MEDICAL MATTERS

[Stanley]

Nice to hear some good news! Thanks for that Peter. Give her my love please.....

[Stanley]

I think this comes under medical matters, or at least, essential medical knowledge.
I heard an interview of a man from Colombia this morning on World Service and learned about castrating a three and a half ton hippopotamus. Evidently their testicles are held internally behind 3cm thick skin and a heavy layer of fat. The operation took 12 hours and was successful but the survival rate is only 50% as the lungs are prone to collapse because of the size of the animal and the pressure on them when anaesthetised. Fascinating.
The operation was necessary because hippos are breeding so well they have been declared an invasive species in Colombia.
(You heard it on OG first!)

[Tizer]

This is good news, although it's about `super-agers' it could help all of us in the future...
`Study offers clues to super-agers' brilliant brains' LINK
`US scientists believe they may be closer to answering why certain elderly people retain rare cognitive ability comparable to people 30 years younger. These elite "super-agers" have larger nerve cells in regions of the brain responsible for memory, new research in The Journal of Neuroscience shows. The octogenarians may have been born that way, or their neurons grew more or shrank less with age than in others. More study is needed, which may help explore new ways to fight dementia. In particular, researchers want to ascertain how changes in nerve cells might impact long-term brain health. Do they offer some protection in old age or are they simply a reflection of better brain health?'...

[Whyperion]

This is good news, although it's about `super-agers' it could help all of us in the future...
`Study offers clues to super-agers' brilliant brains' LINK
`US scientists believe they may be closer to answering why certain elderly people retain rare cognitive ability comparable to people 30 years younger. These elite "super-agers" have larger nerve cells in regions of the brain responsible for memory, new research in The Journal of Neuroscience shows. The octogenarians may have been born that way, or their neurons grew more or shrank less with age than in others. More study is needed, which may help explore new ways to fight dementia. In particular, researchers want to ascertain how changes in nerve cells might impact long-term brain health. Do they offer some protection in old age or are they simply a reflection of better brain health?'...

Strangley most 80+ persons were born during or before WW2, the nuclear bomb and grew up in the relative well off times of the 1950s and 1960s (those that had not been killed off by air pollution ) Additionally schooling and education was rolled out to those of 15/16 + years of age , and a lot of their lives have been spent more in front of the telly and less going out to the cinema ? Does the personal interaction in the world of labour arguement in the working clubs and so on give a longer (brain) life or a more sedentry life, or are we going towards a reversal of extended lives back toward a mid 70s average now ?

[Stanley]

I've always claimed to have a brain the size of a planet, after reading Hitch-hiker's Guide. (See Marvin the Paranoid Android.... )

[Gloria]

Had our flu jabs yesterday, we are now all Covid and flu jabbed up. It went with military precision, we didn’t even have time to sit down

[Tizer]

Ours will be done on Thursday next week. One of our neighbours has been influenced by the anti-vax crowd and she say she won't go for any vaccinations now. `I don't want them putting chemicals in my blood', she said. It's no good us trying to change her mind, she's been brainwashed. Sad, I didn't expect it of her, she always seemed to have a healthy scepticism but now she's become sceptical of the evidence-based truth instead of the misinformation. She said it's no good us trying to change her mind. This is just one local example of what we're up against now.

On a different aspect of health, this morning I realised we've heard very little from the Truss Kwarteng combo on the NHS and then my next thought was I'll bet that (if they survive long enough) they'll go for supporting more private health care while cutting back on NHS funding. Also we might even see US health companies getting a way in to the UK too. We can't trust government with the NHS!

[Stanley]

Sorry to hear about your neighbour's attitude but if someone told me that I would say it was all right because the situation is self-correcting if we are right about the efficacy of vaccination the anti-vaxxers will simply die out, sorry dear but that's how it is.
Peter, I share your fears about the NHS being opened up to the large American private health interests. In terms of the private hospitals it has already happened and we are giving them government funds by using them to make up for the lack of hospital space due to cuts over the last thirty years. Remember the contention that the NHS had too many bed spaces? That gets a hollow laugh now but it's too late, we let them slip away.
It could be said that it's inevitable that the concept of free medicine will die eventually if nobody fights for it and if the government of the day is actively running it down because of ideological reasons (Like the Tories) it will happen all the sooner.

[plaques]

How long will it be before the term ' Free at the point of use' means the telephone call to book a Doctors appointment after that its pay, pay pay.

[Stanley]

There's little doubt in my mind Ken that that is possible if we don't fight tooth and nail against it. The process is happening now. The prospect of the huge profits to be made is the magnet.

[Pluggy]

Taking up from here : https://oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk/viewtop ... 20#p166120

I'm back. since being free of the worry of maintaining OGFB I have necglected posting. I look in from time to time and today I found someone rattling my cage so I decided I should return,

Big shifts and little uns. Since my last post and since I last visted the neurologist I've developed the last symptom of IBM (difficulty in swallowing)nI didn't have and the rest of it has progressed to me not being able to walk and getting around in an electric wheelchair. On a better note I'm managing to maintain my mental health and keeping a positive outlook on life.

