The Joy Of Freedom
I set out my views on masks in the title of Should We Be Given More Discretion Over Mask Wearing?.
Today was the first Friday under the relaxed rules on masks, when I have done my pre-weekend Friday morning routine.
- Take a bus and a Northern Line train or a direct bus to Moorgate.
- Have a Full English breakfast in Leon.
- Visit Marks & Spencer on Moorgate and get my weekend food.
These are my comments on today’s trip.
- I rode the bus to Angel without a mask and had a pleasant chat with a lady of my age about Putin.
- We felt that the Brutus solution for Vlad the Poisoner would be best!
- On the train between Angel and Moorgate stations, I was the only passenger not wearing a mask.
- It was easy to walk up the steps at Moorgate station.
- Leon was busy, with about half of customers and all staff wearing masks.
- Marks was about half full and it was nice to be able to shop wearing my glasses, which don’t fit my mask.
- I should say, that I need my glasses to read sell-by dates.
- There were no naked faces on the bus home.
It was such a joy for me, to be able to travel and do my shopping without a mask.
But then at no time, was I in a crowd, which might have made me reach for my mask.
Conclusion
I doubt at no time, I’ll go back to full-time mask wearing.
Incidentally, I used to have a racehorse called Joy of Freedom.
My Unusual Feet
My feet are often a red colour, as is shown in these pictures.
Note.
- It’s always the left that’s the reddest.
- They often itch, which I usually can cure with lots of Body Shop Hemp Foot Cream.
- I have no hard skin on my feet.
- I used to suffer badly from plantar fasciitis, but the foot cream seems to have stopped it.
Yesterday, I went to Liverpool on the train.
No problems, but this morning when I got out of bed and pulled my right calf muscle. Not badly as I was able to cure it with a bit of light massage and a hot bath.
I also found that in twenty-four hours, I’d lost nearly a kilo and my left foot was very red.
This is not the first time, I’ve had troubles after travelling on Class 390 trains. In another incident my left hand stopped working. That ended up with an overnight stay in hospital.
I’m no medic, but I do wonder, if I have a very leaky skin. I’ve mused on this before in My Unusual Body.
But does it let water molecules through, but the larger red corpuscles in my blood can’t get out, so my skin looks red?
Could it also explain, why I never need a plaster for an injection or when a blood sample is taken? Perhaps, the skin just parts for the needle and then closes after it’s taken out, so that the blood doesn’t leak.
To return to the Class 390 trains, I just wonder if their air-conditioning is set, so that the temperature and humidity is just right to suck the water out of my body. I certainly don’t get any problems on InterCity 225s, Hitachi AT-300 trains or Stadler Class 745 trains.
‘Biggest Breakthrough’ On Pancreatic Cancer Is On The Horizon As Scientists Hail Two-In-One Teatment That Could Even CURE The Disease
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Daily Mail.
These three paragraphs give an introduction to the research.
Scientists are on the cusp of the ‘biggest ever’ breakthrough in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
UK researchers have developed a two-in-one treatment that could dramatically improve survival and even cure the disease, which is one of the deadliest cancers.
Survival rates for pancreatic cancer have barely improved in the last 50 years and it has the worst prognosis of any common cancer.
It is a state, that you don’t want to go near.
This is the heart of the new two-in-one treatment.
One of the treatments is immunotherapy, whereby a drug fires up the immune system to fight the cancer.
The drug is a checkpoint inhibitor, which means it blocks proteins that stop the immune system from attacking cancer cells. It has had stunning results against some types of cancer.
But pancreatic cancer tumours have a thick outer layer which stops the drug in its tracks.
The second treatment, known as high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), involves blasting the tumour with pulses of sound waves.
This creates tiny bubbles in the cells, which bounce around with such force that they puncture holes in the protective barrier – allowing the immunotherapy drug to get to work.
I find it strange that I when I wrote Glencore & Strategic Partner Britishvolt Strengthen Relationship And Agree To Build Battery Recycling Ecosystem In The UK, I found that a similar technique is being investigated by the Faraday Institute in the recycling of lithium-ion batteries.
