MEDICAL MATTERS

[Stanley]

Leaves you a bit in the air Moh. Never mind, he didn't say the leg had to come off! Listen to your body, it never lies and from the sound of your posts it's giving you good news now.

[Stanley]

The severe neck pain that made my life a misery for about four days before Xmas has receded and is almost gone. Haven't the faintest idea what caused it but at least I haven't got meningitis! No pain killers now, just a towelling cravat round my neck to keep it warm without restricting movement. Right eye seems to have settled down now, it was being a bit stubborn but I think it's OK. It won't be quite as sharp as the left eye but no problem, I still have brilliant vision outside with no glasses. Time is a great healer and we often expect miracles, the body still takes time to heal even with the advantages of modern surgery.
That applies to you as well Moh, hope all is going well!

[Stanley]

Decided my old pillow might be a contributory factor in my neck problem. Chucked it out and got a better one, more firm, out of the wardrobe. Slept 7 hours last night, first time for ages. Could there be a connection?
By the way, right eye is settled now. I am ready for the eye test next Friday!

[Cathy]

Up until a number of years ago (maybe 10yrs) I used to sleep on a normal bed pillow but suffered from awful neck pain, I changed to a cushion, very flat and soft, the same as you would have on a sofa or lounge chair and haven't experienced neck pain after sleeping since. I place a small cotton towel over the cushion to absorb any sweat because the filling isn't the same as a normal pillow and you can't buy 'protectors' for them anyway. Works for me.

[Stanley]

I had another big sleep last night Cathy and am beginning to think that it's the change of pillow that has made the difference.

[Marilyn]

I see you have progressed to "pillow talk"!

( wooden spoon award duly polished for my sins...)

[Stanley]

Oh dear......

[Marilyn]

I rest my heavy case....

[Stanley]

Third good night's sleep on the trot. I reckon that pillow is working....

[Stanley]

I've noted an unexpected benefit of not wearing glasses. I'm breathing better through my nose. All I can think is that over the years to nose pieces have been bending the cartilage and constricting the airway in my nose. They seem to have opened out. Nice!

[Tizer]

I'm sleeping now with two, very soft, natural down pillows. The top edge of my left ear often hurts and makes it painful to sleep lying on my left side. The down pillows allow me to press a cavity that I can put my ear into and minimise the pressure. The trouble is that my head slowly makes a deeper cavity in the pillow and in the morning my hair is all over the place and standing on end!

[PostmanPete]

The trouble is that my head slowly makes a deeper cavity in the pillow and in the morning my hair is all over the place and standing on end!

I have a picture in my mind of you looking like this when you wake up............!

[Tizer]

...relatively speaking, not quite as bad as that but then I haven't reached light speed yet!

[Marilyn]

Looks like me in the mornings actually...minus the facial hair of course!

I sleep with a very expensive Orthopaedic Pillow...very firm and kidney shaped. Does the trick, though I have experienced the sore ear too on occasions. I'm never in one position for long....I flip about like a dying fish all night. I must be a nightmare bed partner. Hubby never moves a muscle all night. Lucky we have a huge bed, so it doesn't bother him.

[Stanley]

Pillows are so important. As is moving about in bed at night. If I have a very deep long sleep it takes longer for everything to get mobile in the morning!

[Cathy]

Ha! i am such a fidget in bed before falling asleep, you wouldn't believe!! I start off on my right side with my left leg supported by a pillow to get my hips in line (siatica) then spend some time on my left side but can't stand hearing my pulse in my ear, so then I lay on my stomach with my right ear on my cushion, get sick of that because i still haven't fallen asleep, so i employ the pillow again, and with the heat we have been experiencing it means that less of my body is touching the bed so I am cooler. And in all these positions it's a question of what to do with my arms?? Then it all starts again...

Love that feeling upon waking when you feel that you are part of the bed and totally relaxed.

[Tardis]

Apparently my health care is now out of the hands of the CCG and in those of the Strategic Health Authority, having become a 'Special patient' with guaranteed funding.

Next stop will be a consultant at St James in Leeds, and I can expect some home visits now

[Stanley]

New readers should be ready in the coming week.... Roll on! Am fed up with peering through El Cheapo glasses!

[Moh]

I noticed my eyesight worsening when I was in hospital, now I am almost completely blind in my right eye (which has always been the weaker one). Had an eye test this morning and the optician said I had the worst cataract in that eye that he had ever seen, plus one forming in the other eye. He has referred me to the hospital.

