It’s Gibbon Time

I took a New Bus for London up to Piccadilly Circus this afternoon and it was surprisingly busy for a Sunday afternoon.

A Busy New Bus for London

When I got off, I used the rear staircase and I found that the vertical hand holds were alternated for my left and right hands.  So I swung down the bus like a gibbon.  I’m not sure, whether all buses are like that on the top deck.  But if they are not, they should be! The slightly rough texture of the hand holds also gives a good grip for my gammy left hand.

Incidentally, note in the picture, how the handholds slant outwards.  Does this effectively make the gangway wider? Or just appear so?  I must take my tape measure with me to check!

After all, when you are rehabilitating from a stroke, like I am, isn’t it a bit cheaper to get free exercise in everything you do?

My Sense of Smell Seems To Have Returned

Surprisingly, over the last few days, my sense of smell seems to have returned. A lady next to me on a train was chewing spearmint gum and I really smelt it. I can’t say I’ve smelt spearmint that strongly since my stroke.

But that was only one incident out of several.

Paper Isn’t What It Used To Be

I do find reading a newspaper these days to be an absolute trial, as turning the pages in order seems almost impossible.

I did think it was the stroke, but it now appears to me to be the quality of paper that is now used by papers like The Times and The Evening Standard.

Increasingly, I am using the on-line versions of both papers. And others that I don’t buy or pick up.

Is It The Stroke Or The Old Injury?

At school, a bully broke my humerus.  He was twisting the arm upside down and hitting the tricep muscle repeatedly. I tried to turn round to hit him back after about twenty minutes or so of this torture and I overbalanced and all the extra pressure on my arm broke it.  It sounded like the noise you get, when you snap a raw carrot. I have only ever had it X-rayed once and that was at the old Highlands Hospital in Winchmore Hil, just after the break. I had seen pictures of green-stick fractures and it looked like that, with bits of bone everywhere.

Over the years it has sometimes been very painful. Once about ten years ago, I went to see a doctor and he got a CTScan done on the shoulder, as he thought, that was where the problem was. Since my stroke it sometimes has decided to annoy me. It did quite a bit in Hong Kong, but it couldn’t have been too bad when I was out of hospital, as I was able to drive cars around the yard at the stud. When I first moved to London it couldn’t have been too bad, as I was able to do some interesting metalwork. But it has been very bad over the last couple of weeks and that includes hospital. But you cope and I’ve now found a computer, that will allow me to type easier right handed.

I should say that the hand is generally pretty good and I can use it to help me get up and down stairs on a bus. Last night for instance, whilst standing on the New Bus for London, I was using my left hand.

On the other hand, there have been lengthy periods in my life, when I used to wear my heavy watch on the right hand and I have always slept on my right side or face down, with no weight on my left arm. I even did that as a child before the arm was broken, due to the layout of my first bedroom.

So is the pain in my left are due to this old injury or down to the stroke?

Good Riddance To That Tooth

I broke the tooth many years ago and a couple of dentists had tried to fill it, but it always caused me a certain amount of pain. I don’t remember how I broke it, but I think it might have been on a bread roll in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Italy. The only person, who could know is C, and she has been gone for over four years now.

After the stroke it got painful and no matter what I did, it was giving me pain.  Since the stroke it seemed to have got worse and I often thought it smelt of something like rotten fish. It will be three weeks tomorrow, since I had the tooth finally removed in the Royal London.

Since then, I’ve been to dentists twice to have a look at it and one gave me some antibiotics. A few days or so a small piece of tooth came through the gum.

Yeserday though, another piece came out and it was about the size of a child’s front tooth.  The gum bled a bit, but by the time I got to bed and after a whisky, it was OK.

I also slept very well and long and woke without any tooth pain. And that means also none in the left hand side of my face for the first time in a year.

Strangely, my left hand seems to be working better in the typing.

It’ll be interesting to see what my dentist says, when he reviews it all on Wednesday.

My only regret is that I’d had it out a year ago.  Or even earlier.

Accessing Medical Records On Line

The government is thinking of allowing this.

I’m all for it!

At my previous doctor’s surgery, I was allowed to read my then paper notes with impunity and often did with the nurse when she gave me my B12 injection every couple of months or so. I found the free access very useful, but unfortunately my notes for the first twenty years of my life have been lost and they might have been very helpful in sorting out my various allergies in addition to  the coeliac disease.

