MEDICAL MATTERS

[Stanley]

Was it as quick as mine Moh? Five minutes in front of the machine and instantaneous fighter pilot vision! Nothing short of a miracle......

[Moh]

Just the same - little clicks and clear vision.

[Stanley]

Excellent Moh.... I don't know whether they explained it to you but what they are actually doing is burning holes in the thickened membrane behind the lens which is the cause of the problem. The good news is that whereas in younger people they tend to heal up and have to be done again, in people our age the effects are much longer lasting. There are some advantages in being older!
I have another improvement to report but I am not sure whether this is the low carb regime or doing away with my pillow. For yonks I was plagued with vague little pains in my neck particularly a crunching sound if I rotated it. I am happy to report they have almost completely gone away, too slight to note now.

[PanBiker]

All sounds good Moh.

I'm back from my assessment at Pendle Community Hospital. Sam the physiotherapist did a full examination of my gait, flexibility, balance, reflexes, leg muscles, hips and spinal column, she was very thorough.

A combination of my symptoms and her examination leads her to believe that I may be suffering from the effects of Spinal Stenosis which is a narrowing of the spinal channel predominantly at the base of the spine that the nervous system runs through. She has also detected that my right ankle is not as strong as the left. I hasten to add that I don't really get any pain with this just a general degeneration of strength in my right leg which eases with rest.

That's the current thinking from her and she has given me a series of exercises to do to both stretch the channel and strengthen the core muscles that give support in the lower back. The regime is 5 exercises with 10 reps of each 2 to 3 times a day.

My symptoms manifest if I walk any distance so maybe 2 to 3 miles into decent walk. After 3 weeks of the regime she wants me to go on a familiar walk to see if there is any improvement in my symptoms, so that will be Weets circular for me. If there is improvement she will have me back to expand on the exercises. If not, she wants me to see her colleague who she teams with to see if she arrives at the same diagnosis after putting me through the same tests.

Spinal Stenosis

[PanBiker]

Just done my exercise regime, took about 10 minutes to do all 5 with 10 reps of each, most have hold position for 10 seconds then rest between reps.

[Stanley]

I hope they help.......

[PanBiker]

So do I, I can feel the tightness when I do the spine rolling one. They should get easier the more I do.

[Wendyf]

Col has been building up his stress levels ready for his 9 month check cystoscopy at Burnley on Thursday morning. Notification of the appointment came through back before Xmas but he just got a phone call cancelling it because of a meeting, and then holidays so it could be May before its done now. I think that's steam coming out of his ears......

[Tizer]

I received a letter from my GP's surgery asking me to come for an NHS Health Check designed to test blood pressure and to warn about things like diabetes. I rang for an appointment and they gave me a time on the 20th. As I was about to put the phone down I said `Hang on, did you say 20th April, I assume you mean 20th March?' The answer was, no we mean April. They've sent out so many letters there's an enormous waiting list! When I go along I'll ask them about how to access my medical records too.

[plaques]

I'll ask them about how to access my medical records too.

Colne Health Centre asks you to put your signature on a form to make sure you understand what you are asking for. Plus something with you photo on . (passport, bus pass etc.) and a letter, (utility, bank, etc) addressed to yourself. If its the same as here you could get it all done and dusted in one visit.

[Big Kev]

I have requested access to my records at the Barlick Medical Centre. They will be getting back to me, they said

[Tizer]

Thanks for that advice, Plaques. At this rate we'll have to carry a utility bill around all the time! Maybe it's time we had a real ID card once and for all, using the kind of anti-counterfeit measures they use on banknotes.

[Sue]

[quote=PanBiker post_id=100185 time=1488373992 user_id=77]
Some students use small plastic colour filters that can be placed on the page, these can be a little bit awkward if for instance there is a multi page exam answer booklet and a separate data sheet that you need to toggle between. In the main, we print up the required number of papers, (and additional data sheets if required) each morning in the correct colour for each student

Just saw this reading back through this thread. It is for dyslexia. When I taught we had to have handouts printed on different coloured paper for sufferers. We also had training in which colour pens to use on OHP acetates. At one time we had to put blue filters over the actetate sheets on the OHP but the students who were not dyslexic complained that they found OHP notes difficult to read. After that they gave the dyslexic students coloured paper or coloured acetate sheets to put over text book pages etc. Blue seemed to be the mist commonly used colour.

[plaques]

Sue you shouldn't poke fun at an odd 'fat finger' mistake. For Dogs sake I'm probably the most dyslexic writer on this forum.

[Stanley]

I was about to castigate P severely because Sue hadn't poked any fun. Then I checked, twiced......
Kev. please let us know how you went on......(Records)

[plaques]

Dyslexia is a very complex subject. At school I found that reading to myself was no problem but reading out loud produced the most disjointed delivery that you could imagine. Very embarrassing when you had to read a passage in class. Written work also suffered with letters and words missing from the majority of sentences. All this was in spite of being able to come home after a chess tournament and play out my own game plus two either side of me without any notes.
I would recommend that we all delete our posts on this subject and let sleeping dogs lie.

[Wendyf]

I'm sure the misspelt word in Sue's post was an honest mistake Plaques.

[Sue]

MISspelt being an appropriate phrase. You know I checked that twice as my iPad has alovely habit of changing what I write.

No offence meant just a simple honest explanation. Although most of you are used to my predictive text mishaps by now. They are a bit like my upside down photos. Rather random and difficult to decipher .

[Big Kev]

Kev. please let us know how you went on......(Records)

You might want to get the ball rolling by registering on Patient Access Register
Once you have this you can request to view your records. I'll keep you up to date on how I get on.

[plaques]

Sue I'm sure that in quoting PanBiker's post that there was never any harm meant. As Stanley is fond of saying our audience is often much larger than we think. It was in this context that I was thinking about especially parents / grandparents of dyslectic children who may have thought in bad form to highlight a genuine typing error again. Perhaps I'm being over sensitive but as Oscar Wilde pointed out it wasn't until he had suffered in prison that he appreciated what others were going through.

[Sue]

No problem, I genuinely didn't know my good old iPad had changed what I typed to mist instead of most. My answer/ explanation still stands however. We seem to have got side tracked by the typo rather than the info which was infact an answer to a question. At college we bent over backwards to help dyslexic students achieve. Infact one of my own student sufferers got our course student of the year because of the progress she made.

[Stanley]

Tried online registration Kev but Park Road don't do it. I shall ask at reception.

[PanBiker]

You need to request it at the surgery and they send you a letter with an access password.

[Tizer]

I'm registered with Patient Access because we are 5 miles from the surgery and it lets me order my repeat prescriptions online.

[Stanley]

Thanks Ian, I shall do that.
Tiz, I can see why you need the prescription service and it reminded me of how easy it is living in a walking distance town to go to the chemists and the surgery only five minutes walk away. This got me to thinking about your recent remark about the eventual necessity to move nearer to services. When Janet told me to find a house and she'd buy it for me she liked East Hill Street but asked me why I'd chosen it. I told her that George, the old bloke next door was confined to a mobility scooter but could get anywhere in the town in ten minutes. She saw the point straight away. Think about making the move sooner rather than waiting until it is forced on you. There is much to be said for a compact house handy to shops and services, that's why back to backs and tiny cottages like the one Nolic was reared in are no longer seen as ripe for redevelopment but eagerly sought after as convenient bijou residences, cheap to run and close to the buses! I can assure you that it works. getting rid of my car was like getting a second pension!