Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Hope things start to look up for Mrs Mick - sounds like some of the worst stories we hear about the NHS and alas from knowing what happened with my mother in her final weeks in hospital I realise it is not an isolated shortcoming although when they're good they are very good in my experience.

 

And yes - air travel is not fun in many respects although the last time I flew out of Heathrow I had the advantage of arriving late and being passed through every hurdle with commendable speed - barely 30 minutes from getting off the train to sitting down on the 747 (but security was not so overdone back then of course).

 

Anyway today it's a matter of taking herself to her dentist and then either waiting (with a bit of trainspotting to pass the time, honest) or if her day goes as she plans I'll be straight off to have a good look through some auction lots and get the commission bids in; not really an auction I'd like to miss but as it clashes with the consultant appointment I've been waiting 5 months for I think I know where my priorities should lie, probably.

 

Have a good day one and all and hope things get better for Mrs Mick.

[iL Dottore]

Morning all,

 

Hope things start to look up for Mrs Mick -

 

...and hope things get better for Mrs Mick.

Hear, hear. Gute Besserung Mrs Mick, as they say here in CH

 

iD

[Tony_S]

I have been admitted to hospital over a weekend and if my experience was anything to go by Mick's wife should start to see some improvement in service now that the working week has begun. 

[AndyB]

Morning all. Sunny here in Hampshire. 

Sorry to read about everyone's woes. 

 

Work continues on the N gauge layout. To help things along I purchased a new soldering iron. And as I try to keep the expense of the hobby down (below the radar) I went for a n inexpensive 30 W one from Wilko. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised that the delicate tip seemed to evaporate over a period of an hour, leaving something that looks like the top of a volcano in its place. The first few dropper wires were neatly done, by the end I'd have been better of using an arc welding machine! 

 

Meanwhile I'm continuing to get things ready for a Halloween-themed Science Club session at our local school. I can recommend a polymer experiment using a 2:1 mix of cornflour and water - throw in some food pigment of your choice. Mix it and squeeze into a ball, then relax and watch it flow again. Try it, you know you want to!  

 

I have sympathies with anyone choosing not to fly. I can't think of a more stressful way to start a holiday than the drive to LHR or LGW, queue for this, wait for that, sprint to there, wait for this, attend to that.... I hope one day to visit New York again, a marvellous city as I'm sure Pete would agree. But next time to arrive in style by ocean liner! 

 

We used to fly up to Aberdeen when my daughter was a baby / toddler. To help occupy her on the plane we used to take a bottle of baby milk, and when she was older, some snacks.

"She doesn't need that much milk for your flight - you'll have to empty it to half full!" was the considered opinion of one security guard.

"Erm, and which flight would that be then?"

"Well, you'll have to drink some of it yourself to prove it's not an explosive"

I genuinely believe that somewhere there's a Tin-Pot Dictatorship missing its bureaucrats! 

 

We now drive to Scotland. 

 

Anyway, got to dash and cause mayhem at work. 

Best, Andy

[Tony_S]

My nephew didn't get onto the GP training scheme (London) he wanted to this year some he has been working as a locum. He doesn't like the situation on wards (especially weekends) and is much happier in A&E even at the weekends! He is going to apply for GP training again and will apply outside London this time.

[Sidecar Racer]

 but.....they were late, so that makes it all OK apparently.  Words fail me. 

 

So just how late can you get on an island that size ?  It's not like driving from Bristol to Aberdeen is it !!!

[Gruffalo]

Firstly sympathies to both Mr & Mrs Mick. Typical government response to sufficient complaints will be to re-organise but promote the bosses involved and cut the coal-face staff anyway (or am I just a cynic?). 

