My Past Is Worrying Me!
It must have been in the early 1970s, when I was acting as a mathematical-modelling consultant.
I was asked to do some modelling by a major drug company of the propagation of a virus through the UK population.
Their aim was to show how serious these pandemics could be and they wanted to get substantial grants from the Government to fund various lines of research.
With their data and the model I built, we were able to show how a dangerous pandemic could evolve.
But I never found out how successful they were in obtaining the money needed to start the research!
It does look like this pandemic could be the one that researchers at the company were predicting nearly fifty years ago.
Micturition Syncope
It is now appearing that I most likely suffered from micturition syncope.
This is from Wikipedia.
Micturition syncope or post-micturition syncope is the name given to the human phenomenon of fainting shortly after or during urination. The underlying cause is not fully understood but it may be a result of vasovagal response, postural hypotension, or a combination thereof.
People often become pale, lightheaded, nauseated, sweaty and weak before they lose consciousness. Sometimes defecating, coughing, or severe vomiting may cause fainting in a similar way.
In some ways I think I have been lucky. This picture was taken forty-eight hours after I fell.
I’m looking and feeling a bit better now!
Daily Bulletin – March 7th, 2020
I seem to be getting weaker in my left leg every morning.
Look at this picture of my left toes.
They are all dry with the nails in a bad way.
This second picture shows how the left foot is redder than the right.
I’ve noticed this before in my life and I certainly have a problem with my left knee, which I told my doctor about three months ago. As he suggested it, I now wear a support bandage, which doesn’t seem to help much.
Could it be that the reason I fell last Friday night was that the knee just gave up?
Blood Pressure
I’ve just measured it at 08:10. It was 132/47/75.
An Aside On My Physical Health
Every morning and evening until I had the fall, I used to do twelve sets of physical exercises; including press-ups, Superman stretches and arm openings. I used to finish by standing for twenty seconds straight on each leg.
I can still do the right leg for twenty seconds, but I can’t do more than a few on the left without support.
Is The COVID-19 Having An Affect On Lending At Zopa?
I lend money on Zopa and at the moment no-one seems to be borrowing any money.
I put some of my pension in my lending pot into the peer-to-peer lender each month and it’s still there sitting safely in the queue for a borrower.
Perhaps everybody is being cautious because of the COVID-19 alert
A Medical Bulletin On Myself
About two on Saturday morning, I got out of bed to go to the toilet and tripped into the en-suite bathroom causing myself a head injury. I also cut my hand, but what on I do not know! I suspect, that I knocked myself out and when I woke up, my bedroom and living room was like a murder scene with blood everywhere.
The Royal London patched me up, putting a large plaster on my left hand and I stayed Saturday night in the hospital.
My son brought me home on Sunday and I slept that night at home.
On Monday, the cleaners tidied up the mess.
Tuesday, I called 999 again, as I was on the point of falling over and the Royal London found my blood pressure was low, when I stood up. It had been like that, when I had my stroke in Hong Kong and they had to resort to using old-fashioned mercury blood pressure meters.
There was no extra damage and I came home in a taxi.
I’m a bit more normal today, although I seem very sleepy and my INR is just 1.2. 111 told me to start Warfarin yesterday. Which I did!
I shall watch the football on the television and go to bed tonight.
Will I Get Coronavirus?
Everybody is saying that washing hands regularly in soap and water, is the best defence against the coronavirus.
How do I wash this hand?
Wish great difficulty, I assume.
All Boots could sell me was a packet of Milton Baby Wipes.
Let’s hope they work.
An Accident In My Bedroom
I awork on Saturday morning to find myself in a bedroom covered in blood and a living room next door with half as much.
It appeared, that I’d fallen over the bathroom step in the middle of the night and banged my head on the toilet.
I ended up spending a night in the Royal London Hospital and they fixed me up well!
It is now Monday morning and the first picture says a lot. Note the the mat by the step is out of line. It slipped, I then tripped over the step and hit my head on the basin. There is olso an overturned stool in the bathroom, which I must have fallen on and this probably did more damage.
Is There An Interaction Between Bisacodyl And Warfarin Or INR Self-Testing?
I am on long term Warfarin and since 2012, I have self-tested my INR using a Roche Coaguchek device.
I have had no problems and for perhaps the last five years, I have been on a regular daily dose of four mg.
I should say, I’m a trained Control Engineer and if you can keep any inputs, like drug dose, constant, you should get a stable system.
Recently, I have been suffering from severe constipation and my GP has prescribed bisacodyl. I have taken it perhaps five time before bed and it works well
On Friday, I was feeling constipated, so I took one of the bisacodyl tablets before bed.
On Saturday, I tested my INR using a strip from a newly-arrived box direct from Roche and found it was a rather extraordinary 5.2.
I had never seen a result higher than 3.2 before and put it down to one of the following reasons.
- The box of new strips was faulty. I have had dodgy ones before in the past, but not recently.
- There is an interaction between bisocodyl and warfarin. There are no reports on respected sites on the Internet.
- There is an interaction between bisocodyl and the Coaguchek testing process. There are no reports on respected sites on the Internet.
- I inadvertently took the wrong dose of warfarin.
I took a dose of two mg. yesterday and this morning I tested myself again twice.
- With a strip from the new box, found a reading of 5.3.
- With a strip from an old box, I found a reading of 5.
I shall test myself daily until I sort this out.
AI ‘Outperforms’ Doctors Diagnosing Breast Cancer
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Artificial intelligence is more accurate than doctors in diagnosing breast cancer from mammograms, a study in the journal Nature suggests.
An international team, including researchers from Google Health and Imperial College London, designed and trained a computer model on X-ray images from nearly 29,000 women.
I have rarely worked with healthcare data, so I can’t comment on the accuracy of this trial.
However, over fifty years ago, I was able to make a lot of progress in the analysis of mass spectrometry data, by observing operators and asking how they identified various chemicals in the scan from the mass spectrometer.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find some detailed observation of the working methods of radiologists, formed the foundation data for this research.
The research seems to have done it well, judging by the published results.
Should we trust ourselves to methods like this in healthcare?
Undoubtedly! Yes!
Many systems like this are starting to be used in the maintenance of complex entities, as diverse as trains, planes, chemical works and advanced automated distribution depots.
But every fault, is always tested by a trained person.
This is a paragraph from the BBC article.
Prof Ara Darzi, report co-author and director of the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Imperial Centre, told the BBC: “This went far beyond my expectations. It will have a significant impact on improving the quality of reporting, and also free up radiologists to do even more important things.”
I very much feel we will see very much more of this automated testing of the human body! And not just for cancer!
I already know of groups working on automatic diagnosis of arthritis!
The Proposed Development Under Cavendish Square
These pictures show Cavendish Square.
Note
- Underneath the square is a very expensive car park
- Harley Street, with its medical connections, lies at one cornet.
- John Lewis sits on another corner.
It is a very pleasant place to sit and have lunch on a sunny day.
This article on IanVisits is entitled A Shopping Centre Under Cavendish Square?.
Ian details how, plans are emerging to turn the Cavendish Square car park into a shopping centre and medical complex, spread over four floors under a re landscaped Cavendish Square.
Ian also discloses how the square was used as an access point to build the Victoria Line in the 1960s.
This development could change the area in several ways.
- Cavendish Square could become an even better landscaped garden.
- The medical complex would be a much-needed modern extension to Harley Street.
- Could the development be used to create the much-needed step-free access to Oxford Circus station?
- Would upmarket shoppers be drawn to the development?
- Could the square become electric vehicles only?
I very much think this development could be a valuable addition to the area.
