AWOL
Nomen Publicus
the local hospital A&E (=ER for leftpondians) After five hours of emergency
treatment, including seven units of blood, I was stablised and transfered to
a general ward, The next three days were hell on earth. Three different IV
antibiotics plugged in to one arm and IV blood into the other to treat
extreme anemia.
After a number of CT scans and a biopsy (under general anesthetic) I was
finally diagnosed with advanced, but treatable cancer.
Eventually I was transfered to The Christie Hospital here in Manchester.
The Christie has a world wide reputation for excellent cancer treatment. I
was lucky to be in its catchment area. Two, three hour operations were
required to cut out the cancer effected material and perform the necessary
repairs.
Modern surgery can be a remarkably low impact process. I was expected to be
out of bed and capable of at least a few steps on the second or third day
after each operation. After five days, wound drains and catheters were
removed and a week later I was allowed home. Apparently my recovery was
fast, but not remarkably so, concidering the nature and location of my
surgery.
The district nurse visits my home daily to check on my recovery status. My
GP (=personal doctor) made a home visit yesterday and seems happy with my
progress but believes I will need at least another six weeks before I can
get back to work.
There will be regular checkups for the next five years to check for
reoccurences of the cancer and I have to be a bit more careful about cuts
and bruises on my legs because some lymph nodes were removed and infection
is more likely. But when I get my stamina back I'm good for another 30 or
40 years.
The UK NHS service has many faults, but when it comes down to the important
things, it worked for me. It is full of remarkably competent, kind and
understanding staff.
I offer up this sorry tale not for sympathy ( I deserve little ) but as a
warning. I ignored symptoms for far too long. Sometimes stuff will not
"just go away". A ten minute appointment with my GP 12 months ago and I
might have got away with some heavy duty x-ray or nuclear radiation
treatment as an out-patient rather than two months in hospital and radical
surgery.
As a species we are designed to live no more than 30 odd years before being
hunted down and eaten by a lion. Once you reach 50 all kinds of systems
start to breakdown. Most of it is fixable but only if you let a doctor do
his/her job.
--
Clarence Darrow: I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose.
Chloe
<zza...@buffy.sighup.org.uk> wrote:
> After five days, wound drains and catheters were
> removed and a week later I was allowed home. Apparently my recovery was
> fast, but not remarkably so, concidering the nature and location of my
> surgery.
>
All I can say is I hope that this continues and you don't have any ongoing
problems from it.
<snipped>
> The UK NHS service has many faults, but when it comes down to the important
> things, it worked for me. It is full of remarkably competent, kind and
> understanding staff.
This so much depends on so much.
I will now travel 30 miles to sit in the A&E of one hospital, than be seen
immedately by the staff at the one less then a mile from my house, the right
staff is an amazing resource to a) treatment and b) patient healing/mental
health, in my experiance.
>
> I offer up this sorry tale not for sympathy ( I deserve little ) but as a
> warning. I ignored symptoms for far too long. Sometimes stuff will not
> "just go away".
And let's face it, we really should be better that this, as we're normally
the people wanting to deal with things early then ignore them for later.
It's not like you can keep a backup you around for emergancies yet.
Chloe
(Although, that's not as scary as I first imagined. I had this vision of
users having spare copies of themselves around, then remembered how few of
them take backups anyway)
SteveD
<Ch...@asteroid.igloo.snowfields.net> wrote:
>It's not like you can keep a backup you around for emergancies yet.
>
>Chloe
>(Although, that's not as scary as I first imagined. I had this vision of
>users having spare copies of themselves around, then remembered how few of
>them take backups anyway)
As long as I could keep my mental and physical backup states separate, and
combine the most recent former with a less worn-out latter, I could see it
catching on.
-SteveD
Zebee Johnstone
SteveD <use...@vo.id.au> wrote:
>
> As long as I could keep my mental and physical backup states separate, and
> combine the most recent former with a less worn-out latter, I could see it
> catching on.
Oh come on. You know that whenever you put an old backup onto new
hardware you find you don't have the drivers....
