How Nicki Minaj And Swollen Testicles Became Part Of a UK Coronavirus Briefing
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
I do like this comment from Sajid Javid on Sky News, from the BBC report.
People that are in the public eye whether they are a celebrity or a politician or whoever they are should be very careful with their language and certainly shouldn’t be spreading untruths.
I had never heard of Nicki Minaj before and I don’t think I want to hear any of her future pronouncements.
I’m Glad I’m Getting Pfizer As My Booster
In Hay Fever, Coeliac Disease And The AstraZeneca Covid-19 Vaccine, I summarised the battle going on in my body over the last few months, between hay fever and the AstraZeneca vaccine.
I wonder what my strong immune system will make of the Pfizer vaccine. I must admit, I’m tempted to just continue with my gluten-free diet and let my immune system sort out the squabble on its own!
Increased Risk Of Atrial Fibrillation In Patients With Coeliac Disease: A Nationwide Cohort Study
I was looking for something else and found this medical paper on the web site of Professor Joe West at Nottingham University.
As I am coeliac, have atrial fibrillation and had a severe stroke from which have made a good recovery. I thought I would post the link, so that others might read what is said.
If my GP or myself had known of the link, my life would probably have been very different.
The Diagnosis Of My Gallstones
I arrived at Homerton hospital as instructed today for the endoscopy.
Strangely, it was C’s birthday.
The procedure would involve passing an ultrasound probe down my throat and through my stomach to take an ultrasound image of the lump close to my liver.
I’d had two endoscopies before in the late 1990s at Addenbrookes to check for coeliac disease. One was a normal one, but in the second, I was also providing a sample of fluid for a research project at Cambridge University.
I seem to remember at Addenbrookes, I had been instructed to turn up in something like a tee-shirt and shorts, which is what I did. In this case, I took my shirt off and put a hospital gown over my cord trousers.
As I’d had the two endoscopies at Addenbrookes without a sedative, I suggested strongly, that they do the investigation without one this time as well.
The doctor, who was of an age to be very experienced, said he was up for it and we went for it without a sedative.
There was two big differences to the procedure at Addenbrookes.
- There were more staff, than Addenbrooke’s doctor and a technician.
- They were fully gowned up, as opposed to normal clothes.
But, then I got the expression at Addenbrooke’s they were aiming for speed and they were only confirming their earlier diagnosis of coeliac disease. that had been made by a genetic test.
Everything this time, went without a hitch.
- I was laying on my left side.
- I had oxygen tubes up my nose.
- With my right hand I can feel the probe in my stomach.
- To calm me down, a nurse was stroking my beard.
After not a long time, everything was done and I was walked back to recovery area.
Within half an hour, I was informed by the second doctor, that I had got gallstones and they would be taken out by endoscopy on September the 30th. Later they will take out my gall bladder by surgery.
I got the impression, it was the first time, that he’d seen this procedure without a sedative, as he described me as the Star-Of-The-Day. But then I’m a London Mongrel, with more survival genes than a garden full of Japanese knotweed.
I went home the way I came – On the bus!
After Effects
The only after effects were that the air in the theatre had dried me out and my left left arm hurt because I’d been lying on it.
So I vowed to drink a lot of fluids before the operation and do something to improve the strength of my damaged left arm.
UK’s Rude Place Names To Be Toured By Man On Moped
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This paragraph gives a flavour of the route.
His journey will begin in Shitterton, Dorset, on Wednesday and will take in locations such as Twatt in Orkney and Booze in the Yorkshire Dales.
Mary Whitehouse would not have been amused, but I suspect many will find some of the names raise more than a titter.
This is the JustGiving page of the guy doing what he calls the Moronic Moped Marathon. The money raised will go towards Cancer Research.
Hay Fever, Coeliac Disease And The AstraZeneca Covid-19 Vaccine
I am 73 and was diagnosed as a coeliac at 50.
I am fairly sure, I have suffered from hay fever all my life, but usually I can control it.
This year, it has been particularly bad and I asked my GP about it last night. He indicated it had been a bad year.
I then said that as being a coeliac I have a strong immune system and from what I have read, the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine also boosts the immune system.
I just wonder, if my coeliac disease and the vaccine are both attacking the hay fever and making me feel, so much worse than in any other year.
Certainly, all I want to do, is lie down!
