Update on oggbashan's health

[oggbashan]

Hospital policies tend to think that the patient will be alive for any and all future appointments. Anything else screws with the planning.

And they don't communicate well with each other. My cancer care is based at one hospital I never visit and is outstationed at my local hospital. My neurology care was based at another and has just been transferred to the local hospital. My dermatology care is based at a third hospital, outstationed at the local hospital.

But my notes are kept at the base for each care.

Geriatric care, speech therapy and the falls clinic have discharged me pending six months reviews (if I am still alive). Arthritis care? We won't call you. Call us if you need us.

As for my general practitioner? He/she has to take ten minutes to read extensive copies of my hospital care (which isn't as complete as my own records) before he/she can address my current concern...

 

[KeithD]

Record coordination is difficult and is not helped by patient confidentiality requirements. What I've seen in my own system in this regard has gone heavily toward the plus side. I now have direct access to all of my own records and appointment schedule--and my doctors--electronically in a chart I can access. That wasn't the case for most of my life.

 

[oggbashan]

Record coordination is difficult and is not helped by patient confidentiality requirements. What I've seen in my own system in this regard has gone heavily toward the plus side. I now have direct access to all of my own records and appointment schedule--and my doctors--electronically in a chart I can access. That wasn't the case for most of my life.

Several decades ago I was given the task of coordinating a Social Service Department's records with our local health providers. After a couple of months, I had to admit defeat. the Health Service records were so confused that they couldn't even coordinate their own.

I was a senior officer in Social Services and was given a free hand by the Director. In the Health Service the only people who knew what was going on were junior clerks and they had no authority to change or improve anything.

 

[oggbashan]

Measurements...

Today I went to my physiotherapist to be beaten up again.

He will be lecturing to medical students next year and wanted me as a case study for Ankylosing Spondylitis. He used a portable scanner to measure my spine and spinal movements.

The ideal is 100%

Standing posture: 75%

Bending left: 15%

Bending right: 22%

Bending forward: 40%

Backing backwards: 5%

But for decades of his treatment, the last four figures would probably been less than 5%. I have had the condition for nearly forty years and what I can still do is much better than many.

 

[oggbashan]

Diabetic Eye Check

This morning I went for my annual diabetic eye check to see whether diabetes has affected my eyes.

They look OK. I will get a formal report in a couple of weeks (could be longer because of Christmas) but when I and the technician looked at the scans they seemed perfect, as usual.

But the belladonna put in my eyes beforehand has affected my vision. I am now in a darkened room and seeing the screen is more difficult than usual so I won't be adding to any incomplete stories for about an hour.

If it wasn't for Grammarly this post would be full of typos.

 

[Handley_Page]

.
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If it wasn't for Grammarly this post would be full of typos.

If it woznt fer Grammarly thus post would be fill of typsos. ??

You keep confounding the medics, Ogg.

 

[KeithD]

Enjoy yet another Christmas, Ogg.

 

[oggbashan]

Enjoy yet another Christmas, Ogg.

I will. That's two I should not have been around for...

 

[KeithD]

Congrats on having another Christmas, Ogg.

 

[oggbashan]

Congrats on having another Christmas, Ogg.

Thank you. I am listening to German Christmas music as a reminder of my father who loved Christmas in the Austrian Tyrol. He died twenty years ago at 96, but to the end, he could and did sing German Christmas carols.

 

[Handley_Page]

Thank you. I am listening to German Christmas music as a reminder of my father who loved Christmas in the Austrian Tyrol. He died twenty years ago at 96, but to the end, he could and did sing German Christmas carols.

I like it in German.
This one is new to me, though.

 

[jehoram]

I will. That's two I should not have been around for...

Anybody who's recovered from a car crash or an injury in battle or a devastating heart condition that required surgery... anybody who was saved by medical science from what would have otherwise been fatal... has a whole slew of Christmases that they should not have been around for. I myself have welll over fifty of them, and I cherish every one of them as a gift I did not deserve.

 

[KeithD]

Anybody who's recovered from a car crash or an injury in battle or a devastating heart condition that required surgery... anybody who was saved by medical science from what would have otherwise been fatal... has a whole slew of Christmases that they should not have been around for. I myself have welll over fifty of them, and I cherish every one of them as a gift I did not deserve.

Well, yes. I received a terminal diagnosis in 1957. And, yet, here I still am.

 

[oggbashan]

Stille Nacht in 30 languages

https://youtu.be/aHuvL3OuMKA

Just to say thank you to all those who have made sure I'm still here...

 

[SamScribble]

https://youtu.be/aHuvL3OuMKA

Just to say thank you to all those who have made sure I'm still here...

I can't listen to Silent Night without recalling a Christmas Eve, many years ago, sitting with friends in a hot tub, while my friends' then-four-year old daughter serenaded us with the tale of the 'round iron virgin, butter and child'.

