Re: Fwd: [QUAD-L] Just a question and a statement

[RONALD L PRACHT]

She has to dwell on survival until living gets to a point where she can breath. 
Lori is one of the smartest quads on the list and I have no doubt she will 
handle this. God cant help a stopped train, as long as you keep pushing you 
will reach the next stage of life. My offer to Lori or any person in here. I 
have a fair share of knowledge and will talk to anyone in need on the list. 
Maybe I cant do more than listen, but we should be helping each other more. 
After 7pm my minutes are free.
Ron 

On Sunday, April 10, 2016 6:48 PM, Larry Willis  
wrote:
 

 Lori, your post just leaves me speechless. My heart goes out to you. Sometimes 
life, especially quad life, seems more than the human spirit can handle. It may 
sound trite, but turn your heart toward God and hold fast to His promise. Above 
all, don't despair. Please don't dwell on all the negatives in your life. It 
will bring you down like a rock. Try to stay positive. You are in my thoughts 
and prayers. God bless.

-- Forwarded message --
From: Lori Michaelson 
Date: Sunday, April 10, 2016
Subject: [QUAD-L] Just a question and a statement
To: quad-list 


I have been lost without my beloved husband who was absolutely everything for 
me. My primary caregiver [while hiring morning caregivers and teenagers to 
clean for us], a computer software/hardware engineer who used to work for NASA, 
a photographer, a genealogist, a mathematician and statistician, pretty much my 
doctor without being able to write prescriptions for me because he went to 
medical school and worked in the medical field for several years before getting 
his degree in mathematics because of the time he was going to medical school 
there was reversed discrimination going at the time - colleges taking "persons 
of color" to meet their quota over white/Caucasian Americans.
I had everything on June 10, 2012 and the next day, after a cardiac arrest and 
unable to revive, I lost all of that and more. We shared our love for Golden 
retrievers and we used to love to do things together both indoors and out. 
I was doing better when I was able to live with family until they wanted me to 
"move on" and I have fallen apart since.
After moving back here is unaware my husband and I lived for 11 years and 
whereby the weather and the accessibility is awesome but I had no idea that, 
over the last couple years, primary care physicians are not taking patients who 
are on pain medications and Medicare certified home health agencies are being 
discriminatory when it comes to a quadriplegic if they're only insurance is 
Medicare.
I began to have my symptoms of a UTI last Thursday and need to get a urine 
specimen to be set out for culture and sensitivity. My husband used to purchase 
the urinary test strips to, every once in a while, and just for the hell of it 
and for curiosity get the results for my urobilinogen, glucose, ketones, 
bilirubin, protein, nitrate, pH level, blood, specific gravity and leukocytes. 
He could read those test strips because he used to be a cheap slap technician 
and did not for a living so I knew how long to wait for each and every result 
for each of those things (less than 30 seconds however). He could not do a 
culture and sensitivity because, obviously, we did not have the laboratory with 
 laboratory, the slides, the petri dishes and everything else required. 
After his passing, I began to have more non-systemic UTIs. This is probably 
because different people begin to do my bowel regimen and even though they were 
as clean as possible... I knew my husband would do a better job and making sure 
I was clean down there. That was clear since I did not have any non-systemic 
UTIs prior to his passing. 
I now feel so alone whereby I feel that my family could have "shared the care" 
but they wouldn't and I have so very little family left (2 much older sisters 
and 2 nieces).
After moving to Arizona the first nurse who changed my catheter insulated the 
balloon inside my urethra and I discovered this after she left and it was left 
in my urethra for a good 45 minutes before she could get back and I am 
suffering from the consequences of that even now. I have had spontaneously 
urinary leaking around the catheter. My urologist (who is familiar with there 
are neurogenic bladders) is at a loss as to what to do except for to increase 
my oxybutynin (which she did do the maximum dose) but it has not solved the 
problem completely. 
She offered to increase the size of my catheter but there are pros and cons to 
that. A bigger size Foley catheter will stretch my urethra even further. Yeah, 
I know, I could go with a suprapubic catheter but I have never had any problems 
before that nurse did that to me and since my urologist has been in my bladder 
twice to remove stones (the last one was in late 2012) she says my bladder 
looks like a bladder that has never had a catheter in it - it looks 

Fwd: [QUAD-L] Just a question and a statement

[Larry Willis]

Lori, your post just leaves me speechless. My heart goes out to you.
Sometimes life, especially quad life, seems more than the human spirit can
handle. It may sound trite, but turn your heart toward God and hold fast to
His promise. Above all, don't despair. Please don't dwell on all the
negatives in your life. It will bring you down like a rock. Try to stay
positive. You are in my thoughts and prayers. God bless.

