"What have you eaten" Parallel Chat

Part of my medical supplies that I get from Indepence Australia is tubigrip compression tubing. I use three layers on each leg to stop the fluid bloating them up and to keep the chronic wound dressing supported.

To buy this by the one metre box is around $10.00, I get can get it for ~$2.40 a metre, but I buy a ten metre box for ~$24.00 as I use a fair bit..

Ready to go, just got to get a pair of Tradies to go withem and all set for Blue Care to use.



Here's a pix of the tubigrip applicator to make it easy to get the tubigrip on wrinkle free.

Em was here today and I was really pleased with her attitude, as I often am. She was "crafting" something and told me it was for a boy in her class. Oh ho, is this a boyfriend? No, of course not. But he's autistic and everyone in the class thinks he's weird (that's been said of Em as well) and they won't talk to him, so he hasn't got any friends. Em tells me that she helps him when he can't do things and she is making sure that he has at least one friend. She tells the others to keep the noise down because he is very sensitive to noise. Nice one Em!

I was telling her about her uncle Neil's Asperger's syndrome, which leads him to have very sensitive hearing as well, and told her that some people on the autism spectrum can be very clever but might have difficulty getting to understand people. "So that's why Neil doesn't like loud music or TV sounds." and "That's why Neil is so clever" and "That's why Neil can be difficult to talk to." Not that Em ever has any difficulty getting on with Neil. She must be one of the very few people who never hesitate to tell, or ask him things. Even Em's Dad, Neil's younger brother, is very wary of approaching him with a request or question without me preparing the way. It's actually quite noticeable that since Em has been around, Neil has come out of his defensive shell quite a lot and willingly looks up things she might be interested in and has her working alongside him when he does jobs around the place.

Back from the dentist and the optician. My retinas are absolutely fine but I made an appointment for late in September for an eyesight test. In fact my vision is just as acute as it has been for many years, but nothing will stay still in front of me. Partly it's double vision because as things come into a certain range, they start to double up - one on top of the other and they jiggle around. I also cannot focus properly when things are moving, so when I am being driven anywhere, I keep my eyes shut most of the time. That's why I no longer drive. We'll see what the optician (or is he an optomotrist?) says.

Told the dentist that I have to take my new dental plate out and put the old one in, to eat and that it was seriously painful at the best of times. He filed it down a fair bit and I tried it again. Unfortunately, just putting it in today has seriously grazed my gums, so I can't keep them in at all until that heals. He also filled a tooth I didn't know needed filling.

I have my new compression stockings. My legs feel so much better than dragging around those thick bandages. They seem to be OK, if a bit wrinkled; the nurse couldn't get them on my legs very easily. Where they wrinkle they tend to cut in, and the legs are too long for my little short, stubby frame so they have to turn over at the top, but I think they'll be OK. Have to keep them on for 2 days, then I can take them off and have a shower and put the 2nd pair on. Getting them off might be an issue. Still have to go back next Tuesday to check that all's well.

While at the clinic, I had to tell the nurse my birth date and she commented that I have just recently reached the age of 77. That made me think. I am into my 78th year and despite diabetes, arthritis, liver and kidney problems, pills, leg issues, weight issues, greying hair. Inside me I still think I am a reasonably fit 25 - 30 year old.

@Annb my next door neighbour is off with a friend to Harris for a few days. Armed with a waterproof as the forecast is rain but, she was more concerned about whether they would actually get there with the ferries. I hope they make it as they were really looking forward to it (rain or not!)

As far as I know, the Stornoway ferry is running, but that's a long way round to get to Harris. The last I heard, the Harris route was still having issues, but I haven't heard of any serious hold-ups recently. I do hope your neighbour gets there and has a good time in Harris.

Didn't have any more food after breakfast - Em was here "crafting" until 6 pm and then Neil took the opportunity to make his meal. I got as far as prepping my green beans but gave up then and put them and the fish back in the fridge because it was getting on for 7.30 and I had a Zoom birthday party to attend. Great party and all the better for having no food or drink involved. The birthday is the 64th of a friend who lives in Dumfries. She has just been told that the cancer she has been fighting for the last year is incurable and she has only a short time left. There were people there from China and Japan in the East to Hawaii in the West, from Sweden in the North to New Zealand in the South. Zoom is an amazing tool. I'm so glad that I was persuaded to use it.

