MEDICAL MATTERS

[Tizer]

You'll have to employ a few East European immigrants to carry the bags for you Wendy!

[Stanley]

It was heavy weights that did my back in all those years ago when a 'heavy feed bag' was one that was over 300lbs! It dawned on me the other day that my right knee problem is probably due to the number of times it was used to swing a heavy bag or milk kit across when placing it on the wagon. I did about 200 168lb kits a day, seven days a week.... And then there were the bags! Ah well, it fed the kids!

[Stanley]

When I went for my eye test recently I again refused eye surgery because I thought there would be an improvement with my new glasses. That didn't happen and I suspect the rate of deterioration is increasing. My minder Susan is going to Oz in December and so I thought it would be best to trigger the operation now instead of waiting otherwise I might have a bad summer. So I rang the optician this morning and the letter will go into the system. They tell me that the waiting list is quite short so who knows, I may get done and dusted quite quickly. Looking forward to it actually..... One thing is certain, I am in as good health as I possibly could be...

[Marilyn]

I can't see you handling the 'down time' after an eye op very well at all Stanley...
Time to download some audio-books?

[Cathy]

Wendy, can you move those heavy feed bags from delivery to barn, to the horses etc., by putting them into a wheel barrow and let the wheels take the weight??

[Marilyn]

I take it you have never pushed a wheelbarrow, Cazza?
They don't save that much work....after a morning pushing one your arms feel six foot long and your knuckles drag on the ground.

[PanBiker]

I think Wendy has a quad bike for transporting any distance.

[Cathy]

Just trying to help...

Just found this smilie - had me laughing anyway. (It's the little things)

[Wendyf]

Cathy I actually quite enjoy handling the feed bags and am quite careful how I do it. Col will deal with the 25kg bags (hen food) if I ask him nicely and all the pony feed comes girly sized 20kg bags. Perhaps my problem stems from being asked to hold up the house while an acrow prop is slipped in....or catching a window when its been bashed out...

[Stanley]

In my experience, once you have damaged your back the smallest and most innocuous actions can trigger the pain off. Over the years I have identified what these are and instinctively avoid them. One small example, bending down and straightening up too quickly. Amazing how fast you learn to defend yourself against things like this, it's almost as though the instinct to defend your body is hard-wired into your brain.

[EileenDavid]

On the cataract Stanley I don't think you'll have a problem. Two of my brothers have had them done and they were out and about within hours. They put a patch over it for coming home but told to remove as soon as they got home. Neither needed their glasses for distance. The downtime with retinal surgery is tedious as in 7 days posturing face down with only a 10 minute break every hour. I got through mine with my music. It was also very sensitive to light. Eileen

[Cathy]

Good Luck with your cataract surgery Stanley, I'm sure everything will go well for you. (Isn't it amazing what they can do these days!?)

As for back problems, It's fine to be aware of what they tell you not to do etc., etc., etc., but in reality as you go thru a normal day, sometimes 'needs must' and you just have to do certain things sadly knowing that you are probably doing the wrong thing and testing the limits. Sometimes all I have to do is operate (?) a shopping trolley or change my bed-linen to upset my back. (What can you do? )

[Stanley]

Wait for old age Cathy, God cures most back problems by fusing the bits that cause trouble.
Eileen, From what others have told me the downtime is minimal with cataract surgery. Almost looking forward to it.... I don't like the sound of what you had to do!
I have two stories about wheelbarrows. The first concerns a Time and Motion expert on a building site. He noted a man who pulled his barrow while everyone else pushed theirs so he asked him if it was more efficient. The bloke said he didn't know, he pulled it because he hated the sight of it...
On another building site they had a problem with thieving and one man was a suspect. The police stopped him every night to inspect what he had under the sack in his wheelbarrow but never caught him stealing anything. Years later the policeman saw the labourer in a pub and bought him a few drinks then asked him to tell what the secret was because he was convinced the bloke was guilty. The bloke looked at him, laughed and said I was stealing wheelbarrows!
There was a parallel to this a few years ago. Range Rovers were being stolen from the car pound at the works where they made them. Eventually they found that the culprit was a man who owned a Range Rover. He simply swapped the plates off his onto a new one and drove it out leaving his own on the company car park. He only admitted to one!

[EileenDavid]

Not pleasant Stanley and I have had surgery 3 times due to scar tissue. The gas bubble they put in this last time was in my line of vision for 9 weeks before it disappeared. The gas can also cause a cataract to form, had one removed and a new lens on the 2nd op but they think I may need another removed in about 6 months time. Thank God for having one good eye. Eileen

[Cathy]

Eileen i know what you mean by 'Thank God for one good eye'. I have one good eye and the other only has about 10% vision. as a young child i had to undergo surgery, a few years later I had to wear a patch for awhile, eventually glasses for close work. Apparently my retina in my poor eye doesn't line up with my pupil and it means I don't get enought light into my eye to see properly. i can easily see details at a distance, for eg road signs, birds, anything really, but things up close are just a blur. Sometimes I can try to read a book inside the house, can't see a thing, but if the light is bright enough outside the house I can see it almost clearly. An optician told me that my eye is very healthy (tissue wise), so fingers crossed it will stay that way. I tried prescription lenses but couldn't get along with them and now just use magnifying reading glasses when needed.

