She came home at 03h30. She had been at the pub. Her mobile battery was dead so she said she will make sure it is charged so that she can at least send me a text when she is going to be late. She says she expects to be late on Mondays and Fridays. Its nice to have advance warning. My mind runs away with me sometimes.
She has just gone to bed but she assures me she will be on time for work. She asks me to trust her on the grounds that she is 23. I am not ageist. Trust has nothing to do with numbers or anything else of that sort.
Tonight while I am at Sean's, she is going to a movie with her 20s to 30s group. It starts at 9pm so God alone knows how she is going to function on Wednesday at work.
I hope I survive Sean because
a) I have had a few really rough days healthwise
b) Does this count as a 'late night'? Its 05h15!
c) I have agreed to babysit regularly on a Tuesday and my first committment starts at 2pm and I will catch the Tonbridge train from Dover. But before that I have to bath, do my ironing and pack. Sean doesn't believe in early bedtimes so an early night won't be possible and
d) Stella arrives early on Wednesday and she makes such a fuss about the dog that I will have to barricade myself in a room somewhere to keep him away from her. And she chatters - and that before my first cup of tea and everyone knows I only start to feel human halfway through the second one.
e) another late night on Wednesday for an office dinner out. After no sleep today, little prospect of much tonight and a ghastly start to Wednesday. Up early for the train on Thursday and it is cake baking and a hair cut on Thursday afternoon. Scooter repairman on Friday, with Terry coming for her hair deep conditioning on Friday (its her 40th birthday party on Sunday so her hair must look nice)
Saturday - Sean, housework, laundry
Sunday - Terry's party
Monday - shopping and bill paying
Tuesday - babysitting
Wednesday - Sean
Friday - Dentist
Sod it!! NEXT THURSDAY IS MY DAY OFF. ALL PHONES WILL BE OFF AND NO VISITORS WILL BE ALLOWED - SAME GOES FOR OTHER APPOINTMENTS TOO!!!!
I'd have a more leisurely life if I was working 60 hours a week again!
Just how much endurance do people imagine I have?????????????????????????
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Look at the Time!
It is nearly 3 in the morning and Michelle has not yet come home. She finished work at 7 last night. Her Mobile phone is switched off. I am worried. Why? She is 23yrs old.
I am worried because I don't know where she is or if she is safe.
She was far short of her work targets this afternoon.
She has been down, mostly because of missing Ian.
I don't think the job she is doing is what she thought it was going to be.
She has been drinking a lot lately and staying out late, plus working overtime, and she is burning herself out.
No wonder she is tired! She stays in bed a lot when she is off, and she doesn't do much else.
There is a horrible culture in England of people going for drinks together after work.
I've never thought it wise to mix business and pleasure because too much can go wrong.
This whole lifestyle is unhealthy and can't do her any good.
My feelings are mixed. If she is off having a good time, I am angry that she did not have the common courtesy to let me know that she wouldn't be in tonight. That is just as self-centred and inconsiderate as leaving half finished pizzas, coke bottles and crisp packets lying all over the lounge near the clean laundry she can't be bothered to put away. I am her mother, not her nanny or personal maid.
But what if it isn't simply selfishness? What if she is depressed somewhere or has been arrested or taken ill? Is she with a bad and dangerous crowd? Has she resigned her job because of struggling to meet targets? Is she sitting under a tree in the park, frozen cold? (she has done that before). Is she drunk and passed out somewhere? It is cold - there is a real risk of hypothermia. Or has she had something with banana in it? She is terribly allergic to that and the reaction makes her swell up in seconds, blocking off her airway. Banana goes in some drinks, I believe.
Where is she?
Its going to be a looooooooooooooong night!!!
I am worried because I don't know where she is or if she is safe.
She was far short of her work targets this afternoon.
She has been down, mostly because of missing Ian.
I don't think the job she is doing is what she thought it was going to be.
She has been drinking a lot lately and staying out late, plus working overtime, and she is burning herself out.
No wonder she is tired! She stays in bed a lot when she is off, and she doesn't do much else.
There is a horrible culture in England of people going for drinks together after work.
I've never thought it wise to mix business and pleasure because too much can go wrong.
This whole lifestyle is unhealthy and can't do her any good.
My feelings are mixed. If she is off having a good time, I am angry that she did not have the common courtesy to let me know that she wouldn't be in tonight. That is just as self-centred and inconsiderate as leaving half finished pizzas, coke bottles and crisp packets lying all over the lounge near the clean laundry she can't be bothered to put away. I am her mother, not her nanny or personal maid.
But what if it isn't simply selfishness? What if she is depressed somewhere or has been arrested or taken ill? Is she with a bad and dangerous crowd? Has she resigned her job because of struggling to meet targets? Is she sitting under a tree in the park, frozen cold? (she has done that before). Is she drunk and passed out somewhere? It is cold - there is a real risk of hypothermia. Or has she had something with banana in it? She is terribly allergic to that and the reaction makes her swell up in seconds, blocking off her airway. Banana goes in some drinks, I believe.
Where is she?
Its going to be a looooooooooooooong night!!!
Monday, January 29, 2007
Service
At one time in my life, I thought I had a handle on the meaning of the word "service."
"It's the act of doing things for other people."
Then I heard these terms which reference the word SERVICE:
Internal Revenue Service
Postal Service
Telephone Service
Civil Service
City & County Public Service
Customer Service
Service Stations
Then I became confused about the word "service." This is not what I thought "service" meant
So today, I overheard two farmers talking, and one of them said he had hired a bull to "service" a few of his cows. BAM! It all came into perspective. Now I understand what all those "service" agencies are doing to us.
I hope you now are as enlightened as I am.
"It's the act of doing things for other people."
Then I heard these terms which reference the word SERVICE:
Internal Revenue Service
Postal Service
Telephone Service
Civil Service
City & County Public Service
Customer Service
Service Stations
Then I became confused about the word "service." This is not what I thought "service" meant
So today, I overheard two farmers talking, and one of them said he had hired a bull to "service" a few of his cows. BAM! It all came into perspective. Now I understand what all those "service" agencies are doing to us.
I hope you now are as enlightened as I am.
Please Sign, Copy and Circulate
This is a Petition on the UK Government website, pleading for official recognition of the devastating illness ME, also called CFS, CFIDS, PVFS and Atypical Polio. In most other countries, huge steps have been taken by researchers who have come up with a convincing body of evidence of physical changes, many only visible in ME patients. Yet in the UK, the official line is that it is a psychological disorder which is to be treated by CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - a talking treatment to get the patient to persuade themselves that all is well) and GET (graded exercise therapy, which is about exercising it away, and which causes serious permanent damage to patients who have the neurological condition ME as opposed to someone with a simple Fatigue state)
The Government requires your address but it is not visible to other visitors to the website. Don't be freaked out by this, because they know where you live anyway and I think it is to stop spoof signatures.
Please sign this petition and ask your friends to sign it too.
Petition: ME is Real
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to get the Health Service
and medical profession to accept the WHO classification of ME/CFS as an
organic neurological disorder and not as a psychosocial syndrome. More
details
Deadline to sign up by: 22 January 2008
More details from petition creator
The latest DWP Guidelines and PACE are still directing the Health
Service to treat ME suferrers with GET and CBT (a tool used for mental
illnesses) despite the mounting evidence from a vast amount of research
proving that ME is an organic not a psychosomatic disease and that the
treatments forced onto those affected do in fact cause more harm than
good and can worsen the condition of patients. Money should instead be
invested in research into the physiologocal aetiology of ME/CFS and its
treatment. Patients should not be forced into becoming psychiatric cases
or lose their benefits.
The Government requires your address but it is not visible to other visitors to the website. Don't be freaked out by this, because they know where you live anyway and I think it is to stop spoof signatures.
Please sign this petition and ask your friends to sign it too.
Petition: ME is Real
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to get the Health Service
and medical profession to accept the WHO classification of ME/CFS as an
organic neurological disorder and not as a psychosocial syndrome. More
details
Deadline to sign up by: 22 January 2008
More details from petition creator
The latest DWP Guidelines and PACE are still directing the Health
Service to treat ME suferrers with GET and CBT (a tool used for mental
illnesses) despite the mounting evidence from a vast amount of research
proving that ME is an organic not a psychosomatic disease and that the
treatments forced onto those affected do in fact cause more harm than
good and can worsen the condition of patients. Money should instead be
invested in research into the physiologocal aetiology of ME/CFS and its
treatment. Patients should not be forced into becoming psychiatric cases
or lose their benefits.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Its a Breeze!!
I've just had an Email from the man who is going to come and repair my Breeze scooter.
He and his dog Rosie will come next Friday.
The new batteries will have to charge for 16 hours before use so I could be blasting up and down the Cliffs in celebration next Sunday.
What a thought!
It will be fantastic to get my dear faithful old Breeze back. I have missed her. A LOT!
My thanks to the Elizabeth Finn Trust for making it possible. They are a Charity who have agreed to pay for the parts. The spare parts come to £495, plus new batteries at £260, plus labour at £20 per hour plus repairman's travelling expenses. I could never have afforded that and it will mean the world to me to have a reliable sturdy scooter under my bum again. I'll be able to go grocery shopping again, visit friends who live up a hill, visit my Mum in Hythe and generally get about on my own steam. With reliable transport I could even think about a part time job in a quiet office somewhere. Until you are disabled, you don't realise just how much someone depends on their scooter or electric wheelchair. My hips are usually very sore and the suspension on the Breeze is fantastic. Also, it doesn't shake you about so you end up less tired after going out than on another sort of scooter. The Breeze can handle anything which is great, as I can't.
