his intestine removed because of that. Plus it means no food that's the least bit gritty, including strawberries...

Best of luck to both of you!

[ravenwings-7.livejournal.com]

"A piece" is a bit of an understatement. They took out a foot of it! He even has to be careful of tomatoes. Plus there's J's mom, who caught it early and now has to live a raspberry-free existence. :(

Meep! I hope S2C gets better soon!

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

Hope he gets better soon! I sympathise, not because I had diverticulitis myself, but I do have a hiatus hernia and have had quite a few problems with it. I find that when I have stomach problems that any spices or grease really don't help. Sometimes even white wheat can cause discomfort.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Hernias are most uncomfortable - my uncle used to refer to his wife as having a 'high ratio hernia' - how can you tell he spent his life working with vehicles?

[averageshmoe.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for the health update. I check both of your journals daily and was getting worried as I never subscribed to the idea that no news is good news.

Best wishes for a speedier recovery.

pgavigan

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

He just feels uncomfortable/sore and tired - he has spent quite a bit of time playing Baldur's Gate - so when he is up to it he should be able to get on with Tabular Avatar. ;~)

[cbtreks.livejournal.com]

Add my well wishes to everyone else's. Diverticulitis sounds miserable; I hope he's feeling better quickly with the new medicines.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I am making sure that he sees all the good wishes. Hopefully he will be back to normal soon - better than normal might be too much to hope for!

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Oh poor thing! It is awful when you love spicy food and can't eat it, I do sympatise. (if I eat to much I get an awful itchy red rash, and I love it as well)

Please give him my warmist wishes for a speedy recovery.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I think I'll try to do bland for a week or two, and then add some of his favourites back in slowly. This is the man who adds extra hot chilli sauce to his curries.....

[jerusha]

Poor S2C. Tummy troubles are the worst. I hope he feels better soon!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I hope so too. :~)

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

So sorry he's still under the weather! Sympathetic on the food front though. Chicken Mole is my favorite thing in the world, though I usually make it with different peppers. I'm a little surprised they have it in your part of the world-- talesofspike had never even heard of it!

Do you serve it with white corn tortillas?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I've been making something similar for about twenty years - the original recipe came from a magazine, and was called 'Chocolate Chilli Chicken' but used bread crumbs to thicken the sauce - not good for me. The newer version uses peanut butter, rather than bread crumbs and ground almonds, and I think is actually even nicer. Sometimes we have corn tortillas - sometimes wheat ones (for S2C & D-d), and usually I do plain rice as well.

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine has diverticulitis. No seeds: caraway, sesame, or strawberries. However, a high fiber diet is important to keep everything moving and cleaned out.

Hopefully, he'll get some relief soon.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

If it is diverticulitis I'll get him to do a food diary, and see what does and doesn't make it worse - some people can eat lots of the things that others can't, and some people can't eat things that you would see as most unlikely - I have one client who swears onions make it much worse, and another who reckons the worst offender is lettuce!

He already eats meusli for breakfast, and wholemeal bread, so his dietary fibre is not bad.

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

Diverticultis is no fun at all. One of my cousins kept having recurring problems with it until he had an operation to take out the offending bit of intestine. That worked. I hope that S2C's problems can be fixed without surgery.

Best wishes to him!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Fortunately those who need surgery are in the minority, I'm hoping that if it is diverticulitis it will settle down soon.

[makd.livejournal.com]

Sorry to be late with this; trying to catch up with LJ.

Hope S2C is up and about and feeling 100% VERY soon. ::hugs::

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Hope S2C is up and about and feeling 100% VERY soon
You and me both.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Ah, the poor guy ... can't even get his favorite food or a good strong hug. Hope they get it figured out and make him all better soon.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I am hoping so too - as soon as possible!