BoftheBang into 2023

BoftheBang into 2023

Table of Contents

Strokes 1
Partially Sighted 1
Other Deficits 2
Clinical Psychologist 2
Lucy Jim ? – Cancer 3
Right Now 4
Jean 5
So – onward and upward 5

The first posts – ‘About BoftheBang 1 – 2’ – covered – as the subtitle suggests – my life from being born to starting this blog i.e. ‘Born to Blog’ – clever eh?

It’s been a long and full life (and I haven’t finished yet!) and the posts necessarily covered only the highlights and omitted anything that wasn’t very funny.

now that the blog has slid down the slipway onto the high waters of the web and is available to the world – it seems appropriate to draw the strands together and address my new starting point – i.e. me right now!

So – past issues leading to my current situation (some, briefly mentioned in a previous posts, – some not):

Strokes

I had two major strokes within seven days of each other in early 2011 – I was 60 at the time – (the first -ironically – on Good Friday). Almost certainly due to an irregular heartrate (technically ‘Atrial Fibrillation’) which had been diagnosed some years earlier. Diagnosed late but – when I heard the symptoms, I realised I had almost certainly had it since my twenties.

Not necessarily -life threatening (unless a stroke does for you) and medication stops the uncomfortable palpitations – so probably, the only obvious problem is warming up very quickly with exertion – so – I don’t exert myself much!

Partially Sighted

I obviously walked away from the strokes – medical staff don’t call us ‘stroke survivors’ for nothing – there’s plenty who don’t survive. Those who do, can have a wide range of what they refer to as ‘deficits.’ Mine was a reduced field of vision – nothing on my left side – the main consequences being – I can’t travel on public transport or walk any distance (I get lost!) or cross roads – without a guide and, worse – I had to stop driving immediately, which meant that I was forced into retirement and out of self-employment as a trainer and it then severely changed my retirement Plans i.e. Pensioner’s season ticket at Old Trafford (cricket ground, of course!) I think – I may have mentioned that in a previous post.

The upsides are – I can’t be the designated driver anymore –

– – I am registered as ‘house-bound’ with my GP Practice – so I get home visits for Covid / flu jabs and prescription deliveries –

Always someone worse off – man in the next bed to me in the stroke ward – couldn’t swallow – so all nutrition and medication went through a ‘plug’ in his stomach or a drip – I think of him every time I have a glass of dry white – count your blessings!

Clinical Psychologist

Just a few days after coming home – we had a home visit from a clinical psychologist specialising in brain traumas – particularly strokes and brain injuries. Young woman called Caroline and happy with first names, -. not typical in my experience of consultants – maybe, I had only seen the old school types.

She did mostly home visits and seemed to be in control of her own timetable – it turned out she could pick and choose what she did as long as she hit the right numbers.

I / We benefitted – as she soon got comfortable with us and actually got on famously with jean, my wife – to the extent that she took an interest in Jean being a Reiki Master and ended up trying Reiki message therapy sessions – giving Jean the benefit of her feedback based on her professional analysis and experience.

Reiki – a Japanese origin energy balancing therapy consisting of hands on – but no actual massage and fully dressed – seemed to be more effective with woman – and I didn’t get it at all – I did try – just a half hour lie-down.

Started with one visit a week – soon moved on to two or even three some weeks – often including lunch – it was a lovely summer. Did lots of the tests sat in the garden.

It was first clear that I could speak normally. I have already said that – not being able to swallow, is probably the worst effect of a stroke – but not being able to verbally communicate would – for me- be as bad or worse,having made my living for over thirty-five years – mostly – just talking.

I had to give up the training seminars – but not because I couldn’t communicate or had forgotten my subject contact – but only because I was now partially sighted and not driving or travelling alone made just the logistics of getting to venues impossible.

I never found out – but imagined that in a seminar of typically 15 to 20 delegates in a horseshoe formation – a waving hand, on my left, with a question – could easily be missed – no matter how much you attempt to scan the room.

In addition to practising scanning to my left to get a full view of what is in front of me – not as easy as it sounds to do it continually – her focus on me was tests to measure how much – if any – the strokes had affected my cognitive abilities – relating to cognition – in terms of intellectual activity, thinking, reasoning, remembering etc.

As I put it to her – we were seeing if I was still ‘a clever dick’

Started with – could a distinguish animals from colour drawings i.e. tell a zebra from a giraffe – through to more and more complex vocabulary and memory tests – all from a large collection of standardised tests which she could mark and record in a final report.

Final report (in brief)

Generally, ‘Superior’ to ‘Very Superior’’ scores – as would be expected with his educational and professional background.’

With the exception of – typical – ‘Average’ scores in – – visual exercises where there was an inattention to left side graphics – again, to be expected’.

So, I reckon that meant, that I was still a ‘clever dick.’

Lucy Jim ? – Cancer

Add to that – I survived bowel cancer in 1997 – primarily because I saw a GP early and I can’t emphasise too much, how vital that is – any change in bowel movements which persist over four or five days – should ring alarm bells – any signs of blood in stools – try to see/speak to a doctor straight away (I accept that a GP appointment or A&E are not as simple as they were – at the moment. Most practices will do GP phone consultations, tell them the symptoms, they will get on the job – better for them and you to diagnose and catch early.

I went into surgery to get a decisive biopsy – previous being indeterminate. Later that day – I am back in the ward and visited by the consultant surgeon – credit where it’s due – a Mr. Michie from Bolton Royal. he said, when I was under, he decided to go for it and removed – what he thought – was the whole tumour and was ‘relatively’ confident – but had to wait for the biopsy results in a couple of days. He had always been honest – only issue was whether the cancer had already penetrated the bowel wall – in which case, we were not finished yet.

