Aren’t Brains Wonderful!
For the first time, since I had my stroke in Hong Kong, I’ve switched back to the way I used to live my life twenty years ago.
I’ve gone back to wearing short-sleeved shirts, with a jumper over the top if it’s chilly. For years I wore a simple windcheater type jacket with a large pocket, but no-one makes one now. If I needed to carry more, then I carried by Dunhill briefcase loosely in my left hand.
It’s as though my brain has switched back and put me into this lifestyle that works for me.
It’s so practical. For example, I don’t use a dish-washer, as the previous tenants gave it a good fucking and I do the job so much better. So I just take off the jumper and get started.
I just went to get my newspaper. Coming back, if I’m not reading the front page, I fold it up and hold it in my left hand.
All I need to do, is get my eyesight and left hand working correctly and I’m a new man.
The eyesight is pretty good now and I can even take my glasses off, whilst watching films and sporting events. But as my eyes get less dry from the better weather, they seem to be improving.
As to my left hand, it seems to work very well, but its measurement of temperature is bad. I’m still typing mostly one-handed, but then it was always thus!
I notice too, when I put on a shirt, it isn’t the left hand that’s a problem, it’s the right. It could be just down to dry skin. I know for instance, that my nails aren’t back to their best. Incidentally, whilst living in Suffolk after the stroke in 2010, by the autumn they were tip-top. So let’s put their state down to the cold and very dry weather of the last few months.
But I think my brain and its superb memory will pull me through. Although last night, I got annoyed when I couldn’t remember the name of the Adiran Lyne film, when Glenn Close boiled the bunny. But we have the Internet to solve those problems. It was, of course, Ben Hur! I can remember vividly sitting with Adrian Lyne by a pool in the South of France, watching our respective wives swimming.
One memory that thinks, I’m on the right track, is that my nails taste and feel exactly the same, as when I was a child, when I was a terrible nail-biter. I have this great desire, which I’m resisting, to bite them again.
I just don’t think I’m in any way unique, it’s just that I let my brain do its best!
Andrew Wakefield And The Swansea Measles Outbreak
The Guardian has a well-written piece on the measles outbreak in South Wales. Here’s the introduction.
The Department of Health has dismissed claims by a former doctor who started a global scare about the MMR vaccine that officials were responsible for the outbreak of measles in south Wales.
C and I immunised all our children and we never regretted it.
As someone, who had measles as an adult, i wouldn’t want that to be inflicted on anybody. I was also lucky in that I didn’t get any complications.
My thoughts now are that I hope the epidemic subsides and no-one suffers from catching measles. I would suggest to Wakefield, that he shuts up, as otherwise, I think he might find himself in bigger trouble.
Giving My Left Hand Something To Do
For years, I always carried my briefcase in my left hand, but not by the handle. I seem to remember that at school it wasn’t the done thing to use handles or put satchels over your shoulder, but to hold it with your hand underneath.
So now that the hand suffers a bit from neglect syndrome, I’ve got out my old briefcase, to give the hand something to do.
My Dunhill Briefcase
The case incidentally was a present from C in perhaps about 1972 or 1973. Dunhill have fitted two new zips over the years, as I’ve never found one that suits my lifestyle so much.
What DVD Would You Like With Your Operation?
I can’t remember the last time I was put under anaesthetic for an operation. I suspect it was when I had a tooth out at about ten!
Some years ago, I looked at a database of cases of horse anaesthesia and was surprised how many died. An anaesthetist that I used to know, once told me that you avoid it if you can. I’ve also had two friends die during hip-replacement operations.
Now though, there is a report on the BBC, where Peterborough City Hospital is using films instead of anaesthetic. at least the lady in the picture looks pleased.
I have had two endoscopies without anything at all and I would recommend this. Admittedly, I was talked into it the first time at Addenbrooke’s by the smoothest surgeon anybody has ever met. He argued that I wouldn’t break teeth and I could help him with the procedure, by moving as he required. Not only was he smooth, but I felt no discomfort , except for a small release of wind.