I’m certainly so much worse than I was last year, when Covid-19 was the same, but I hadn’t been vaccinated.
The only time my eyes felt so bad was sometime around 2000, when they were so sore, I had to have an operation to remove polyps.
This could have been a few years after I went gluten-free, which would surely have boosted my immune system.
My Strange Relationship With Vitamin B12
For the last couple of days my eyesight has not been its best.
My typing has been not of its usual quality for a one handed typist and I even have had difficulty with doing up my shoe laces. So much so, that yesterday, I wore my best slip-on shoes with a royal warrant from the Queen.
My INR yesterday was 2.2, which is within range.
Last night, I decided to give myself a pseudo injection of B12 – a tin of sardines and two eggs baked in the oven. Serial Cooking -Sardines And Baked Eggs gives the recipe and full instructions.
- My typing this morning is so much better.
- I just tied my shoe laces with alacrity.
- But my INR has risen to 3.3.
I do wonder, if after my stroke, that my brain directs the B12 to the damaged areas and that those, who advocate B12 after stroke are right!
As to the INR, I’ve just found this page on Valve Replacement.org.
But as a Control Engineer, I have the solution. Test my INR every day.
A Lump Near My Liver
In A Mysterious Attack On My Body, I explained how I ended up in the Royal London hospital after my hand stopped working, probably due to an infection.
A couple of weeks afterwards my GP called me in to the surgery and repeated the blood tests on my liver, as the first taken in the hospital, weren’t quite what they should be!
These blood tests didn’t show the improvement they should have done, so I went to Homerton Hospital for an ultrasound on my liver.
This didn’t satisfy the GP, so he arranged for a CT-Scan at Homerton hospital.
After the scan, but before the results were known I saw a consultant, who told me about the lump.
He said it could be benign or something nasty and hopefully after he reviews the CT-Scan next week, we’ll know.
He said an endoscopy will probably sort out what it is!
The weird thing, is that, I’m not in any pain.
Except that is, for the lower back pain, I’ve had since I was about twenty.
As I can never sit comfortably in a car and my mother told me, my spine turns the wrong way, that probably explains that.
When I’m working at the computer, about every half-hour, I lie flat on my back on the floor and that seems to sort it.
Why did I get such an odd body?
Any advice gratefully accepted.
Brutal Third Wave Or Harmless Ripple? The Scientists Aren’t Yet Sure
The title of this post, is the same as that is the same as that of this article on The Times.
The scientists nay not be sure, whether with two jabs, you are safe from the Indian or Delta variant.
But how about me?
- I have had my two AstraZeneca jabs.
- I am also coeliac and have stuck tightly to my long-term gluten-free diet.
- Despite possibly being challenged by a group of Chinese students, that I wrote about in Did I Have A Close Brush With Covid-19?, I have not knowingly had the covids.
- I’ve only had one test for the virus and that was negative.
For various reasons, I believe that coeliacs on a long-term gluten-free diet have a very strong immune system, that could help to protect them from the covids.
- Personally, my health was transformed, when I went gluten-free in 1997.
- I am sure, my immune system gave the first dose of the vaccine a good kicking.
- I rarely, suffer from colds and sniffles, although I do have flu jabs.
- Research by Joe West at Nottingham University, has shown that as a group, we’re 25 % less likely to suffer from cancer.
So could these points prove my hypothesis?
In addition, I ask people, if they have any coeliac friends. These personal tales have yet to reveal any coeliacs on long-term gluten-free diets, who’ve had a serious dose of the covids.
I’ve also talked to intensive care doctors, who have said they can’t remember caring for a coeliac with a serious dose of the covids.
So I shall be Keeping Calm And Carrying On!
What Does Novak Djorkovic Tell Us About The Covids?
If you search the Internet for “coeliac disease and Novac Djokovic, you get a lot of posts linking to gluten-free diet and some to coeliac disease.
Some say he is coeliac and others say he is just gluten-free.
There are also reports on the Internet of Novac Djokovic having Covid-19.
So does that tell us anything about gluten-free diets, coeliac disease and Covid-19?
As there are no reports of him spending a long time in hospital, it doesn’t disprove my theory, that coeliacs on a gluten-free diet don’t get serious doses of the Covids!
I’d love to hear more stories of coeliacs on a gluten-free diet, who have caught Covid-19.
The Anonymous Widower 