MEDICAL MATTERS

[Stanley]

Thanks Cathy.....

[Stanley]

Later.... over 3 hours sleep. No problem getting to sleep, that says to me that I need it. The best medicine by far. Remember, the body never lies!

[Stanley]

Drinking lots of water. Last thing I need is a bad pee sample on Tuesday, my last treatment of this round.

[Stanley]

Getting geared up for last of the three treatments tomorrow. Not looking forward to the after effects..... They seem to be worse this time round but I am told this is par for the course. Ah well......

[Big Kev]

After 6 weeks hopping around on crutches I now have a 'weight-bearing' knee. I need to 'not do anything silly' and do the exercises to get full mobility back. I can't believe how reliant I'd become on the crutches, hopefully I won't fall over anywhere

[Cathy]

You've done really well Big Kev, all the best to do even better

[Big Kev]

Thanks Cathy.

[PanBiker]

I was the same with my transition from zimmer to walking poles rather than crutches. My physio's discouraged crutches as they don't control correct framing. They were working with a blank canvas with me and also trying to suppress a dominance on the left. I have to say the poles were a master stroke and progressed me fairly quickly. I hung onto them for bit after discharge but made my own mind up shortly afterwards to go without but just use my orthotic. I don't use that as much now either unless I have some distance to go. Thankfully I don't need any aids at all with my boots on, just intermittent rests when I feel tired. I measure progress with the time required between rest stops.

Hang in there Kev, you will get there, steady away. Don't go falling over, you are too big a lump to scrape up.

[Big Kev]

Hang in there Kev, you will get there, steady away. Don't go falling over, you are too big a lump to scrape up.

Physio did suggest I use walking poles if I plan on walking any distance, I will have to dust them off as I've not used them in a while.

[Stanley]

Or don't walk any distance!
Sounds like good progress Kev, particularly with the heavy loading because you are a big bloke. Good luck with it.

[plaques]

Anorexia 'partly metabolic, not purely psychiatric', says research. Anorexia. A terrible condition totally underfunded where quite often help come too late. The suggestion now is that it is not totally a mental condition but there are underlying genetic reasons for losing body weight.
Another report in the Guardian Guardian, The study revealed eight genes that linked anorexia to anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, all of which was expected. But it also flagged up DNA involved in burning fat, being physically active and having resistance to type 2 diabetes. This last bit is new to me and sounds like a very complicated mechanism related to type 2 diabetes.

[Marilyn]

And I completely agree with that report.

[Marilyn]

It's a complex problem. I would like to say more, but won't.

[Stanley]

I heard that report also and it sounded sensible to me. Thank God I have never had to deal with it!
This morning went well, back home in under two hours. Only one glitch, I was supposed to hold my water until 11:25 but force majeur dictated otherwise.... I doubt if it means the end of the world.....

[Marilyn]

Gotta "go with the flow" Stanley!
This is why'I pack a wide necked screw topped container for his nibs, when we are on a 2 hour drive back on the motorway!

[Stanley]

Maz, I've always managed before but this morning I had no choice!

[PanBiker]

When I was in hospital last year for three weeks and encouraged to drink 3 litres of water a day plus the regular brews etc. I got well used to using the urine bottles overnight, especially when I was still using my frame to get about. Once discharged and back at home but using my orthotic during the day, and still encouraged to drink plenty in order to get the better of the steroids and other drugs I needed to get out of my system. I got a sealable plastic urine bottle, (available at all good pharmacies) for use instead of the dark night trips to the bathroom. Very useful and I will take it with me when we get back to camping, (proper on the ground camping) bugger trotting to the loo across a field at 3 - 4 am in the morning! I know this would be Stanley's getting up time but he is the exception rather than the rule. I won't say normal folk but for the majority, those hours are still night time and used for sleeping.

[Stanley]

Feel as though I have been run over by a bus but definitely improving and I had a good sleep. An easy day is indicated.....

[plaques]

The first case of Ebola recorded in Goma. Ebola The immediate response is encouraging "We are confident in the measures we have put in place and hope that we will see no further transmission of Ebola in Goma. I personally doubt this is the case and with a population of 2 million and a travel centre hub it will be almost impossible to stop. The last outbreak resulted in 1600 deaths and in truth probably only stopped because it was self limiting. Travel bans in and out unless you have been vaccinated looks like the only answer. What happens to the remaining population looks very bleak and should be given a bigger World priority.

[Stanley]

I agree, I heard a very sensible expert on pandemics on R4 yesterday. He was saying he just didn't understand why the WHO was shying away from declaring it a global emergency. He sounded very convincing....

[Wendyf]

A link to an interesting discussion between Ivor Cummins, who is now working to get the CAC (coronary artery calcification) score accepted as a marker of heart disease, and cardiologist Aseem Malhotra who is setting up a randomised control trial to study if heart disease can be put into remission, like diabetes, with diet and lifestyle changes.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b-blm_AiA ... PEhVLFVbnM

[plaques]

He was saying he just didn't understand why the WHO was shying away from declaring it a global emergency.

They must be reading OG. REf: The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo a "public health emergency of international concern".. Ebola. No restricted travel yet by the 'WHO' which seems strange.
On the publicity front we are told that the vaccine is 99% effective and more than 161,000 people have been given it. Yet in every image we see the health workers are dress in full protective suits even when they are tending a small child who looks fit and healthy. A 'T-shirt' with a logo. " I've been vaccinated against Ebola" would be more encouraging.

[Marilyn]

I had CAC score done a few years ago. My doctor said he had never seen a score of zero even in athletes ( he said his own score was 300).
Mine was zero.

[Stanley]

What's a CAC score?

[Marilyn]

Its done like an X-ray ( but it must be different to an ordinary X-ray as I could only go to one place for it). You have to hold your breath for a long time while they take the images. Guess they count any bits of calcium showing up in your cardiac arteries. My doctor said the score starts at zero and goes into the many hundreds...open ended really...but he had never seen a zero.
I didn't ask too many questions really, because he was such a doom and gloom merchant and a bit of a scare-monger ( he is dead now), but he was constantly alluding to bad outcomes - no wonder I have developed White Coat Syndrome!. But I walked out of his office grinning like a Cheshire Cat. He was dumbfounded. I told him to frame my results and hang them on his wall.