In this article on the BBC, which is entitled As The World looks To Electrify Vehicles And Store Renewable Power, One Giant Challenge Looms: What Will Happen To All The Old Lithium Batteries?, I found this paragraph.
The team has also found a way to achieve direct recycling of the anode and cathode using an ultrasonic probe, “like what the dentist uses to clean your teeth,” he explains. “It focuses ultrasound on a surface which creates tiny bubbles that implode and blast the coating off the surface.” This process avoids having to shred the battery parts, which can make recovering them exceedingly difficult.
Umpteen million tiny bubbles can’t be wrong! It sounds to me that engineers from the Faraday Institute and Medics from the Institute of Cancer Research have been imbibing pints of the thinking man’s liqueur; real ale in a serious meeting in a pub.
But if it works don’t knock it! Just use the technique on your project to remove an awkward coating.
My son, who died of pancreatic cancer was a coeliac like me, but he had never been tested and as he was a sound engineer in the music business, he lived on a diet of Subways, cigarettes and high strength cannabis.
I asked the Professor at Liverpool University’s Pancreatic Cancer Research Unit, if this had contributed to his death and he nodded.
But my son certainly, didn’t have my strong immune system, which is because I’m coeliac and have been gluten-free for nearly thirty years. I know it is strong, as it gave the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine a good kicking. But by the time I got the second dose, it had worked out it was a friend, so I got no reaction.
I have three questions.
What is the hard skin of the pancreatic cancer made from?
Do all cancers have hard skins?
When patients are given immunotherapy drugs, do they go gluten-free for a Tesco effect (Every little helps!)?
Guided Beam Treatment Is Extending Life For Patients With Pancreatic Cancer
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is the first two paragraphs.
The lives of patients with inoperable pancreatic cancer could be extended by years with a “game-changing” radiation treatment that uses MRI technology to accurately target tumours.
A study has found that MRI-guided radiotherapy almost doubles the median survival rate in cases of inoperable pancreatic cancer compared with conventional treatment that uses CT scans.
It looks like a case of the more accurately you target your weapon, the more effective it is.
A few years before she died of a much more serious but totally unrelated cancer, my wife suffered from breast cancer.
- The cancer wasn’t massive and it had probably been caused by a severe bruise, where she had been struck by an exploding air-bag in a car accident.
- She also had a top-class surgeon in Cambridge. Barristers always get the best, as local chambers always know those who are being sued for malpractice.
- To make sure, the cancer didn’t return she had targeted radiotherapy in Harley Street daily for four or five weeks.
- She even travelled up to London from Suffolk daily on the train, often fitting Court appearances around the appointments.
- A few weeks before she died, she was checked for breast cancer and pronounced clear.
The treatment had worked and it convinced me of the value of targeted radiotherapy.
I must say, it increases my optimism, that pancreatic cancer might be one cancer, where we can at least prolong life in many cases.
My optimism about pancreatic cancer probably started , after the results of the research to which I added funding in a small way were published. I wrote about them in There’s More To Liverpool Than Football And The Beatles!.
Face Coverings Your Choice
In England from today, you don’t legally have to wear masks.
This notice was on the door of Marks and Spencer at The Angel.
These are the words at the bottom.
Face coverings are not legally required but the Government recommends them in indoor crowded areas. If you have any symptoms of COVID-19 please refrain from entering the store.
How sensible!
It will be interesting to analyse the takings of Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Sainsburys as they are all close together on Liverpool Road.
I was standing outside Marks & Spencer, when I took the picture.
A Tale Of Two Cataract Operations
I have now had two cataract operations.
There was a few weeks between the operations and in the interval they changed the machines.
- The first was a Leica and the second was a Zeiss.
There were no problems with either operation, but there were differences, particular in how I felt afterwards.
- With the first, I was slightly more uncomfortable and had a slight amount of pain in my left eye. But the pain was nothing that a few ginger biscuits couldn’t cure.
- With the second, I’ve had no pain at all and the eye looks less red. I was able to take the dressing off in the evening and go out the next day, which I couldn’t do after the first.