 

I agree that travelling Business is so much less stressful but I don't want to raise SWMBO's expectations. In particular I detest travelling through London Luton for its passenger processing inefficiency, its shocking ability to deliver your baggage in a timely manner, the general tenor of most of the staff at any time and the aggressive, noise (and at times intimidating) arrogance of the local populace who refuse to speak English even though born here! London Luton is owned by Luton Council and they want to expand its capacity by 50% - if they do, I will go out of my way to avoid using it. 9/11 has been used as an excuse by airport operators to unnecessarily trap you into the "duty free but exceptionally expensive" shopping areas for longer. SWMBO's Grand Tours ideas therefore leave me distinctly cool and as for cruises - I spent too long actually going somewhere in ships to want to be cooped up on such a vessel with little purpose.

Couldn't agree more with the "inappropriate speed" comment, every accident involves that! Dealing with the after-effects can't be pretty unpleasant when those involved never expected to be at risk. At least with motor racing accidents, we knew what we could expect and were trained to respond correctly, the competitors knew the risks they were taking and we could get professional medical back-up to an incident in less than 90 seconds for the smallest of club events (for GP's that figure was 30 seconds). The general public sadly will never get that level of support in a traffic incident and we often said that if you had to have any medical emergency there was no better place than Silverstone.

 

Eldest Grandchild's birthday do duly attended and despatched - he definitely doesn't like being the centre of attention, unlike his sisters. Some very tired kids were fast asleep when we had my Malay style curry with chicken and prawns and we got home just before 10, only to have to do it all again from Tuesday evening until Monday next - but this time without the presence of their parents! I hope to have recovered by the time of the Warley show! 

[DonB]

Morning, Grey outside but that is irrelevant today as I will be regrouting the tiles in the shower room, I will be glad when its done and finished!

 

Hope your day is somewhat more exciting.

Interesting Job!! I have same imminent, SWMBO has "commented" !

 

How and what did you use to remove the old grout?

[Tony_S]

.I've never flown from Luton, though perhaps it won't need to expand so much now that EasyJet seem to have discovered Southend Airport (or London Southend as it prefers to be called!). I've no idea what language is spoken at Southend airport but Aditi can communicate in Latin if necessary. We do intend to try a few flights from there. The local paper seems to have adverts for exciting breaks in Krakow.

[45156]

Morning All

 

On a couple of days off,  and have still not backstepped far enough, as I've apparently missed some of Mick's info about Mrs Mick's illness - so please forgive me for not acknowledging what's going on.  Problem is that due to personal reasons, I've not been visiting as often as I should, and that is possibly going to continue for a couple of weeks more. 

 

Sherry - I too was anticipating problems due to metalwork in the hip, and was told by my consultant that he would do a letter stating that nature of my operation, and that with the letter, I should be able to negotiate any security where a metal detector is used - as the alternative seemed to be to reveal my scar to all and sundry by dropping my pants, I decided to get a letter if needed - however, the removal of the metalwork actually sorted this out for once and for all.

 

I'll try to backstep now so that I can hopefully get up to speed on (in particular) Mick's postings.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

 

Edit - now up to speed, and regrettable not too surprised - but also managed to catch up with Dd's sad news, and though no comment was asked for, I've got to at least mark his posting with some sort of supportive thoughts.

S

Edited October 7, 2013 by 45156

[beast66606]

Morning all (just)

 

A pleasant morning, those on my facebook list will have seen a couple of scenic shots I took on my way to work. Managed to capture a nice pair of 57/0s on the Sizewell this morning.

 

Mick - I'm afraid the days of NHS staff being "angels" are long gone, as in every walk of life there are some very good ones, some very bad ones and the majority are in the middle, sounds like you got the bad end of the scale.

[skipepsi]

Morning all, thank you all for the kind and supportive thoughts. Apparently Karen is part of a drug trial for oral painkiller when she signed up for it is not clear. She can't have an infection because it is toon soon after the operation, it is however 9 weeks since they last dug in the same hole. I left school thinking those that went off to medical school were smarter than me sadly it no longer holds true I had to explain to a doctor that when a box said 100 capsules it did not mean they were 100mg capsules rather it was a box containing 300mg capsules and there were 100 of them. I do not know if they are short staffed or just worn out and unmotivated by the needs of the patients.

