And into 2016 we go.

Well 2015 has certainly been a wake up call as far as the Dermatomyositis is concerned  with appointments with Pulmonary Consultant,s Cardio Consultants and Ophthalmologist  and a persistent UTI , I have spent half the year up and down the hospital and visiting the doctors surgery.

What a year 2015 has been, 

Well at least we have got that year over with and we can now look forward to a more positive year ahead .

the new year has certainly started off on a very wet and windy first week, living in Portsmouth and Southsea  on the South Coast we have not had the severe flooding that they have experienced up in the North of England and Scotland, as my Name sake "Storm Frank" hit at the end of last week  but now we have got some very heavy rain and gale force winds coming down the English channel and has battered Southsea Seafront this weekend causing severe damage  to the sea wall and promenade.

High winds and heavy rain hitting the sea wall.

And the following Photograph shows the collapse of the promenade as the sea has penetrated under the foundations.

Damage to the promenade and sea wall

anyway enough of that, and back to the present. it was a decent christmas, I spent Christmas afternoon with my son Gervase and Daughter in Law Leanne at there house having a great christmas dinner, along with Leanne,s Mum and Dad and also a couple of there friends so really enjoyed that, apart from that it was a quiet Christmas and New Year, and I am really glad that is now all over and we can now get back to some kind of normality.

The one thing that I am looking forward to is to having the cataract removed from my right eye, I had the left eye done at the end of November and have received the appointment through to have the right eye done on the 12th February. I just cannot wait. it will be so good to have decent vision again as it was the 3.5 years of Prednisolone for the DM that induced the cataract,s

Getting ready for a cataract operation

Some time towards the end of January/February I will be getting the appointment for the follow up scans of my chest, prior to seeing my Pulmonary consultant, this will show if the early stage Emphysema has progressed  at all or if it is still stable this will dictate if I need further investigation of my Lung Function, I have not seen any marked difference in my breathing over the last 5 months s hopefully it has not changed much.

Another CT Scan

well that really is the catch up on what is in store for the next few weeks, I will hopefully get this Blog back as a weekly journal starting with Posting ever weekend starting with the coming weekend , anyway it is now time for me to get out my medtronic machine to download the data from my Reveal Heart Monitor to the Cardio department at the Queen Alexandra Hospital.

Medtronic machine to download the info from my Reveal Heart Monitor

I have to download this every 3 months, The Reveal monitor is like a USB stick and it is implanted in my Chest and records my heart beat and every 3 months I have to download the data with the Medtronic machine to the Hospital,s cardio dept over the Telephone line. the machine plugs into the Phone soccer and O ho;d the sensor shown in the photograph over the area of my chest and the machine downloads the data and then dials the phone number, and downloads to the hospital.

Well it is time for me to go and get this downloaded before Lunch and then a afternoon relaxing watching TV and listening to therein on the widows, Oh what a life I lead. I will be back with this Journal on Saturday\Sunday with what has happened during the week. So until The weekend I will say

Its another Freaky Friday.

So here we are on another Freaky Friday. It seems strange not settling down to write my journal on a daily basis but hopefully it will not be to long before I get the new computer and then we can get back to writing it daily again, as I do miss not writing it every day.

Writing a daily Journal

well yesterday was an interesting day as I had my Appointment with my Neurologist Dr Gibb up at the Queen Alexandra Hospital (QA) at Cosham. my appointment was for 11.30 so I booked a taxi for 11.00 as it is about a 20 minute journey from here in Southsea up to the QA. I was meeting Pauline there, as she was getting a bus from Waterlooville which is where she and Gordon have moved to, so she is nearer to the QA than I am.
Anyway I am meeting Pauline at the North Entrance at the QA as that is the easiest entrance to the Outpatients department.

North Entrance to the Queen Alexandra Hospital Cosham.

Well I get to the QA at about 11.20 ish and Pauline,s bus arrives about the same time. The taxi drops me off at the North Entrance but Pauline has to get off at the South Entrance and walk up the hill to the north entrance, anyway we meet up and go in to report to reception to let them know I have arrived.

