A Difficult Few Months

I had debated with myself about posting this blog as I normally carry on about cycling and camping plus my general reasonably happy life.  There were clouds on the horizon concerning my good dog walking friend, Bettie's, health.

When I got back from my Winter Madness Camping and Cycling get away in June I began to experience continuous Atrial Fibrillation (AF) episodes which after even quite mild exercise, like walking Louis, caused fatigue and mild dizziness.  My GP carried out an ECG which showed that my heart had decided to abandon Normal Sinus Rhythm (NSR)  and enter the chaotic world of Permanent AF.

I have had Paroxysmal AF for some years and it caused my stroke in 2011 but its affects had been controlled by medication (calcium channel blockers) to control my heart rate and anticoagulants to prevent blood clots.  AF is not a fatal decrease if the medication works but one feels like crap when having a session.

I was referred to a cardiologist who, after checking my heart over 24 hours using a holter monitor,  confirmed that I was in permanent AF.  My resting heart rate was 82 but when walking Louis it went to 150 plus.  He said that there was no real cure and that I should try new medication and replaced my calcium channel blockers with beta blockers.  I had some improvement for a couple of weeks.  I was still in AF but the beta blockers kept my heart rate under control.  After about four weeks I began to experience the full AF symptoms but was told to give it three months.

I decided that I would go to Australian Camper Trailer Group annual meeting in country NSW in late September early October which I will cover in a following post.  I had a couple of bad days but enjoyed meeting other mad campers.

Before I left Bettie had nearly completed her second round of chemo for lung cancer and the tumors had shrunk.  On the day I left she had an appointment with her optometrist and, as she was having eye drops, dropped her of in Noosa.  I received a phone call the following night in Narrabri, where I was camped for the night, from my other dog walking friend, Jo.

Bettie had spent two days having medical test and scans.  She had used the local bus service, which is infrequent, to go from her eye test to her GP, then to have a CT scan and then back to her GP for the results.  They were disastrous.  She now had a couple of tumors on her brain and the spot on her spine had developed to when it was causing pain.  She didn't get home til 6.00pm having left home at 9.00am.

Next day she caught the bus to Nambour, 40Km away, to see her oncologist who said that chemo should be stopped.  She got home and stopped to see Jo to get help.  Her brain tumors we preventing her from being able to dial telephone numbers.  This is when Jo phoned me as Bettie needed somebody to help.  I had, at home, the phone numbers of Bettie's old friends, Denise and Ben.  Jo walked-to my house and used my emergency keys to get in and found the numbers in my study.  Denise and Ben phoned me later to say that Bettie was OK and a roster of friends were looking after her.

After my camping trip I took over taxi duty and took Bettie on several GP visits and a visit to the oncologist where her treatment options were outlined.  Basically palliative care and maybe radiation to minimize the pain from the spinal tumor.  I sat in on all the consultations as Bettie was worried that she would forget things.  I also took her little dog, Bella, for walks with Louis.  Bettie walked to the end of her short street with me, about 100 metres, before returning home.  Other friends fed her and checked her medications, all painkillers.

Last Sunday, 25 Oct, Bettie said the she couldn't remember pouring a beer earlier in the day and that, with another incident, made me think that she had blacked out a couple of times.  After my walk I said that I would look in next day after having another holter monitor fitted.

Next day I got a phone call from Denise.  Bettie had had a blackout overnight and woken up in terrible state on the floor.  She had used her emergency call service to contact Denise,
 who asked me if I would call in and pick up Bella as Bettie was worried about her.  I was lucky enough to just see Bettie before she was taken off in the ambulance to Nambour Hospital where she died on Monday 2nd November, my birthday.

Bettie's little dog was seventeen and a half, deaf and nearly blind and Bettie had been advised that she would be unhappy to be re-home even with me.  Yesterday at 12.00noon I took her on her final walk with Louis around the park and dropped he off a Bettie's house where a vet was waiting to put her to sleep.  This ended a 14 year friendship.
 

Bella before her last walk with Louis