CC Notes: When Prolapse Happens.

That ^ is what I got instead of surgery, for Six. Weeks. In case you missed it, after chemo on Wednesday (16th), a couple of hours later, my colostomy prolapsed. These are the basics of a prolapse, and no worries, no pics.

A prolapse is much more psychologically damaging than physical. This is not at all uncommon in colostomy or ileostomy, but no one prepares you for the possibility either, which is why you end up so damn shocked, and dealing with all the mental and emotional fallout. It would be most helpful if medical would prepare for this possibility, and yes, I know there’s no desire to alarm people, but that’s a bullshit excuse in this case. Being forewarned, just in case, would go a long way in making a prolapse less traumatic.

First thing: When Prolapse Happens: DON’T PANIC.

*:Graphic descriptors begin: When the pain reached a point where I lifted up my shirt in the car to see what was going on, I saw six very fat inches of my colon protruding, completely filling the bag, and rather than the bright pink/red she should have been, Grimhild was a faded pink, with sections so faded they were white. It was with absolute shock I was staring down, and then saw that shock mirrored in Rick’s face. Fighting panic, I choked out “can’t go home, ER.” Rick was doing his white knuckled best to not speed; fortunately, we weren’t far from the hospital. After waiting too long inside a triage room the size of a fucking closet, with tears running down my face, and trying like hell to breathe when my muscles completely seized (this was almost exactly like it was post-op, in recovery after the colostomy surgery, which was freaking me out), when a nurse finally came in. She got vitals, and info, and I got that all too rare experience of seeing shock on a nurse’s face upon seeing the prolapse. I was hurriedly taken into a room. The doctor was in quickly, and they were one I had seen before, which was a comfort. I was all hooked up to every fucking thing, then the doc started poking about. I couldn’t see what was going on, but Rick was watching like a hawk*, and the doctor was doing a form of massage, working the gut back in. Grimhild wouldn’t recede past around 2 inches, but that was normal enough. I was then sent for a CT scan, which revealed no blockage, but a parastomal hernia. It’s likely I would not have surgery at all if it was just a prolapse, but the hernia will require surgery. *Rick turned out be to be very skilled at doing this massage later at home, and teaching me how to do it. *:Graphic descriptors end:.

Most people with a colostomy or ilieostomy have minor protrusions now and then, generally during a movement, as that is the natural function of your gut, to be moving things along. Generally speaking, any abdominal pain associated with an ostomy is when a protrusion happens. If you note your abdominal pain increasing, check your ostomy- if there’s more protrusion than normal, the colour, and place your hand over to check for the normal warmth. If any of that changes (lengthier protrusion, faded colour, especially if it goes gray, and cold rather than warmth), get yourself to a doctor, stat. Don’t wait to see if it gets worse. Better to get it checked and not have anything to worry about.

If you’re like me, and this just comes out of the blue, and you’re faced with something which sends you into shock, get your arse to an ER immediately. If it’s taking too long to see you, start screaming. That won’t be difficult. If this never happens to you at all, that’s a great and grand thing. That said, it’s best to know this is a possibility, and to be prepared for it. It’s quite scary to see, especially if you are utterly clueless as to what’s happening. If you know this might happen, you’ll be much calmer. This is easily treatable, and in most cases not a surgical emergency, so you don’t need to worry needlessly about that, either. Most of the time, the gut is easily and gently massaged back in. In some cases, where’s there is an excess of fluid, you might note your doctor calling for sugar – don’t have an attack. This is a semi-standard trick to get a stubborn prolapse to retreat. Sugar is sprinkled on it, which absorbs the fluid, allowing the gut to retract. I do not recommend doing this at home, leave that to a doctor. This isn’t something you want to fuck up, and end up making things worse.

If you have a positional prolapse, where your ostomy is likely to start slithering out upon standing, walking, or other positions, you can easily cope with this at home. Lie down, and gently cup your ostomy through the bag, while gently pressing in and down, massaging her back in. You’ll most likely notice retraction beginning as soon as you lie down. When you get the retraction accomplished, when you get back up, keep your hand in place over your ostomy, then get a binder, belt, pants, whatever, placed over your ostomy, and carefully go about your business. It will take more than a bit of experimentation to discover just what does work for you when it comes to keeping your ostomy in place.

I did have a an abdominal binder order placed, went and got fitted (more or less), and wore it for a while on Wednesday, when we went out to eat, and on the way home. The binders aren’t exactly made for smaller type people, and really not for seriously skinny people. Mine is much too wide – it goes over my hip bones, and impinges on my breasts, so not overly comfortable to wear. It’s also very tight, which is to be expected. One worrying thing is that while eating, I could feel Grimhild trying to move, which is natural when trying to expel something, gas or more solid. The binder was preventing this, and that you don’t want. I’m not altogether sure just how much this would prevent a prolapse, either. So, at this point, I’ll save the binder for when I’m going to be quite active and out and about walking. When I’m sitting at my desk, and Grimhild is fresh from an active massage retraction, I’ve found that moving my chair right up to the desk edge, then placing a firm pillow between it and Grimhild, is sufficient to keeping her in place, while allowing for gas and other passage. Some people make do with large ace bandages, or find that a hernia or ostomy belt is more efficient; some people find that pants which cross the ostomy with a good pressure to be workable. It’s a matter of finding what will work best for you. If you use a latch or two part bag system, you might find it much more helpful to switch to a one piece, as the latch and two piece systems can cause injuries to the ostomy in cases of prolapse. While these injuries, usually lacerations, don’t cause any pain, they might lead to infection, which you do not need.