Outpatient Department  Reception

When we report to reception I am informed that Dr Gibb is running about 30 minutes late in actual fact My appointment was for 11.30 and Dr Gibb calls me in at about 12.50 so he is actually running an hour and twenty minutes late still never mind, gives us time to read some out of date waiting room magazines, ( really should have brought a Newspaper or the iPad with Me.)

Waiting For Doctor Gibb

Once I was in with Dr Gibb we had a chat and all my Blood works have been coming back OK, over the last 6 months and all my downloads to the cardiology department from my Reveal Heart monitor have shown no repeat of the erratic heart beat over the last 16 months. I told him about the fatigue I have had since tapering down to the 10 mg of prednisolone on alternate days but he is reluctant to increase it and I am going to start on a daily multi-vitamin and see if that makes any difference.

 we discussed my Digestive/constipation issues in regard to my inability to digest some foods properly ie (beans, cabbage, cereal etc) due to my "Cup and Spill" stomach which was diagnosed after an endoscopy in 2010 and has been put into the background after being overshadowed by the onset and diagnosis of Dermatomyositis, so I am going to be taking a sachet of Fybogel every Morning to add more fibre to my diet so that  (along with the increased dose of Lactulose) in the evening should help with the constipation.

  
The Methotrexate is remaining at 15 mg on a Friday and the Folic acid is staying at 5 mg on a Monday. also the Lansoprazole is staying at a daily dose of  15 mg before breakfast and 15 mg before dinner . and the Prednisolone is staying at 10 mg on alternate days.
I said about the Ventolin Inhaler from the GP Dr Tyrrell that he prescribed to help with my breathing in this humid weather.

Ventolin Inhaler and the Aerochamber. 

I have  my yearly Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) scheduled for next Friday. and Dr gibb said that once he has the results of that  he will contact me with regard to on going treatment. hopefully the result of the PFT will not have changed over the past 12 months as the one last year and also in october 2011 was around the 80% to 85% which was acceptable.

Q: Did I pass the Pulmonary Function Test ?

well I must say that apart from the long wait in a very stuffy waiting room it was a very positive appointment, so now just the PFT on next Friday to get over and done with and then we will see where we go from there but feeling very positive as I said to Dr Gibb if it was not for the difficulty with the walking and the mobility of my arms I would be as fit as a fiddle, I wake up in the morning and feel like an 18 year old, get out of bed and feel like a 60 year old which on reflection is not to bad as I am 70 in 7 weeks time.

A positive appointment yesterday

Once we had finished with Dr Gibb me and Pauline headed down to the cafeteria on A level which is at the other end of the hospital where we had a cheese and ham toasted sandwich and a coffee each before going outside the South Entrance

Queen Alexandra Hospital Main entrance (South Entrance)

where I phoned for a taxi to take me home and Pauline waited for her bus back to Waterlooville. Pauline,s bus arrived before my Taxi so saw her safely on the bus.

Pauline,s bus arrives before my Taxi

Well there we are then, slept pretty well last night and had a decent day today, I am glad the weather is getting cooler as that does help, although it is still very humid, we had some rain during the night and also this morning but the sun returned this afternoon.
 It looks like the weather is certainly on the change for the week ahead but it could be worse I suppose/

so today has been a very quiet day of rest and TV for me, it is now almost 5.00 pm so I will get this journal finished and posted before watching Pointless on BBC 1 and then I will be having "Fish and chips for dinner before taking my Methotrexate

Yummy, Yummy Fish and Chips.

So until the next journal which will probably be On Monday I will say.....................

another trip out today

That makes three days in a row that I have been out for an appointment this week.
Monday = Dentist
Tuesday = Blood Test
Today = Podiatrist.
and Tomorrow it is shopping out down the city with Pauline so Methotrexate Freaky  Friday will be a day of Rest " Ye Right"

however welcome to..............................

♫ ♫ ♫ Happy Talk, keep talking happy talk, ♫ ♫ ♫

♫ ♫ ♫ Talk about things you'd like to do ♫ ♫ ♫

♫ ♫ ♫ You gotta have a dream, if you don't have a dream ♫ ♫ ♫

♫ ♫ ♫ How you gonna have a dream come true ? ♫ ♫ ♫

Now you may wonder why I have the first verse from a song from "South Pacific" starting of todays journal, well your guess is as good as mine !!!!

