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?
Do Sickly Children Make Successful Adults?
I ask this question because of a post on the UK-Coeliac list from a mother, who was worried that her coeliac child might have problems because of days off sick during his GCSEs.
I was always off sick at school, but I got to Grammar School and obtained good O and A levels, went to a good university and by all accounts I have been very successful since. I often wish that I’d been diagnosed with coeliac disease, when my parents and GP, were looking into my childhood health problems, but you can’t change the past.
Was it because of my many days off school, that my father took me to his printing works so often and my mother taught me household skills from cooking to making clothes? Or was it because I was the boy and was favoured by my parents and especially my grandmother, who lived with us?
I also became very reliant on my own company and this served me well, when I was programming, as that can be a very lonely experience.
Now is that self-reliance is my strongest defence against the trials of my life?
Kidney Transplants
They were talking about this on BBC Breakfast this morning.
A kidney transplant doctor once told me, that a surprising number of us are born with only one kidney and usually survive pretty well.
The Sun is Healing Me
I’ve now had four days of reasonable sunshine and I can feel my body repairing itself.
Strangely the closer to the brain, my pain is, it seems to go away first. My face and tooth pain improved, followed by my arm and hand, then the bottom of my spine and my left leg. None of these injuries were stroke related, but after the stroke I got a lot of pain in old injuries. Perhaps the stroke ruined the wiring and the sun-induced vitamins are creating new pathways.
I don’t know, as I’m no expert.
But my typing is certainly better since I’ve been in Greece.
Smoking in Greece
You can’t seem to get away from it. Even in restaurants, where it’s illegal.
No wonder the economy here is in trouble. They spend too much time smoking.
My Arm is Giving Me Some Trouble
mMy left humerus was broken by a bully at school and for the last few days, it has been giving me quite a bit of trouble. Or that’s what I hope it is. My left hand was terrible yesterday and I had difficulty tying up my shoe laces. I also couldn’t get the souvlaki off the skewer. But after a good night’s sleep it seems to be a bit better. I’m actually using the shift key with my forefinger easily this morning. Usually I make a few mistakes and have to correct them. But today it seems alright. It could also be better because the Caps Lock key on this computer isn’t so easily mis-hit. Who needs the key anyway? I never normally use it.
I suspect that as I haven’t had any physio on the upper arm and shoulder for nearly two weeks now, that this is the problem.
Getting Better
In some ways I am.
Yesterday, I went to my new dentist, who is in Notting Hill conveniently on the Central or Shopping line, rather than my last one who is in Felixstowe. Sorry Andrew, but it’s a bit far to go for pain!
I was asked to fill in a form and this asked what my occupation was. I said it was Getting Better, which raised a bit of a titter, even if it is true.
My new dentist is actually my son’s dentist. And he felt that I must have been very young, when I became his father. Was 23 really that young?
Anyway, the check found nothing wrong, except for a tooth I broke about thirty years ago, which has been giving me a bit of trouble since the stroke. The new dentist just X-rayed it and said that the root was fine, which is what my old dentist had recommended. It probably won’t last another thirty years, but will I?
I was just booked in for the hygienist and that was it.
So that was pretty painless!
The Anonymous Widower 