[Tardis]

Hope that they can improve your eyes quickly Moh.

I have the joys of teleconferencing appointments this week and my first home visits, so can't have any cake in the cupboards (my excuse)

[Stanley]

Go for it Moh! Lens replacement is painless, quick and a miracle. One thing I have learned, make sure they give you the same prescription lens in both eyes. The usual practice is to give one perfect long sight and the other some nearer vision. The idea is that you can still function in say a supermarket without readers. In my case it doesn't work and I wish they had done both eyes the same.
I called in the opticians yesterday to enquire about my readers. The young man in charge has evidently been brainwashed with a script on customer interaction and instead of answering a direct question enquires if you have had a good weekend. I had to educate him and he didn't like it, at one point he told me to calm down. I told him that all I wanted was a straight answer to the question, "Are my readers ready?" In the end I got the answer which was "NO". Funnily enough, half an hour later I got a phone call to say they would be here by 13:00 today. What a coincidence.....
Have decided I was wrong not to have glasses for distance to correct the near sight in my right eye. Once they have sorted the readers I shall get the optician to prescribe a pair of glasses solely for distance. The main reason is that watching television puts strain on the right eye and we can cure that.

[Cathy]

Good on you Stanley. I had a desperate problem about 10yrs ago and had to demand treatment from my public hospital. They were responding to me as a non-urgent patient who didn't know what i was talking about. I had doctors names, dates, diagnosis etc and I laid down the law to them and had a response within 15mins telling me when to go in for my operation. All went well

[Stanley]

It works Cathy! I am happy to report I have my readers and life is suddenly much clearer. Brilliant reading and screen, can't remember ever having such good vision! The distance glasses are ordered, they will be about a fortnight.
The staff at the opticians evidently have a dim view of the bloke I fell out with and one asked me why I regarded small talk as intrusive. I told her that it was because it was anything but small talk, it was a psychological ploy devised to give the sales person control over the conversation so they could advance their offering. This is why they are made to stick to the script. I told her I had been there and got the tee shirt and consequently always reacted against any attempt to control me. I am the customer, I am paying a lot of money, I will take and keep control. Don't know whether they understood what I was telling them. You get this in many walks of life, one of the main ploys used is bureaucracy, the client is made to feel like a supplicant and not somebody seeking something that is theirs by right. Watch out for it and fight back!
By the way, I had assumed that the distance glasses would have a plain lens for the left eye, not so, there is a small aberration and this will be corrected. Looking forward to even better vision! I shall still enjoy going out without glasses but when the occasion demands I shall have double fighter pilot vision available.

[Tizer]

You get this in many walks of life, one of the main ploys used is bureaucracy, the client is made to feel like a supplicant and not somebody seeking something that is theirs by right. Watch out for it and fight back!

You're bang on target there Stanley. Instead of training staff to be polite, effective communicators the companies now train them solely to be sales robots. In our recent dealings with estate agents while selling my dad's house then Mrs Tiz's parents' house we've seen a big difference between the chains of agents and the small independent family businesses. The latter give you a good experience and you end up feeling like you're all good friends, an excellent way to `make a sale'. The former leave you with a bad feeling of having been through a mincing machine and that they're laughing behind your back...and you don't ever go back again.

And well done Cath, you struck a blow for customers too! I'm fed up with the local hospital audiology department. They give an email address on their web site to contact them so I wrote a detailed message about a problem my dad has and sent it to them...nine days ago and still no reply, not even an acknowledgement. What's the point of the giving an email address if they don't reply to emails? But then this is a common problem - since people have had more and better communications they use it less!

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Tiz. Much of this syndrome can be traced back to one source. McKinsey. Their mantra has always been measure and manage, management is all. In other words don't trust anyone to use personal judgement or interaction. If it doesn't stick to the PLAN it can't be measured and managed. Call centres and customer relations run on rigid scripts and as soon as you force the person in front of you out of the comfort zone of their corporate scenario they are lost and react by telling you that it is you who is in the wrong because you are not sticking to that scenario. It is manipulation and all part of the effort to modify customer relations in their mould. We need to be able to recognise this and counter it with common sense and rational argument. The bottom line is that we are far too quiescent as a nation, we need to complain more and fight back!