MEDICAL MATTERS

[David Whipp]

Good to find you up and posting Stanley; hope all goes well for rest of week.

I was listening to the aspirin story with interest this morning, as I'm one of the people with AF affected by the advice. Will go and see Dr Brown in due course.

[Stanley]

I suspect a lot of people will be in the same position David. Touch wood I'm on track for an operation on Friday unless someone more urgent comes in. Feeling slightly guilty because to get me in on Friday Mr David cancelled someone else.... I suppose it's simply priorities and if it happens to me I shall feel the same way.

[LizG]

Another LINK to news of a disturbing rise in Crohn's disease in young people. Junk food and antibiotics are a possible cause. The link has the story of a young lad whose life has been ruined by the disease. I feel so sorry for anyone who contracts this life-altering disease. As my dad said, there is a providence that looks after drunken men and idiots. I am so lucky!

My son-in-law suffers from Crohn's disease as do 2 of his brothers and 1 of his sisters. He spent the first 6 weeks of his son's life in hospital which culminated in him having a large section of bowel removed due to scar tissue. He is very careful with what he eats and drinks (not that he wasn't before). He won't take drugs to manage it but does so with diet.

In his case it appears to be genetic and both his parents died from cancer in their 60's and he is determined to do better. It's a horrible disease.

[Tizer]

I sympathise with those young people because Crohn's disease is the type of gut problem that I've had since childhood and which has become worse in my later years. I've never been formally diagnosed as having Crohn's and haven't sought any treatment. As the news report says, "There is no cure but many patients learn to manage the symptoms, often by altering their diet", which is exactly what I've done (the main treatment is with steroids but it has serious side effects). My mother had similar problems, which agrees with what they say about genetic links. It does restrict your lifestyle and, particularly for young people, affects your chances of holding down a job and of doing well in exams. Fortunately I've also got a very understanding partner who copes with my bad days and with the limitations. I suspect one of the reasons for Crohn's appearing to be more common now could be the prevalence of spices in foods, even in those foods that you don't expect to find spices. They irritate ulcers and will aggravate the condition. The restricted diet is a hassle and the upset gut causes problems but the most insidious effect is the tiredness mentioned in the article. On the other hand, there are people suffering far worse things and I don't have a bad life! I'm thankful for what I've got.

The news about aspirin doesn't surprise me. I've always thought it was a bad idea to use a blanket approach rather than tailoring treatment to individual patients. The aspirin will have irriated many people's stomachs, which is ironic in view of the Crohn's disease news.

[Stanley]

I agree about the 'blanket approach', same applies to statins.
Pre operation assessment at Burnley at 13:00.

[Marilyn]

I don't have any specific gut problems but I do find it is the first thing to go haywire if I am under emotional stress. Physical stress/food/drink don't bother me (except for Garlic)....but give me some bad news/anger/upset...I can spend the next 12 hours tracking backward and forward to the loo. When I am really upset, I cant eat.
All emotional, I know. But it is just the way I am built.
People talk about 'gut feelings', but I really do have them. I also have 'white coat syndrome', so just picking up the phone to make a GP appointment can set me off...never mind the night before (or morning of) the actual appointment. My blood pressure goes up too.
It all disappears immediately AFTER the appointment like magic! By the time I get back in the car afterward, I am fine.
I am such a basket case!

[Stanley]

Maz, re. 'white coat syndrome'. My blood pressure is always higher when I have a reading at the surgery. I keep a log of my BP for the doctor and check my machine against his. He always puts the home reading in my notes. I don't think I am of a nervous disposition but that white coat works like magic!

[Marilyn]

I do the same thing Stanley. I keep a regular check on my BP at home.I am not over anxious over my health. I have no need to see the GP except to get blood pressure scripts every six months. I can't understand folk who run off to the doctor every week.
I am even worse going to the dentist! Now that is really stressful.

[Stanley]

The cure for that is pot gobblers.....

[Tizer]

I'm glad to hear you've got a Friday appointment for an op, Stanley.
(If my above post about Crohn's seems a bit out of sync with what others have written on this page it's because I had some sort of glitch where the last post I could see while writing it (at about 9.30am on Wednesday) was Stanley's at 4.35am that day.)

Stanley, ask your GP for wine on prescription!....
`Occasional glass of wine could save your eyesight'
Daily Telegraph, 19 June 2014
People who consume small amounts of alcohol are significantly less likely to develop vision problems than those who never drink, study finds.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/scie ... sight.html

[Marilyn]

Ah...well...there you go then, Tizer.
I don't wear/use glasses. Must be a mixture of all the Veg I eat, plus my consumption of Red Wine!
I'd go so far as to say that my vision of the world IMPROVES after a nice glass of wine...

[Tizer]

Especially through rosé coloured spectacles!

[Marilyn]

Yes...but not Beer Goggles. I am not a Beer drinker.

[Cathy]

I drink white wine, does that mean I see more clearly??

