My December Blues
I’ve been pretty down the last couple of weeks with my nose running like a drain and my left hand and foot feeling extremely cold. Admittedly the weather hasn’t been good with very little sun. In fact the odd day of sunshine has cheered me up.
I’ve also improved myself a bit, by adjusting my heating so that it is on all day downstairs at say 20°C and letting the heat permeate upstairs to where my living room, kitchen and bedroom are. I then use the air-conditioning to keep the temperature at 20°C with as high a humidity as possible. Over the last few days, I’ve brought the temperature down a degree or two and now as I sit here typing it’s just 18°C with a humidity of 44%.
The biggest effect has been on my gut, to which I would give a rating of 8/10. It’s not been like that much in my memory.
So I looked back at this blog to 2011, 2010 and 2009 and in my memory to other years.
In 2011, I found this post from December13th. I was obviously feeling down, but thought it was a tooth. I had it out and life didn’t really get much better. So was I suffereing similar December Blues.
In 2010, I moved on December 16th Perhaps because of the excitement of moving I didn’t seem to be too low, but I had had a bad period in September.
2009 was the last year in which I had a December holiday. I went to Goa with an honourable lady and I felt very good.
2008 was pretty bad although I did have an excellent Christmas.
Obviously 2007 was awful as C had just died.
If I go back in time, I can remember two things.
C and I often had a weekend away in the autumn and a long holiday after Christmas. She liked to be on call at Christmas, as it is a busy time for family barristers.
I also remember a discussion with my doctor, who thought I could be suffering from Seasonal Affected Disorder. I’ve also been told by an eminent cardiologist, that everybody needs a week in the sun around the turn of the year.
So perhaps the cure is in my own hands.
I should find a warm place with sun for a few days.
Nursing Care In Hospital
It is being reported, that nurses are calling for more compassionate care in hospital.
I’m 65 and last year I collapsed and ended up in hospital. It was a teaching hospital and the doctor asked if I wouldn’t mind being used for interviewing practice by medical students.
It made a miserable time, almost enjoyable! Especially, as some students were attractive female ones.
Do other hospitals encourage their medical and nursing students to do this? It certainly, is a good way to get them up to speed in an important and perhaps neglected part of their training.
Medical Advances
With all the fuss about the Duchess of Cambridge’s pregnancy, it makes me wonder if C had a similar problem in a third pregnancy soon after our second son was born. She was feeling dreadful and was being sick every morning, which all made her feel she was pregnant. She was and then had an early miscarriage. She always put it down to the baby being female and that she couldn’t carry girls, but of course in the 1970s no-one knew any better. She then went on to have our third son.
I suppose today, she might had that third baby earlier, as medical science has moved on so much.
In the 1960s and 1970s, you seemed to meet a lot more couples, where there had been strings of miscarriages. One American couple, where I worked with the husband, had given up trying to have a second child, as they couldn’t afford the care in the United States. Then in England, the wife got pregnant again and by going into hospital for most of her pregnancy, she was able to have a healthy baby.
Clever Tricks Improve Breast Scans
I like this story from the BBC’s web site.
One of the keys to fighting cancer is good diagnosis and the article shows how being clever with scientific, engineering and mathematical tricks, X-rays can be improved.
We’ll see a lot more of this type of innovation in the next few years and it’ll help in all sorts of fields and not just medicine.
Hell’s Angels
This was the title on the second leader in The Times today and it talked about a charity called Riders for Health. It has been chosen as one of the newspaper’s charities for Christmas.
I think what they do is brilliant and it’s so simple. Providing transport in the rural areas of Africa must surely get better healthcare.
Government To Set A Minimum Price For Alcohol
The Times is saying that the Government will be consulting on this. What I noticed was that the article was accompanied by a picture of a plastic bottle of own brand supermarket cider, which it said could treble in price.
If it increased in price by ten times, it wouldn’t bother me, as that is the sort of drink, that would make me ill, as I’m allergy to gluten, which those drinks often contain.
My preferred long drink is actually Aspall’s cyder, which is generally about a couple of pounds for a half litre. The muck shown in the article is quoted as costing about £1.20 and that’s for four times as much.
I prefer to enjoy my drinking, rather than drink to oblivion.
So I’m very much in favour of a minimum price for a unit of alcohol. It might cost me a couple of quid a week at most.
Fabrice Muamba Shows How To Come Back
Fabrice Muamba has made a remarkable recovery from his collapse on the pitch at White Hart Lane, where his heart stopped for 78 minutes.
He’s now going to appear on Strictly Come Dancing at Christmas.
I suspect now that Fabrice will be unlikely t0 die from any form of heart disease, as his doctors will watch him like a hawk and give him the best of care.
Hip Transplants At Wigan
The BBC is running a story about the first hip transplants at Wrightington Hospital near Wigan in the 1960s. There’s a lot more in the Wikipedia entry for John Charnley, the surgeon who led the pioneering work.
At Liverpool University in the 1960s, I was in digs at Huyton. My landlord’s daughter, Sheila Vaughan, was one of the nursing sisters at the hospital and told us about the work there.
Sheila had been a very good golfer, who’d played in the Curtis Cup.
And Now We’ve Got Tit Pox!
This news story has been read many times on the BBC web site. Frankie Howerd would be using one of his catch phrases.
A Dual-Processor Toothbrush
I needed a new head for my toothbrush and by mistake I bought this one with a dual processor.
A Dual-Processor Toothbrush
But it’s a lot better.
The Anonymous Widower 