Well it is one of my "Alternative" journal days today. a side step from the usual drivel that I tend to bang on about. so let me explain ........... well at least try to.

The Explanation begins

To start with the last two or three weeks have been a hard couple of weeks for me although this week has been a lot better and the reason why, I will explain in a few minutes, needless to say a lot of my problems over the last couple of weeks has been brought about by my overdoing the walking with the rollator, anyway more of that later, back to the song. Take the word "Happy Talk" that is what gets me through the days when I feel like crap and today the word Happy also applies to my feet, for today I have Happy Feet. No not like the animated penguin film.............

"Warner Bros 2006 film "Happy Feet"

............. My happy feet is down to the care and the skill of my Podiatrist who over the last 12 months have got my feet sorted out so that I can now walk with a lot more comfort in fact we have reached the stage where I can now see her every 12 weeks rather than every 8 weeks so a good result.

Now back to the rest of the song and the main message "You Gotta have a dream", This is something that I had growing up through childhood and through adulthood, like most people you dream of things that you would like to happen, and then "Wham Bam" you get hit by this stupid Myositis. in my case it was late in life and I had already taken retirement at 65 and I got diagnosed when I was 67, but it screwed up my dreams of what I was going to do in my retirement.

Well I might have wanted to go Mountaineering 

any way back to the matter in hand, as I said the last couple of weeks have been really hard going after overdoing the walking with the Rollator, as Pauline said " To much to soon" anyway I have thought long and hard and look at how far I have come since diagnosis of Dermatomyositis in May 2011, and have come to the conclusion that I need to have another dream and that is to continue to enjoy life even with my reduced mobility and to accept that I will continue to need to rely on others to help me with certain things, but the main decision I have made and I made this after speaking to my doctors and that is that reducing the prednisolone has reduced my ability to enjoy a quality of life that I want, at 10 mg a day I was Ok at 5 mg a day I am tired and lack enthusiasm, so I am going to revert back to 10 mg a day, the way I look at it is, that at my age is it really going to matter  what the side affects are  I need to have fun and be able to do things. On 10 mg a day  I can eat better, walk further, cause more chaos, and have less fatigue. so there we go "Look out World, frankie,s on the rampage"

Lets Rock the world

Well that is my Rant over for the day, The day has been a decent day for me, I started my 10 mg a day from Monday and already I can feel the benefits, I slept well again last night from 11.30 until 6.30 this morning and then got up for the bathroom and made a coffee and took back to bed where I lazed listening to the radio until 8.00 when I took another coffee into the lounge and sent the text to Pauline.

Pauline phones back to say that everything is Ok so that is Ok so I have some porridge for breakfast before going to have a wash and shave before settling down to check out facebook and my emails while listening to the local radio solent. at 11,00 O go round to the tesco express to get my daily paper and then once back home settle down with a coffee and read the paper and get the crosswords done.

Once I had read the paper I go for a lie down until 1.30 when I get myself a nice piece of smoked haddock in butter with a couple of slices of bread and butter for lunch before getting ready for the Taxi to collect me to take me for my Podiatry appointment.
As I said earlier Podiatry went well so once back home I let Pauline know all is OK . make a cup of tea and settle down to get todays alternative Journal written. well it is now 5.30 so I am going to get the journal posted and then settle down with facebook for some "Pet Rescue Saga" and "Candy Crush" Oh I must get a life LOL. so until tomorrow I will say..................

And Friday comes around again

One cool cat

So Welcome to the Friday edition of my daily Journal . Well again I had another decent nights sleep, so I think the body is catching up on the sleep that was missed over the nights when it was very humid and difficult to get a decent nights sleep, but it seems to be getting warmer again for this weekend, just hope it does not get to humid again, although looking at the five day weather forecast it looks like it is going to get cooler and some wet weather on the way.

Freaky Friday E-Mail,s

well I was up early this morning at about 8.10, and sent a text to Pauline and she was up early as well as phoned back within 5 minutes of me sending the text, anyhow she is OK and is getting ready to take misty out for her morning walk on the common before it gets to hot. We have a chat and then once we have spoken I get myself some Porridge for breakfast and then settle down to check out facebook and my emails on the laptop before watching Heir Hunters on the TV.