He and his dog Rosie will come next Friday.
The new batteries will have to charge for 16 hours before use so I could be blasting up and down the Cliffs in celebration next Sunday.
What a thought!
It will be fantastic to get my dear faithful old Breeze back. I have missed her. A LOT!
My thanks to the Elizabeth Finn Trust for making it possible. They are a Charity who have agreed to pay for the parts. The spare parts come to £495, plus new batteries at £260, plus labour at £20 per hour plus repairman's travelling expenses. I could never have afforded that and it will mean the world to me to have a reliable sturdy scooter under my bum again. I'll be able to go grocery shopping again, visit friends who live up a hill, visit my Mum in Hythe and generally get about on my own steam. With reliable transport I could even think about a part time job in a quiet office somewhere. Until you are disabled, you don't realise just how much someone depends on their scooter or electric wheelchair. My hips are usually very sore and the suspension on the Breeze is fantastic. Also, it doesn't shake you about so you end up less tired after going out than on another sort of scooter. The Breeze can handle anything which is great, as I can't.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
A frightened old lady
When I was a senior student nurse, I was on Night Duty on a medical ward in Addington Hospital, Durban. I had just received the Day Report and taken over. After handover, the two of us on duty would go round to greet all the patients and to see for ourselves how they were doing. An old lady had been admitted after suffering a stroke.
My heart was moved with pity when I saw the fear in her eyes and that she was uncomfortable. She was in a side room on her own. I got a basin of water, cleaned her up while talking gently to her. I straightened her bottom sheet, put pillows between her knees and one behind her back and another for her arm to rest upon, and gave her an extra blanket. I brushed her hair and moistened her tongue. I did everything I could to make her comfortable, then I held her hand and told her that I had to give the other patients their medicine but that I would be back to see her as soon as I had finished. An impulse came over me, and I leaned over and gently kissed her cheek and gave her hand a squeeze. She struggled to say something and I struggled to hear her. What she got out, with some difficulty, was "sweet girl".
I went to give out the medicines and when I got back, the lady had died.
I am glad that she went feeling cared for , comfortable and cared about, God rest her soul!
My heart was moved with pity when I saw the fear in her eyes and that she was uncomfortable. She was in a side room on her own. I got a basin of water, cleaned her up while talking gently to her. I straightened her bottom sheet, put pillows between her knees and one behind her back and another for her arm to rest upon, and gave her an extra blanket. I brushed her hair and moistened her tongue. I did everything I could to make her comfortable, then I held her hand and told her that I had to give the other patients their medicine but that I would be back to see her as soon as I had finished. An impulse came over me, and I leaned over and gently kissed her cheek and gave her hand a squeeze. She struggled to say something and I struggled to hear her. What she got out, with some difficulty, was "sweet girl".
I went to give out the medicines and when I got back, the lady had died.
I am glad that she went feeling cared for , comfortable and cared about, God rest her soul!
A Decision
I have decided that I will start including some old memories on here because the world is changing so fast that I would like my granddaughter Wendy to get a feel of what life was like in the far off country of her grandmother's youth.
A Quirky Memory of Village life
When I was expecting Michelle, we lived in a small African town.
After I had her, the neighbours saw me hanging nappies on the line and came over to introduce themselves and ask to see the baby.
It turned out that they had seen my pregnant tum when I took the bread dough to rise on the Verandah every morning. They thought I had a nasty husband if he was insisting I make bread every day while I was pregnant. (Actually, Andy had never insisted on any such thing. He wasn't unreasonable like that).
Then they noticed there was no more bread rising on the Verandah and realised I must have had the baby, and they couldn't contain themselves when they saw nappies on the line.
That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship with Ann and Christine. Christine's daughter Natalie was 6 weeks older than Michelle and she was living with Ann, her sister, and her husband Mark. Mark sadly died in his sleep of a massive heart attack when he was only in his early 40s.
There is no privacy in a Village, but there is the most wonderful support. You can count on your neighbours in a village the way you can't in a city.
Another memory is of Christine's daughter having serious diarrhoea, which is a killer for babies. They and the doctors tried everything but Natalie wasn't responding to treatment and people were very worried about her. Then the local La Leche League stepped in and donated expressed breast milk for her. Barbara and I were two of the donors. Thank God it worked! It was the only thing Natalie could keep down so we kept it up for about a week after she had recovered. She could well have died without it. We reasoned that she was a human baby and not a calf and we thought the milk of her own species would be best for her, and so it turned out.
After I had her, the neighbours saw me hanging nappies on the line and came over to introduce themselves and ask to see the baby.
It turned out that they had seen my pregnant tum when I took the bread dough to rise on the Verandah every morning. They thought I had a nasty husband if he was insisting I make bread every day while I was pregnant. (Actually, Andy had never insisted on any such thing. He wasn't unreasonable like that).
Then they noticed there was no more bread rising on the Verandah and realised I must have had the baby, and they couldn't contain themselves when they saw nappies on the line.
That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship with Ann and Christine. Christine's daughter Natalie was 6 weeks older than Michelle and she was living with Ann, her sister, and her husband Mark. Mark sadly died in his sleep of a massive heart attack when he was only in his early 40s.
There is no privacy in a Village, but there is the most wonderful support. You can count on your neighbours in a village the way you can't in a city.
Another memory is of Christine's daughter having serious diarrhoea, which is a killer for babies. They and the doctors tried everything but Natalie wasn't responding to treatment and people were very worried about her. Then the local La Leche League stepped in and donated expressed breast milk for her. Barbara and I were two of the donors. Thank God it worked! It was the only thing Natalie could keep down so we kept it up for about a week after she had recovered. She could well have died without it. We reasoned that she was a human baby and not a calf and we thought the milk of her own species would be best for her, and so it turned out.
Friday, January 26, 2007
3 Bad Things - Hooray!
Three bad things happened to me today. Why am I happy? Because things invariably happen in 3s so now that 3 things have happened, the streak is over.
1. Went to dentist for a temporary Crown and was in the chair for an hour. He said that the nerve was very close to the surface and he will take the nerve out on Fri 9th when I have the permanent crown put in. When the local anaesthetic wore off, it was REALLY sore! I hope I cope with it until the 9th.
2. Went to visit Kate and Nigel. My little scooter was parked outside their house when the dog began barking. Kate looked out of the window. A gang of youths had thrown it onto its side and scattered the contents of the basket everywhere and tore off the raincover. The neighbours said the gang had opened their front door and roared at them, waking their baby. I don't think the scooter is damaged but we will need to look at it in daylight. Nigel put it in his car and brought me home.
3. My computer is dying. I use it a lot and am dreading it giving up completely. I'm lucky it worked this time - it kept flickering and opening programs at random then not responding then rebooting. It is quite old and has had a hard life and wasn't a very good one to begin with. But I will be very sad to see it go as I have had so much pleasure out of it. I like editing photos, creating brochures and business cards, researching and learning, writing documents, participating in groups and emailing family overseas. It will be a major blow when it beeps its last.
Three things? Thank goodness it is over. Now I can relax and look forward to tomorrow.
1. Went to dentist for a temporary Crown and was in the chair for an hour. He said that the nerve was very close to the surface and he will take the nerve out on Fri 9th when I have the permanent crown put in. When the local anaesthetic wore off, it was REALLY sore! I hope I cope with it until the 9th.
2. Went to visit Kate and Nigel. My little scooter was parked outside their house when the dog began barking. Kate looked out of the window. A gang of youths had thrown it onto its side and scattered the contents of the basket everywhere and tore off the raincover. The neighbours said the gang had opened their front door and roared at them, waking their baby. I don't think the scooter is damaged but we will need to look at it in daylight. Nigel put it in his car and brought me home.
3. My computer is dying. I use it a lot and am dreading it giving up completely. I'm lucky it worked this time - it kept flickering and opening programs at random then not responding then rebooting. It is quite old and has had a hard life and wasn't a very good one to begin with. But I will be very sad to see it go as I have had so much pleasure out of it. I like editing photos, creating brochures and business cards, researching and learning, writing documents, participating in groups and emailing family overseas. It will be a major blow when it beeps its last.
Three things? Thank goodness it is over. Now I can relax and look forward to tomorrow.
Dinnertime!
Kate and Nigel have decided that they should eat at the table together as a family at least once a day. I think they are right to do that as it creates bonds within the family.
Another great thing is that they read to her every day. Often it is one of her many baby books, but sometimes it is one of their books. Nigel tells me that she enjoys Clive Cussler! She shreds paper but oddly enough never damages a book. I hope she will grow up to be a bookworm like most of us in the family are.
Not a Prisoner
She isn't a prisoner. The bars you see are baby safety gates to stop her getting into dangerous places where she could get hurt, like up the stairs or into the kitchen.
Computer Playing Up
Just to let you know that the computer is playing up quite badly. I suspect it is going to go to the Great MicroHeaven in the Sky very soon, so we might not receive or reply to emails and blogging may be suspended. I thought I'd get this on while I still could. But things really aren't good.