Zebee
mikea
Very glad for the good prognosis, and that you were in the catchment
area for a superb hospital.; I'll be quite pleased to have you posting
for another bunchty years. Thanks for informing us.
Yes, we are pretty good at procrastination, and yes, it can have
untoward and unpleasant consequences. I've lost some dear friends to
just this sort of procrastination. I'd not have been happy to have you
included in *that* list.
Get Well Soon, Friend.
--
The almost exact opposite comes into play with sniper rifles; there are legit
hunting scenarios where 10-20X scopes and 1000km effective ranges is called for.
Dude, that's not a sniping rifle. It's a ballistic missile.
-- David Richerby to Par Leijonhufvud
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
Speak for yourself. I wouldn't mind my old mental state back, actually.
--
TimC
You can't tuna fish, but you can put tuna on a piano.
Chloe
> As long as I could keep my mental and physical backup states separate, and
> combine the most recent former with a less worn-out latter, I could see it
> catching on.
>
>
In my case, I think I would sum up that idea as "Oh hell no! I'm not going
back in there!"
Chloe
Lionel
Or you'll reboot & find that your brain enumerates your limbs in a
different order.
--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Corlett
[...]
> Or you'll reboot & find that your brain enumerates your limbs in a
> different order.
I already seem to suffer that problem when coming out of sleep state...
Marc Haber
Your fault for not restoring on virtualized hardware.
Greetings
Marc
--
-------------------------------------- !! No courtesy copies, please !! -----
Marc Haber | " Questions are the | Mailadresse im Header
Mannheim, Germany | Beginning of Wisdom " | http://www.zugschlus.de/
Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 621 72739834
Just zis Guy, you know?
<zza...@buffy.sighup.org.uk> wrote:
>The UK NHS service has many faults, but when it comes down to the important
>things, it worked for me. It is full of remarkably competent, kind and
>understanding staff.
Yes. Not always, and not everywhere, but at its best the NHS is
something of which we should be very proud. When my sister was in
Durham Royal Infirmary the staff on the ICU were so kind, they treated
us as if she were the only patient they had. Two of the nurses were
in tears when she died. There are many truly wonderful and special
people in the NHS. And thanks for sharing your story, I wish you the
best.
Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
"But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of
my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock
when your fear cometh" - Prov 1:25-26
Joe Zeff
> Yes. Not always, and not everywhere, but at its best the NHS is
> something of which we should be very proud. When my sister was in
> Durham Royal Infirmary the staff on the ICU were so kind, they treated
> us as if she were the only patient they had. Two of the nurses were in
> tears when she died. There are many truly wonderful and special people
> in the NHS. And thanks for sharing your story, I wish you the best.
You get that, sometimes, at the VA too. The first time I broke my arm,
my primary was a nurse practitioner at the Northridge VA. The day after
it happened, my sister took me down to see her, and to get any long-term
care instructions. When she called out my name, and I stood up, she
said, loud enough to be heard at the other end of the building, "Mr.
Zeff! *WHAT HAPPENED?*"
--
Joe Zeff -- The Guy With The Sideburns:
http://www.zeff.us http://www.lasfs.info
There are those who do petty things for petty reasons, and then there
those who can't even make a good job of that.
Shmuel Metz
at 11:07 AM, Zebee Johnstone <zeb...@gmail.com> said:
>Oh come on. You know that whenever you put an old backup onto new
>hardware you find you don't have the drivers....
Not an issue; the new hardware can't handle the old media. "But it's
compatible!" Hey Flounder, ...!
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz <http://patriot.net/~shmuel> ISO position
Reply to domain Patriot dot net user shmuel+bspfh to contact me.
We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress.
(S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003)
Shmuel Metz
at 09:06 AM, Nomen Publicus <zza...@buffy.sighup.org.uk> said:
>After a number of CT scans and a biopsy (under general anesthetic) I was
>finally diagnosed with advanced, but treatable cancer.
I'm glad that you caught it in time. May you have an easy recovery.
>I ignored symptoms for far too long.
AOL. Fortunately it's never bitten me. Do as I say, not as I do.