The Anonymous Widower

A Mysterious Attack On My Body

Last Friday, I went to Birmingham and looked at the extension of the West Midlands Metro to Fiveways and Perry Barr station before it is updated for the Commonwealth Games.

I also took a detour to Wolverhampton station to see how the new transport interchange is progressing.

I had travelled between Euston  and Wolverhampton on my least favourite trains – Alstom’s Class 390 trains.

  • The seats don’t align well with the windows.
  • The trains are cramped because of all the tilting mechanism.

These trains must a nightmare for anybody taller than my 1.70 metres or heavier than my sixty-two kilos.

But the biggest problem of these Pendolino trains is that Alstom updated the air-conditioning a few years ago for Virgin a few years ago and I find the air inside too dry.

I am glad to see that Avanti West Coast have ordered new Hitachi Class 807 trains for running to and from Liverpool.

In my few hours in Birmingham, I didn’t have much to eat or drink.

  • I had a hot chocolate from a stall outside Wolverhampton station.
  • I also took a box of Leon’s gluten-free chicken and a lemonade onto the train home.

I was fine until I got to about Watford, but about I felt a need for the toilet. I waited until Euston and then it seemed everything in my body went down the toilet in the station.

Saturday

I had slept well on Friday night going to bed after the ten o’clock news as I usually do.

I spent a very quiet Saturday mainly watching sport on the television and not leaving my house.

Sunday

After a good night’s sleep, I noticed things seemed to have gone a bit wrong with my left hand.

  • I couldn’t get my left arm to co-operate with putting on a shirt.
  • I had trouble opening a yoghurt pot, by gripping it in my left hand and ripping the top off with my right.
  • I couldn’t tie my shoe-laces and had to use a pair of slip on shoes.

But

  • At no time was I having any balance problems and bathed successfully,
  • I did manage to get to the shops at the Angel to get a few bits and pieces I needed.

In the end I phoned 111 and they decided, I should be looked at professionally in hospital.

Royal London Hospital

Once in A & E at the Royal London things started to get better.

  • A CT-Scan had shown no problems.
  • I had a negative Covid test.
  • They did a few blood tests.
  • They told me that I had an infection.

But remarkably after an hour or so, my hand had started working normally.

The only reason, I could think, was that the air in the hospital was fully climate-controlled, whereas at home, it was just hot and dry.

They kept me in overnight and after a couple of human-based checks in the morning sent me home in a taxi.

Conclusion

The whole episode does seem so like an incident I described in A Couple of Days in Hospital.

May 12, 2021 Posted by | Health, Transport/Travel | , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Is Whitechapel Station Emerging From Its Shell?

I took these pictures this morning at Whitechapel station, this morning.

I have broken them into sections.

The Overground Platforms

There is work to do, but they are certainly useable and safe for passengers.

Overground To Sub-Surface Lines

What an elegant way to hide the structure, that holds everything up!

Whitechapel Road

My granddaughter was born in the old Royal London Hospital.

Sub-Surface Platforms

The detail of the lights and the various platform fittings looks good.

Whitechapel Station In 3D

This Google Map shows a 3D image of the station.

It’s one of those sites, where you’d choose somewhere else.

Crossrail’s Progress Video From February 2020

Conclusion

The builders seem to be getting towards the final stages.

As they have a lot of testing to do, I suspect the earliest day for trains to be running through with passengers, would be sometime in November 2021,

 

February 2, 2021 Posted by | Health, Transport/Travel | , , , , | 5 Comments

Taking The Plunge

I have had a bad molar tooth on the left hand side of my jaw for many years.  Various dentists had attempted to fill it, but since the stroke, it had always given me a sort of dull pain.  Not too serious but annoying anyway. I remember I asked my dentist in Felixstowe to have a look at it about eighteen months ago. He thought it might be a root canal job.

My new dentist in London, looked at it a couple of weeks ago and said that if it was him, he’d have the tooth out.  after all, I lost the one on the other side about thirty years ago and it doesn’t cause me any problem.

So we decided to do the dirty deed on Wednesday the 14th!

Well that was the intention, but because of problems with my Warfarin and different views about how to handle it, my dentist and I decided that perhaps it might be better to use the Emergency Dentist at either the Royal London or Guys.

To me it wasn’t a choice, as the Royal London is just four stops away on the Overground from Dalston Junction.  Guys is South of the river and I didn’t have a posse handy. I also have a lot of respect for the hospital, as Vanessa Wright and her team, saved the life of my granddaughter, who was born with a severe hole in her diaphragm.

I got to the Emergency Dentist department at about one and after giving my details and outlining my story, I was with a dentist by two. I was then X-rayed and by three, they were preparing to take out the errant tooth.

In the end they were very mob-handed.  A female Chinese student originally from Hong Kong and a more experienced one probably from near the hospital, did most of the work.

But it got difficult and the Senior Tutor helped by effectively cutting the tooth in half, so they could dig it out bit-by-bit. It finally was removed  just after 17:15.

It wasn’t too painful and they didn’t use any stitches.  It was probably one of the most serious operations I’ve ever had without a full anaesthetic. Although being stitched up after my mugging in Naples was probably a lot more painful.

I suspect, I self-hypnotised myself by concentrating on the student’s eyes.

I got home OK, walking after the train from Whitechapel to Dalston Junction.

I thought I needed some cash for the morning, so I walked round the corner to the little Sainsburys.  However, I then found that I didn’t need the money after all, so I came home.

As I crossed the zebra crossing, an ambulance stopped and waved towards me.  I thought they were just asking me to cross, so I did.

It was only when I got home, that I realised that they might have been worried about me, as I had a rather bloody face and I was dabbing it with a bloody tissue. I did phone 101 to tell the Police, in case the ambulance had reported a mugging or assault.

After the football, I couldn’t sleep and now I’m sitting here typing, as a doctor has told that to lie down, will start the bleeding in the pocket again.

At least I had a clean tea-towel, which I’m cutting into small squares to mop up the blood.

The only thing , I’ve eaten is a couple of bananas.

December 13, 2011 Posted by | Health | , , | 11 Comments

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