Please sign this Petition
Please sign this petition and ask your friends to sign it too. Thanks.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ME-is-real/
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to get the Health Service
and medical profession to accept the WHO classification of ME/CFS as an
organic neurological disorder and not as a psychosocial syndrome. More
details
Submitted by Konstanze Allsopp – Deadline to sign up by: 22 January 2008
– Signatures: 8
More details from petition creator
The latest DWP Guidelines and PACE are still directing the Health
Service to treat ME suferrers with GET and CBT (a tool used for mental
illnesses) despite the mounting evidence from a vast amount of research
proving that ME is an organic not a psychosomatic disease and that the
treatments forced onto those affected do in fact cause more harm than
good and can worsen the condition of patients. Money should instead be
invested in research into the physiologocal aetiology of ME/CFS and its
treatment. Patients should not be forced into becoming psychiatric cases
or lose their benefits.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ME-is-real/
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to get the Health Service
and medical profession to accept the WHO classification of ME/CFS as an
organic neurological disorder and not as a psychosocial syndrome. More
details
Submitted by Konstanze Allsopp – Deadline to sign up by: 22 January 2008
– Signatures: 8
More details from petition creator
The latest DWP Guidelines and PACE are still directing the Health
Service to treat ME suferrers with GET and CBT (a tool used for mental
illnesses) despite the mounting evidence from a vast amount of research
proving that ME is an organic not a psychosomatic disease and that the
treatments forced onto those affected do in fact cause more harm than
good and can worsen the condition of patients. Money should instead be
invested in research into the physiologocal aetiology of ME/CFS and its
treatment. Patients should not be forced into becoming psychiatric cases
or lose their benefits.
Something to Remember
Hope you enjoy this true story, I don't know who the author is.
THE CAB RIDE
Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. When I arrived at 2:30
a.m., the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor
window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or
twice, wait a minute, and then drive away.
But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as
their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of
danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who
needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself.
So I walked to the door and knocked. "Just a minute", answered a
frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the
floor.
After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80's stood
before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil
pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie.By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.
There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the
counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and
glassware.
"Would you carry my bag out to the car?" she said. I took the suitcase
to the cab, then returned to assist the woman.
She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.
She kept thanking me for my kindness. "It's nothing", I told her. "I
just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated".
"Oh, you're such a good boy", she said. When we got in the cab, she
gave me an address, and then asked, "Could you drive through downtown?"
"It's not the shortest way," I answered quickly.
"Oh, I don't mind," she said. "I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a
hospice". I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. "I don't
have any family left," she continued. "The doctor says I don't have very long." I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.
"What route would you like me to take?" I asked her.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the
building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.
We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived
when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture
warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a
girl. Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or
corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said,
"I'm tired. Let's go now"
We drove in silence to the address she had given me.It was a low
building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.
Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were
solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been
expecting her. I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.
"How much do I owe you?" she asked, reaching into her purse.
"Nothing," I said
"You have to make a living," she answered. "There are other
passengers," I responded. Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her
a hug. She held onto me tightly.
"You gave an old woman a little moment of joy," she said
"Thank you."
I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light.
Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life
I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost
in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that
woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his
shift?
What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven
away?
On a quick review, I don't think that I have done anything more
important in my life.
We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.
But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what
others may consider a small one.
PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT 'YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID,
~BUT~THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.
Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might
as well dance.
THE CAB RIDE
Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. When I arrived at 2:30
a.m., the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor
window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or
twice, wait a minute, and then drive away.
But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as
their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of
danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who
needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself.
So I walked to the door and knocked. "Just a minute", answered a
frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the
floor.
After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80's stood
before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil
pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie.By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.
There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the
counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and
glassware.
"Would you carry my bag out to the car?" she said. I took the suitcase
to the cab, then returned to assist the woman.
She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.
She kept thanking me for my kindness. "It's nothing", I told her. "I
just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated".
"Oh, you're such a good boy", she said. When we got in the cab, she
gave me an address, and then asked, "Could you drive through downtown?"
"It's not the shortest way," I answered quickly.
"Oh, I don't mind," she said. "I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a
hospice". I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. "I don't
have any family left," she continued. "The doctor says I don't have very long." I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.
"What route would you like me to take?" I asked her.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the
building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.
We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived
when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture
warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a
girl. Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or
corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said,
"I'm tired. Let's go now"
We drove in silence to the address she had given me.It was a low
building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.
Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were
solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been
expecting her. I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.
"How much do I owe you?" she asked, reaching into her purse.
"Nothing," I said
"You have to make a living," she answered. "There are other
passengers," I responded. Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her
a hug. She held onto me tightly.
"You gave an old woman a little moment of joy," she said
"Thank you."
I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light.
Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life
I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost
in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that
woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his
shift?
What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven
away?
On a quick review, I don't think that I have done anything more
important in my life.
We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.
But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what
others may consider a small one.
PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT 'YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID,
~BUT~THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.
Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might
as well dance.
Search for answer to an enduring problem
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.1145256.0.0.php
Search for answer to an enduring problem
----------------------------------------
In 2002, Anna Hemmings was at the peak of her athletic prowess: world
kayaking champion. A few months later, she had broken down completely -
utterly, incurably exhausted, unable to paddle even for 10 minutes.
"I couldn't go on. I no longer had the energy," says Hemmings. "It was
strange... I looked normal, yet inside my muscles were aching so badly
that sometimes I couldn't even hold my hands up to wash my hair in the
shower."
Hemmings was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS): crippling
exhaustion which makes even moderate exercise unbearable. The illness, which
affects around 20,000 Scots per year, is mysterious and often untreatable.
It has a number of possible triggers - viral, stress-related, dietary -
which may also indicate an underlying genetic predisposition. But despite
countless experiments, the cause of chronic fatigue has remained elusive.
continued...
Now, in search of an explanation and a cure, scientists are turning their
approach on its head by studying elite athletes who can withstand fatigue
better than others.
Dr Paula Robson-Ansley, of the University of Portsmouth, believes endurance
athletes may have a specific type of gene that makes them less likely to
suffer fatigue.
To test her theory, she travelled to the 2006 Merida TransWales Mountain
Bike Race where competitors covered more than 500km over rugged terrain in
seven days. Each day, Robson-Ansley took blood samples from 80 athletes who
took part, before and after the race. Separately, she took blood samples
from 85 people around the UK who have been diagnosed with CFS.
She is now carrying out a detailed comparison, at the laboratories of
Portsmouth's department of sport and nutrition. "The experiment may help
explain why some people develop chronic debilitating fatigue for no apparent
reason," she says.
Robson-Ansley has a personal interest in the research: her own athletic
career was cut short by a bout of chronic fatigue, sometimes described as
"unexplained underperformance syndrome" (UPS). She was an Olympic-standard
rower, training in preparation for the 1996 games, when her body rebelled.
When runners were injected with messenger-molecul IL-6, they ran markedly
slower
A five-kilometre run made her feel like she had just done a marathon. Forced
to retire from competition, she set her sights on a new goal: understanding
the biological roots of UPS and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Robson-Ansley suspects that endurance athletes may carry a different form of
a gene, compared with CFS sufferers, a form which protects the athletes from
suffering excessive fatigue, during and following endurance exercise.
Her test is focusing on Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a messenger molecule in the
body that is released when the body is under stress; for example, during
infection or illness or when blood sugar levels get low by sending a
"distress signal" to the brain.
During prolonged exercise, IL-6 levels in athletes increase dramatically.
One study found IL-6 levels increasing 100-fold in runners following a
marathon.
In another, when runners were injected with IL-6 before a 10km trial run,
they ran markedly slower. The molecule seems to be sending a warning message
to the brain: "Slow down, conserve energy - the body is fatigued and
recovery time is needed."
So, Robson-Ansley wondered, could it be that endurance athletes have a
different version of the IL-6 gene than sufferers of chronic fatigue
syndrome?
Certainly different versions of IL-6 are known to exist. Previous studies
have found that, during infection, people with one variation of the gene -
"C-type" - produced less IL-6 during infection than those with the "G-type"
version of the gene.
Over the course of the mountain-bike event, blood samples were taken every
morning at 6am before the cyclists completed that day's stage of the race.
IL-6 levels did not change over the seven-day mountain-bike event. But as
the mountain bikers became more tired, the study found marked increases in
the levels of the IL-6 receptor - the receiver molecule that helps send the
IL-6 message to the brain.
This "would heighten the athlete's sensitivity to IL-6 when it is produced",
says Robson-Ansley. Therefore, "it may be that chronic fatigue sufferers
don't necessarily produce more IL-6 but they are more sensitive to its
release," she says.
If her theory is correct, it may one day be possible to treat some types of
CFS with a drug that can block IL-6 receptors in the brain. The good news
is, such a drug already exists: an antibody which binds to the IL-6 receptor
in the brain, de-activating it. In tests, when this antibody was injected
into exhausted athletes, it eliminated the sensation of fatigue - offering
hope that it would work as a therapy.
Another, more worrying scenario, is that unscrupulous athletes might take
IL-6 blockers to train harder, by staving off pain. Robson-Ansley admits
this is a possibility, "but it would probably be dangerous", she says. Drug
cheats who took it as a performance-enhancer could risk damage to the immune
system.
The full results of her study into the IL-6 genes are not expected to be
released until the middle of this year, but she is confident that she is
winning the race to cure chronic fatigue.
"I think we now know that there is a lot more going on in the relationship
between the IL-6 receptor and fatigue than previously thought," she says.
"But one has to be cautious in prescribing the role genes might play in
athletic performance as it is still very early days. The history of sport is
littered with countless examples of athletes who succeed against all kinds
of odds, including physical ones."
