That time again

Already have several appointments booked for 2015, some for D and others for me. Hoping we both have far fewer visits to various local hospitals next year.

D has been a regular at St. Helens, here's hoping after today he's discharged from outpatients. Don't get me wrong, the folk at the clinic have been very good, I just want all to be over and done with.

I know to expect a recall to assess my progress, but am not looking forward to it. Nearly a fortnight in a major teaching hospital was more than enough. 

D has assessment appts in Feb (osteoarthritis) with the possibility of an op in March. Luckily he's going to one of the smaller hospitals instead of the main teaching hospital. He mentioned it to our friendly chemist, who replied that given time he'd be much, much better after the op.

I still haven't found my way back to Tai Chi, but of course there have been no classes over the holidays. Nor will I be able to go when they start back as I have booked to have me hair cut. The hairdresser makes regular (weekly) visits to one of the neighbours, so I go there too from time to time (most convenient).

Recuperation slower than anticipated

It's no wonder everything is out of kilter in my personal world.

When you've spent several weeks losing interest in food / being unable to cope with the hospital food on offer, it should come as no surprise.

Having been discharged from hospital and the ministrations of the district nurses team, I am not suddenly 100%. 

It's not just a case of mending physically, there's some psychological mending to do as well. At the beginning of my stay in hospital, I seemed to spend countless time aiming to accomplish simple tasks. How to move and sit up in bed. How to manoeuvre from bed to chair. How long to stay sitting in the chair by the bed. How to cope with the hustle and bustle that accompanied each and every group of staff that came on the ward throughout the day. Taking meds (tablets) four times a day. That involved a lot of kerfuffle as the trolley was propelled from bed to bed. One particular nurse showed quite clearly how much she hated doing those rounds, either that or she could not have cared less. She propelled the meds trolley not caring where it went or what it bumped in to. It was as tho' she was doing her personal dodgems game.

Throughout my stay my worst nightmare was 'doctor god'. Okay, so he'd passed  his exams, but had plainly missed / failed the patient communications, bedside manner part. Some folk like me have 'floating veins', ones that can be seen (only just) but dodge out of the way of needles. After a few days my hands, arms in particular the inner elbows were a swollen mass of bumps and bruises. 

As for recuperation, it continues slowly, mind and body are taking their time. 

PJ days

Just read a post by a friend who has declared today to be a PJ day. That set me thinking, as my days have been PJ days since November 24th.

I have been out with D a few times, briefly to do some necessary shopping, then home to snooze once more.

A friend phoned today, unfortunately having lost track of time, I replied that I had only just woken up. The caller was most surprised - asleep in the daytime? I passed the phone across to D who explained the goings on since I went into hospital, had the op, came home and so on... Then he went on to relate the next series of appointments that are coming our way starting with Dec. 31st. Here's hoping to see the last of the regular appointments that have been the norm throughout 2014.

December

4th discharged from hospital complete with assorted meds and dressings.

5th a district nurse arrived to look at my surgery sites and redress the largest one.

12th I contacted the 'team' as it was a week since the dressing was changed. Someone left a message for me...

Had a phone-call followed by another district nurse. Now, there's no dressing, but an instruction to go carefully. Seems I have now been discharged from the care of the district nurses group, but I have a phone number, just in case.
asically
Problem being, I do not feel like 'me'. 

I've encountered and surmounted the various hurdles that count as progress on the way to recovery.

Right hemicolectomy - basically - began with keyhole surgery and camera for a look see. Widened to remove a large section of bowel including the mass they came across. Stuff sent to be tested to find out what's what. 

But in myself I am not 'right'. I spent about a fortnight learning the minutiae of being on the receiving end of treatment. English language / creativity scholars would have a 'field day'. 

Recitation of several phrases throughout the day. Pain? Score 1-10 with 10 being the worst. Have you kept your fluid levels / pulse ox levels up? I need to take your blood pressure, can you put this (probe) under your tongue / behind your teeth?

Tea, coffee?

Sit out in your chair.

Have you had a wash? Have your bowels opened (details). Any sickness?

Then there's the meds routines...
Odd how staff behaviour / personality changed with their uniforms.

Staff nurses in a terpsichorean spiral from shift to shirt and ward to ward. Brittly 'happy' and ready for the fray. 

The smooth running of the ward interrupted as the 'great and the good' i.e. Consultant made his rounds. 

It became easier to cope when fewer people paid attention to this patient. 

Fortnights

For a fortnight I gave myself time to get better. Then I gave in and asked for GP appt. 

25th Nov. saw the GP.
He told me to get myself to A and E (accident and emergency).

From then on I found myself at the Hub, which is what the teaching hospital has become.