Over the last few years, I’ve often posted medical details and results of any tests, such as those for cholesterol, in this blog, so I can access them easily, if I need them.

Last summer, when I had the stroke in Hong Kong, some of what I had posted proved a help to the doctors and possibly hastened my recovery. It certainly cut down the number of blood tests.

So, the government’s proposal to put all our medical notes on line is to me a very positive step towards providing better health care. We should also be allowed to add our own comments and observations. For instance, I’ve just had a tooth extracted and that should be added, as should my supervised experiments with Keppra.

Was My Bad Tooth Causing Other Problems?

I’m still on a soft food diet, as the socket still aches slightly, but I was able to eat a piece of bread with some soup last night.

The biggest change though, is that my allergies seem to be decreasing.  That can’t be right can it? Symptoms like my sneezing and itching are getting better and when I blow my nose, it’s much dryer. Except for the slight tooth ache, I’m almost feeling normal. I’m also having to correct less spelling mistakes in my typing.

But am I bothered?  No! Of course not!

On the other hand when I was a child no-one could find what I was allergic too.  And I had rather packed and mixed up teeth, which were only sorted, when my dentist took out four pre-molars to give the others more space. Was it about the same time, that the worst of my allergic problems got a bit better. But all my records from those days have disappeared so I can never find the truth.

I’m now certain now, that some of my problems about getting back after the stroke were due to that tooth. After all I broke it about twenty years ago and it has never been good since.  One very good dentist I had sad that because of my gagging response, it would be impossible to crown.

I’ve also looked back at some of the posts of a year or so ago.

This post describes how I ended up in Addenbrooke’s with tremendous pain. They thought it was probably a blocked sinus. As they were certified clear a few months later, I suspect, as does my current dentist, that it was the tooth.

I also mused about coeliac disease and my recovery.  This post talks of another incident, where the tooth seemed to be the villain.

And this is the incident, after which I was put on Keppra. Knowing what I know now about myself and especially the trapped nerve in my neck, I suspect that it was caused more by my nerve and arm damage than the stroke.  But I’ve never had anything like another seizure since.

It’s all very strange.

Am I Lucky Or Does The Devil Look After Me?

Throughout my life, I’ve often been described as lucky and several times, positive things seem to happen to me by chance.

For instance, I met my late wife at Liverpool University, when I manipulated a scheme for students to get partners for one of the guild balls.

I ended up in Metier, after a chance meeting outside an opticians on Great Portland Street.

I’ve also been mentored well, by a lot of friends, who would never be described as conventional. Some sadly are no longer with us.

and I could give lots more examples.

Even on Monday, when I had the tooth exorcised from my body, I did the right thing, as it needed three hours and three dentists.

So is it luck or do some quickly weigh up the chances and make the right decision? I do know that my late wife would never describe me as boring and is that because I never throw any possibly useful information away from my brain.  Since the stroke, I have lost some memory, like knowledge of who did this or that. But there is always Wikipedia!

As I don’t believe in any religion and believe organised religion is just another way to screw wealth out of the poor, then I can’t think that a devil exists either.  Although after my last few years, it is more likely there is a devil, than a loving and peaceful god.

But then I’m a London mongrel! And they have more fight than a wagon-load of pit-bulls.

The Sharing of Patient Data

David Cameron is getting a lot of criticism about his plans to anonymously share patient data with private companies.

As someone, who has lost two close relatives to difficult cancers and suffered a serious stroke, I can’t see what the problem is about, if the patients personal details are kept confidential.

I was once told by a senior research manager of a big German pharmaceutical company, that only about fifteen percent of medical databases have been analysed to any great extent. He felt that it would take an increasing part of medical research.

My son was part of a major trial being coordinated by a renowned British University.  I was invited to see their work and was totally impressed at the care they were taking to make sure the data was correct and properly safeguarded. They were also looking for patterns in the data, as any clue, however small, might be invaluable in the fight against disease.

One thing that has to be said, is that if you are looking at any database for patterns, then that database must be complete, with no errors in the data. I have come across researchers, who when they are trying to prove something in a field like archaeology, first clean the data of anything that doesn’t fit their theories.

That is the biggest problem in research.

92 Clubs – The Biggest Problem

This does seem to be the pollen count and my hay fever.  Would you believe that the count is High today in Coventry!

But my balance seem to be better.  I did complain here about Virgin’s Pendolinos, but now I can walk up and down the moving train with ease.