-- Forwarded message --
From: *Lori Michaelson* 
Date: Sunday, April 10, 2016
Subject: [QUAD-L] Just a question and a statement
To: quad-list 


I have been lost without my beloved husband who was absolutely everything
for me. My primary caregiver [while hiring morning caregivers and teenagers
to clean for us], a computer software/hardware engineer who used to work
for NASA, a photographer, a genealogist, a mathematician and statistician,
pretty much my doctor without being able to write prescriptions for me
because he went to medical school and worked in the medical field for
several years before getting his degree in mathematics because of the time
he was going to medical school there was reversed discrimination going at
the time - colleges taking "persons of color" to meet their quota over
white/Caucasian Americans.

I had everything on June 10, 2012 and the next day, after a cardiac arrest
and unable to revive, I lost all of that and more. We shared our love for
Golden retrievers and we used to love to do things together both indoors
and out.

I was doing better when I was able to live with family until they wanted me
to "move on" and I have fallen apart since.

After moving back here is unaware my husband and I lived for 11 years and
whereby the weather and the accessibility is awesome but I had no idea
that, over the last couple years, primary care physicians are not taking
patients who are on pain medications and Medicare certified home health
agencies are being discriminatory when it comes to a quadriplegic if
they're only insurance is Medicare.

I began to have my symptoms of a UTI last Thursday and need to get a urine
specimen to be set out for culture and sensitivity. My husband used to
purchase the urinary test strips to, every once in a while, and just for
the hell of it and for curiosity get the results for my urobilinogen,
glucose, ketones, bilirubin, protein, nitrate, pH level, blood, specific
gravity and leukocytes.

He could read those test strips because he used to be a cheap slap
technician and did not for a living so I knew how long to wait for each and
every result for each of those things (less than 30 seconds however). He
could not do a culture and sensitivity because, obviously, we did not have
the laboratory with  laboratory, the slides, the petri dishes and
everything else required.

After his passing, I began to have more non-systemic UTIs. This is probably
because different people begin to do my bowel regimen and even though they
were as clean as possible... I knew my husband would do a better job and
making sure I was clean down there. That was clear since I did not have any
non-systemic UTIs prior to his passing.

I now feel so alone whereby I feel that my family could have "shared the
care" but they wouldn't and I have so very little family left (2 much older
sisters and 2 nieces).

After moving to Arizona the first nurse who changed my catheter insulated
the balloon inside my urethra and I discovered this after she left and it
was left in my urethra for a good 45 minutes before she could get back and
I am suffering from the consequences of that even now. I have had
spontaneously urinary leaking around the catheter. My urologist (who is
familiar with there are neurogenic bladders) is at a loss as to what to do
except for to increase my oxybutynin (which she did do the maximum dose)
but it has not solved the problem completely.

She offered to increase the size of my catheter but there are pros and cons
to that. A bigger size Foley catheter will stretch my urethra even further.
Yeah, I know, I could go with a suprapubic catheter but I have never had
any problems before that nurse did that to me and since my urologist has
been in my bladder twice to remove stones (the last one was in late 2012)
she says my bladder looks like a bladder that has never had a catheter in
it - it looks like the bladder of an able-bodied person who has never had a
catheter so why her fix what is broken.

I will get rid of this nonsystemic UTI with whatever antibiotic she gives
me after the results and go from there because things were getting better
until my pain began.

This is the second nonsystemic UTI have had since moving here in the middle
of January. My nurse was scheduled this Tuesday for my catheter change and
I had my urologist order taking a urine specimen for culture and
sensitivity to treat whatever is causing me pain but now she wants to
change that to Thursday because of a mandatory agency meeting and I was
okay