Not a lot in the Paper today

Heir Hunters finishes at 10.00 and so I get myself ready and take a slow short walk with the rollator round to the Tesco express to get my daily paper, it is slightly cooler at the moment so it is a pleasant walk there and back and I do take it easy, I see one of the neighbours outside in his front forecourt having a cup of tea on the way back so I stop and we have a chat and put the world to rights and then it is indoors where I make a coffee and then settle down with the daily Paper to get the crossword done and catch up on the News.

At 12.00 I go for a lie down for half an hour and then get up and make a coffee before going in and watching a couple of episodes of "Murder She wrote" starring Angela Lansbury "Murder she wrote is an American Television mystery series which ran for 12 seasons between 1984 - 1996 it is one of my favourite TV series from the USA.

Murder she wrote 1984 - 1996

Once I had watched the first episode I got myself some bacon and egg for lunch before taking my 15 mg of Methotrexate, oh the joys of Medication. and then settle down in front of the TV for the afternoon .

and so that is about as exciting as my day has got today, it was a good day yesterday out shopping with Pauline and hopefully the Methotrexate will behave itself and won't give me to much grief this weekend, anyway it is getting on for 3.30 so I will get this Journal posted for today and then I am going to spend a couple of hours doing some family history research before I get dinner sorted at 6.00 so until tomorrow I will say..............

The Beginning of May.

Whoo Hoo and here we are at the beginning of May, It is two years today that I was the diagnoses of Dermatomyositis was confirmed by my Neurologist Dr Gibb at Southampton Hospital after a Muscle Biopsy. This there then followed two weeks of scans and tests to rule out various causes of the disease.

Southampton General Hospital

Queen Alexandra Hospital, Cosham, Portsmouth

when I was at Southampton Hospital I was on a Gastro Nasal Feeding tube being fed during the night, as I also had Chronic Dysphagia, it was a lot of care from a great team of Nurses and Doctors and after 2 weeks I was transfered back to the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth where I stayed for another week before going back home with a Care Package.

And now two years down the track I am now almost back to eating normally but still some weakness in the swallowing, also I am a little bit more mobile than I was although still very weak in my leg muscles but this is getting better, I sometimes get very frustrated because of the things that I can't do but then have to remember that I will be 70 years of age in October, so age plus this stupid Myositis I am not doing to badly.

Heart E.C.G 

There have been set backs over the last two years I have developed  a cataract in my left Eye, which they are convinced is due to the Prednisolone and also just over a year ago I developed an erratic heart beat and have a reveal monitor fitted in my chest, again the cardiologist has decided that it was caused by the weakness in my chest/heart muscles but fingers crossed it has not been a problem since.

Reveal Heart Monitor

So there we are two year later and I am still here being a pain in the butt. there is one other anniversary this week and that is tomorrow, as On the 2nd of May 1913 my Mother was born so tomorrow she would have been celebrating her 100th Birthday and I am sure that she will be celebrating up above with Dad and the rest of the Family, so that is why we had our family get together on Saturday.

This is the life.

And now back to today, Not doing a lot today to be honest, just relaxing and recovering from a busy day yesterday and so apart from walking round to gt my Paper this morning I have spent the day in the recliner in front of the TV and playing around on the laptop. I had some scrambled egg on toast for lunch today, and dinner tonight will be Sea Bass with the normal cauliflower cheese and New potato,s and then a relaxing evening.

Well that is about it for today then folks not a very exciting day but very pleasant and hopefully the weather will get better for the May Bank Holiday this weekend

The first Monday of May is a bank holiday in the United Kingdom. It called May Day in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is known as the Early May Bank Holiday in Scotland. It probably originated as a Roman festival honoring the beginning of the summer season (in the northern hemisphere). In more recent times, it has been as a day to campaign for and celebrate workers' rights.

Well as you can see the weather forecast is no to bad for the rest of the week and the weekend so just hope it gets a little warmer. anyhow I am now going to get this Journal finished and Posted so until tomorrow I will say Cheerio.

And Another milestone reached with the Daily Journal.

Hello again folks and here we are with another Saturday upon us and wonders of wonders it is really nice weather today, clear blue skies and Sunshine so long may it last.

