How to Cut Down Strokes and Their Effects
The more I learn about strokes the more I know that the one I had in Hong Kong might well have been avoided.
my stroke was caused by atrial fibrillation. This was detected hen I had a small stroke in March 2010. I now feel that I should have been put on Warfarin, but why the doctors didn’t take this route, I do not not know. Could it be that my previous surgery in Suffolk, wouldn’t use a simple hand-held instrument, but still relied on expensive weekly blood tests? I don’t know, but having been on a system based on a machine since moving to London, I can honestly say that the the system is better from a patient’s point of view. My previous cardiologist, who has an International reputation assured me that if I kept my Warfarin regime, I would not have another stroke.
I am now under the care of University College Hospital in London. I happened to tell the nurse doing my electro-cardiogram there, that twenty or so years ago, I had had one that missed a beat in a flying medical. She said that that should have been followed up as it was indicative of atrial fibrillation. Instead over the past twenty years, I’ve had the odd cholesterol and blood pressure tests and that is about all.
It strikes me that, if I had had a proper heart medical, twenty years ago, then my stroke might have been avoided.
But I didn’t even see a cardiologist after my first stroke.
It strikes me that GPs either need to be better trained with regard to heart problems or less reluctant to refer patients to cardiologists.
I was also lucky in that I had my major stroke in Hong Kong.
There I was given a drip of a clot-busting drug, that provably mitigated my lasting problems. It is common place in some countries and regions of the UK. A BBC London report, showed that it saved money against conventional treatment, by avoiding lots of expensive after care. Additionally, in London, you are always taken to a specialist stroke unit.
So it does look like things are improving in the treatment of strokes.
The Simon Gompertz Effect
Yesterday, the BBC published a well-researched article on its web site, by its Personal Finance Correspondent, Simon Gompertz, about peer-to-peer lending. I commented on it here.
It was the only article on the subject picked up by Google yesterday and featured on the BBC’s most read list of articles on its web site for most of the day.
As a member of Zopa, I follow their figures closely, which are easily accessible to any borrower or lender. The amount of money that lenders have demanded from the site has risen significantly.
At 09:00 on Saturday, the money demanded by prospective borrowers was £9.4million, whereas at the same time today the figure was £14million. Over the same period, the amount of money made available by lenders was £18.2million on Saturday and £12.1 today.
Doing a crude calculation means that £6.1million of lenders money has been allocated to borrowers and there are another £5million or so that could be lent. Zopa’s team of credit experts will be kept busy on Monday, checking all these new borrowers. And probably rustling up some more funds to lend.
Is this all the effect of one well-written article by Simon Gompertz on the BBC?
There’s another good article in the Observer today. I suspect that Zopa’s figures will be just as interesting tomorrow.
Update on 11th June 2012 at 08:00
Total demand is now £15.8million up and funds available are £11million. This works out as a swing of £13.6million over the weekend.
It did look at a few other weekends and typically, there is a swing between £2.5million and £4.5million.
Whatever the truth is, something extraordinary happened! And it is all good! Unless of course you’re a banker!
It’s The Only Apron I’ve Got!
I cooked a Morroccan chicken casserole on Friday night and because of the height of the new cooker, I get the odd splash.
Cooking a Casserole
The apron was a present from a Michelin-starred chef from Glasgow, who’s moved his restaurant, Mr. Underhill’s to Ludlow.
Any resemblence between Chris Bradley and myself is purely coincidental.
Germany versus Portugal
I’ve watched most of this match now and there has been a lot of tackling, that would get yellow cards in matches in the UK, but not too many seem to have been issued.
I’d not heard of the German striker who scored, Mario Gomez before, but he seems to have sensible views on gay footballers and urges them to come out. After reading something in The Times last week, I would suggest that Ukraine is not the place. He talked about his views in the Guardian here. I hope it doesn’t have any consequences in this tournament.
Pharmaceutical Packaging
If ever there was something that was almost designed to cause mistakes, it is the packaging for pharmaceutical drugs.
The first thing, I do, when I open a packet of drugs is to throw the leaflet in the middle away, as it gets totally in the way, when you want to put a half-used strip back in the box.