Annb said:

Great party and all the better for having no food or drink involved. The birthday is the 64th of a friend who lives in Dumfries. She has just been told that the cancer she has been fighting for the last year is incurable and she has only a short time left. There were people there from China and Japan in the East to Hawaii in the West, from Sweden in the North to New Zealand in the South. Zoom is an amazing tool. I'm so glad that I was persuaded to use it.

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All the more reason for an amazing birthday party, how wonderful she could have all her friends attend thanks to zoom!

It was quite amazing really. She was born in Iran and married a Scot. She has cousins and other family, many of whom got out of their country with great difficulty, being part of a religious minority, and moved all over the world. So there were family and friends from all over Scotland, Ireland and England (and one from Wales, I think) plus Holland, 2 from there met at this party, Canada, America, Costa Rica, France, India, Germany, New Zealand. Her grandchildren, living in China could sing "Happy Birthday" to her. In all, something over a hundred people joined in. All courtesy of Zoom. It has its drawbacks, but it is so useful at times like this.

Neil, rooting around in the loft a couple of days ago, found a Dualit toaster which had been relegated there some years ago. Neither of us could remember why. The only thing we could think was that it was just too big and took up too much space on the worktop - it is a 4 slot toaster and is massive. We did think, perhaps that it toasted unevenly as well. Neil thinks that, because the elements are at the ends, maybe the middle 2 don't toast as well. So when I got up earlier today, he had it stripped down because when he tried to test it, he realised that it was greasy and full of burnt crumbs, stuck to the grease. It took him about 3 hours to get it cleaned and put back together. Now he has to go out for an appointment and has no time to eat. So I have to see if it will work. I'll do that in a while. He says there's no way he will deep clean it again. If it works well, I'll try to sell it (Dualits are very expensive machines) and if it doesn't toast evenly, it will go to the electrical recycling site (after all that work he did!)

Looked up Dualits on E-bay. They are offered there between £10 and £20. Not worth the bother of trying to sell it, even locally, so if I can't find someone who wants a big toaster, I'll send it to a charity shop because it actually works very well.

Ah well, more plans gone aglae. DIL has had a lot of back pain over the last week or so but today she couldn't move. Alistair called the GP surgery and told them it was urgent but was told to wait for the GP to call back. They waited, he didn't call back. They called again to be told that the doctors were all busy and they would get to her call when they could. Alistair got her into the car and they went to A&E. There she was diagnosed as having a slipped disk and was given some pretty strong pain relief and told to rest for several days.

The thing is, I was at the Health Centre on Tuesday and, while lots of nurses took people through for treatment, not one person went to see a doctor. I commented on that to the nurse who dealt with me and she agreed - the doctors see very few people now, it's all nurses. So why were they too busy to call back when they were told it was urgent?

DIL runs a one (wo)man business and will be unable to do anything for a while so Alistair is going to have to do his own work and then go home to fix dinner for the kids and then do all the laundry work. He was already glad to be on strike today and hoping for a chance to get some rest - he's pretty exhausted. Doesn't auger well but, if they don't keep the laundry working, she'll lose her customers. It never rains ...

We have a bad habit of hanging on to cardboard boxes. We buy lots on the internet and so these boxes and bundles keep arriving. It's great, like Christmas once or twice a week; for me that is because by the time things come, I've forgotten what I ordered. Anyway, Em likes to have cardboard boxes for her crafting, so I keep them, but she never takes her craftwork home. There is a huge pile of redundant projects in the living room now. Plus, other boxes that we didn't know whether we would need, or not. Plus, Neil has taken over the room as an extension of his workshop. When my cleaner comes to do the floors, I can just about squeeze into the doorway and perch on my rollater while she is working. So, it's decided, the projects and the boxes have to go. Neil agrees and when I mentioned it this morning he immediately went into the room and started throwing boxes, cut up cardboard, packaging out into the hallway to help. Well, I couldn't get into the room, so I couldn't do it.

So now I have a huge pile of cardboard boxes and bits of boxes sitting in the hallway, waiting for me to break them up small enough to go into the bin before Tuesday (bin day). And I've just about run out of steam with all the vegetable prepping I was doing earlier. Never mind, I have until early Tuesday morning.

Annb said:

As far as I know, the Stornoway ferry is running, but that's a long way round to get to Harris. The last I heard, the Harris route was still having issues, but I haven't heard of any serious hold-ups recently. I do hope your neighbour gets there and has a good time in Harris.