Take in - assess - treat - send to ward (s)
Pass thro' the ward regimes
Send home.

Operation - right hemicolectomy

Came to, on Ward 5, in room 6

From then on I had one objective - to find out and do all that was required to be allowed home.

Staff
The Anaesthesiologists are amazing, followed closely by the Surgeons. Lets face it, we trust them with our lives.

There's something about this time of year...

that always seems to increase the bad news.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave

Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;

Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.

I know.  But I do not approve.  And I am not resigned.

 

Stanza from 

Dirge Without Music

BY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

I've been fortunate to have belonged to the OU community for quite a long time. Over the years I have become friends with fellow OU students. At first we 'met' and chatted via the messaging service 'FirstClass'. From time to time, some were able to meet face to face, but that was but the icing on the gingerbread as the saying goes.

The OU finally decided to get rid of FirstClass, and reluctantly we tried to get used to Muddle as we named the replacement. Along came Facebook, and eventually we found our way their and communication was restored. Over the years we have laughed and cried, shared stories of hope, success and loss. We have celebrated and congratulated as folk earned their qualifications. 

Today, someone mentioned they had experienced a loss. Although the person doing the posting is not part of my friendship group, we have friends in common. Something else I read made me apprehensive, so I checked which people we both knew. That's when the blow struck. One person had gone into hospital last month, weeks had passed without much news. I looked up his page and found a post from his daughter. The dear man had died in hospital yesterday. This is no place for details. Suffice it to say a loving, kind, generous soul has departed this life.

R.I.P.

Catching up

No Tai Chi for me last Saturday, but an OU day school instead.

Venue
Manchester Uni Roscoe building

D took me to a quieter railway station, one with a large car park and a station I know well.
Anxiety is my constant companion, but if I'm lucky, slumbers in the background. Hence, not going to the nearest station which is near a very busy road junction and where car parking is awkward at best.

The train arrived on time and travel was uneventful apart from 'Tickets please!'.

Last time I was at a day school the venue was only a short walk from the station. I had a map with me, but no proper idea of how far to walk. It took half an hour as I had to keep checking street names.

All the events were on the first floor, but the number took some working out.
01 for First floor, followed by 10.10 turned out to be room 10 or 01.10.

Some presentation were better than others, the one on Stalin and Shostakovitch was particularly memorable.

One of my pet hates stems from having studied desktop publishing. The last speaker had some pages to make up a worksheet. Granted, I did not expect her to have stapled them together, but she had not even bothered to number the pages. Add on to that her use of Times New Roman, a font dating from 1929, and I was 'not a happy bunny'. Her choice of font and size mde the document challenging to read. Then, I noticed she was working her way word by word thro' the notes.

Once of a day, I would have suffered in silence, but not these days.

I made my apologies and left to catch my train. Boarding the 3.45 instead of the 4.15, I was home early and pleased with myself for catching the earlier train.

In the local news

From the online version of the Echo.

It's a sign of the times, that folk got themselves into a lather and thought some simple actions were a threat.

In comparison with larger nearby airports, John Lennon airport is less busy. Hence flight training know as 'Circuits and bumps'.  A number of pilots doing training in take-offs and landings. Hence the colloquial term for them flying round in 'circles' and then landing (bumps), only to take off again immediately.

Add on to the repeated 'circling' an appearance by a Hawk jet trainer aircraft and some of the local populace took to social media in distress.

Thursday threes...

Whilst it is often said that bad luck comes in threes, I wonder whether good luck might work that way too.

This week, I have successfully ordered two new pairs of glasses. Today, I went to my postponed GP appt. The new GP seems to have been getting to know his patients by asking them to return after two weeks, four weeks and 8 weeks. Today was my 8th week appt. 

The doctor went thro' my blood results thoroughly, I've never come across a GP who mentioned all the results, usually they focus on anything wrong. The good news, with the exception of cholesterol levels everything is fine. Although a little raised, he noted an improvement since 2012. Therefore his instruction 'more of the same' and he noted I appeared well aware of how to look after myself. Then instead of 'see you in six months' he changed his recommendation to 'see you in a year!'.

The chemists has been running a collection scheme and when your card is filled up you get £3 off your nest purchase. Today, the card was filled and I got my £3 discount.

What? Two posts?

Late last night an email arrived from the OU.

Another email arrived just now

"Thank you very much for volunteering. I will be in contact again by the end of the week with more information."

What's going on?

At the end of U214 the Art of English, I wrote a glowing report on the experience, heartily recommending that course, and full of praise for Course Team and Tutor.

The OU have folk developing new modules and it seems they'd like to involve some students. Hence my invite to take part in working thro' and assessing a preliminary version of part of a new module that's in the process of being written.

Scripts

as in prescriptions...