I don’t find the bubble packs difficult, but I know some do. But one of the drugs I have, has some bubbles that don’t contain drugs and these could easily cause confusion with someone with limited vision.
Incidentally, I never read the leaflets, supplied with drugs, preferring to read about the drug on the Internet on an appropriate web site. So why doesn’t each drug packet have an easily readable code on it, that you just type into a web site and it gives you everything you could want to know, including the various generic names. One of my drugs comes in two different shapes and sizes, which could easily cause confusion.
The system is a complete mess.
Incidentally, I have to take two groups of drugs; one when I get up and one in the evening. I take them out of the silly bubble packs and put everything I need into old 35mm. film canisters; white for the morning and black for the evening. Usually, I fill the morning one as I go to bed, so that it gets checked again in the morning when I take it. I do the evening one after breakfast and always keep a second set in my coat, so that if I get delayed and stay out, I have my drugs with me. I also have reminders set in Outlook in my computer about when I should take my drugs.
The New and the Old
This picture shows a New Bus for London overtaking its predecessor at the Balls Pond Road/Mildmay Park stop.
The New and the Old
In some ways this picture shows the manoeuvrability of all London double-deck buses, as it was able to pull out from behind and get alongside for the lights.
The New Bus for London does have regenerative breaking and drivers have told me the acceleration is very good, so does the hybrid drive line mean that at some time in the future, it could have traction control?
BBC Discusses Peer-to-Peer Networking
It does at last seem that personal finance correspondents like the BBC’s Simon Gompertz, are getting the hang and idea of peer-to-peer lending. He has just written this article about it. Here’s the first three paragraphs of the piece.
Lending via three websites that link savers with borrowers – bypassing the banking system – has topped £250m.
The “new age” finance carries no protection for deposits, but is being tipped as a serious threat to traditional banks.
The peer-to-peer sites are led by Zopa, which has lent more than £200m since it started in 2005.
I’ve been using Zopa since 2008 and would say that anybody who uses the Internet competently, has a basic knowledge of finance and is prepared to research how they handle their money, should consider Zopa or one of its competitors. So if you can’t be bothered to read Simon Gompertz’s article, then peer-to-peer lending is not for you.
On the other side of the coin, if you have a good credit record and need to borrow a few thousand pounds for say a new car or a house extension, get a quote from one of peer-to-peer lenders and compare it with what your bank offers.
Always ask a lender what happens, if I want to settle up early. Many lenders make their money by imposing extra charges at this point.
Do Either Poland or Greece Want To Win?
This has not been the greatest game of football and I would suspect, if Russia or the Czech republic get their act together, they’ll get some points from this pair.
After all, all we’ve had here is two sendings off, a missed penalty, another which should have been given , one goal each and very little else.
There’s just four minutes left, so on current form, I suspect it’ll be one goal each at the end.
What Do You Do With Urban Foxes?
There’s a story in the Standard about foxes plaguing a smart part of London. Here’s what Brent Council said.
When contacted by residents, Brent council said it did not have the funding to deal with foxes but hoped to serve a legal notice on the owner of the property to remove the vegetation.
The council claimed it could leave itself open to prosecution if it moved the animals.
Craig Johnstone, of the council’s Public and Animal Health Team, wrote in an email: “Dealing with foxes is quite a specialist field. It’s not that simple to just trap and relocate them.
“Doing this could leave us open to prosecution as releasing a fox into another area (countryside) could cause the fox unnecessary suffering.”
A farmer friend of mind has had urban foxes dumped on his land. As they have never had to hunt and have just scavenged, they are rather lost and get very hungry. He’s even seen them begging round his tractor, whilst he sits there eating his sandwiches for lunch.
They should be humanely destroyed.
Everybody Needs a Dry Cleaner
Mohamed Mahamoud Sheik thought that and has now opened a shop in Mogadishu in Somalia, as reported on the BBC. He is quoted as saying.
When they read ‘Somali Premium Laundry’, they say, ‘wow, is this a real laundry?”
If there was an international business award for the most outrageous start-up he should win it.
Good luck to him!
The Anonymous Widower 