The Anonymous Widower

Hip Ops Go Private

This is reported in a couple of papers including here in the Belfast Telegraph.

I would never have a major operation in a hospital without a fully-staffed A & E unit.  I’ve lost two friends, who had expensive private hip transplants and died in the operation.

November 19, 2012 Posted by | Health, News | 1 Comment

Hope For The Paralysed

I say hope, but this story from the BBC is a good news story to start the week. This is the first few paragraphs.

Scientists have reversed paralysis in dogs after injecting them with cells grown from the lining of their nose.

The pets had all suffered spinal injuries which prevented them from using their back legs.

The Cambridge University team is cautiously optimistic the technique could eventually have a role in the treatment of human patients.

The study is the first to test the transplant in “real-life” injuries rather than laboratory animals.

It may only be a first step on the long road to getting the paralysed to walk again. But it is a very significant first step.

I also think it’s very good, that the scientists did the research on dogs that had been injured in the normal course of life. It shows that often you don’t have to do experiments on healthy animals. All it needs is to think hard about what you’re doing.

So congratulations to Cambridge and its vets and scientists!

I think Jasper the dachshund will be one of the most famous dogs in the world.

November 19, 2012 Posted by | Health, News | , , , | 1 Comment

Affordable Acupuncture

Several people, who I respect, have suggested I try acupuncture for the pain in my jaw and head.

So yesterday I went to the Stepping Stones Project just round the corner from where I live.

I’m not sure if it worked, but I do feel it pointed me in some of the right directions.

However, they were all very professional and affordable.

November 14, 2012 Posted by | Health, World | | 1 Comment

An Argument For Abortion

Abortion is a very tricky subject to say the least. But this tragic story from the BBC, may illustrate why every woman needs if not access to abortion, access to the ability to decide.

November 14, 2012 Posted by | Health, News | , | 2 Comments

Cracking The Code

This story from the BBC’s web site shows how rapid DNA sequencing has been used to crack an MRSA outbreak.

It also shows how fast it will be in future to sequence DNA.  This could lead to all sorts of new treatments for illnesses like cancer.

We should be hailing the scientists who did this! But others will say it’s wrong to mess with DNA.

As someone with a minor genetic disease, I hope we see more successes in the next few years.

On the other hand, if someone said to me, we could cure your coeliac disease, by giving you a gene change, I’d say no!

November 14, 2012 Posted by | Health, News | , , | 1 Comment

Is Curry Good For Me?

Last night I had a good curry at the Angel Curry Centre in Chapel Market at the Angel.

My throat hasn’t been good lately, but it certainly seems to have improved after the curry.

But then it’s not just curry that does that.  Marks and Spencer’s roast pork in a cider sauce has a similar calming effect. There are various articles on the web, which say curry does have good effects. like this one.

But then C and I always used to go for a curry on Monday nights, although in later years we didn’t go quite as often.

So I know one thing I’m going to do to improve my health and that is have a weekly curry.

November 11, 2012 Posted by | Food, Health | , | 2 Comments

Scotland Taxes Tobacco And Alcohol

Scotland has added extra taxes to large stores that sell tobacco and alcohol. It seems to have  had the effect of getting some Sainsbury supermarkets to not sell tobacco. It’s reported here on the BBC.

Although I applaud any measure to reduce smoking, I’m not totally sure about this one. It will harm the profits of the big supermarket groups and they will react, by perhaps not investing in stores and jobs north of the border.

And of course, smokers will still get their fix, by probably buying tobacco from bootleggers and others.

I would prefer to see all tobacco sales in large supermarkets as that would perhaps make it more difficult for kids to get hold of them.  After all, when did you hear of a large chain of stores selling cigarettes or alcohol to those underage.

November 11, 2012 Posted by | Health, News | , , , | Leave a comment

My House Is Trying To Kill Me!

23:00 I’m sitting here with the heating off.  I have the underfloor heating box open and the pipes are cold, so no heat is coming into the room from the heating.  The air conditioning is off. But I can feel the temperature is rising.

I should say that I have a  Maplin temperature meter and this agrees with the one in the air conditioning system. They are both saying 22°C  and forty percent humidity.

I’ve checked and the boiler has shut down, but the temperature downstairs is going up and is now at 24°C and rising. All the floors downstairs are hot, when surely they should be cold as the boiler switched itself off an hour ago.  In fact, I think I might have started to see the temperature rise start when it shut itself off at ten o’clock.

It’s the sort of story you read in horror films.  But now we do know I was boiled as it actually gets hotter in this house overnight.

It also explains why I felt so much better in Liverpool.  It wasn’t Liverpool, but it wasn’t being in this killer house.

23:30 – The meter was showing 25°C when I brought it upstairs and threw the windows wide open, which brought the temperature back to 22°C.

23:50 – The meter was showing 24°C downstairs and the floors are still hot. The air-con meter shows 20°C upstairs, but it seems rather hotter than that to me.

I shall be doing some serious investigating in the morning.

One conclusion is that neither the top or the bottom zones work.  If the heating is on it piles heat out willy-nilly no matter what the settings of the thermostats.

 

 

November 8, 2012 Posted by | Health, World | , | 1 Comment

Is The Jigsaw Of My Health Finally Fitting Together?

These lasty days, I’ve been feeling unwell and have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow. I have tended to put a lot of this down to hangovers from the stroke, but is it more fundamental.

As a child, I was always off school, with what my doctor thought was some sort of allergy.  I hadn’t been diagnosed as a coeliac in those days, so when I was diagnosed fifteen years ago, I felt that could have been the problem. As a child, I used to sleep in a room with a big south-facing window and I do wonder if the room was rather warm and dried me out.

I can remember an incident in my first job at Enfield Rolling Mills, where my gut felt awful and just like it does today. I worked in a laboratory over a factory and I do remember it was very hot.

My health did improve, when I went to Liverpool, but then I didn’t live in a hot room. In fact quite the reverse.

For the next forty or so years, I didn’t have a problem, but this might be because I was living with my late wife, C. She was a fairly assertive woman and probably kept the temperature to a reasonable one for herself and me.

I do remember, when we had the house in Antibes, I did find it rather hot. In those days we’d generally flown down in my Cessna 340a twin and I’d cool myself down by taking a flight up the coast.  In fact, in the whole time, when I was flying, I don’t ever remember suffering from this problem.

I also had various episodes with very dry eyes.  When I had my first eye test for glasses with a retired eye surgeon, he said that my eyes were some of the most sensitive he’d seen. In one case I even had a small operation.

When C died, my health deteriorated and I started to get all sorts of itches.  I’d also taken to showers and improved the heating in my bedroom. So was I heating myself.

When I had the stroke in Hong Kong, I was in a room with the sun streaming in and it could have been very hot. They were also obsessed with measuring my urine and despite drinking masses of water and having various drugs, I couldn’t pass anything.

Things seemed to be better when I returned to Addenbrooke’s, but a couple of months afterwards I had an eye test and the nurse said my eyes were awfully dry.

So do I respond badly to the heat?

And is the pain I get in all my old injuries down to the heat and dehydration?

October 24, 2012 Posted by | Health | | 1 Comment

This House Has Form

I’ve said that this house is trying to kill me, by boiling me up. Look what the builders found in the back of a cupboard in the bathroom.

This House Has Form

So I wasn’t its first victim.

October 24, 2012 Posted by | Health, World | , , | Leave a comment

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