Now fifty-four hours after the operation, my eyes are back to normal. I can even type this without putting on my glasses.
Conclusion
I would suggest that before you have a cataract operation, you make sure the surgeon will be using the latest machines.
My Second Cataract Operation
I had my second cataract operation today and the procedure was little different to my first, that I talked about in My Cataract Operation.
But there is one big difference.
- My tight eye was and may still be my master eye.
- So I decided to have the first operation on my weaker left eye.
- This meant that after the first operation, I was able to use my stronger right eye backed up by my improved left eye. It has been a combination that has served me well for several weeks.
- Now, I’m typing this with my improved left eye, as I have a patch over my improved right eye, which makes it temporarily useless.
At least by using my browser at a higher scale, I can read it back with my improved left eye.
Conclusion
If you’re having two cataract operations, discuss the order properly with your surgeon or several people who’ve had a double-cataract operation.
Should We Be Given More Discretion Over Mask Wearing?
I am a bad breather and have been so for most of my life.
I suspect, it’s because I grew up in London smogs and that ruined my breathing.
But my father and his father were also bad breathers and my grandfather died before he was forty of pneumonia.
So when I go on public transport, I find the following.
- I have difficulty climbing stairs with my mask on.
- I can’t wait to get out of the station or bus to take off my mask and put it in my pocket.
- Often in London during the day, there is only a few people on the bus or train and we are all sitting there quietly at least three or four metres apart.
- If I explain my breathing to staff, they will let me remove my mask. I have done this a coule of times, when I have to climb stairs to get out of a station.
Sometimes too, I’ll be on a crowded Underground train for part of my journey, but at other times, I’ll be one of perhaps three in an air-conditioned bus.
As of Thursday rules will say, that we don’t need masks in England, but the Mayor has said we must wear them on public transport in London.
I would like to see some personal discretion, so that some like me would feel more comfortable on public transport, when it is less busy.
How To Recycle A Hospital
The old Royal London Hospital is starting to emerge from its plastic chrysalis, as the new Whitechapel Civic Centre.
It is now eighteen years, since my granddaughter was born in the hospital with a congenital hernia of the diaphragm.
- There were twenty-three people in the delivery room.
- She was operated on within forty-eight hours by the incomparable Vanessa Wright.
- She left hospital many weeks later.
- Last year, she had her eighteenth birthday and entered the world of work.
A few years ago, I met one of the nurses, who’d looked after her in the hospital. On hearing of her successful life, she was exceedingly surprised. But also exceedingly happy!
But then success in life, is often down to those you meet! And my granddaughter happened to meet one of the best!
Covid Leaves Wave Of Wearied Souls In Pandemic’s Wake
The title of this post, is the same as that as this article on The Times.
It is the usual excellent article by Tom Whipple and it discusses long covid.
I haven’t knowingly had long covid or even common-or-garden short covid for that matter.
The Asian Flu of 1957-1958
But go back to 1957-1958 and the outbreak of Asian Flu.
This was another present from China to the world. Wikipedia says this about its severity.
The number of excess deaths caused by the pandemic is estimated to be 1-4 million around the world (1957–1958 and probably beyond), making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.
According, to this page on Wikipedia, deaths from Covid-19, were approaching 5,500,000 at the first of January 2022.
But then the world population is now 7.9 billion as opposed to 2.8 billion in 1957. This is 2.8 times bigger.
If the Asian Flu of 1957-1958 had had a Covid-19 death rate around two billion would have died.
Was There A Long Form Of The Asian Flu?
In Long Covid And Coeliac Disease, I started the post like this.
I recently heard an interview with Adrian Chiles on Radio 5 about the so-called long covid
I am 73 and the more I read about Long Covid, the more I think I had something similar around 1958, when I had just started Minchenden Grammar School, where I missed most of the Spring Term. This was at the time of the 1957-8 flu pandemic., which killed between one and four million people worldwide.
This article on New Decoder is a personal memory of that pandemic, from an experienced journalist called Harvey Morris.
Last night, I was listening to another program about kids with long covid and they seemed to be describing how I felt all those years ago.
