At Last Some Good Health News!
I went to see the cardiologist yesterday afternoon. It was the sort of doctor’s visit that we all like!
He indicated that he had reviewed my X-rays ans scans from Addenbrookes and then asked me how I was getting on with the Warfarin. It has not been a problem for me and the anlysis at West Suffolk Hospital has gone very smoothly and professionally. He then said that the Warfarin should protect me from another stroke and that the leak in my heart valve was moderate and probably should be OK for ten years. As he knows, I’m a technologist, we talked a bit about how software and techniques are improving for a few moments. After the chat, I felt that if I did need an operation it would be a lot less serious than the ones my Mother-in-law had thirty years ago.
He then said that I should come back and see him in six months.
That last point really cheered me up!
Dry Eyes
I have been suffering from dye eyes recently and when |I last went to Addenbrookes, I got a prescription for some eye drops to ease the problem. They do to a certain extent, but I can’t put the drops in myself. I have this thing about eyes.
I did find this page for stroke sufferers on the RNIB web site, which explains how eyes can be effected by strokes and also gives some helpful advice.
A common effect of stroke-related vision problems is an increased sensitivity to light. The brain seems to have difficulty adjusting to different levels of light. Tinted glasses or sunglasses may be helpful in reducing the discomfort some people experience.
Another problem which can follow stroke is dry eye. The rate of blinking may slow following a stroke and /or there may be incomplete eye closure with a partial blink which will cause a part of the cornea to dry resulting in the eye feeling uncomfortable. Artificial tears, and reminding the person to try to blink completely and often, may be a possible solution for dry eyes.
But then the RNIB should know about eyes.
So I’m wearing my prescription sunglasses and trying to remember to blink! That is not meant to be trite or sarcastic, but it is easier for me than to put the solution in my eyes!
I Hate Flies
Are they bad this year, but they seem to be infecting my house more than usual? They have already caused me to break a glass, because I knocked the fly spray over.
But they do seem to want to sit all over me. Perhaps I taste good at the moment!
Any idea why? Is there a fly psychiatrist out there?
Getting Emotional
Since the last stroke, I sometimes get a bit emotional. When people ask how I am and they say nice things, sometimes it can make me cry. But then I’ve been through a lot with the death of C and our youngest son and the strokes haven’t helped.
But then I’ve always been a bit like that. This piece is from the book I wrote about life with C.
There are quite a few people, places and events that have radically altered the way that I think and how I conduct my life. One event was the death of Jan Palach in Czechoslovakia. He committed suicide by setting himself on fire in Wenceslas Square on January the nineteenth, 1969, as a protest against the Soviet invasion.
I swore to C that one day, I would stand in Wenceslas Square in a totally free and liberated Czechoslovakia.
With the coming of Go, British Airways low-cost airline started by Barbara Cassani, Prague was suddenly a short flight away from Stansted. I should have gone earlier, as the Velvet Revolution that had ousted the Soviet-backed Communist regime had been ten years before.
But I hadn’t and I regret that.
We stayed at the Hoffmeister, which has all the charm and service expected of a Relais & Châteaux hotel. It was seriously good and from reading reports on the Internet, it still appears to be.
The weekend was our thirty-third wedding anniversary, but I have no recollection of where or what we ate on the seventh. All I do know is that the food and wine was excellent throughout the time we were in Prague.
But it was to stand in Wenceslas Square that was one of the main reasons that we had gone to Prague.
I cried!
And I cried buckets!
Will I ever be able to do the same in Harare, Rangoon and the many other places in this world, where people are oppressed and murdered by the state?
I wrote that in probably about January 2008 soon after C died. Do I feel the same now? Perhaps, I actually feel stronger about the last statement, as there are other places I could add to the list.
I sometimes wonder how C felt about Jan Palach! She booked that trip and she knew how I felt. But remember too, than he was only 15 days older than she was!
Perhaps I should return to Prague? I will only do that, when there are no more demons in my mind, dragons to slay and goals to fulfil.
In other words, I never will return!
European Computer Driving Licence
I had never heard of this until Wednesday, when an unemployed man said that he’d been offered a course to get him back to work. I am not sure, if it helped him get a job, but it strikes me that it is simple proof, that the holder has the minimum computer skills needed in the most basic of jobs. Speaking to two friends at dinner that night, it turned out that both their sons had done this qualification at school and had thought it worthwhile.
I have read about the syllabus on the British Computer Society’s web site. As I have actually written a book on how to use the Internet and have many years of computing experience, this qualification is something I could teach or at least point people in the right direction.
There is almost a barter here, in that I might teach say an unemployed person, a bit of computing and they do a few of the jobs that I can’t manage in my state. I suspect too, that I’m not the only person with good computer skills, who needs a bit of other support.
