MEDICAL MATTERS

[PanBiker]

Hang in there Peter. I was about 7 - 10 days when we both had it at the same time. Hopefully you should be clear for your holiday

[Stanley]

There is nothing good about getting a bout of Covid but at least we seem to be better protected now and it isn't hitting us as hard, the new normal?
Have you and Janet made appointments for the flu and booster campaign? I got my email yesterday but was already booked in at Well Pharmacy on the 22nd of this month. (I shall check on that today.....)

[Tizer]

We're booked in by the local surgery for the flu jab but they don't do the Covid one so we'll be findin out where to go for that.

This is very interesting...
`Air pollution cancer breakthrough will rewrite the rules' LINK
`Researchers say they have cracked how air pollution leads to cancer, in a discovery that completely transforms our understanding of how tumours arise. The team at the Francis Crick Institute in London showed that rather than causing damage, air pollution was waking up old damaged cells. One of the world's leading experts, Prof Charles Swanton, said the breakthrough marked a "new era". And it may now be possible to develop drugs that stop cancers forming. The findings could explain how hundreds of cancer-causing substances act on the body.'...

It's particularly interesting to me because I've always believed that cancers are probably less to do with external factors turning our normal cells cancerous and instead due to a failure in our body's defences. We've spent too much time focused on carcinogens and not enough on identifying and maintaining our body's normal internal defences. Also, in 1969 I met a Chinese professor of medicine who came to Liverpool University to continue his research on cancer. He shocked everyone with his claim that cancer is a sexually-transmitted disease. I had an opportunity to discuss it with him and found that he meant cancer was an STD in the same way that we could say life or death are STDs. We all have the machinery for switching on cancer and the clever thing is to not throw the switch. It's a bit like nuclear weapons, now I think about it!

[Stanley]

That's interesting Peter and I can see the sense in it. It explains why I could surprise the doctors at Airedale who, when they went looking for unusual cells in a body that has been exposed to more carcinogens than you could poke a stick at, found none.

[Stanley]

I'm beginning to think that this constant talk about funerals and death is bad for us crumblies, it's a constant reminder that we are next. I have been having very dark thoughts. Could we please plant Brenda and get on with the recession!

[Tizer]

We're in the depths of Covid and we're avoiding watching or listening to anything about the funeral. We were supposed to be starting our week's holiday in Cornwall on Friday but that's compromised now. Ho hum.

[Stanley]

I ave checked with Well Pharmacy and the appointment I have with them is for the flu jab only. I have booked at Colne Health Centre for the Covid Booster.

[Cathy]

Oh dear Tizer. I do hope that you and Mrs Tize get to have your Cornwall Getaway.

[Big Kev]

My physiotherapist won't be happy with me this week, I laid on the floor to get a pic of the bride's shoes, at the wedding I photographed on Saturday, and am suffering for it now. Neck and shoulders are giving me grief and I have pins and needles in my hand. I have an appointment with the insurance company's doctor tomorrow for an injury assessment, be interesting to see what he says.

[Stanley]

I understand that and sympathise. Getting down to floor level is a major undertaking for me, that's why dropping that tiny grub screw in the shed last week was such a big deal.....
Never mind Kev, you'll have learned a lesson from that I hope.....

[plaques]

Neck and shoulders are giving me grief and I have pins and needles in my hand.

When you find out how to cure it please tell me ASAP.

[Big Kev]

Neck and shoulders are giving me grief and I have pins and needles in my hand.

When you find out how to cure it please tell me ASAP.

I certainly will.
My insurer's doctor has done his thorough examination
In and out in 5 minutes.

[Tizer]

Sorry to hear of you both suffering. Don't make it any worse by eating uncooked smoked fish and getting Listeria food poisoning...
`Listeria warning over ready-to-eat smoked fish' LINK
That article takes me back to about 1990 when Listeria suddenly hit the headlines for the first time and I'd just started writing news stories on food safety!