Search for answer to an enduring problem
----------------------------------------
In 2002, Anna Hemmings was at the peak of her athletic prowess: world
kayaking champion. A few months later, she had broken down completely -
utterly, incurably exhausted, unable to paddle even for 10 minutes.
"I couldn't go on. I no longer had the energy," says Hemmings. "It was
strange... I looked normal, yet inside my muscles were aching so badly
that sometimes I couldn't even hold my hands up to wash my hair in the
shower."
Hemmings was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS): crippling
exhaustion which makes even moderate exercise unbearable. The illness, which
affects around 20,000 Scots per year, is mysterious and often untreatable.
It has a number of possible triggers - viral, stress-related, dietary -
which may also indicate an underlying genetic predisposition. But despite
countless experiments, the cause of chronic fatigue has remained elusive.
continued...
Now, in search of an explanation and a cure, scientists are turning their
approach on its head by studying elite athletes who can withstand fatigue
better than others.
Dr Paula Robson-Ansley, of the University of Portsmouth, believes endurance
athletes may have a specific type of gene that makes them less likely to
suffer fatigue.
To test her theory, she travelled to the 2006 Merida TransWales Mountain
Bike Race where competitors covered more than 500km over rugged terrain in
seven days. Each day, Robson-Ansley took blood samples from 80 athletes who
took part, before and after the race. Separately, she took blood samples
from 85 people around the UK who have been diagnosed with CFS.
She is now carrying out a detailed comparison, at the laboratories of
Portsmouth's department of sport and nutrition. "The experiment may help
explain why some people develop chronic debilitating fatigue for no apparent
reason," she says.
Robson-Ansley has a personal interest in the research: her own athletic
career was cut short by a bout of chronic fatigue, sometimes described as
"unexplained underperformance syndrome" (UPS). She was an Olympic-standard
rower, training in preparation for the 1996 games, when her body rebelled.
When runners were injected with messenger-molecul IL-6, they ran markedly
slower
A five-kilometre run made her feel like she had just done a marathon. Forced
to retire from competition, she set her sights on a new goal: understanding
the biological roots of UPS and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Robson-Ansley suspects that endurance athletes may carry a different form of
a gene, compared with CFS sufferers, a form which protects the athletes from
suffering excessive fatigue, during and following endurance exercise.
Her test is focusing on Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a messenger molecule in the
body that is released when the body is under stress; for example, during
infection or illness or when blood sugar levels get low by sending a
"distress signal" to the brain.
During prolonged exercise, IL-6 levels in athletes increase dramatically.
One study found IL-6 levels increasing 100-fold in runners following a
marathon.
In another, when runners were injected with IL-6 before a 10km trial run,
they ran markedly slower. The molecule seems to be sending a warning message
to the brain: "Slow down, conserve energy - the body is fatigued and
recovery time is needed."
So, Robson-Ansley wondered, could it be that endurance athletes have a
different version of the IL-6 gene than sufferers of chronic fatigue
syndrome?
Certainly different versions of IL-6 are known to exist. Previous studies
have found that, during infection, people with one variation of the gene -
"C-type" - produced less IL-6 during infection than those with the "G-type"
version of the gene.
Over the course of the mountain-bike event, blood samples were taken every
morning at 6am before the cyclists completed that day's stage of the race.
IL-6 levels did not change over the seven-day mountain-bike event. But as
the mountain bikers became more tired, the study found marked increases in
the levels of the IL-6 receptor - the receiver molecule that helps send the
IL-6 message to the brain.
This "would heighten the athlete's sensitivity to IL-6 when it is produced",
says Robson-Ansley. Therefore, "it may be that chronic fatigue sufferers
don't necessarily produce more IL-6 but they are more sensitive to its
release," she says.
If her theory is correct, it may one day be possible to treat some types of
CFS with a drug that can block IL-6 receptors in the brain. The good news
is, such a drug already exists: an antibody which binds to the IL-6 receptor
in the brain, de-activating it. In tests, when this antibody was injected
into exhausted athletes, it eliminated the sensation of fatigue - offering
hope that it would work as a therapy.
Another, more worrying scenario, is that unscrupulous athletes might take
IL-6 blockers to train harder, by staving off pain. Robson-Ansley admits
this is a possibility, "but it would probably be dangerous", she says. Drug
cheats who took it as a performance-enhancer could risk damage to the immune
system.
The full results of her study into the IL-6 genes are not expected to be
released until the middle of this year, but she is confident that she is
winning the race to cure chronic fatigue.
"I think we now know that there is a lot more going on in the relationship
between the IL-6 receptor and fatigue than previously thought," she says.
"But one has to be cautious in prescribing the role genes might play in
athletic performance as it is still very early days. The history of sport is
littered with countless examples of athletes who succeed against all kinds
of odds, including physical ones."
The scandal of Mrs X Again
I posted a while ago about Mrs X whose husband of 16 years has left her for a younger woman, leaving her with two young children. I also said that she is diabetic but they have only £34 per week to live on. The original post is here: http://meezermagic.blogspot.com/2007/01/another-injustice-with-serious-effects.html#links
Tonight I was asked if I had any spare blankets because they only have summerweight duvets and it is snowing. The lady who told me about this said that the mother was very upset because when she went to get the children up for school, they were blue with cold.
This is ridiculous. How can a family be left in that terrible state in 21stC England, which is a rich nation? Its all very well to say they should apply to Social Services, but the fact of the matter is that Social Services idea of "helping" is to take the children away and put them in fostercare. That is ALL they need while trying to come to terms with the fact that their father has left them.
Mrs X's diabetes is unstable because she gives what food there is to her children. She certainly can't afford heating. I have asked some people I'm in touch with on Freecycle to see if anyone has some spare warm bedding they are willing to donate. I've got a warm blanket that might help.
Lord, have Mercy on that little Family!
Tonight I was asked if I had any spare blankets because they only have summerweight duvets and it is snowing. The lady who told me about this said that the mother was very upset because when she went to get the children up for school, they were blue with cold.
This is ridiculous. How can a family be left in that terrible state in 21stC England, which is a rich nation? Its all very well to say they should apply to Social Services, but the fact of the matter is that Social Services idea of "helping" is to take the children away and put them in fostercare. That is ALL they need while trying to come to terms with the fact that their father has left them.
Mrs X's diabetes is unstable because she gives what food there is to her children. She certainly can't afford heating. I have asked some people I'm in touch with on Freecycle to see if anyone has some spare warm bedding they are willing to donate. I've got a warm blanket that might help.
Lord, have Mercy on that little Family!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Poor Fat Jack!!
My Mum had taken her Oriental cat Jenny to the Vet for a feline Asthma check and we left her in my lounge with the dog for company while we went to Dover to see Caelyn and Nigel. Being Oriental with a Siamese voice, she yelled her head off for a while. Poor Jack was very alarmed and I could see he was worrying about someone else to compete for food with.
When I got back, Michelle said she had a sore throat. I asked her if she wanted the prawns I had left for her and she said she didn't so I thought of a good way to reassure Jack that the food position was still OK. He loved them! Madam Spikkeldy turned her nose up but Jack really enjoyed his.
Michelle protested about Jack having the prawns. I pointed out to her that I had offered them to her first and she declined. So there were still some in the packet and I took them to her and when she said again that she didn't want them, I gave them to my furry friend who DID appreciate them. For some reason my dear daughter thought I was mad! But why shouldn't Jack have them? He enjoyed them so much. His coat is beautifully glossy, isn't it?
Gummy's Phone
Every time Wendy sees my Mum, she has a lot of fun playing with her phone.
We had to leave early because of the snow and it was hard to say 'goodbye' to her.
My mum's car stalled going downhill on the way back, and she hadn't made any sort of driving error. I mentioned it to Sean who had also had an automatic Honda and he said his car used to play up in snow and that I should warn my mother not to make that journey again in snowy or icy conditions. He thinks cars with manual gears are better in those conditions.
Killing herself laughing
This little lassie has such a sunny temperament and she loves interacting with people. She is very sociable and enjoys the company of other babies in the Mothers and Toddlers group.
A New Game
The new game involves her offering you something then snatching it back with a delighted chortle. Little minx is learning to tease!
Chickenpox News
My mum and I went to visit Kate and Nigel this evening. Wendy still has spots, but she is back to her normal happy self. She was very vocal, giggly and active. They had to cut her fringe because she has pox pustules on her eyelids and she wouldn't let them tie her hair up. In some of the photos she almost looks Oriental because of the swollen eyelids. She is very sweet, but her mum was very tired and demoralised. Caelyn has just been under too much strain. Their house is very cold - it was snowing today - and is impossible to heat because of the draughty cavernous cellar. Being cold yourself is one thing but when your sick baby has to be cold too, it is very upsetting for parents love their baby and want the best for her.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Dr Greensmith's letter to The Times
Sir,
M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) sufferers should feel more optimistic than ever that
researchers will find a solution to this complex neurological illness now that they are
talking about brain, drugs and genes studies rather than hysteria and depression and
that doctors will now accept that M.E. never was "all in the mind" (Fatigue syndrome
is not all in the mind, The Times, 22 January 2007).
But they would be more confident that the bad old days are truly behind us if at least
as many £millions were to be spent on biomedical research as are currently being
poured into one management technique, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), developed
for and used to treat psychiatric illnesses that is of, at best, limited value and, another,
Graded Exercise Treatment (GET), which may be harmful, both of which are mostly
carried out under the supervision of psychiatrists or clinical psychologists, in psychiatric
departments of hospitals.