One of those two programs, also said that one doctor tested patients for coeliac disease.
So did I have a long form of Asian Flu which kept me off school for a long time?
I can remember a conversation between my late wife and my mother that took place before we got married in 1968.
My mother described how I was badly ill at around ten and how our GP, the excellent Dr. Egerton White kept coming to see me, whilst I was recovering at home, as he couldn’t fathom out what was wrong with me.
But he did seem to take particular care of me, even coming to visit me in hospital, when I had my tonsils out at around five. Could it be, that as he had brought me into this world, that he felt differently about me? It should be noted that he was probably from the Caribbean and either black or mixed-race.
Is Long Covid Linked To Undiagnosed Coeliac Disease?
As I said earlier that one doctor tested long covid patients for undiagnosed coeliac disease, at least one doctor must believe so.
Looking at the statistics in The Times article, I can make the following deductions.
- 42 % of sufferers from long covid are over fifty?
- 58 % of sufferers from long covid are female?
- It is not stated how many sufferers had been diagnosed as coeliac and were on a long-term gluten-free diet.
These statistics would fit roughly with the statistics for coeliac disease.
- According to the NHS, there are more female coeliacs as male.
- There was no test for coeliac disease in children until 1960, so it is likely, that many undiagnosed coeliacs are over 60.
- Since around 2000, coeliac disease is tested for by means of a simple blood test.
- Doctors understand coeliac disease better now, so I suspect more coeliacs under about thirty have been diagnosed.
I am certainly led to the conclusion, that undiagnosed coeliac disease could be a factor in long covid.
Treating Long Covid
The article on The Times has a section which is entitled How Do We Deal With It (1)?, where this is said.
One of the great challenges of pathology is that you have to know what you are looking for before you can find it.
“People with long Covid go to the clinician, give blood, and none of the results that come back show that these individuals are sick,” says Resia Pretorius, from Stellenbosch University. The doctors look through the metabolites in their blood, seeking something unusual, and find nothing. “The end result is their clinician tells them it’s psychology — go for a run or whatever. Some of these patients can’t even walk up a set of stairs. They think: are we mad?”
She had an idea. What if it was about the blood structure, as much as its composition? Her laboratory has looked at the blood of both acute Covid patients and long Covid sufferers. They have found tiny clots.
Something in the disease seems to cause malformation, and they can’t be removed.
They have also found preliminary evidence that treating patients with antiplatelet and anticoagulants leads to significant improvement. Although, she stresses, it’s a risky procedure that requires careful monitoring, in case people bleed dangerously.
When I read the bit about anticoagulants, the bells in my head started ringing.
I am a coeliac on a long-term gluten-free diet, who suffered a serious stroke in 2011, from which I made a remarkable recovery. I am now on Warfarin, which is the old-fashioned anti-coagulant and test myself regularly with a meter, so I don’t bleed dangerously.
Note remarkable is not a word of my choosing, but one that has been used several times by doctors referring to the recovery in my stroke. But then there are masses of Jewish, Huguenot and Devonian survival genes in my cells.
At the time of the panic about blood clots and the AstraZeneca vaccine I wrote A Danish Study On Links Between Coeliac Disease And Blood Clots, of which this is an extract.
This morning I found on the Internet, a peer-reviewed Danish study which was entitled
Coeliac Disease And Risk Of Venous Thromboembolism: A Nationwide Population-Based Case-Control Study
The nation in the study was Denmark.
This was the introductory paragraph.
Patients with coeliac disease (CD) may be at increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), i.e. deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and its complication pulmonary embolism (PE), because they are reported to have hyperhomocysteinaemia, low levels of K-vitamin-dependent anticoagulant proteins, and increased levels of thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor.
One thing in this summary screams at me. The mention of vitamin-K!
Ten years ago, I had a serious stroke, that because of modern clot-busting drugs failed to kill me.
I am now on long-term Warfarin and know I have to eat a diet without Vitamin-K.
There are too many coincidences in all this for me not to shout, “Do More Research!”
The Anonymous Widower 