Tis a sign of aging when you find yourself on repeat prescriptions. Sounds easy at first - contact chemist who then dispenses prescription according to the list (6 monthly) received from the surgery.

Things went wrong for D when our local chemist was unable to fill part of the script. National shortage of a certain med. However, another local chemist still had some, cue replacement script and trip to other local chemist.

Scroll on another month...no prescription list is minus one item. Computer 'knew' item dispensed on different script, therefore had deleted it from repeats.

Similarly for me, surgery issued set of scripts to chemist, but they had not been updated. Therefore, when my prescription was collected, it came without one necessary item.

I have GP appt this Thursday, so hopefully GP will update his records.

Sorting Saturday

No Tai Chi, but time for an OU tutorial instead. The local venue has been a good place, all the time I've been there. Trust today to be the opposite.

Stuck away in the back of beyond on the top floor. Access via the kind of metal staircase that gives me the collywobbles. Stairs where there are treads but no risers, so perception problems have a field day. Give me a proper staircase where you cannot stare into empty space between each step. Followed by a walk the length of the corridor with several sets of fire doors to negociate. The room when I found it was pleasant, it was getting there that posed the problems.

Access was even more difficult for the tutor and a couple of other students, one in a large wheelchair and the other struggling to walk using a typical hospital supplied walking stick. She told us she'd asked for help, told the Centre of her problems but to no avail. The tutor also has mobility problems. Chatting beforehand, he told me he had problems with walking because of damage to one knee and other problems with the leg he broke whilst cycling in Finland 3 years ago. 

Hopefully, the tutor will do his best to ensure a ground floor room in future. 

Scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. students carried on arriving in dribs and drabs for the next half hour. Hence, the tutorial ran on for half an hour after the scheduled noon finish. 

Friday unusually

no Tai Chi, my excuse being I woke up too late. At least that's what I told B when she phoned up later to ask if everyone was okay here. In one sense it was true, if I'd pushed myself I could have squeaked in, but my get and go had got up and went. Also, as I told myself, the routines they do there, I can do by myself if need be.

Hence, the day progressed slowly, I even let D go to the chemist without me to pick up a delayed prescription.

Computers have a lot to answer for, if as happened the other month, the chemist could not get one item, and a new script has to be provided, everything from then on goes pear-shaped. It's going to take a couple of months and a meds review before D can have his list of items put back to normal. 

On a different tack, there's someone who has taken to social media to witter on solely about obscure 'folk' groups North of the border. When an open to interpretation statement is made asking about 'Idlewild' yours truly has an ancient memory-bank which obviously connects Idlewild + NY + airport and responds accordingly. 

Wordless Wednesday

2014

1970

1950s

1980s

Fridays n Saturdays

have become Tai Chi mornings with the Happy Healthy Hearts Group. It makes a useful preparation for the more 'advanced' Saturday morning classes. The ladies of HHH are a lovely bunch, but do not take themselves seriously where Tai Chi is concerned. For them it is more about a social gathering with time to chat before, and afterwards over tea or coffee.

Saturday's group is far more serious and sometimes includes folk with Tai Chi qualifications at various levels. There's always a lot more to learn on a Saturday.

This Friday afternoon was lovely and sunny, and there was a phonecall from a neighbour with an invite to coffee and a chat. 

I've recently begun to carry on with my OU studies. Now I have a tutor who uses a local venue for tutorials and his email was most welcoming. He included info about what would be covered by the first tutorial. It's going to be a bit of a wrench, but once a month a tutorial will replace Saturday Tai Chi.

At Tai chi earlier (Sat. morning) I found out there's no session next Saturday. All the advanced practitioners are going to a seminar.

Advanced students do 'weapons' training, I'm happy just to learn the Old Form. Perhaps, but I've no idea when, I might some day join them. 

Those Places Thursday

The start of October is an odd time to think about Christmas, or it is for me. I know some folk get involved in buying stuff all year round 'ready' for December. So why am I?

Tis a very simple answer. Two close friends arrived en route to the airport, bringing with them a pack of Christmas cards and a 2015 calendar. They belong to Funraisers, note the 'd' is missed out on purpose. Along with other friends they raise funds, usually in a fun way for the East Lancs. Hospice. Recently, they'd held an event ‘Ladies Who Lunch’ to raise funds for East Lancashire Hospice, and Christmas cards had been ready and available. 

Quote
For 30 years East Lancashire Hospice has continuously provided a special way of caring to people suffering from life limiting illnesses throughout Blackburn, Darwen, Accrington and Clitheroe.

John Chapman is the artist who creates lovely scenes like this.

Other scenes can be found and if need be, purchased from ELH via the website.