Yours sincerely
drjohngreensmith@mefreeforall.org
Dr John H Greensmith
ME Free For All.org
M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) sufferers should feel more optimistic than ever that
researchers will find a solution to this complex neurological illness now that they are
talking about brain, drugs and genes studies rather than hysteria and depression and
that doctors will now accept that M.E. never was "all in the mind" (Fatigue syndrome
is not all in the mind, The Times, 22 January 2007).
But they would be more confident that the bad old days are truly behind us if at least
as many £millions were to be spent on biomedical research as are currently being
poured into one management technique, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), developed
for and used to treat psychiatric illnesses that is of, at best, limited value and, another,
Graded Exercise Treatment (GET), which may be harmful, both of which are mostly
carried out under the supervision of psychiatrists or clinical psychologists, in psychiatric
departments of hospitals.
Yours sincerely
drjohngreensmith@mefreeforall.org
Dr John H Greensmith
ME Free For All.org
Article in The Times
Fatigue syndrome is not all in the mind
Peta Bee
Changes in the brain and cell activity may be the key to treating CFS
In the Eighties it was known as yuppie flu, a catch-all term for an undefined illness that was seemingly the consequence of a high-flying, high-achieving lifestyle. Its symptoms — exhaustion, joint pain, sleep problems, impaired memory, inability to concentrate — were real to sufferers but questioned by a medical profession that largely considered them imaginary and dismissed the afflicted as malingerers or hypochondriacs.
Yet it hasn’t gone away. Around 250,000 people in the UK are estimated to suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), as it has since become known. Only now is research offering proof of physiological under- pinnings to a condition that was written off by many as a mysterious affliction of the psyche.
A campaign launched this month by the American Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is typical of the change surrounding the syndrome; its aim is to instil in both patients and physicians that this is a disease to be taken seriously. It comes five years after the UK Government’s Chief Medical Officer declared it a genuine chronic illness and its classification by the World Health Organisation as a neurological disorder.
Characteristically, these medical organisations agree: CFS begins with routine flu-like symptoms, but can result in years of chronic, painful fatigue that, crucially, is not improved by bed rest. It can affect anyone of any age — there are estimates that 25,000 children and teenagers in Britain have the condition. A recent survey by the charity Action for ME suggested that 55,000 people are so badly affected that they are either bedbound or housebound.
Yet with no recognised cause, diagnosis and treatment, the illness has remained problematic. Experts cannot even agree on what to call it — most widely known as CFS, it is also called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or post-viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS).
With emerging evidence of its biological basis, however, the way CFS is viewed is changing. “There is no doubt that this is a genuinely physically disabling condition, which is not in the mind,” says Dr Charles Shepherd, medical director of the ME Association. “We have long known that many people, although not all, initially get it after a viral infection, such as the Epstein-Barr virus that causes glandular fever. But in the past few years the medical profession’s understanding of the biological elements of the illness has progressed considerably.” According to the CDC, researchers have analysed the activity levels of 20,000 genes in people with CFS and found abnormalities in genes triggering the brain activity that mediates a stress response.
Anthony Komaroff, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a spokesman for the CDC campaign, says that brain functioning and cell energy metabolism appear impaired in those with CFS. Dr Nancy Klimas, a researcher at the University of Miami School of Medicine and president of the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and other investigators have shown that different types of cells within the immune system are abnormal either in number or in their capacity to function in these patients.
Another significant advance came last summer when researchers at Georgetown University Medical Centre suggested that CFS may be rooted in distinct neurological abnormalities that can be medically tested. In a paper published by the Neurology Journal, Professor James Baranjuk reported that patients with the condition have a set of proteins in their spinal-cord fluid that were not detected in healthy subjects.
These proteins, Baranjuk proposed, might give insight into the causes of the illness and could be used as markers to diagnose it. “For years patients with CFS have suffered with painful symptoms for which there is no blood test, diagnosable physical condition, or any method for doctors to measure improvement,” he says. “Our research provides initial evidence that it may be a legitimate neurological disease and that at least part of the pathology involves the central nervous system.”
Shepherd welcomes the glut of new studies into causes, claiming that any new knowledge about CFS can only help to develop better treatments. “To date, most patients are prescribed a graded exercise programme to enable them to manage their lifestyles better,” he says. “Pacing — a system in which patients are prescribed physical activity in short bouts — is often effective as long as it is carefully controlled and individually tailored.”
Some physicians advocate a more aggressive exercise programme — “a sort of push through the pain barrier approach” — that Shepherd says “is highly controversial and not recommended by ME charities. Around 50 per cent of people trying a more intensive exercise recovery programme experience a significant relapse.”
But, equally, Shepherd says “the way out of CFS is not to lie in bed”.
Currently, he says, prognosis is “pretty bleak and a full recovery is unlikely. People with CFS generally fall into one of three categories: those who are severely affected (around 25 per cent) are wheelchair or house-bound; the majority find that their condition stabilises, albeit in a remitting fashion, to some extent after one or two years; only a minority get back to ‘reason ably good health’.”
Around 77 per cent of sufferers in the UK have lost their jobs because of the illness at an annual cost to the country of £6.4 billion. Last year CFS was given as the official cause of death for the first time in the UK when a coroner in Brighton recorded the death of a 32-year-old woman as acute aneuric renal failure (failure to produce urine) because of dehydration as a result of CFS, from which she had suffered for six years.
All of which make the promising signs that some drug treatments might help even more welcome.
Earlier this month Professors Jose Montoya and Andreas Kogelnik, of Stanford University, announced that they were to begin a major study on the drug Valcyte (valganciclovir), an antiviral medication that is often used to treat herpes- related diseases.
During a three-year pilot trial the researchers revealed that 21 of 25 ME patients with symptoms related to the herpes virus responded to Valcyte with significant improvement. Those who responded to the drug had developed ME after an initial flu-like illness, while the non-responders had suffered no initial flu.
At St George’s Medical School, London, Dr Jonathan Kerr is planning trials on the well-established drug interferon beta to see if it can restore an imbalance of genes in CFS patients. “We’ve found that the genes in patients’ white blood cells — a key part of the immune system — are switched on and off in an abnormal fashion,” he says. “The drug boosts the immune system by enhancing the activity of natural killer cells, which fight viruses. Since viruses are believed to play a role in triggering CFS in many people, beta interferon might clear the infection and help them to shake it off.”
Despite the peak of scientific interest in CFS, it remains a subject of much debate. Only last November, an allparty group of British MPs, chaired by Dr Ian Gibson, who was formerly chair of the Science and Technology Select Committee, launched an attack on the medical establishment for clinging to its belief that CFS is “all in the mind”. It claimed that a bias against research into its physical cause exists and criticised the Medical Research Council for investigating only psychological causes of the illness. Indeed, many studies persist in linking CFS to psychological triggers. A Miami University study in the Archives of General Psychiatry recently cited childhood trauma as a risk factor after assessments of 43 people with the syndrome found that they reported a much higher incidence of trauma, depression and anxiety when they were children. Those who recalled a troubled youth were said to be eight times more at risk of getting CFS than their peers.
Klimas says that even its name belittles the extent to which it debilitates patients’ lives. “If it were called chronic neuroinflammatory disease, then people would understand it,” she says. “Until today nobody’s been willing to change the name, but now there’s proof that inflammation occurs in the brain and there’s evidence that patients with this illness experience a level of disability that’s equal to that of patients with late-stage Aids, patients undergoing chemotherapy, or patients with multiple sclerosis.”
What experts are most keen to change is the public perception that CFS affects those with nothing else to worry about.
“This is not an illness that people can imagine they have. It’s not psychological,” says Komaroff. “That debate, which has raged for more than 20 years, should be over now.
Peta Bee
Changes in the brain and cell activity may be the key to treating CFS
In the Eighties it was known as yuppie flu, a catch-all term for an undefined illness that was seemingly the consequence of a high-flying, high-achieving lifestyle. Its symptoms — exhaustion, joint pain, sleep problems, impaired memory, inability to concentrate — were real to sufferers but questioned by a medical profession that largely considered them imaginary and dismissed the afflicted as malingerers or hypochondriacs.
Yet it hasn’t gone away. Around 250,000 people in the UK are estimated to suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), as it has since become known. Only now is research offering proof of physiological under- pinnings to a condition that was written off by many as a mysterious affliction of the psyche.
A campaign launched this month by the American Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is typical of the change surrounding the syndrome; its aim is to instil in both patients and physicians that this is a disease to be taken seriously. It comes five years after the UK Government’s Chief Medical Officer declared it a genuine chronic illness and its classification by the World Health Organisation as a neurological disorder.
Characteristically, these medical organisations agree: CFS begins with routine flu-like symptoms, but can result in years of chronic, painful fatigue that, crucially, is not improved by bed rest. It can affect anyone of any age — there are estimates that 25,000 children and teenagers in Britain have the condition. A recent survey by the charity Action for ME suggested that 55,000 people are so badly affected that they are either bedbound or housebound.
Yet with no recognised cause, diagnosis and treatment, the illness has remained problematic. Experts cannot even agree on what to call it — most widely known as CFS, it is also called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or post-viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS).