 

[Bud_Spencer]

Thank you. I am listening to German Christmas music as a reminder of my father who loved Christmas in the Austrian Tyrol. He died twenty years ago at 96, but to the end, he could and did sing German Christmas carols.

One of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEv3l7rLDhU

I have a CD of the Vienna Boys' Choir, "Christmas in Vienna," that is Heaven on Earth.

 

[oggbashan]

One of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEv3l7rLDhU

I have a CD of the Vienna Boys' Choir, "Christmas in Vienna," that is Heaven on Earth.

You mean this one? (audio only)

https://youtu.be/NzSrbYDifYg

 

[Handley_Page]

Ogg, May you manage to confound them for a l o n g time

 

[oggbashan]

This afternoon I have another CRT scan scheduled. I am not allowed to eat for two hours beforehand and must drink half a litre of water. The drinking? No problem. The lack of eating? Disastrous. Luckily for me, the hospital canteen is close by as soon as the procedure is done.

But the real nuisance is not being able to have anything metal on me. I have a specially bought pair of jogging trousers with no zips etc, But they fall down. I have to walk with one hand holding them up.

 

[Handley_Page]

This afternoon I have another CRT scan scheduled. I am not allowed to eat for two hours beforehand and must drink half a litre of water. The drinking? No problem. The lack of eating? Disastrous. Luckily for me, the hospital canteen is close by as soon as the procedure is done.

But the real nuisance is not being able to have anything metal on me. I have a specially bought pair of jogging trousers with no zips etc, But they fall down. I have to walk with one hand holding them up.

The medics do make life more tricky at time, Eh?

 

[oggbashan]

Back from CT scan. The disabled spaces by the facility were all full so we had to go to the alternative half a mile away. Even so, we arrived three minutes before the due time.

The normal procedure is to ask patients to arrive an hour before and be watched as they'd drink half a litre of water. As I am a frequent visitor who has had no reaction whatever to the contrast media they told me, drink before I leave home and arrive fifteen minutes early. I had drunk two pints of water.

Their records show that I use a four-wheeled walker so they had allowed ten minutes for me to walk the 300 yards through hospital corridors. What they hadn't recorded is that with my walker I move as fast or even faster than many able-bodied persons. For the first 400 yards or so I can do 7 miles an hour.

I arrived at the unit before I was expected but since I was the first patient of the afternoon I was done straight away. I was back with my wife quickly and we were driving out of the hospital car park (having walked the half-mile back to my car) five minutes after my appointment time.

The drinking is to minimise any reaction to the contrast media - but I have never had any. "Does it hurt?" they ask as the media goes in. "No. Should it?" I reply. Apparently, it should but never has.

Back home for coffee...

 

[ChloeTzang]

I can't listen to Silent Night without recalling a Christmas Eve, many years ago, sitting with friends in a hot tub, while my friends' then-four-year old daughter serenaded us with the tale of the 'round iron virgin, butter and child'.

I knew it! I knew I was going to read something in the AH that would have me snorting my coffee, and sure enough......

.....Back home for coffee...

Hey, Ogg, I'll have one with you

It's all good if you're still talking when you leave, and you make it home for coffee.

 

[oggbashan]

I knew it! I knew I was going to read something in the AH that would have me snorting my coffee, and sure enough......



Hey, Ogg, I'll have one with you

It's all good if you're still talking when you leave, and you make it home for coffee.

Whatever they do to me in hospital, even chemotherapy, doesn't stop the need for coffee - and food, lots of it. The other chemo patients hate me. I don't feel anything as the chemicals go in and apart from losing SOME hair, I have no after-effects. I can walk out of the chemo room to the hospital's canteen and have a full meal while my fellow patients are nibbling a biscuit.

But here I am in 2022 when I didn't expect to see the end of 2018.

 

[oggbashan]

More good news...

I had an eye check for diabetes damage a couple of weeks ago. It is done annually.

This morning I received the letter with the results - Nothing; no damage; no sign of any deterioration.

MY eyesight problems are nothing to do with my eyes but an enzyme imbalance in my brain caused by the king cancer. My eyes work perfectly. My brain doesn't process the results correctly... Now I am on steroids I am no longer seeing double, but seeing words on a screen is still a problem. I have Grammarly permanently on but it's not perfect. For example, in the previous sentence, I had typed scene instead of screen. Grammarly accepted scene.

 

[oggbashan]

Today I walked to the nearest chemist to hand in my repeat prescription. It is a round trip of just over a mile. I used my four-wheeled walker, but I found a mile too much. I haven't walked that far for a couple of months. The nearest convenience store (and cash machine) is a three-quarter mile round trip. I have done that several times since Christmas but a mile? I am exhausted.

Maybe it will be better if I repeat the mile walk more often. I'm not sure. Today I feel really old...