Tuesday must do

Usually, I do not go anywhere until midweek, leaving the local shopping centres to others. Today is the exception. Since D has severe osteoarthritis and uses a walking-stick even around the house, the ferrule has worn away.

Last week he went up the road to try and get another, but the shop turned out to be expensive and not to have the kind he required. We went to the shop local shopping shopping centre where he bought the stick (Thursday). It was no longer in stock, but Steve, the ever friendly and helpful phoned up to order a new one.

Yesterday, Steve phoned to say the order had come in. Hence today's visit to the shopping centre to collect the new stick.

Now D has a repaired stick for everyday and his new one for 'best'.

Taking a hint from a suggestions list

Census Sunday is suggested...

There's a forum concerning a couple of small villages in Derbyshire. They used to be referred to a the Great hamlet and Little Hamlet. Suffice it to say, my family has been connected with both for many, many years. So much so that my branch is very much an outlier. To this day I have no evidence to show why they ended up in Lancashire some 100+ miles from the original villages.

Rumour has it that the family went to the four winds when the family business got into difficulties. There was a fire which almost destroyed the business and so various family members left to seek their fortune.

 A problem with genealogy is the number of times names are re-used and in that family the names: Cyrus, Frank, George, Benjamin, Sarah and Elizabeth abound. Occasionally, names such as Ellenor and Ruth cropped up. 


From a company where fathers, brothers, uncles and sons worked it lost most of the family as they headed to Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire and the USA.

Two sisters who remained in the villages.

Friday - sans Tai Chi

Fridays usually involve a social gathering with folk of a similar age known as the 'Happy healthy hearts' club. From 10 until 11 we attempt to do tai chi, chatting before the tutor arrives then coffee of tea and a chat afterwards.

Barbara is 80 and May usually gives her a lift there and back. Times when May doesn't go for any reason, I do the 'chauffeuring'. But, not today, no lift and no Tai Chi.

D and I went to the hospital, where he had laser treatment to cauterise capillaries in his eye. Arriving at the hospital early, having left home early in case of traffic congestion en route, the nurse out drops in D's eyes. Then we waited, and waited as the waiting room filled up.

The appt time of 9.15 came and went, it was 10 a.m. before D was seen. I carried on waiting for another 3/4 hour whilst he was treated. Apparently, the back of his eye began to hurt and is ratcheted up as the treatment progressed. The good news being the other eye is okay. Consultant had done some preventative treatment on other capillaries, just in case. 

Now there's a two month wait for an appt. for a check-up and hopefully he'll be discharged from outpatients.

Wisdom Wednesday?

Following onwards thro' AA100 I came across a quiz based of the first three chapters of book 1.

Would you say the following statement is true or false?

1. The most reliable written accounts of Cleopatra are those produced by ancient Roman authors. [note Roman, too easy to be mislead ad Plutarch was in fact Greek]

Cassio Dio wrote about Antony and Cleopatra, more than 200 years after the events occurred.

Horace Ode 1.37


2. Cleopatra ruled the richest and most powerful country in the Mediterranean basin.
Certainly, Egypt was a rich country, with vast wealth, particularly grain.Roman power was far superior to that of Egypt.
 The problem comes with the word 'country', was Rome a country? or just a State?


3. Cleopatra manipulated her image to appeal to different audiences. Now, this is something for which evidence can be found.

4. Doctor Faustus retains elements of a medieval morality play.
What's meant by an Elizabethan Morality play? Pause for thought.

5. Marlowe borrowed a lot of his ideas from his reading of Shakespeare. Although some scholars posit that Shakespeare was influenced by Marlowe, could the reverse be true?

6. "Cézanne painted the way he did because he simply didn't have the technique to emulate artists like Bouguereau."
Hm, that would be like comparing chalk and cheese.

7. Cézanne was "the first modern artist"?
Again this is debateable, time to look once again at the group of Impressionist painters associated with Cézanne.

Paul Cézanne - 1839 to 1906 used restricted palette and reworked time and again. Dedicated painter and misfit.
Claude Monet - 1840 to 1926 in Le Havre Eugène Boudin encouraged him as a landscape painter. 1855 moved to Paris. Friend of Pissarro.
Camille Pissarro - 1830 to 1903 friends with Monet and Degas landscapes
Auguste Renoir - 1841 to 1919 began by copying some of the works in the Louvre.
Berthe Morisot - 1841 to 1895 woman impressionist artist, wife of Manet. For a short while she was more well-renowned than Monet, Renoir and Pissarro.
Alfred Sisley -  1839 to 1899 friend of Monet and Renoir, landscape painter, impressionist. Born in Paris to English parents.
Edgar Degas - 1834 to 1917 painting, sculpture and making prints

Monet, Renoir and Sisley founded the Impressionist movement.