With emerging evidence of its biological basis, however, the way CFS is viewed is changing. “There is no doubt that this is a genuinely physically disabling condition, which is not in the mind,” says Dr Charles Shepherd, medical director of the ME Association. “We have long known that many people, although not all, initially get it after a viral infection, such as the Epstein-Barr virus that causes glandular fever. But in the past few years the medical profession’s understanding of the biological elements of the illness has progressed considerably.” According to the CDC, researchers have analysed the activity levels of 20,000 genes in people with CFS and found abnormalities in genes triggering the brain activity that mediates a stress response.
Anthony Komaroff, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a spokesman for the CDC campaign, says that brain functioning and cell energy metabolism appear impaired in those with CFS. Dr Nancy Klimas, a researcher at the University of Miami School of Medicine and president of the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and other investigators have shown that different types of cells within the immune system are abnormal either in number or in their capacity to function in these patients.
Another significant advance came last summer when researchers at Georgetown University Medical Centre suggested that CFS may be rooted in distinct neurological abnormalities that can be medically tested. In a paper published by the Neurology Journal, Professor James Baranjuk reported that patients with the condition have a set of proteins in their spinal-cord fluid that were not detected in healthy subjects.
These proteins, Baranjuk proposed, might give insight into the causes of the illness and could be used as markers to diagnose it. “For years patients with CFS have suffered with painful symptoms for which there is no blood test, diagnosable physical condition, or any method for doctors to measure improvement,” he says. “Our research provides initial evidence that it may be a legitimate neurological disease and that at least part of the pathology involves the central nervous system.”
Shepherd welcomes the glut of new studies into causes, claiming that any new knowledge about CFS can only help to develop better treatments. “To date, most patients are prescribed a graded exercise programme to enable them to manage their lifestyles better,” he says. “Pacing — a system in which patients are prescribed physical activity in short bouts — is often effective as long as it is carefully controlled and individually tailored.”
Some physicians advocate a more aggressive exercise programme — “a sort of push through the pain barrier approach” — that Shepherd says “is highly controversial and not recommended by ME charities. Around 50 per cent of people trying a more intensive exercise recovery programme experience a significant relapse.”
But, equally, Shepherd says “the way out of CFS is not to lie in bed”.
Currently, he says, prognosis is “pretty bleak and a full recovery is unlikely. People with CFS generally fall into one of three categories: those who are severely affected (around 25 per cent) are wheelchair or house-bound; the majority find that their condition stabilises, albeit in a remitting fashion, to some extent after one or two years; only a minority get back to ‘reason ably good health’.”
Around 77 per cent of sufferers in the UK have lost their jobs because of the illness at an annual cost to the country of £6.4 billion. Last year CFS was given as the official cause of death for the first time in the UK when a coroner in Brighton recorded the death of a 32-year-old woman as acute aneuric renal failure (failure to produce urine) because of dehydration as a result of CFS, from which she had suffered for six years.
All of which make the promising signs that some drug treatments might help even more welcome.
Earlier this month Professors Jose Montoya and Andreas Kogelnik, of Stanford University, announced that they were to begin a major study on the drug Valcyte (valganciclovir), an antiviral medication that is often used to treat herpes- related diseases.
During a three-year pilot trial the researchers revealed that 21 of 25 ME patients with symptoms related to the herpes virus responded to Valcyte with significant improvement. Those who responded to the drug had developed ME after an initial flu-like illness, while the non-responders had suffered no initial flu.
At St George’s Medical School, London, Dr Jonathan Kerr is planning trials on the well-established drug interferon beta to see if it can restore an imbalance of genes in CFS patients. “We’ve found that the genes in patients’ white blood cells — a key part of the immune system — are switched on and off in an abnormal fashion,” he says. “The drug boosts the immune system by enhancing the activity of natural killer cells, which fight viruses. Since viruses are believed to play a role in triggering CFS in many people, beta interferon might clear the infection and help them to shake it off.”
Despite the peak of scientific interest in CFS, it remains a subject of much debate. Only last November, an allparty group of British MPs, chaired by Dr Ian Gibson, who was formerly chair of the Science and Technology Select Committee, launched an attack on the medical establishment for clinging to its belief that CFS is “all in the mind”. It claimed that a bias against research into its physical cause exists and criticised the Medical Research Council for investigating only psychological causes of the illness. Indeed, many studies persist in linking CFS to psychological triggers. A Miami University study in the Archives of General Psychiatry recently cited childhood trauma as a risk factor after assessments of 43 people with the syndrome found that they reported a much higher incidence of trauma, depression and anxiety when they were children. Those who recalled a troubled youth were said to be eight times more at risk of getting CFS than their peers.
Klimas says that even its name belittles the extent to which it debilitates patients’ lives. “If it were called chronic neuroinflammatory disease, then people would understand it,” she says. “Until today nobody’s been willing to change the name, but now there’s proof that inflammation occurs in the brain and there’s evidence that patients with this illness experience a level of disability that’s equal to that of patients with late-stage Aids, patients undergoing chemotherapy, or patients with multiple sclerosis.”
What experts are most keen to change is the public perception that CFS affects those with nothing else to worry about.
“This is not an illness that people can imagine they have. It’s not psychological,” says Komaroff. “That debate, which has raged for more than 20 years, should be over now.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Waggon and Horses
The Waggon and Horses pub is about 200 metres away from Knapps Farm, and they do really good food there. It is an ancient Stagecoaching inn. We were asking how old it was and began chatting with the owner.
He told us that they asked if they could close for 2 weeks to make some alterations, and although that sounds reasonable, it wasn't as simple as that.
There is an ancient law that specifies that Stage Coaching Inns HAVE to have a bale of hay for the horses and a pint of ale for the driver 24 hours a day, which means it is illegal to close it. Of course they got permission in the end because that law is no longer applied even though it has never been repealed. They still have the stables out the back and were able to assure the Authorities that there was hay and ale in there for any tired horses and drivers.
England is a wonderful place!
He told us that they asked if they could close for 2 weeks to make some alterations, and although that sounds reasonable, it wasn't as simple as that.
There is an ancient law that specifies that Stage Coaching Inns HAVE to have a bale of hay for the horses and a pint of ale for the driver 24 hours a day, which means it is illegal to close it. Of course they got permission in the end because that law is no longer applied even though it has never been repealed. They still have the stables out the back and were able to assure the Authorities that there was hay and ale in there for any tired horses and drivers.
England is a wonderful place!
Knapps Farm at Stratton-on-the-Fosse
We booked in to Knapps Farm on a Bed and Breakfast basis as it would have been too much to travel back to Kent after Dom Daniel's funeral. It was fantastic.
It is on the market now and the lady who runs it has always lived within a 5 mile radius of the place and she has never stayed anywhere where they needed to shut the curtains. Avril and her husband Pete want to move to Cornwall, to be near the grandchildren, but it is going to be a huge change. They have chickens, ducks, geese and cows and it is in a peaceful beautiful spot. I'd love to live there! Their B and B has a high star quality rating and well deserved it is too - the place is spotless, comfortable, friendly and with an excellent breakfast.
Avril and Peter have 5 cats, all lovely, but the most impressive is the grand 19yr old gentleman. In the last year, this geriatric 19yr old cat has caught no less than 8 rabbits. That is seriously impressive!
Farewell to a great Man
On Friday, Sean and I went to Downside for Dom Daniel's funeral. It was beautiful and dignified and we were glad we went. After someone has died, everyone says how wonderful they were and often that is a huge distortion of the truth and it detracts from it when someone truly wonderful dies.
Dom Daniel was one of these - a gentle man with twinkling eyes who had such a great sweetness of spirit. At the Eulogy I heard about his academic qualifications and the important offices he had held. I certainly believe that they are true, but for me his most memorable quality was his gentle sweetness of spirit, his kindliness and humour.
His Obituary in the Daily Telegraph can be seen here.
May he rest in peace and may his brothers be comforted in their loss.
Dom Daniel was one of these - a gentle man with twinkling eyes who had such a great sweetness of spirit. At the Eulogy I heard about his academic qualifications and the important offices he had held. I certainly believe that they are true, but for me his most memorable quality was his gentle sweetness of spirit, his kindliness and humour.
His Obituary in the Daily Telegraph can be seen here.
May he rest in peace and may his brothers be comforted in their loss.
Poor little Baby!
Kate and Nigel needed a bit of respite last night as Wendy has chickenpox - for real this time! She couldn't even cry, her throat was so sore. She wasn't here all that long, but she was developing new spots in front of our eyes. She had lots in her hair and in her ear, but the worst one was on her eyelid. She was obviously feeling grotty, but tried to smile a bit - she's such a 'game' little thing. Her trying to be brave and trying to be cheerful was heartbreaking. We felt soooooooo sorry for her!
I will go to Dover to look after her a bit this week so that her parents can get some rest. They are very good and very patient but there comes a point when enough is enough. We would rather help before they get to the end of their tether. Thats what families are all about.
Friday, January 19, 2007
A little light relief
I've noticed that my recent posts have been full of ranting and raving so I decided to post a couple of silly pics to lighten the tone a bit. A good idea, especially as I feel another rant coming up.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Another Injustice with Serious Effects
After posting about the S.D.A Appeals Tribunal, a woman contacted me.
She said that Mrs X 's husband of 16 years had left her for a younger woman. Mrs X has two young children who are playing up in response to their father leaving, and she is finding it hard to cope with their behaviour even though she understands it. .The younger child is teething and is especially miserable. Children who cannot verbalise distress act it out, and its not great with a stressed out mother who is ill with uncontrolled diabetes.
