Do We Have Too Many Heart Transplant Centres?
Doctors at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital have questioned whether we have too many heart tranplant centres in the UK.
Apparently, the number of transplants is down, but the number of potential donors is up.
My cardiologist performs transplants and other radical heart surgery. We have chatted about technology in appointments, so could it be that the reason the number of transplants is down, is bcause surgeons are learning more tricks to keep us alive and in many cases we are doing our bit with less smoking and drinking and taking the right exercise and eating better.
Closing a heart transplant centre will be a difficult political decision, but as in many things these days, technology may be a better alternative, that takes good care nearer to the many.
I suffer from atrial fbrulation, caused in part by a dodgy heart valve. My mother-in-law had the same problem and had a valve replacement, which wasn’t a trivial operation in the 1970s.
My cardiologist’s prognosis to me was that if I keep getting the Warfarin right, I won’t have another stroke and pehaps in te years he might do something to fix the valve.
The way things are going with technology, I might suspect that when that valve is fixed, it might well be a trivial procedure.
So perhaps there’s a bit more life in this London mongrel yet? Here’s hoping!
Scot Nats Sink Prudence’s Aircraft Carriers
It looks like Prudence’s jobs bribe to Scotland of the manufacture of two unnecessary aircraft carriers has been sunk by the performance of the SNP in the elections yesterday. Labour voters have deserted the party in droves.
I watched the most unusual double act this morning on the television when Alex Salmond of the SNP and Annabel Goldie of the Scottish Conservatives had a forthright discussion on their cooperation in the future.
Scotland has a lot of problems, like funding the NHS and universities, poor health, too much drinking and creating worthwhile jobs that will last.
I wish the new government of Scotland a lot of luck. They’ll need it.
I have said many times, that Gordon Brown will rank alongside Lord North as one of our worst Prime Ministers. It would seem now that his country and his supposedly loyal supporters there have deserted his policies.
An Uplifting Moment
There is an old Chinese proverb that says that a long journey starts with a single step. This is actually a mistranslation of Lao-Tzu. A better form is “Even the longest journey must begin where you stand.”
What it doesn’t say is that there are a lot of steps in a long journey.
I was walking down Upper Street this lunchtime and I saw an aircraft crossing over the Angel. Even at that distance, I saw it was a biplane and despite my supposedly bad eyesight, I thought it was a de Havilland Dragon Rapide.
de Havilland Dragon Rapide Over Islington
This picture was taken when it crossed in front of me, as I stood by Barclays Bank at the start of Essex Road.
So why is this an uplifting moment? I seemed to be the only person who spotted this iconic aircraft from the 1930s and despite my dodgy eyesight, I was able to identify it and then take several photographs.
My only regret was that I only had my little Nikon CoolPix.
So perhaps I’ve taken another step along that long road!
How To Get Up a Coeliac’s Nose
If there is one thing that annoys me living here, it is the amount of junk I get through my letter box. Most is flyers for fast food restaurants, none of which I would dream of using. As most of the food on offer is gluten-rich, it would do me harm.
I actually had one today from Subway, who claim that all their meat is halal. But their gluten-free offerings can be counted on the fingers of Nelson’s right hand.
I shall be sending a copy of this post to Subway.
Sniffing Out Cancer
The title of this post came from a little article in the Metro about a device called the Na-Nose.
Here is an article which describes the technique in more detail.
Liverpool Takes on Its Biggest Challenge
The reports today about Liverpool University’s leadership of a large trial of a pancreatic cancer vaccine is very much to be welcomed.
If there was a motto that sums up the city, it is “Think Big”. Just think.
- Architecturally, it is the Second City of the UK.
- St. George’s Hall is one of the most magnificent neo-classical buildings anywhere.
- Liverpool City Centre is a World Heritage Site.
- It has two cathedrals, one of which is one of the largest in the world in many ways.
- The Beatles transformed the world of music more than anybody else.
So you can never say the city is full of shrinking violets.
So when Liverpool established itself as a world-class cancer centre, it didn’t take on the easiest of targets. It concentrated on one of the biggest and morst deadly;pancreatic cancer, which has one of the lowest survival rates.
Now are we starting to see a small step on the road to a successful fight against this awful disease, which killed my son at the early age of just 37?
You will see a link to their research on this blog. Click it and donate!