[Stanley]

Pater, I wonder if modern 'fuel efficient' methods of smoking could have any influence on the survival of Listeria organisms? I would never trust any of them but then I am so careful about cooking at high enough temperatures to kill any organisms. My mother brought me up the right way!
Kev and Ken.... my shoulder is still crook after my fall two months ago. In my experience these ailments are cured by time and slow healing and shoulders and necks are particularly complicated and intractable. I am fed up with mine!
[I don't think age helps either!]

[Tizer]

Pater, I wonder if modern 'fuel efficient' methods of smoking could have any influence on the survival of Listeria organisms? I would never trust any of them but then I am so careful about cooking at high enough temperatures to kill any organisms. My mother brought me up the right way!

I think there are a number of reasons for the fish being less safe. Lighter smoking, lower salting, less drying out due to packaging (there weren't many shrink-wrapped kippers on Blackburn market in the 1950s, as I recall!).

[Stanley]

True, and all those things could have a bearing on higher loads of contamination after processing.
I often think about the legs of ham which have been heavily salted, nitrate packed in the bone socket and in some cases buried in the garden to produce a ham that kept for ever and was eaten raw very often.
I always remember Johnny Spensley's home made sausages which hung in festoons over the kitchen stove, covered in dust and looking like dog turds. They tasted heavenly!

[Whyperion]

I understand that and sympathise. Getting down to floor level is a major undertaking for me, that's why dropping that tiny grub screw in the shed last week was such a big deal.....
Never mind Kev, you'll have learned a lesson from that I hope.....

I have a grabber (litter picker) which has a small magnet in the end of it, think it came from Age UK at Colne charity shop (they sell new ones there) , no good if screw is brass unless you can use the grabber element of the device.

[Stanley]

Susan tells me that they have an outbreak of Covid at the care home in Thornton. 7 residents and 5 staff affected. We shouldn't forget it is still with us.

[Stanley]

Susan told me yesterday that when the outbreak at Thornton is over the doctors will come in and are expected to give everyone a combined Flu and Covid booster vaccination. She isn't waiting but having them separately as usual.

[PanBiker]

I received my invitation letter yesterday for my MRI scanner visit. My appointment is is for Wednesday 26th October in the afternoon, nice and civilised time. There may or may not be rail strike on the day we will have to see. Bonus is that if I have to drive, my appointment is back at LGI which is the lesser of two evils to drive to compared to Jimmies where my last scan was. Yearly scan four this one so I think I will get one more next year at Leeds and then be handed over to bit nearer home.

[Stanley]

I may have been a bit premature when I was crowing about having no reaction to my Covid booster or the Annual Winter Flu jab.... I have a nasty little sore throat, something I haven't had for years. I seem to remember reading somewhere that this year's flu jab was a bit more savage than usual, so that might be the culprit. Gargling with salt and water and then TCP seems to quieten it plus Paracetamol.
I think I might survive.....

[Stanley]

The head cold and sore throat is waning. Definitely a reaction, most likely the flu jab.... I suppose a reaction is a good thing.....

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz has lost a dental filling and phoned the dentist this morning. The first appointment they can offer is 22nd December. That says a lot about the state of the UK! I'll bet people are now making medical and dental appointments `just in case' they need them.

And by the way, there are still lots of items missing from the supermarket shelves here. Probably even more will soon disappear.

[Stanley]

Please give Janet my sympathy Peter. Of course the government, if taxed, would reel off a string of statistics proving they have spent millions. Trouble is that doesn't alter the situation on the ground after 12 years on their watch!
My head cold symptoms are waning.....

[Tizer]

Good news this morning for Mrs Tiz. The dentist phoned to say they had a cancellation for tomorrow afternoon, would she like it? You bet she would!
I think she might have been given first choice because she's been with them for at least 25 years, we've never missed an appointment and they know we look after our teeth well and they usually don't have to do much work when we visit them annually. That probably makes us rare among dental customers these days!