Her husband (their divorce is not yet final) is not paying Child Support and the Child Support Agency knows that, but they believe - quite rightly - that he ought to be paying, so they deduct from her Children's Allowance what they think he ought to be paying.
This means that Mrs X and her children have only £34 per week to live on. Her diabetes is very unstable and she is suffering frequent hypoglycaemic attacks, mainly because she can't afford to eat. Stress is playing its role too, of course, but her health would be greatly improved with an adequate diet. The professional health care workers she comes into contact with tell her repeatedly to eat properly and she does not dare tell them that she can't afford to because of the risk of having her children taken away and put into foster care. Unfortunately, in England there is a real and strong probability of that happening even though it costs hundreds of pounds per week to have a foster placement for a child. It would be far cheaper and much more satisfactory for the Authorities to give even a quarter of that amount to keep the family together. They have been through enough. The kids have lost their dad, and losing Mum and their own home would have severe long term effects on them, not to mention the risk to their mother.
A marriage breakup is hard to bear even for healthy people with adequate food and heating. This vulnerable family is near breaking point. Children need food and so do diabetics. I advised them to write to their MP urgently. This situation is completely ridiculous.
She said that Mrs X 's husband of 16 years had left her for a younger woman. Mrs X has two young children who are playing up in response to their father leaving, and she is finding it hard to cope with their behaviour even though she understands it. .The younger child is teething and is especially miserable. Children who cannot verbalise distress act it out, and its not great with a stressed out mother who is ill with uncontrolled diabetes.
Her husband (their divorce is not yet final) is not paying Child Support and the Child Support Agency knows that, but they believe - quite rightly - that he ought to be paying, so they deduct from her Children's Allowance what they think he ought to be paying.
This means that Mrs X and her children have only £34 per week to live on. Her diabetes is very unstable and she is suffering frequent hypoglycaemic attacks, mainly because she can't afford to eat. Stress is playing its role too, of course, but her health would be greatly improved with an adequate diet. The professional health care workers she comes into contact with tell her repeatedly to eat properly and she does not dare tell them that she can't afford to because of the risk of having her children taken away and put into foster care. Unfortunately, in England there is a real and strong probability of that happening even though it costs hundreds of pounds per week to have a foster placement for a child. It would be far cheaper and much more satisfactory for the Authorities to give even a quarter of that amount to keep the family together. They have been through enough. The kids have lost their dad, and losing Mum and their own home would have severe long term effects on them, not to mention the risk to their mother.
A marriage breakup is hard to bear even for healthy people with adequate food and heating. This vulnerable family is near breaking point. Children need food and so do diabetics. I advised them to write to their MP urgently. This situation is completely ridiculous.
An old lady was driving down the Highway
An old lady was driving on the highway. Sitting on the side of the highway waiting to catch speeding drivers, a State Police Officer sees a car puttering along at 22 MPH. He thinks to himself, this driver is just as dangerous as a speeder!" So he turns on his lights and pulls the driver over. Approaching the car, he notices that there are five old ladies -- two in the front seat and three in the back -- wide eyed and white as ghosts. The driver, obviously confused, says to him, Officer, I don't understand, I was doing exactly the speed limit! What seems to be the problem?" Ma'am," the officer replies, you weren't speeding, but you should know that driving slower than the speed limit can also be a danger to other drivers." Slower than the speed limit? No sir, I was doing the speed limit exactly... Twenty-two miles an hour!" the old woman says a bit proudly. The State Police officer, trying to contain a chuckle explains to her that 22" was the route number, not the speed limit. A bit embarrassed, the woman grinned and thanked the officer for pointing out her error. But before I let you go, Ma'am, I have to ask... Is everyone in this car OK? These women seem awfully shaken and they haven't muttered a single peep this whole time," the officer asks. Oh, they'll be all right in a minute officer. We just got off Route 119."
Doctors shamefully bullied into Injustice
Doctors who sign too many people off sick or who support too many Incapacity Benefit claims are to be "named and shamed" as part of a new Benefit Fraud crackdown. What cheerful news! Anyway, here are a few places you can read the story.
Independent
Blair demanded incapacity benefit payments be cut to the bone, that employers should be given the right of appeal against an employee who was signed off as sick by a doctor, and that doctors writing many such notes should be audited and named and shamed as if they deserved to be put in the 21st-century stocks. He requested, too, the stepping up of means- testing for the better-off disabled, and that those on benefits should be paid partly in vouchers, redeemable only against job-training schemes.
People
DODGY doctors who hand out too many sick-notes are to be named and shamed in an official crackdown.
Sickies currently cost British industry a staggering £13 billion A YEAR.
And in a bid to plug the drain, Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton is planning to draw up a league table of GPs who sign off the most patients.
The worst offenders will then be investigated over the way they dole out the certificates.
And government snoops - known as "employment advisers" - will patrol surgeries looking for patients who have been allowed to swing the lead too easily.
A top Whitehall source said: "We need incentives to encourage GPs to get their patients back to work."
Sunday Mirror
DOCTORS who dish out too many sick notes face being named and shamed under a new government plan.
Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton is considering a "league of shame" which would infuriate medics. The clampdown follows research which shows some doctors issue more sick notes than others.
The move is aimed at slashing the annual payment of £13billion in sickness benefits to 2.7 million people. Ministers hope it will help cut the number of people on incapacity benefit by one million within 10 years.
A source close to Mr Hutton said: "We want the medical profession to take on much more of a role in helping get people back to work.
"The message is, 'Work is good for you'. It can help reduce the feelings of depression which many people on sickness benefit suffer from."
Doctors who sign the most sick notes would be named and then face a possible inquiry.
But critics fear ministers will use the shake-up to force thousands of sick people back to work. People claiming incapacity benefit receive from £59.20 to £70.05 - rising to £78.50 a week if they're ill for a long time.
Ministers plan to replace the benefit with a new Employment and Support Allowance by 2008. Claimants - except the most severely disabled - would have to attend "work-focused" interviews or risk having their benefits cut.
Independent
Blair demanded incapacity benefit payments be cut to the bone, that employers should be given the right of appeal against an employee who was signed off as sick by a doctor, and that doctors writing many such notes should be audited and named and shamed as if they deserved to be put in the 21st-century stocks. He requested, too, the stepping up of means- testing for the better-off disabled, and that those on benefits should be paid partly in vouchers, redeemable only against job-training schemes.
People
DODGY doctors who hand out too many sick-notes are to be named and shamed in an official crackdown.
Sickies currently cost British industry a staggering £13 billion A YEAR.
And in a bid to plug the drain, Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton is planning to draw up a league table of GPs who sign off the most patients.
The worst offenders will then be investigated over the way they dole out the certificates.
And government snoops - known as "employment advisers" - will patrol surgeries looking for patients who have been allowed to swing the lead too easily.
A top Whitehall source said: "We need incentives to encourage GPs to get their patients back to work."
Sunday Mirror
DOCTORS who dish out too many sick notes face being named and shamed under a new government plan.
Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton is considering a "league of shame" which would infuriate medics. The clampdown follows research which shows some doctors issue more sick notes than others.
The move is aimed at slashing the annual payment of £13billion in sickness benefits to 2.7 million people. Ministers hope it will help cut the number of people on incapacity benefit by one million within 10 years.
A source close to Mr Hutton said: "We want the medical profession to take on much more of a role in helping get people back to work.
"The message is, 'Work is good for you'. It can help reduce the feelings of depression which many people on sickness benefit suffer from."
Doctors who sign the most sick notes would be named and then face a possible inquiry.
But critics fear ministers will use the shake-up to force thousands of sick people back to work. People claiming incapacity benefit receive from £59.20 to £70.05 - rising to £78.50 a week if they're ill for a long time.
Ministers plan to replace the benefit with a new Employment and Support Allowance by 2008. Claimants - except the most severely disabled - would have to attend "work-focused" interviews or risk having their benefits cut.
For Shame!!! The injustice!
Jane had to go to an Appeal Tribunal to fight for a Severe Disablement Allowance which was exhausting and draining. Her Appeal was turned down because she is "only" 70% disabled, and to qualify for this benefit which is being phased out, she has to be 80% disabled.
She is gutted because she felt she was not listened to and not believed.
She had hoped to buy a new wheelchair with the S.D.A benefit as her old one isn't very good any more.
The UK government is trying to cut down its sickness benefits bill, and the media are doing a good job of portraying claimants of sickness benefits as lazy, idle, dishonest people trying to cheat the system. While it is true that a small minority are cheats, most people are no such thing. That doesn't stop everyone being tarred with the same brush though and it makes it very difficult for genuine claimants to get the allowances they need and deserve.
This is a grave injustice. It has almost become routine for sickness benefits to be refused initially, forcing people to go through a lengthy and costly Appeal process which if successful, could make the difference between being able to replace a worn out wheelchair and not being able to. Many people drop the Appeal because they feel too ill to fight for what they need, and of course that saves the Government money.
Think for a minute what a wheelchair means to a disabled person. Think for a moment how you use your legs round the house. You can go to the kitchen, bathroom, computer or anywhere else whenever you choose, without having to wait for a visitor to do it for you. Imagine needing a glass of water and being physically incapable of getting it yourself. Imagine coping with long modern hospital corridors feeling deathly ill and not being able to walk to get to your clinic.
Like many seriously ill people, Jane is entirely alone during the day. Whatever she needs has to wait for her husband to return from work at 18h30. Think of being thirsty at 11am and knowing you were going to have to wait for 7 and a half more hours before getting a drink. These sickness benefits are intended to pay for people to come in and give the sick person some "Care" and the other part of the benefit is intended to pay for Mobility needs.