[David Whipp]

Yes, now the rain has gone...

[PanBiker]

As a cross check Cathy, can you see all the obstacles in your way?

Both showing our ages here David

[Stanley]

NURSE! The screens, they're at it again!
Pre-op OK, I am on the slab sometime after 12:30. They should be chucking me out around 17:00. All arrangements in place for transport and Jack. Will report as soon as I can..... The nurse who did my details said I was in better nick then many of the 16 year olds she has to vet.... Nice!

[David Whipp]

"batter nick", I like it - about time you got your eye sight sorted, though.

Good luck for today.

[Stanley]

I saw it when I came back in, have corrected it! Stop nagging! Not bad for a one eyed man under stress.
That's reminded me of a quotation, "In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king"
[From Latin in regione caecorum rex est luscus, credited to Desiderius Erasmus's Adagia (1500). A similar (yet much earlier, dating to the 4th or 5th century CE) turn of phrase, and Erasmus' likely inspiration, appears in the Genesis Rabbah as "בשוק סמייא צווחין לעווירא סגי נהור", meaning "In the street of the blind, the one eyed man is called the Guiding Light". (Wiki)]

[David Whipp]

Not bad at all... but we are what we eat?

I'm sure the op with get you back onto binoculars; no excuse for being a battered beggar then.

[Tizer]

I've got a picture in my mind of Stanley's surgeon having to listen to a long discourse on what we did wrong in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years and how it relates to our incursions in Mesopotamia in the 1920s, whilst he carries out the operation!

[Cathy]

I wonder what Stanley will be involuntarily talking about in the post-op room when he is first coming out of the anesthetic... hehe.

[Tizer]

If you've read his books you'll have a good idea of the stories he'll be telling the nurses! I'm writing at just before 5.00pm UK time and I think that's the time when he said they would let him loose on the world again. They'll have to let him go home soon, Jack only had a packed lunch!

[Stanley]

Am cheating as you'll see below but I thought I'd let you all know where I was....
Cathy, not general only local anaesthetic...
I didn't mention the war, the surgeon might have been Iranian!
It's 23:30 and for reasons that will become clear, I'm finding ways to pass the time. All went according to plan today. Susan got me to the hospital in good time for my 12:30 appointment. Mick had previously picked Jack up, he's on holiday at Susan's until Saturday afternoon.
I was processed quickly even though part of my records was missing and I was first on the list. By 14:00 I was on the table, complete with fetching support stockings, the nurse who fitted them complimented me on a fine pair of calves... After a lot of setting up the surgeon informed me that he was going to inject a more powerful anaesthetic in my eye but told me I would only feel pressure as the eye was already partially numbed. As he pushed the needle in he got a clue that all was not quite as he expected, I think I tensed up and hissed a bit! I told him politely that it wasn't quite as pain-free as he thought. We had a bit of a laugh, he apologised and they put some more drops in that did the trick. All went smoothly after that.
Previous to starting he had told me of course that the more still I was the easier his job was. I told him that I was very good at keeping still but I don't think he realised I was serious. I should explain... over the years you come across various circumstances where, if you are sensible, you look for strategies that can help you survive. A good example is my ability to go to sleep anywhere for ten minutes if I choose to do so. Another is that during a long friendship with back pain I have acquired the facility to switch off temporarily, useful if you need sleep but are in pain. You can give your body a chance to go to sleep naturally. So I went into dormant mode...
Shortly afterwards I slipped back into reality as they were dismantling all the catheters that they had installed in my eye, there were at least four of them I think. So I was awake when they were repairing the holes. The surgeon congratulated me on how still I had been and said it was a good procedure. I asked how long it had taken and he said 45 minutes and was a bit surprised when I told him I had no track of the time. The nurse told me afterwards that the readings they had been monitoring were remarkably stable and that at one point the surgeon had commented on it. So all that practice over the years has paid off!
They repaired the damage and put a bubble of nitrogen gas in my eye (about 20% of the volume) to gently press the retina back into place. For this to work best I have to be face down for 24 hours. After the initial period of keeping me laid on my face for an hour I was told I could sit as long as my face was down. So, back at home I am passing the time on with my face pointing directly downwards. I tried going to bed but there was no way I was going to sleep that way so I'm back downstairs again with R4 and a four volume set of Betjeman's 'Summoned by Bells'. This phase will finish at 12:00 tomorrow when Mick picks me up to go back to the hospital to get the dressing off and a clean up of my eye. After that I'm on my own with two sets of eye drops for 2 weeks.
No reports on sight yet obviously, the only clues I am getting are some strange little pin pricks of white and coloured light.
So, the message is it's a miracle so far.... I shall report further when there is news....

Love to all. XXX

PS. I am cheating a bit doing this but in my defence I am looking directly down onto the keyboard and I'm allowed ten minutes every hour upright.

Here's a selfie at about 5PM.

[Big Kev]

Good news, hope you have a speedy recovery.