You absolutely must check the colour and warmth of your ostomy every single day, and it’s a good idea to do it more than once a day. Any changes whatsoever, get to that doctor. You’ll also need to monitor your overall temperature every day, and be good about it, because an infection is more likely in prolapse. If you head over 99, get to that doctor.

As always, as I remember all the stuff I forgot, I’ll edit to add at some point.

ETA: It now occurs to me that I was helping to move furniture a couple of weeks before this happened. In retrospect, that was a very stupid thing to do. Don’t be moving furniture.

The Healing Arts: Mixing A Recipe for Corns.

There will be much of George Cruikshank, caricaturist and printmaker coming up, but I felt this one deserved to be on its own, given the sheer amount of very weird detail. There seems to be an implication of witchery and/or paganism here. Interestingly, this one was one of the ones designed by Frederick Marryat, a British naval officer, and author. It’s interesting to note that In 1839, Marryat also published his Diary in America, a travelogue that reflects his criticisms of American culture and society. The book and the author were both subject to acts of violence, including the burning of the book and of Marryat’s effigy in public. It can be read for free at the link provided; I note that the e-books are also available through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

There’s an astonishing amount of detail here. Note the painting hanging on the wall – an assault in progress. That earns a WTF? Then the Goddess detail on the mantel, with the dogs. Peacock feathers on the mantel, too. They were associated with witches, particularly those with healing arts. Then there’s the cat and dog, and screaming parrot, with the mouse in between. And what appears to be a Buddha on the mantel, and so. much. more. Click for full size!

Mixing A Recipe for Corns.

U Is For Uranium and Urgeiriça.

Urgeiriça is a Portuguese village known for having been the center of the country’s biggest uranium mining complex. The first mine opened in 1913, the last closed in 2001, radioactive management throughout was always very poor to nonexistent. The environmental and human health impacts were huge and are still being dealt with, there are still people living in contaminated homes, former workers and their families waiting for compensations for occupational diseases (needless to say, that’s mostly cancer). Environmental rehabilitation is being done, slowly. Here is shown a phytoremediation plant at the mine of Cunha Baixa, in which buoyant plant mats are being used to clear contaminated waters. In the second photo you can see a close up of those heavy-metal-loving plants, they take up the heavy metals (including uranium) from the water and accumulate them in the leaves, clearing the water.

Click for full size!

© Nightjar, all rights reserved.

Jack’s Walk

It’s a sunny, warm day here and Jack felt like stopping to take a rest. He really isn’t fond of warm weather and right now he’s still wearing most of his winter coat so he heats up quickly. I think with weather like this, though, the annual shed is about to begin. It’s a laborious undertaking for both of us with hair that comes out in handfuls and more handfuls. You can brush him until your arms ache and still more hair comes.  It’s a tsunami of hair and there is just no way to stay on top of it. Let the vacuuming begin…

©voyager, all rights reserved

On Bigoted Use of the Word Nazi.

A few weeks ago I had a visitor at my lab from our other plant in Germany. We did not have too much work to do at that time so after i have shown him around we had some time to chat about this and that.

One of the things that transpired was that he is married to a woman who is of US American / German descend.  He said her Texan grandfather took it rather badly and commented it along the lines “I was fighting against Nazis in war, and my daughter and granddaughter both married one.”.

I looked at him after this and asked the first question that popped in my mind: “Is your grandfather in law per chance a Republican and did he vote for Trump?” To which his answer was yes on both accounts.

I was astounded at this blatant display of a lack of self-awareness.

I mean, it is not uncommon to hear something similar in CZ. Even some of my close friends sometimes ask me – and only half-jokingly – if I still work “for Nazis” or in “Naziland”. Even I said such things.  The German nation will in minds of many Czechs never ever get rid of the black stain the horrors of the WW2 have made on its reputation, not to mention previous thousands of years of mutual enmity between Slavic and Germanic nations and the two hundreds years long attempts at Germanization of Czechs. History cannot be denied or ignored, and its consequences do and will reach far into the future.

There is still also a lot of anti-slavic prejudice (not only) in Germany to this day. When Czech Republic entered in the EU, there was a lot of people near the borders who feared the influx of uncouth Czechs that would lead to a massive rise in crime-rate and stealing of jobs from proper Germans. Which of course did not happen.

It is therefore understandable that some Czechs view Germans as a whole with distrust and dislike, even though not justifying the over broad use of the term “Nazi” for anyone from Germany.

