Physiotherapy
This is one of the highlights of the day. Especially, as the department looks over the green of Happy Valley racecourse.
Going on Rat Poison
I’m being put on Warfarin to thin my blood. Some might say appropriate.
My Left Hand
It seems to be a lot better.
A First Game of Real Tennis
Well not the first, but the first game since I had the stroke. In fact it was exactly five weeks since my last game.
I lost that one, just like I lost the one today. But today wasn’t disastrous as I lost the set 6-2 and was leading the second 5-1 at one point. When time ran out I was 5-4 ahead. Was I tiring? I won’t use that excuse.
Now what will be interesting is to see how my handicap progresses in future months. I haven’t checked but I think it is about 54.
Could games with a rigorous handicap system like real tennis be used to gauge how people are progressing with various brain and mental problems?
Medical Progress
I got my driving licence back on Thursday and yesterday I went to see my stroke doctor at Addenbrooke’s.
So how do I feel both physically and mentally?
Take yesterday.
I needed to get the Lotus Elan back from having the MOT from Newmarket and as everyone was busy and my secretary was not in, no-one could give me a lift. So it was get out my trusty Brompton and cycle. It should have been easy as although the trip was about sixteen kilometres, most of it is downhill. Or at least it is if I go the shortest, but not the car-friendliest route. But the Brompton slipped into fifth and couldn’t get anything lower than fourth. And then there was the cold strong headwind.
But even so I made it easily in an hour. I suspect I would be a lot quicker on my proper bicycle with the wind the other way.
On Wednesday the stroke doctor had told me that I had a leaky valve. Now sometimes I think I can tell when it starts to leak. Or am I imagining things. I just push myself too hard and then I get a bit breathless, but if I get a rhythm going, I can pedal for over an hour. Especially in Holland, where they have abolished hills by law.
It was nice to get back in the Lotus, which is now all pristine and clean. I must take a few photos before it gets dirty!
Mentally perhaps I worry, but then who wouldn’t after what I’ve been through.
But as to brain function, it all seems to be working. Word functions such as spelling are as good (or bad) as they ever was but I can only type with two fingers. But then I never used more. I do various memory functions when I collect my Zopa statistics, and these are just the same.
So far so good.
Except for one curious thing. I do the Sudoku in The Times every day and have always found that the Super Fiendish were beyond my powers, unless I resulted to a process of elimination. That in my book is almost cheating.
But since the stroke, I can do these without problems in just a few minutes. I would never accuse such an august newspaper as The Times, of dumbing down, but they have just introduced a new section called Mind Games.
I should write to them.
My GP asked me how I was getting on mentally. After all, to lose one of your close family is perhaps normal or bad luck, but to lose two is catastrophic and a downright disaster. And then having a stroke doesn’t make you feel better. Does it? I don’t know, but I sometimes wonder that I now I think it can’t get any worse, so I just l0ook forward to the future. She asked me to fill in a form about how I was feeling. I scored very low. But then that was good.
So what did the stroke doctor say?
He explained that the leaky valve wasn’t probably trivial and that he would refer me to the cardiology team. But then I now feel that I’ve had it for years. I don’t think that my stamina was any better in 1980, than it is now. In fact sometimes I think it is better. But I’ve always had this problem of being able to walk miles and not being able to run more than a couple of hundred metres.
He also said that the heart monitor had said I had an irregular heart-beat.
Because of these problems, he suggested that I go on Warfarin or rat poison. This will thin the blood and make it less likely that I have a repeat occurrence of a stroke.
On the positive side, he felt that the research from Amsterdam on B6, coeliacs and strokes was interesting.
So I feel a lot better this morning, as we have a whole set of reasons, all of which it should be possible to overcome.
As I like to say – The Struggle Continues!
I Like Michael Nyman
I’ve never really heard of Michael Nyman before. But he seems like my sort of man according to The Times.
Last November, Michael Nyman found himself unable to speak, play or compose music. This wasn’t writer’s block or some kind of avant-garde art experiment, but something far more serious. During a routine medical operation, Britain’s most scorned and celebrated contemporary composer suffered a minor stroke.
He’s made a complete recovery, as I hope to.
Some though have been cruel to Michael.
In 2008, Nyman received the CBE at Buckingham Palace. The critic and composer Philip Clark delivered a damning verdict in The Times. “The loneliest man in British contemporary music has finally got the acceptance he craves,” he jeered. “Pity it’s not from anybody interested in music.” Ouch.
I sympathise!
Bad Friday
I don’t know why it’s called Good Friday. For me yesterday was definitely Bad Friday.
I didn’t get out of the house at all, as every time I thought about going to perhaps have a bike ride, it started to rain heavily. I just spent most of the time getting this blog up to date and doing puzzles in the kitchen. The television wasn’t even very good, so I spent the afternoon watching the Indian Premier League on ITV4. At least we had the Indian Hill Railways program on BBC2 in the evening.
The day had one positive though, in that I got rid of the ECG monitor in the morning.
Portable ECG Monitor
It wasn’t too bad to take off, but now I have the problem of getting it to the hospital before nine on Monday morning.
As an aside here, I suspect we’ll be seeing more of this type of device in the future. They’ll be smaller too!
A Day at the Hospital
I spent Thursday morning at Addenbrooke’s.
They did an ultrasound and found that I had one and that it gave good pictures. Why don’t they tell you there and then? I suspect that if it had been missing or badly faulty, they’d have called the Crash Team or whatever and locked me in a darkened room.
I then found out that they wanted to fit a ECG monitor on me to record the heart for some hours. So I got part of my chest shaved and the electrodes were glued on. I thought for a moment that horror of horrors, I wouldn’t be able to tuck my shirt in, but the nurse knew how to get the wires to my shirt pocket.
At least I had a lady to drive me about. She’s one of my old work colleagues, who’s married to another ex-pat Scot and work colleague, sheltering from the cold-up north in East Anglia. We went to Waitrose and then had a decent lunch. Pleased to see to, that the Star now sells Aspalls. A reason for going!
It’s only now that I realise how difficult it is living here without a car. The taxi from Cambridge on Wednesday night cost £40. It’s not the money, but I just think it’s extortionate.
Would I Go Cambridge-Nice by Train Again?
Let’s count the positives.
- It was interesting. I know that is a word you shouldn’t use, but there was a lot to see.
- Security. There wasn’t a lot of time spent taking off shoes and having machines check you for bottles of water. They do check as you go on the Eurostar, but it’s not that intrusive.
- Meals on Eurostar aren’t that bad and are better than the airlines. But then you don’t need them on the plane.
- It was a lot more comfortable than a plane.
- I had a large table, which would have allowed me to play patience if I had wanted.
- I could plug in the laptop.
- Luggage was as much as I wanted and not subject to silly rules.
- I could have taken my Brompton.
And the negatives.
- It took twelve hours door-to-door, whereas the plane would have taken about six.
- It was lonely, but then my life is most of the time.
- It was more costly, but then I did travel First Class.
- I had to take an extra train to get London.
But remember I had no choice this time because of the stroke.
I think that if say I had to go to Lyon on business, that I would definitely use the train and for Marseilles I would make a decision based on train times and cost. But Nice, unless I had to use the train, then I would take the plane. Although like my late wife and I said, we’d have probably enjoyed taking the train one-way and the plane on the return.
Overall though, it was an exercise worth carrying out.
The Anonymous Widower 