INR Test – 11th April 2011
Result: 2.2
Dosing Recommendation: 4.8 mg/day
Next INR Test interval: 42 days
Repeat INR Test on 23rd May 2011 at 11:10.
Do We Have Too Many Nurses?
I have used the NHS a lot in the last three years, what with the death of my wife and son to cancer and a couple of strokes.
In many cases I have had appointments with doctors and other healthcare professionals and whereas a few years ago, they would have had a nurse or a technical assistant to work with them, now they usually work alone with sophisticated equipment.
I am on Warfarin and at my previous surgery, a nurse used to take a blood test once a fortnight, which was sent to the local hospital for analysis. Now, my new GP does it himself with a small instrument that gives results immediately.
So is technology taking over from nurses?
To illustrate this BBC Breakfast has just shown how to use a heart defibrillator. It all seemed fairly simple and very much led by an intelligent machine.
Disabled Access to the London Olympics
I am not disabled, although it is probably true to say, that for a time after my stroke, whilst I was in hospital in Hong Kong, I needed to be moved everywhere in a wheel-chair. I do suspect though that if I had been in a top hospital in the UK, like Addenbrookes from the start, they’d have dispensed with one pretty quickly. It’s not to save costs, but there is thinking from the Norwegians, that it is better to get people up and on the move sooner rather than later after a stroke.
But I do think I appreciate the problems of people with disabilities a bit better than I used to. So when Liz put a comment on the post about the London Aquatic Centre, I thought I’d investigate a bit.
I started by typing the title of this post into Google. By the time you try it, you might get better information than I did. The only thing of value was an old political statement from Boris, saying that the access will be the best. He would say that wouldn’t he!
There was also quite a few paid for Google entries trying to sell disabled-friendly accomodation in London for the Olympics.
On the other hand, when I applied for my tickets, I could have applied for wheelchair friendly seats, if I had wanted to. So at least the ticket ballot is disabled friendly. I suspect too, that the venues will have an appropriate number of seats for the disabled, as we have lot of experience of building stadia with them in mind.
Getting to the Olympic Park probably falls into two time periods; before the Olympic Park is completed and after it’s opened.
I’ll deal with the first one now, as why shouldn’t those with limited mobility want to go and view the construction site, as I have in the last couple of weeks? After all lying my hospital bed in Hong Kong, being able to watch the Olympics on television was a hope, rather than something for which my odds of seeing for real,are only a little bit less than say Lord Coe’s.
The Greenway, that I used to access the viewing site is absolutely flat and I think in my current state I could push an average man in a wheelchair from the station at Hackney Wick to the Olympic Park. As with all new London Overground and Docklands Light Railway stations, Hackney Wick has full wheelchair access using lifts. At a weekend, there is quite a bit of free parking in the Victoria Park area, which is not far from the start of the Greenway.
The ViewTube has pretty good disabled access, so you could get a good coffee and a snack.
The problem would come in getting off and on the Greenway at the Pudding Mill Lane end. It is still very much a construction site and although the DLR station has a lift, it might not be easy to negotiate your way through.
Another word of warning is that the best views of the site are at the other end of the Olympic Park to Stratford station.
So don’t go there!
Obviously, once the Olympic Park and the Eastfield Shopping Centre are open, there shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
How To Fit Trainers
I have been in need of a new pair of trainers or tennis shoes for some time. I’ve bought two pairs and they sit in my cupboard unworn, as they are so uncomfortable. My trouble is that I have small but wide feet.
I saw my physio this morning and he recommended going to Runners Need in Kings Cross, where you can try out your new shoes on a treadmill before you buy them.
I went and was impressed, as when the video they took of my feet was played back, I could see that my legs were straight and correct in the shoes that the assistant thought would be best for me. They actually didn’t have my proper size, so I’ll have to go back to get them, when they have got them in.
It would seem to me, that if you are buying a pair of shoes for running or walking, that this the way to do it. With my horse-racing experience, I know that this sort of analysis has been done with horses, to try to predict performance. Before you buy a horse to race, you would always trot it up and down to see that its action was correct.
Now I am not disabled, but I do have a slight balance problem after my stroke. There are also people who have got bad backs or need or have had hip or knee transplants. I felt it helped me and I could feel that the walking shoes I tried, which had a bit of support, were rather better than my worn out tennis shoes. So would others benefit?
The Anonymous Widower 