The current rise in nationalism spurred by anti-muslim sentiments, both in EU and in USA, seems to have led to a peculiar situation demonstrated by the Texan grandfather in law of my colleague’s. A lot of people seem to be putting an unqualified equal sign between the words “Nazi” (or “fascist”) and “German” in their minds whilst completely forgetting – or perhaps never even knowing – what this originally was about. And so subsequently they are voting for de-facto Nazis, who spout nazi rhetoric and try to propagate nazi policies, the whole package – unbridled racism and white supremacy, yearning for a golden age that never was, scapegoating and dehumanizing whole ethnic groups, wishing for concentration camps, firing squads and wars to beat opponents into submission (even the “traditional family values” and homophobia are in that package). All the while saying that “Nazis are bad” and thinking themselves opposing Nazis and nazism.

Yes, I know, one could quibble about whether the term Nazi really does fit Trump and the Republican party. One could discuss the minutiae endlessly and talk over differences in definitions and perspectives. There are differences. However I would argue that the term does indeed fit Republicans in general and Trump in particular much, much better than it does a typical German in these days, who most likely would feel ashamed and sorry for what Nazis have done and would despise them.

Lets not forget that not all (not even most) Germans are Nazis and not all Nazis are German. Lets not forget that first victims of first Nazis were Germans – German Jews, German communists, German mentally ill and handicapped and many just ordinary decent Germans. Using the term Nazi as a generic sneer against Germans is morphing into a form of bigotry of its own, an a dangerous one at that. Because as it usually is with such things, it shifts the focus from bad things people do on people who are perceived as bad whatever they do*.

  • I have not heard this yet, but I wonder if there is someone somewhere who dislikes Angela Merkel and accuses her of being a Nazi for accepting refugees? I know for sure there are people who accuse her of giving power to Nazis by doing it.

Sorry, gone for a while…

Chemo went fine, but a couple hours later (thankfully, we were binging at Goodwill and still in town) my abdominal pain went crazed, took a look to see Grimhild making a serious break for it, over 6 inches of my colon was protruding, so off to emergency. The doc managed to massage Grim mostly back in, sent for a CT scan, which showed no blockage, but I have a colostomy prolapse, and a parasternal hernia, along with chronic anemia. So, surgery tomorrow, and I have to be flat on my back, so no blogging. I shouldn’t be doing this right now. This is all the info I have right now, figure I’ll be missing for two to three days at the least. Oh, and trust me – you do not want to see a pic, you’d run screaming into the night. It looks like a zombie got a hold of me.

I’m so sorry, I’ll be back as soon as possible. Voyager & Charly, the blog is yours, have fun!

ETA: There’s a lengthier follow up here: CC Notes: When Prolapse Happens.
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A Resolution Against Social Justice, It’s Evil!

Grady Arnold.

A group calling itself Godly America sent out a press release through Christian Newswire on Monday calling attention to a Southern Baptist pastor who “has submitted a resolution against social justice” to be considered at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Dallas in June.

Godly America, “a ministry to remind Christians of their rich heritage and history as Americans, and to call America back to the Judeao-Christian [sic] principles on which America is founded,” seems to consist of said pastor, Grady Arnold.

Mr. Arnold seems to be going his own way here, even to the heresy of embracing Glenn Beck, which I don’t see endearing him to other Southern Baptists, as they do not consider mormons to be christians. Here are some bits and pieces of the press release:

Within the resolution, Arnold states that social justice activism is “a vehicle to promote abortion, homosexuality, gender confusion, and a host of other ideas that are antithetical to the gospel.”

Mmmm. I’m good with abortion, and seriously promoting education, comprehensive sex education, and contraception. I’m all kinds of fine with acceptance of all queer folk, and there’s no confusion on the part of people who are inhabiting this century’s reality. Who gives a fuck about the gospel? Confining yourself to bronze / iron age views is not in any way good.

Pastor Arnold warns in his resolution that denominations that have embraced social justice have rapidly dropped in membership and have become more liberal in their theology. “If Southern Baptists are concerned with having conservative theology and want to avoid even further numerical losses, they need to talk to their pastors, local associations and state conventions, and tell them to take a firm stand against social justice.”

Oooh, comin’ into the 21st century! That’s a good thing. I suppose it’s always good to know just how much the religious reich does not at all care for people, of any kind. It’s always about power and oppression.

“If Southern Baptists don’t rise up and take a stand now, then in a few years they will be seeing books in their Lifeway bookstores promoting liberation theology, black theology, and feminism, and in their literature, they will be called upon to understand their ‘white privilege’ and the need to feel guilty about it.”

Oh my, could things possibly get worse than that? There’s zero need to feel guilty about white privilege. What’s needed is a clear understanding of it, and how it promotes systemic racism and personal bigotry, then working to be aware of it, and correct it.

RWW has the full story, with lotsa links.  The press release is linked above, and the full “resolution” can be found here.