I was home two days later – physios driving me there – to check the house for safety’ as I was formally registered as partially sighted. Even talked about a baby gate at the top of the stairs – just their little joke!

Got a phone call from Mr Michie later in the afternoon – I can’t fault the personal service.

Good news – tumour was malignant but not high grade – no penetration of the bowel wall – so no more treatment or surgery and no colostomy bag.

I bet he prefers giving good news.

The point being – none of this would have been possible if I had not engaged with them as early as I did.

So – don’t mess around!

P.S. The next time I saw Mr. Michie, was in his clinic for a final consultation and discharge – he opens the file, leans back and says, ‘We’ve cured you, haven’t we?’ He was as chuffed as I was .

had to go onto regular colonoscopies for about ten years – but nothing to them at all and all of them – ‘normal’. – and the best tea and toast you have ever had – after a 24 hour fast and Clean Prep – that’s enough detail.

So – ‘Lucky Jim’? – I’m a great believer in the axiom – ‘The harder I work, the luckier I get’.

So – you can make your own luck – if you try.

I also think that – walking into a full lecture room, at the age of 27 – as the new course tutor – with no lecturing or teaching experience or qualifications – and surviving – makes later challenges a bit less frightening.

Right Now

I live alone in a very comfortable bungalow on the outskirts of Manchester, with wonderfully supportive neighbours.

My wife, Jean, and I downsized here, in 2015 – planning for old age.

Jean

thirty years my partner (and co mortgagee) and then 12 years married – I should explain – at sixty Jean received her, very generous, pension from NatWest bank and retired to set up a domestic cleaning business which was successful for another twelve years.

So, getting married was legally a cleaner (pardon the pun) solution for the inevitable event of one of our deaths,. – I still get a small percentage of her bank pension as her surviving spouse,

Adult Care

She passed away in early 2021, after about eight years of a terminal neurological disorder known as PSP (see https://www.pspassociation.org.uk  if interested) – which led to her being bed-bound’ for the last two years, with me as full-time carer ( my willingness or suitability, were never discussed – nor was the fact that I was registered as partially sighted) – I managed, but only with help from visiting carers.

The process of obtaining care visits took about three months- most of it with Jean in hospital and wanting to come home – and multiple document filling and hoops to jump through – my introduction to – what can only be described as’the crisis’ in adult care services.

I am an intelligent and literate pensioner – I have no idea how a less able old person could hope to work the system – well, they couldn’t! I eventually got four visits of two carers per day – starting at 6.30 am – it’s a fact that it takes at least two adults to just turn an immobile bed-bound adult – impossible for one person – and Jean couldn’t be discharged home from hospital until it was arranged.

Not news at the moment but the seeds of current problems in the care services – along with many other NHS provisions – were there, well over ten years ago and are now, of course, worse.

Even when I thought it was sorted – some three months later, I received an invoice for £600+ for ‘Care Services’!! I had received and paid, two previous similar but smaller, invoices- for £40 to £60 – because I had read somewhere that a contribution to care costs would be required – and I was worried that if I ignored them – they would just cancel the carers.

Spent many hours trying to phone the Bury Council Adult Services help line – just rang for a while then cut off – and no face to face consultations (even if I could get to the offices) because of COVID.

I registered on the online website – sent maybe six emails asking for clarification – no replies at all – but did note that I could pay any outstanding invoices online immediately!

I ploughed through all the literature – which i admit, I had only speed read , and discovered that any payments had to be preceeded by a ‘financial assessment’ – and I hadn’t had one.

More emails – but with a spcific point – ‘you are invoicing me for significent amounts, without conducting a financial assessment – in the absence of an acceptable reply, I will take legal advice.’

A tips: When complaining to any goverment department:

– take the time to read their website and literature

– try to incorporate their own wording – particularly referring to, anything they are commited to do – they don’t like that at all – but have to react.

– email if possible – if not -a recorded delivery letter of which you keep copies

– investigate whether a goverment Ombudsman has been appointed for that sector – and keep them in reserve until you have complained direct to the local department and not got a (acceptable) reply.

– always say that if you don’t receive an acceptable reply – you will take legal advice.

– never use any rude or abusive language.

In thise case – I struck lucky.

I got a reply from Sandra (first names are always a good start)

I think it was pure luck – I got an individual who actually did her job – after an exchange of incresingly chatty emails – she cancelled the £600+ invoice -sent in error -and another one that was on the way for £900+. – Just ignore it’.

She even had a look at the records and refunded to my online account, the two £40-60 invoices I had actually paid – all of them sent in error.

She also arranged for a ‘financial assessment’ – now done over the telephone – and apologised that it had not been done sooner. I felt like sending her some flowers! I ended up having to pay £42 per week – which I thought was a good deal.

I did say to Sandra – that I had renamed her Miss Moneypenny – because she was so efficient – which she seemed to quite like – then got an email reply saying – that made me James Bond -I decided that we had probably got too chatty.

I did send a final email expressing how she had been a huge help at a difficult time which I appreciated. I also met one of the senior Adult Services managers when sorting a hospital bed for Jean coming home – so gave her a name check which she said she would pass on.

Civil Servants – they’re not all useless.

Jean

Died in her sleep – no evidence of any trauma – just went to sleep and didn’t wake up.

No surprise – average life expectancy 5 – 7 years – and a relief to her and, I have to be honest – to me as well.

So – onward and upward

For most the last two years, since then – I have often described my situation as – ‘drifting without an anchor but not taking in water’. (I am an RYA qualified yacht skipper hence the nautical reference – (actually just made a note, that’s a post for the future).

Then a friend with whom I exchanged emails with regularly – suggested that I should consider a blog – would never have crossed my mind – but here we are – and it has given me a clear focus and I find therapeutic in many ways – a win – win.

I hope you agree.