 

 

 

Perhaps the fact they were so much better the first time round when she had her hip repaired is part of the problem?

Edited October 7, 2013 by skipepsi

[New Haven Neil]

So just how late can you get on an island that size ?  It's not like driving from Bristol to Aberdeen is it !!!

 

Oh, it is - Island mentality!  A true three-legger thinks a 5 mile drive is a long haul.  One of the phrases in this sums it up:

 

 

Profanity warning at the end for the short of sense of humour.

 

Really, it is amazing how much folk here think a 32 mile island is a big place, and how hard it is to drive from one end to the other.  As I'm of Manx blood but not Manx born, I'm a little less bothered!  Folk here drive either much too fast, or do 45 everywhere - regardless of lesser limits or causing frustrations on faster roads.  The standard of driving is in the main abysmal.

[Donw]

I must be a right old fuddy duddy I have little desire to visit foreign places. I would blame it on dealing with foreigners but we have enough of that in the UK. Really it is so much nicer to travel in the motorhome and plenty of places I have yet to visit and walks to do, and it is easier with dogs to stay in the UK.

Absolutly cracking walk up to Grabbist Hill yesterday afternoon with delightful views keeps me fit and happy.

Don

[Shedman5]

Interesting Job!! I have same imminent, SWMBO has "commented" !

 

How and what did you use to remove the old grout?

 

I used a stanley knife and scraped the old grout out, I do have a grout removal tool (somewhere!!) in the garage which is like a stanley knife blade but thicker and has a serrated edge to it. Not expensive but I managed fine using the stanley knife blade and a old small screwdriver. I guess it depends on the quality of the grout you are taking out but I had no problems. You just have to go nice and slow being careful you don't scratch the tiles

[AndyB]

.I've never flown from Luton, though perhaps it won't need to expand so much now that EasyJet seem to have discovered Southend Airport (or London Southend as it prefers to be called!). I've no idea what language is spoken at Southend airport but Aditi can communicate in Latin if necessary. We do intend to try a few flights from there. The local paper seems to have adverts for exciting breaks in Krakow.

 

I can picture those adverts now: 

"Come to Krakow for the craic!"

"Enjoy craic-in Krakow"

 

I can't remember whether I ever flew from Southend on a commercial airline, but did get to pop up a couple of times with a mate who was learning. 

The first time we headed northwards into Essex and he decided to put the plane into some form of loop the loop. I didn't thank him. 

 

For some reason there was a second time...maybe it was the lure of duty free. We headed on a day trip to Le Touquet and he got lost in Kent. Luckily the trainspotter in me recognised Ashford and then Hythe and managed to direct him towards France. Apart from the hard landing which saw our duty free bag go flying up towards the cockpit ceiling it was ok. I had a go at steering the plane on the way back, which was fun. Well, I say, "fun" in that my mate told me to line up the top of the dashboard with the top of the White Cliffs of Dover in order to keep the plane level. What he didn't factor in was that he was significantly taller than me and under my control the plane started to climb. He got quite shirty, grabbed the steering wheel and gave it a good shove into the dashboard, at which point we got a very good view of the WCoD!     

 

Andy

[iL Dottore]

....Apparently Karen is part of a drug trial for oral painkiller when she signed up for it is not clear. ...

This is, to me, a concerning statement.

 

As someone who has spent his career conducting clinical trials to the highest of internationally recognised and mandated standards, the key element of any clinical trial is the informed consent. A patient needs to know all about the study, possible advantages and disadvantages, what the patient will have to do (e.g. what blood samples will be taken and when, etc.) and how long participation will be. Once the patient has been given all this information to read (some Informed Consent Forms [iCF] are quite lengthy), had his/her questions and concerns addressed by the investigator (i.e. the doctor doing the study at the hospital/clinic/centre) before signing, the subject then signs the ICF (and has a copy to take with them). It is not a process that easily slips from the memory (there are instances where a patient, due to the illness or injury, can not give consent - but there are other procedures in place, involving responsible others, to obtain consent).