A really nice day today

Let me stay in bed.

The Photograph above is the view this morning from my back yard, it is so nice to see clear blue skies and hopefully that will last all day long. Now back to the present. I had a restless night last night, woke a couple of times for the bathroom, must stop drinking so much coffee in the evening while playing about on facebook, anyway eventually had some interrupted sleep from about 4.30 to 8.30 so that was probably a total of 6 hours last night which is about the norm for me. anyway made a coffee and stayed in bed until about 9.30 listening to the radio before getting up and getting dressed.

Getting washed and groomed

Once I was up I get a cup of tea and some Porridge for breakfast before getting out the laptop and checking my e-mails, and also seeing who is on facebook. Once I have finished that I go out to the kitchen to get the washing up done and then go and have a coffee outside in the sunshine, it is still quite chilly so do need a coat on, after that I go and get a wash and groomed and then ready to go and get the morning paper.

Oh well time to rest the legs now

As it is a nice day I decide that I would take a slightly longer route to get the paper today, which was probably not the best idea on a saturday after the fridays methotrexate, anyway I get to the paper shop, get the paper and go back home, although the legs are very achey today I did enjoy the walk in the Sun, On afterthoughts I should have taken the wheelchair and could have spent an hour in Milton Park reading the paper, Oh well may think about that tomorrow if the weather stays nice.

One of my Favourites

Once back indoors I settle down with the paper and at about 11.30 Pauline rings from Weymouth to say that that Her and Gordon are On and that the weather is nice down there, and that they had a good evening with Agnes and a couple of other friends, once I had finished talking to pauline I went back to the Paper and then spent an hour doing the Weekend Puzzles and also the crossword, I have left one crossword to do later on this evening. at 12.30 I have a Banana and also put on you tube on the "Smart TV" to watch/Listen to some of the songs and stage performances by "Johnny Tillotson" from the 1950,s and 1960,s.

Samsung Smart TV

I really am thankful that I decided to pay the extra few Pounds to get the smart TV as it really was worth it, You would think that with all the satellite TV channels these day you would be able to find something on the TV worth watching but after searching through this morning I can honestly say that there was nothing that I found that would be worth while watching for me so thank Goodness for Smart TV and DAB Radio.

Entrance to Fratton Park in
Frogmore Road

Well as it is such a nice afternoon I decide at 3.00 to take a coffee outside to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, and to see the crowds of people going of to watch the football at Fratton Park. It is the last home Game of the season and also Portsmouth Football Club has been taken over by the Portsmouth Football Trust and is now out of Administration and is the biggest fan owned football club in England. although we will be playing in Division two next season at least the club is still in existence so "Play Up Pompey" I have been supporting Portsmouth football club since being taken to my first Match at Fratton Park by my Father in 1949. and was going to matches at fratton park and many other football grounds across the country until about 1998-99, when the money men became involved and it became to expensive to go.

It certainly looks like there is going to be a large crowd at the stadium today and hopefully not to much trouble with rowdy drunks although as I am sat here writing this journal with the window open I can here a lot of Police/ambulance Sirens going off and the Police spotter plane circling about overhead. any way Good Luck Pompey.

Well it is now just gone 4.00 pm so time to get this journal finished and posted, Well it has been a good day today even with a lot of aches and pains in my leg and hip, and so I have enjoyed the sunshine, it is surprising how a decent sunny day can really uplift peoples spirits (Make mine a Brandy) anyway as I was saying a really good day and I have enjoyed it, I made a egg sandwich about 3,30 and will have dinner  about  7.00 pm so that is all good, One other nice surprise was to see that today the Daily Journal reached just over 50, 000 visitors, so That pleased me and also the daily visits are increasing on a monthly basis so Thank You to everyone who takes the trouble to read my Daily Journal.

Well so it is time to call it a day now I think, it is 4.20 and there is now something on TV that I am watching it started at 4.00 and it is a episode of a TV series " Judge John Deed" starring "Martin Shaw"

Judge John Deed. 2001 - 2007 BBC. (29 episodes over 6 series)

So I am going to get this Journal Posted and settle down to watch the rest of the program so until tomorrow I will say Tatty Bye.