My wife went into hospital last April with GBS (Google it) She came out after a month and has very gradually recovering. She may never shake it altogether. Its likely it was triggered by the fist Covid vacccine. Recently they came up with this :

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2022/may/ris ... ccinations.

It would seem my wife was one of them.....

[plaques]

My wife went into hospital last April with GBS (Google it) She came out after a month and has very gradually recovering. She may never shake it altogether. Its likely it was triggered by the first Covid vacccine. Recently they came up with this :

Pluggy. Don't give in to the Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) my wife went down with it about 5 years ago, a viral infection they think. Total paralysis, intensive care but fortunately her breathing kept going. Bounced about a bit. Burnley, Blackburn, Preston, Blackburn, and finally the Nelson Pendleside hospital. Took a while to get mobile, frame then sticks, wouldn't use the wheelchair. Another few months and she was up and about but soon got tired. Now years later she's just left with a slight weakness in one leg. Some people recover quickly others take much longer but most do recover.

[Stanley]

Morning Stephen, so good to hear from you. I looked GBS up and it sounds horrendous! On top of your own problems I can't imagine how you can cope, let alone post on here. I'm glad Ken can say something positive to you, I have nothing to offer as I have no experience. In fact that's about the only thing that strikes me at the moment, how lucky I am that all I have to deal with is the natural attrition old age and as you know because you see me often enough, I can still manage a short walk and a bit of people watching.
You don't say (or I have missed) what rattled your cage.Please give us a chance to support you if that is possible.... I wish you and your wife the best day possible.... Best, Stanley.

[Pluggy]

Tizer rattled my cage in the energy matters thread a few days back.

[Pluggy]

Hmmph the baby (My grandaughter Charlotte) I have on my lap in my avatar photo is going on 11 years old now, she'll be a heart breaker in a year or two.....

[Tizer]

Tizer rattled my cage in the energy matters thread a few days back.

It's a cage worth rattling!

[Stanley]

I'm saying the same things about this one Pluggy, my new great grand daughter Lily. Alex in Oz is 11 years old now. You're right, they grow like weeds.

[PanBiker]

Trying to get my flu jab sorted before my scanner appointment later this month. Local surgery has no stock presently and neither does Whitworth's. Seems like the vaccines are a bit thin on the ground. Managed to book at Well Pharmacy for the 19th of this month. That's a week before my trip to LGI for my annual scan, should be free of any sided effects if I get any, never had a problem in previous years but I suppose it depends on this years cocktail.

If that falls through, I have read that you can ask at any hospital if you are attending for another appointment so I suppose I have a backup plan there.

[Stanley]

Provision of vaccines certainly hasn't functioned as smoothly as we have come to expect.....

See THIS BBC report about the exploitation of doctors recruited from poor countries. They are being employed in circumstances that would not be tolerated in the NHS. It is a disgrace....

[PanBiker]

Provision of vaccines certainly hasn't functioned as smoothly as we have come to expect.....

See THIS BBC report about the exploitation of doctors recruited from poor countries. They are being employed in circumstances that would not be tolerated in the NHS. It is a disgrace....

Indeed, I watched 999 Critical Condition last night, (Stoke A&E Trauma Unit). They showed a bloke who had been hit in the face with a quarter ton lump of metal in the fabrication factory where he worked. Left eye socket and the whole of his top jaw caved in from the impact. Nose bridge non existent.
After they established a new airway via his throat he was shoved in the scanner and then straight into surgery to "stabilise" the front facial structure.
All the surgery team looked as if they were from foreign parts. A nice Chinese lady surgeon inspected his left eyeball which was out of the socket which was now no longer there, lens had popped out so she sorted that to try and preserve some vision at that side, 20 mins from her then she left it up to the reconstruction team. The program reported that he spent three weeks in hospital, had six operations and was currently recovering at home. Probably 12 more operations required to complete the rebuild, he lost his left eye. Amazing what they can do nowadays.

[Big Kev]

I've given up on the Burnley General walk in blood test, I've made an appointment at Barlick Medical Centre.

[PanBiker]

Further to my previous post. I forgot to mention that the hospital flu vaccination team dropped into the trauma unit and vaccinated all the staff as they worked their shift. As they reinforced it was inconceivable to possibly have a wave of flu wipe the department out.

[Stanley]

I think there is no doubt that this year's possible flu strain is being watched very closely after the Australian experience. (Grand daughter Katie had it and was seriously ill for a time....)

[Tizer]

..the hospital flu vaccination team dropped into the trauma unit and vaccinated all the staff..

All of them? That must be a novelty!

[PanBiker]

Yep, all those on duty in the trauma unit. A bit like a swarm of mosquito's. They were jabbing docs while they were making notes. They had red tabards with "hospital flu vaccination team" on them.