MEDICAL MATTERS

[Stanley]

One thing is certain, it always pays to take note of what your body is doing and try to make sense of it. Since my double jab last Friday there have been some changes. The main one was an itchy rash that has taken all my will power to ignore and not scratch, That's been a bit of a bugger because it has interrupted my sleep but it is retreating now and good riddance. I can't be certain it was a side effect of the jabs but that seems to be the most likely reason.
Yesterday I noticed something else that has happened over the last few days. For many months now I have had oedema inj my feet and both legs and thought that was just a natural consequence of the fact I am a lot more sedentary than I used to be. It hasn't caused my any problems, just a nagging little circumstance. The change is that I realised yesterday it has gone completely! My legs and feet are back to what they used to be. I don't trust it to be a permanent change but I think it's very strange that it can switch off like that.....
I shall carry on as usual and take note. I hope the change is permanent!
Once again of course I can't pin it definitively on the double jab but that is perhaps the more likely reason.

[Julie in Norfolk]

Stanley, correlation isn't causation! Your kidneys work better when you are lying down so maybe a little more rest did the work? Strangely enough, I used to take pills for swollen ankles and the need stopped almost overnight and so I stopped taking them (overnight).

[Stanley]

Couldn't agree more Julie.... However, Whilst I have of course noted the way the swelling lessened overnight but never to the extent I have experienced now..... This is something different...... I'd love to know for certain what.

[Wendyf]

Could be the colder weather. One of my ankles swells in warmer weather but its fine again by this time of year.

[Stanley]

That's an interesting one! Thanks Wendy.....

[Whyperion]

two years ago I had itch after the Covid Jab - was told it wasnt an effect (diagnosed with "Dry Skin" - which was new to me, problem was I did a couple of other things at the same time , one being consuming a rather sweet doughnut dropping a jam concoction on me - I might have been allergic to one of the ingredients ? Still have "blocked pores) on forearms in places and some peeling skin on the face that flares from time to time. no idea if from covid jab after all that time - and previous year no problem , I missed jab in 2024 never getting round to it

[Stanley]

[PanBiker]

Just been to the pharmacy for our flu jabs. I no longer qualify for the Covid jab, apparently 65 - 75 year old folk are immune!. The gateposts have been moved on qualification. Sally had the Covid jab due to her compromised immune system. I used to qualify as we live together, that applied for the flu jab with me along time before I qualified on age. Personally I think it is counter productive as I thought the aim was to maintain herd immunity. It will cost considerably more if I end up in hospital with Covid, not wishing it of course but the odds of catching the virus have shortened for me, at least for the next 3 years.

[Big Kev]

Same for me and Paulette, we are both booked for flu jabs tomorrow and I have the added bonus of the Covid jab too. Looking forward to one in each arm, not!

[Stanley]

One of the very few occasions when age gives you a 'get out of jail free' card!

[Tizer]

My continuing skin lesion treatment (14 months now) has me going to a hospital appointment every few weeks. That's the one were the attempted skin transplant to my forehead failed. Recently I was also started with a chemotherapy cream on the left side of my face. I'd made a formal complaint to the Trust's Patient Liaison Service about the glitch last year when they should have given me an urgent appointment but the admin side failed. A few weeks ago I was called in and given an apology by the senior maxfax clinician at the hospital. The staff and the treatment were great, it's the admin that let me down. I've got to know the nurses well and this week a maxfax specialist nurse told me the waiting time for a dermatology appointment is now 53 weeks! - more than long enough for a lesion to turn into cancer. They are desperate but can't get enough staff - too few trained people and too little money to pay them. On many of my regular visits to the specialist nurses they have had a trainee working with them, usually from overseas, so they are doing their best with what they've got.

[Big Kev]

That's not very good is it.

We've been for our jabs. After being told I needed a covid jab, it appears I now don't so just flu jabs for both of us.

[Stanley]

Peter.... I'm so sorry to hear about your ongoing problems. As I say so many times, I am so lucky, the things that go wrong with me aren't serious.....
Your description of the problems the staff are having sounds depressing. Can you remember the number of times when we were told 'Safe in our hands' and then they spent the money on something else. Why don't we make MPs work under the same conditions as the NHS staff and with the same wages!