Hotel Chocolat
It has just been announced on the local news, that Hotel Chocolat is expanding and creating 250 new jobs in Huntingdon and at its chocolate factory in St. Lucia. I checked their web site to see if they do gluten-free, as I am partial to the occassional bit of chocolate. Now that Cadbury’s have been taken over by Kraft, I worry that their products will end up contaminated by wheat maltodextrin to save money. I just can’t take the chance and so I was pleased to see that Hotel Chocolat have a gluten-free page on their web site.
I have sent a comment to Hotel Chocolat to query the level of gluten, as they say the odd contamination might happen.
I am a coeliac and also I monitor a Yahoo group for others. I haven’t tried your gluten-free products, but some coeliacs won’t as they are very sensitive to gluten. I myself am not, but I do react to wheat maltodextrin. What’s wrong with Demerara sugar? I think you may find that there is a lot of demand for a simple guaranteed gluten-free product, especially since G&B are now part of Kraft and US companies seem to have a fetish for wheat maltodextrin.
I shall await their reply.
what is interesting, is how they have raised the money for the expansion. They have raised it from their tasting club and will pay the interest in chocolate, as described here in The Telegraph.That sounds a model, that might work with a lot of food and drink products, especially where you are dealing with a specific group of people like coeliacs.
Why Do We Honour Thugs?
The reaction on Facebook and other places to the death of Raoul Moat has been astonishing, almost to the point of being sick. David Cameron was absolutely right in Prime Minister’s Questions, yesterday. Facebook’s refusal to take pages down that make Moat a hero is typical of them, as they believe all publicity is good publicity. Moat has truly found his five minutes of fame, albeit posthumously.
From what I have read about Moat, he was the sort of man, that I would normally avoid like the plague. He had problems and had actually asked for help, but the system failed him and the people he shot, by not doing more to help him. This seems a familiar tale and could it not be said that the Cumbrian gunman, Derick Bird, had similar problems and no-one took action with disastrous consequences.
It would take a fortune to check up on everyone, who is a potential serial killer, but there are things we can do like better gun control and door-staff licencing, that might find these characters and try to sort them out in a positive way!
Between Life and Death
This program on BBC1 last night, was not the sort of television I usually watch, as I jokily say I’m allergic to hospitals. I suppose, that as I’ve seen the inside of them so much in recent years, what with the death of C and our youngest son, and now my strokes, it is quite understandable.
But for some reason, I didn’t turn the program off last night. Partly because it was Addenbrookes, I suppose and I do have a respect for the place after what they have done for my family. I’ve also played tennis with several of the doctors and know the cutting-edge ethos of the hospital, which is pushing the boundaries of what is possible.
In the end I found it very uplifting and almost supportive of my recovery, albeit from a very minor problem to those shown in the program. I could relate to all the people in the program on various levels, as a scientist, a father and a patient.
If there is one lesson we should all learn from last night’s program, it is that we shouldn’t stop funding units, such as this at Addenbrookes, in these times of austerity. You can’t put a price on human life and with this units, there must be much they are learning that can be applied across the NHS and the wider world. There are also other lessons to be learned by us all and let’s hope that someone, who watched the program last night, is moved to improve his behaviour or driving skills, so that he avoids the need for going to hospital. That would be a positive benfit for everyone and everything.
We might all learn that human life is precious!
Hail the Humble Crisp
I find that I have a bad taste in my mouth a lot of the time. I suspect it’s probably caused by the hay fever, rather than any lasting damage caused by the stroke. You just feel that you want to clean and wash your mouth out all the time.
Last night, I felt I wanted a small snack and there was a pack of coeliac-friendly Kettle lightly salted crisps in the cupboard, so for the first time since my last stroke I tried them. I’d been avoiding them, as I felt that the roughness might actually make my mouth worse.
In the end, they made my mouth feel a lot better. Perhaps, the salt and that roughness, were actually good for my mouth.
There are just another five packs to go in the cupboard.
Microsoft Sells Drugs
I actually think not, but this spam e-mail, which looks as if it had come from Microsoft, is actually selling the drugs, that are the main source of income for many crooks and fraudsters around the world. What gave the e-mail away was its title of “Your rod will stay”, so I suppose it was about turning software into hardware!
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The links in the mail actually point to a web site called tastymighty.com, which is registered in China and the e-mail may actually have come from a spammer in Uruguay. The web site is yet another incarnation of the well known fake drug provider, the Canadian Pharmacy.
I have seen spammers using the fake Microsoft e-mail, but not for some time. So beware anything like this, as trying to unsubscribe just takes you to the drug site.
The Anonymous Widower 