[Stanley]

The optician rang yesterday and offered me a choice of Airedale or Burnley hospitals. The Airedale one is the most simple, they send the referral letter to my GP and he forwards it to the hospital and I am then in the queue. He estimated about 3 months wait but I have been told that it's often quicker than this especially at this time of year when lots of people are on holiday. We'll see....

[Tizer]

Those of you who have been on OG for a few years might remember steeplejack Victor Shackleton, now in his 80s, whose book I published through the Lulu web site. Victor is deaf and blind in one eye but managed to still be active and take a lot of interest in life, helped by his wife, family and pet dog. Ironically, he had survived a few falls from buildings, one them where he ended up in the canal, but I believe the eye problem was a result of falling off a garden wall later in life which caused a detached retina.

[Stanley]

Today's focus is the dentist. Third phase of my new bottom gobblers! Roll 0on the day.....
I note the institute for clinical excellence is advising that modern drugs obviate the need or benefits of long Chain Omega3 fats in the diet. (LINK) I'm afraid I don't buy this view that new drugs mean that a natural diet is not so important. Could this have anything to do with the fact that there isn't enough long chain Omega3 in the world for everyone to have the proper daily amount in proportion to the damaging high levels of Omega6? Good news for the food processors.... I don't trust this advice.

[Tizer]

Oh dear, what a mess! The press release from the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence (NICE) titled `New NICE guidelines to reduce premature deaths in people who have had a heart attack' is confusing about oily fish and the confusion has then been amplified by the news media. The NICE guidelines are simply an update of the recommendations on how to improve the care of people who have survived a heart attack; now that the drugs used after a heart attack are more effective, the need for dietary advice is less important and therefore NICE is backing off on this advice and "no longer recommends eating oily fish, or taking omega-3 fatty acid capsules or omega-3 fatty acid supplemented foods specifically for the prevention of further heart attacks." (Note the words: "specifically for the prevention of further heart attacks"; the patients might still wish to eat oily fish for other health benefits.)

The Daily Mail is quite wrong to claim NICE "advised against eating oily fish"; NICE has *stopped advising* heart attack patients to eat it because they believe it's no longer needed specifically to prevent further attacks, they're not `advising against' it. In fact NICE includes fish in its recommendation "that people who have had a heart attack eat a Mediterranean-style diet - more bread, fruit, vegetables and fish; less meat; and replace butter and cheese with products based on plant oils." This has made the information confusing for the public even in NICE's own press release and Joe Public will think, "Am I being told to eat fish or not?"
The NICE press release is here: http://www.nice.org.uk/newsroom/pressre ... Attack.jsp

Most of us haven't had a heart attack and the advice is not aimed at the population in general. NHS guidelines still advise us to eat oily fish. It's bad enough to receive our dietary advice through the distorted lens of the news media but even worse when the professional body itself puts out confusing press releases!

Another problem with this news is that the media are treating it almost as if it's a U-turn on omega-3 fatty acids when in fact the NICE guidance only relates to heart disease - omega-3 is important for much more than just preventing heart attacks.

[Stanley]

Right on Tiz and thanks for the analysis. As many of you know I've taken the trouble to research the literature on lipid research and have yet to be proved wrong in the conclusions I have drawn. These are that saturated fat and cholesterol are not killers, in moderation they are essential to good health, the key word being moderation. The most dangerous fat related indicator for bad health is not taking in enough Omega3 to balance the intake of Omega6 fats. Ideally this should be something like one to five, in many Western diets it is nearer one in one hundred due to food processors going for Omega 6 because it is cheaper and in some modified forms improves shelf life. The nearest I have found to an 'ideal' diet is the Omega Diet and this is based largely on a Cretan diet. You pays your money and takes your choice. Mine is towards natural satisfying foods and not drugs like statins et al which are aimed at counteracting a bad balance of lipids. Apart from anything else it tastes better! It's a salutary comment on modern diet that eating road kill is more nutritious and better for you than commercially reared broiler chicken!

[Marilyn]

Whist waiting in one of the numerous hospital corridors I have been trapped in lately, I came upon a poster about the health benefits of Mushrooms. I eat fresh Mushrooms most days. I was delighted to read all the good they are doing me.

[Stanley]

Why has my back decided to bite me? Margaret has earache at the moment and I wonder whether it's a sympathetic pain. I have had them before....

[EileenDavid]

Maz I also love mushrooms cooked or raw so glad they are good for you. Eileen

[Tizer]

Raw mushrooms!! Oh no! I wouldn't touch raw ones with a bargepole. If you're eating them raw and not getting stomach cramps you must have very cleanly grown mushrooms. If the anaerobic Clostridia bacteria from soil and un-sterilised compost get into your intestines they'll love it and have a great time producing gas!

[Marilyn]

Gas?!
Well, we all get gas. Don't we?
( I wipe the mushrooms with paper towel)