MEDICAL MATTERS

[plaques]

One for the pedantics. Covid-19 is now said to be endemic, (long standing) but there are surges of new variants making them an epidemic of this variant. So do we now have a endemic epidemic. Just asking.

[PanBiker]

UK has had a spike in Covid cases as a result of the Queens Jubilee celebrations. Another is expected after the Glastonbury Festival.

[Stanley]

Ken, I have had similar thoughts. When is a 'new variant' different enough to be regarded as a separate infection? Delta and Omicron are two good examples, they seem to a layman. to be different but are still regarded as Covid19.

[plaques]

Yesterday, Yes Sunday, saw me at Burnley Hospital for an Echo Cardiograph. Definitely Star Trek stuff. Must have taken 100s of images, valves flapping and blood flowing. Totally painless and out in 30 mins. Normally two weeks to get the results through. Seemed OK to me but what do I know.

The NHS came up good again.

[PanBiker]

Sundays are like any other day in NHS as are scans at 9pm. 24/7 service, not many critical organisations can say that. I hope your results come out OK Ken.

[plaques]

Cardiology at Burnley is normally closed down on weekends. The place was like a ghost town. Masses of parking places but nobody inside to ask where to go.

Not too worried about the results, nobody improves with ageing. If they say 10 years I can go along with that.

[Cathy]

Does anyone know how Pluggy is doing these days?

[Stanley]

I've seen him about using his electric wheelchair and spoke to him briefly a few days ago. So I can report that he's alive and mobile.
Airedale have contacted me with another Cystoscopy appointment. I shall call them this morning and defer again as I am asymptomatic and there are plenty of people who need their services far more than me. How long do they expect me to live anyway?

[Stanley]

When I was in Montreal I met a man who had a good reputation for treating hyperactive children. He used caffeine to make them more hyperactive but then encouraged them to dance and burn off their energy that way. He was very successful and I remember him telling me that often the sign that a child's condition was about to improve was a sharp regression. Two steps back and one forwards as he put it.
I remembered them man yesterday. I started the day with a storm in my damaged shoulder but during the day it receded and it feels much better this morning without any medication at all. Let's hope we make more progress today.
As I said somewhere else, I know I am a whingeing old bugger but old age isn't for cissies!

[Cathy]

Good to hear that Pluggy is alive and mobile

[Stanley]

The number of people contracting Covid is reported to have risen by a third in a week. I know I am constantly being told not to worry. But is is rather a lot!

[PanBiker]

Apparently it is now 1 in 30 who have Covid!

[Big Kev]

The number of people contracting Covid is reported to have risen by a third in a week. I know I am constantly being told not to worry. But is is rather a lot!

A third of what though? What are the figures?

[Big Kev]

Apparently it is now 1 in 30 who have Covid!

It was 1 in 13 when we caught it at the beginning of March, a rise was predicted following the platinum jubilee celebrations and Glastonbury. I wonder how many other diseases saw an increase after those events?
Hospital admissions are up slightly but Covid is no longer the primary cause for it.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulation ... /hospitals

[Tripps]

The care home told this afternoon me that four members of staff have Covid, but all residents have been tested, and none of them is positive. I think they'd have locked the place down for that - and not so long ago.

I'll be fine though because I've been vaccinated four times. That's how it works isn't it?

Driving home - that was dashed as I heard someone on the radio (Doctor? ) saying that "of course this is not a 'sterilising vaccine' and your resistance can decrease in time. He said 17 % of new cases were having it for the second or even third time.

That's the first time I've heard the phrase 'sterilising vaccine'.

Permission to be worried Captain Mainwaring.

[plaques]

Just turned down an invite to listen to a choir in a couple of weeks time. Sitting in a room full of senior citizens for a hour and half while 50 singer blast their harmony out seems a bit too risky to me. Am I getting a bit too paranoid or applying common sense?
To paraphrase Tennyson. Into Gods waiting room sat the covid fodder.

[Stanley]

My opinion is that you are being sensible Ken. I know there is less chance of me dying from Covid now than there was two years ago thanks to my full complement of four jabs but Covid is still nasty so I'll continue to take my precautions thank you.....
(Is there a vaccination for old shoulder injuries?)

[Sue]

Ken, I have had similar thoughts. When is a 'new variant' different enough to be regarded as a separate infection? Delta and Omicron are two good examples, they seem to a layman. to be different but are still regarded as Covid19.

The nearest analogy I can come up with is a car. My mini countryman has many different features than the one I had before, which too had extras that were not on the basic model, but its still a countryman. All mini countryman cars have the same basic features but the different features allow it to behave is different ways to the same situation. When the manufacturers decide to alter the basic features completely , they stop producing it and often relaunch under a different name . Covid isn’t at the relaunch stage yet. The basic features are the same but the spike protein has altered causing different symptoms . Ie like me, I am still the sameas a year ago but now I have grey hair and not brown...

[Whyperion]

The care home told this afternoon me that four members of staff have Covid, but all residents have been tested, and none of them is positive. I think they'd have locked the place down for that - and not so long ago.

I'll be fine though because I've been vaccinated four times. That's how it works isn't it?

4 pops, so less likely to die immediately from it. See Covid Corner for a few stats on rising care home deaths from the last fornight (too many Jubilee Celebrations?)

[Tripps]

4 pops, so less likely to die immediately from it

Thanks - it's reassuring to know that.

[Stanley]

Well Pharmacy are taking bookings for the annual flu jab.....

[Tizer]

I've heard that the flu and covid-19 vaccines might be given at the same appointment, where both are required by the recipient. I tried to find more information but found nothing positive. However I did chance on this interesting information in a Nature article from May this year...
`Flu vaccine could cut COVID risk' Nature
`Influenza vaccines have a surprising health benefit: they might also prevent COVID-19, particularly in its most severe forms. A study of more than 30,000 health-care workers in Qatar found that those who got a flu jab were nearly 90% less likely to develop severe COVID-19 over the next few months, compared with those who hadn’t been recently vaccinated against flu.'...

[Big Kev]

Good news from the hospital today...

20220708_094459.jpg

Just need my leg to sort itself out now

[PanBiker]

Excellent Kev, one less thing to worry about.

[Big Kev]

Excellent Kev, one less thing to worry about.

Had a call from the DVT clinic checking up in me. Got to go and get measured for a compression stocking. Very fetching