 

I think you may need to get clarification on this "part of a drug trial" bit. I hope that it's just another instance of poor communication.

 

....I had to explain to a doctor that when a box said 100 capsules it did not mean they were 100mg capsules rather it was a box containing 300mg capsules and there were 100 of them...

Flaming Ada, that's scary. I hope it was just an overtired MD coming off the weekend shift (which is a worry in itself)...

 

Good luck for a speedy recovery

 

iD

[New Haven Neil]

Snip<  I had to explain to a doctor that when a box said 100 capsules it did not mean they were 100mg capsules rather it was a box containing 300mg capsules and there were 100 of them. I do not know if they are short staffed or just worn out and unmotivated by the needs of the patients.

 

 

 

 

That is indeed a worry.  I had my hypertension meds mis-dispensed last year, by a Pharmacist that didn't check, and a checker that didn;t check...... that's why the different doses are different colours - I spotted the difference as soon as I opened the packet.  Formal complaint made, bu££er all result.  More recently a counter assitant gave me someone else's drugs (same surname, address not checked #sigh#) this time I got an apology and the assistant got a rollocking and a re-training package.  Now why didn't the PHARMACIST get that previously, I wonder.......(sound of ranks closing).  Oh, he is a local MHK (like an MP) by the way....harrumph.

[NGT6 1315]

Mick, thinking of Karen and you! What you describe certainly is something no-one needs on top of everything when they are ill...

[The Stationmaster]

Ah, Krakow - interesting place Tony and when I was last there (ahem, er, 38 years ago) it did have a model railway shop - or rather a shop which sold model railway stuff, 100% 'behind the curtain' produced no less.  Unless it has changed more than a little I wouldn't recommend the Krakovia (now called the Cracovia I see) - comfortable enough but the food was atrocious, unless you happen to like blinking great chunks of (cooked) eel served cold, while the mashed potato was more dill than spud as far as the taste went.  It's probably much better now the country's been privatised ... probably.

[trisonic]

Or probably not.

 

Best, Pete.

[iL Dottore]

Oh, and I forgot to mention, whether or not a subject decides to participate in a clinical trial, the subject's decision cannot and must not impact on the standard of care due that patient. Participation in ANY clinical or medical trial is voluntary and ONLY after freely given informed consent has been provided by the subject/patient.

Edited October 7, 2013 by iL Dottore

[trisonic]

Oh, dear, the you just knew it would happen dept. after a month of beautiful sublime weather we are now (as is Manhattan) under a Tornado Watch until 5:00pm, three hours away. Deep, deep, joy.........

 

Best, Pete.

[Gruffalo]

Oh, and I forgot to mention, whether or not a subject decides to participate in a clinical trial, the subject's decision cannot and must not impact on the standard of care due that patient. Participation in ANY clinical or medical trial is voluntary and ONLY after freely given informed consent has been provided by the subject/patient.

Those of us with (relatively) good health have a lot for which to be thankful! In the late 50's early 60's a friend of my father used to spend two weeks volunteering to undergo treatment in the search for a cure for the common cold. Well, that is what we were told but, since the location was Porton Down, I often wondered. He died in his early 50's when I was a young teenager so I never was in a position to ask him!

[Tony_S]

Oh, and I forgot to mention, whether or not a subject decides to participate in a clinical trial, the subject's decision cannot and must not impact on the standard of care due that patient. Participation in ANY clinical or medical trial is voluntary and ONLY after freely given informed consent has been provided by the subject/patient.

I have always thought that the requests for extra blood /biopsy samples requested from me by doctors for research  have been rather well done. I thought the pressure my mother was put under to take part in clinical trials during her leukaemia treatment was not ethical. Fortunately she moved to Worcestershire and got excellent treatment and was happy to take part in research projects. 

Tony