I'm the first person to agree than Benefit Cheats should be dealt with sternly but the benefits are meagre at best and to the genuinely ill, can be a lifeline. Why do seriously ill people have to jump through so many hoops? Jane is devastated, humiliated and demoralised.
An injustice has been done. What makes it worse is that doctors who sign people off work are to be "named and shamed". Some people are liars and cheats but most claimants are genuinely ill. I have a friend Audrey who has severe Multiple Sclerosis. She has to be tube fed as she can't swallow, she can hardly talk, she can no longer read because her eyes are affected, she can't bath or toilet herself. MS either stays the same for a while or it gets worse. It never gets better. Yet the Benefits Agency has cut her Benefits right down to £57 per week, which pays her electricity, gas, water, TV licence, food, and phone. Out of that she is supposed to pay a Carer to come and help her every day. Its impossible! And this is a woman who worked as a Registered Nursing Sister for many years. She has paid her National Insurance contributions. Is it right that she should have to live in fear and financial want after contributing so much to society? If she can't see, eat, talk or toilet herself, how on earth is she expected to be able to work??????????????
The mind boggles!
She is gutted because she felt she was not listened to and not believed.
She had hoped to buy a new wheelchair with the S.D.A benefit as her old one isn't very good any more.
The UK government is trying to cut down its sickness benefits bill, and the media are doing a good job of portraying claimants of sickness benefits as lazy, idle, dishonest people trying to cheat the system. While it is true that a small minority are cheats, most people are no such thing. That doesn't stop everyone being tarred with the same brush though and it makes it very difficult for genuine claimants to get the allowances they need and deserve.
This is a grave injustice. It has almost become routine for sickness benefits to be refused initially, forcing people to go through a lengthy and costly Appeal process which if successful, could make the difference between being able to replace a worn out wheelchair and not being able to. Many people drop the Appeal because they feel too ill to fight for what they need, and of course that saves the Government money.
Think for a minute what a wheelchair means to a disabled person. Think for a moment how you use your legs round the house. You can go to the kitchen, bathroom, computer or anywhere else whenever you choose, without having to wait for a visitor to do it for you. Imagine needing a glass of water and being physically incapable of getting it yourself. Imagine coping with long modern hospital corridors feeling deathly ill and not being able to walk to get to your clinic.
Like many seriously ill people, Jane is entirely alone during the day. Whatever she needs has to wait for her husband to return from work at 18h30. Think of being thirsty at 11am and knowing you were going to have to wait for 7 and a half more hours before getting a drink. These sickness benefits are intended to pay for people to come in and give the sick person some "Care" and the other part of the benefit is intended to pay for Mobility needs.
I'm the first person to agree than Benefit Cheats should be dealt with sternly but the benefits are meagre at best and to the genuinely ill, can be a lifeline. Why do seriously ill people have to jump through so many hoops? Jane is devastated, humiliated and demoralised.
An injustice has been done. What makes it worse is that doctors who sign people off work are to be "named and shamed". Some people are liars and cheats but most claimants are genuinely ill. I have a friend Audrey who has severe Multiple Sclerosis. She has to be tube fed as she can't swallow, she can hardly talk, she can no longer read because her eyes are affected, she can't bath or toilet herself. MS either stays the same for a while or it gets worse. It never gets better. Yet the Benefits Agency has cut her Benefits right down to £57 per week, which pays her electricity, gas, water, TV licence, food, and phone. Out of that she is supposed to pay a Carer to come and help her every day. Its impossible! And this is a woman who worked as a Registered Nursing Sister for many years. She has paid her National Insurance contributions. Is it right that she should have to live in fear and financial want after contributing so much to society? If she can't see, eat, talk or toilet herself, how on earth is she expected to be able to work??????????????
The mind boggles!
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Fat Jack and the Vet
Just got back from the Vet.
She says she is worried about him as she thinks he might have trouble with his liver.
She had trouble listening to his bowel sounds as he wouldn't stop purring!
He is such a nice cat and so friendly. He was rubbing against her and headbutting her.
I'm sure all of her patients aren't as friendly as that.
We are all hoping that it is just a case of gastroenteritis. She gave him an injection and told me to starve him for 24 hours, then give him small frequent meals of boiled chicken and rice. If that doesn't work, he has to go back and she will admit him to the Lord Whiskey Clinic for X-Rays and further tests.
She gave me a syringe so that if he stops eating and drinking I can liquidise his food and squirt it in his mouth until I can get him to Lord Whiskey.
I love Fat Father Jack dearly - he is my beloved little Podge and even though I know he is getting old - he is about 14 - I don't want anything to happen to him! I'm hoping like mad that it is just a simple case of gastro. She asked if he was a hunter, and he is, so maybe he ate something that wasn't good for him. He isn't acting or looking sick, it is just projectile vomiting after every meal. Then he looks for more food. He is drinking OK and looking at the litterbox, his output is normal and OK.
Please get well soon, Jack.
She says she is worried about him as she thinks he might have trouble with his liver.
She had trouble listening to his bowel sounds as he wouldn't stop purring!
He is such a nice cat and so friendly. He was rubbing against her and headbutting her.
I'm sure all of her patients aren't as friendly as that.
We are all hoping that it is just a case of gastroenteritis. She gave him an injection and told me to starve him for 24 hours, then give him small frequent meals of boiled chicken and rice. If that doesn't work, he has to go back and she will admit him to the Lord Whiskey Clinic for X-Rays and further tests.
She gave me a syringe so that if he stops eating and drinking I can liquidise his food and squirt it in his mouth until I can get him to Lord Whiskey.
I love Fat Father Jack dearly - he is my beloved little Podge and even though I know he is getting old - he is about 14 - I don't want anything to happen to him! I'm hoping like mad that it is just a simple case of gastro. She asked if he was a hunter, and he is, so maybe he ate something that wasn't good for him. He isn't acting or looking sick, it is just projectile vomiting after every meal. Then he looks for more food. He is drinking OK and looking at the litterbox, his output is normal and OK.
Please get well soon, Jack.
Brilliant Blog
I've found the most brilliant blog. It is written by a Fransiscan cardinal and has beautiful photos and is generally very interesting. There are lots of comments on his posts, a lot of which come from people of other religions or indeed no religion at all. This is a buzzing blog which is updated every Friday. There is a link to it in the white sidebar on the right, but here is a link too: Cardinal Sean's Blog
Prayer of St Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Jack is ill
My dear Fat Father Jack is ill. He has been vomiting his whole meal since Friday. I thought it was a hairball so I gave him some Olive Oil. He was OK on Sunday but started vomiting again yesterday. He is bright, chirpy, hungry and doesn't 'look' sick or dehydrated. Even so, enough is enough. The poor old chap can't carry on like this. I wanted it sorted out before anything like kidney failure happens so he has a Veterinary appointment at 2pm tomorrow.
His cat basket doesn't fit on my small scooter, and besides, Kate has got it. So Nigel is bringing the cat basket and coming over tomorrow to take us to the Vet. I'm not looking forward to it. I can cope with things happening to people - possibly because I know what to do about them - but when one of my furry friends is sick, it really upsets me like nothing else. I feel at a complete loss.
I'll tell you tomorrow what the Vet said.
His cat basket doesn't fit on my small scooter, and besides, Kate has got it. So Nigel is bringing the cat basket and coming over tomorrow to take us to the Vet. I'm not looking forward to it. I can cope with things happening to people - possibly because I know what to do about them - but when one of my furry friends is sick, it really upsets me like nothing else. I feel at a complete loss.
I'll tell you tomorrow what the Vet said.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Sunday Lunch
Sean asked me to go to Tonbridge yesterday to prepare Sunday lunch for some old friends.
It isn't easy, cooking in someone else's kitchen without familiar ingredients and implements. I was asked to make stew and I did, and it was OK. The people were all very nice - and very interesting - and it was a pleasant time.
Halfway through lunch I began to feel unwell though.
There were Engineering works to the train line on the way back so the journey took 3 hours and involved buses as well as trains. By the time I got home I had a fever and went to bed. I will be back there soon. I feel ghastly.
Michelle had a lovely weekend. She went to Hillsong in Leatherhead with a group of 20 to 30s people.
My mum popped in yesterday and she had written an essay on Addiction for a course she is doing. It was a good essay but the question had multiple components so I advised her to use exactly the same information but organise it into headings and subheadings so that the person who marks the papers will see that she has the required components dealt with.
Jack was projectile vomiting after feeds on Friday and Saturday and I suspected a furball. I dosed him with Olive Oil and there has been no more vomiting. If there had been, it would have been Vet on Monday. I was worried about that as my big scooter isn't fixed yet and the small one is too small for the cat basket., and taxis are soooo expensive. Furballs are common in elderly cats so I will go to the pet shop and buy him some special food for older cats prone to furball. I hope he will eat it! He and Madam Spikkeldy are the fussiest cats I have ever known. My Siamese were much more easy-going.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Train Travel with Brakkie
Brakkie travels everywhere with me. Here he is on the small scooter that I use to travel with. Here he is on the train, and from here we transferred onto a bus. He has been to Norfolk, Deal, Dover, Tonbridge, London, Isle of Wight and all sorts of places. He is a well travelled Brak!
Fat FatherJack
This is Fat Father Jack who is about 14yrs old. I put his pic next to Madam Spikkeldy so you can see how diferent they look.
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