The second one was in the same hospital and it was performed by a lady doctor, wearing a floral summer dress. Work out where my head would have been, as I lay down facing towards her.
I’ve also had a vasectomy, which was performed under a local. It was successful and nothing untoward happened.
If it’s possible, I will continue to avoid anaesthetic.
So I wonder what film I would choose!
I suppose Death In Venice would probably send me to sleep anyway.
The Fastest Gluten Free Pasta In The East
I eat quite a bit of gluten-free pasta in Carluccio’s, but in some ways the best place for this is their restaurant in Cambridge.
Normally, when you ask for gluten-free pasta, they advise you there will be a little wait, but not yesterday.
So just as I was settling down to have a long sip of lemonade, which had just been delivered to my table, I was surprised to see the pasta arrive. This was probably only after about five or six minutes after I’d ordered it.
As I used to live in the area and be a patient of a gastro-enterologist at Addenbrookes, I know the area has a high number of coeliacs. Why this should be so, I know not!
But I also know that the restaurant uses methods to get the pasta to the table quickly.
The pasta was excellent incidentally and tasted exactly the same as in their other restaurants.
An Afternoon Of Rhinitis
Yesterday was fairly typical of what I go through. My nose seems to run from the time I get up until I go to bed.
An Afternoon Of Rhinitis
The picture shows all the tissues I got through in a couple of hours.
It used to be bad when I was a child, I can remember my mother constantly boiling up handkerchiefs on the stove, both for myself and my father, who was similarly effected.
But it’s never been as bad as this.
It seems to have started when I was in hospital in Hong Kong, and it just seems to be getting worse and worse.
Could it be long term effects of the Warfarin?
How To Get Cancer And Pneumonia
I t0ok this picture on the top of the North Terminal at Gatwick, as I walked into Departures.
How To Get Cancer And Pneumonia
Some people never learn. Or even want to!
On a serious note, I wonder how many have given up smoking this winter, as they don’t like being banished to the cold from their workplace or home.
London Is My Gymnasium
The weather is better today, so I did a trip round the various construction and other sites that I keep a watch on.
The pictures are in order and show how I went to the Excel to see the CrossRail progress, then over the cable-car to Greenwich. I then took the Jubilee line to Stratford and the DLR to Pudding Mill Lane station, again to look at CrossRail. I also had a coffee and some delicious gluten-free cake at the ViewTube, before coming back to Highbury and Islington station, where I did a bit of shopping.
I tend to use these trips as long walks with the occasional climb up and down stairs to get fit. I found that on the cruise stair-climbing with a rail on the left, was good for that side of my body.
Measles On The Way Back
There are reports like this one, that show measles is on the way back, with a large outbreak in Swansea.
I was never vaccinated against it as a child and never caught it, despite the fact that my sister did.
I eventually caught it in about 1973, when my children all had it. To complicate matters, I also had chicken-pox at the same time.
It didn’t leave me with any lasting effects, but for two weeks, I never got off the sofa, as I felt so wretched.
It was probably, the worst illness I’ve had in my life, from a point of feeling ill.
I would not wish it on my worst enemy.
So get those children immunised. Those that don’t are stupid!
How To Cut Strokes
I like to think, I’m more or less following what is said in this story. Here’s an extract.
Increasing potassium in our diets as well as cutting down on salt will reduce blood pressure levels and the risk of stroke, research in the British Medical Journal suggests.
One study review found that eating an extra two to three servings of fruit or vegetables per day – which are high in potassium – was beneficial.
Funnily enough though, I’ve never really liked salt on my food. Perhaps, it was because my late mother-in-law used it so liberally, but I think the preference goes back further than that.
In some ways though, the older I get, the more I believe that a gluten-free diet is good for you. I suppose Novak Djokovitch would agree!
The Anonymous Widower 