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She's not back yet so I'm wondering now if she got there but hasn't managed back yet?

Annb said:

Ah well, more plans gone aglae. DIL has had a lot of back pain over the last week or so but today she couldn't move. Alistair called the GP surgery and told them it was urgent but was told to wait for the GP to call back. They waited, he didn't call back. They called again to be told that the doctors were all busy and they would get to her call when they could. Alistair got her into the car and they went to A&E. There she was diagnosed as having a slipped disk and was given some pretty strong pain relief and told to rest for several days.

The thing is, I was at the Health Centre on Tuesday and, while lots of nurses took people through for treatment, not one person went to see a doctor. I commented on that to the nurse who dealt with me and she agreed - the doctors see very few people now, it's all nurses. So why were they too busy to call back when they were told it was urgent?

DIL runs a one (wo)man business and will be unable to do anything for a while so Alistair is going to have to do his own work and then go home to fix dinner for the kids and then do all the laundry work. He was already glad to be on strike today and hoping for a chance to get some rest - he's pretty exhausted. Doesn't auger well but, if they don't keep the laundry working, she'll lose her customers. It never rains ...

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It's the same here. It's nigh on impossible to get a face to face. The criteria seems to be you get a telephone consultation first, then they'll decide from there whether you will need/require a face to face. It didn't much do my sister or the last brother to pass away any good. It took 8 months to diagnose my sister with an incurable stage IV cancer (hospital didn't have any full time cancer specialists (They had to "borrow" one 1/2 a day per week) and my brother had 2 telephone check ups which failed to catch a reoccurrence of his cancer (not surprisingly). He ended up in the same situation as your friend - terminal with weeks to live. I fear many cases are being missed with the current format. Even the pharmacies are saying they have no idea what the GPs are doing. We're having to order our repeat prescriptions at least 2 weeks in advance.

I saw a recent BMA report which said that Scotland was short of over 500 hospital consultants and, in some cases, they had given up advertising because no one was applying. I'm curious now just how many GPs we're short off?

Annb said:

We have a bad habit of hanging on to cardboard boxes. We buy lots on the internet and so these boxes and bundles keep arriving. It's great, like Christmas once or twice a week; for me that is because by the time things come, I've forgotten what I ordered. Anyway, Em likes to have cardboard boxes for her crafting, so I keep them, but she never takes her craftwork home. There is a huge pile of redundant projects in the living room now. Plus, other boxes that we didn't know whether we would need, or not. Plus, Neil has taken over the room as an extension of his workshop. When my cleaner comes to do the floors, I can just about squeeze into the doorway and perch on my rollater while she is working. So, it's decided, the projects and the boxes have to go. Neil agrees and when I mentioned it this morning he immediately went into the room and started throwing boxes, cut up cardboard, packaging out into the hallway to help. Well, I couldn't get into the room, so I couldn't do it.

So now I have a huge pile of cardboard boxes and bits of boxes sitting in the hallway, waiting for me to break them up small enough to go into the bin before Tuesday (bin day). And I've just about run out of steam with all the vegetable prepping I was doing earlier. Never mind, I have until early Tuesday morning.

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We have a weekly recycling day where cardboard is collected separately. It just has to be flattened and wedged between the other recycling boxes. Of course, that's only as long as they don't go on strike! Here it's only COSLA members on strike so far but we're having to check each collection day to make sure. Edinburgh is pretty awful.

I give my large Amazon and Independence Australia boxes to my local butcher. When I have collected a large number of flattened out boxes which I tie up when I have ten boxes. I give him a ring and he sends one of his workers around to pick them up. He uses them to put his orders in for delivery.

Small boxes from IA, I flatten out and put in the recycle bin which are collected once a fortnight., one of the Blue Vare nyrses used to take a couple for putting presents in at xmas and birthdays for her kids.

We do recycle cardboard but it has to be small enough to go inside the recycling bin or they won't take it. There is an issue with the parcel tape and sellotape that hold them together though. Sometimes it is very difficult to strip off, and it can't be recycled. I had thought that Amazon had started using a biodegradable tape, but it seems to have fibres through it that Neil thinks are made of a plastic/nylon material and so not able to be recycled. So they will have to go into the general waste bin.

Dentist today - one less tooth in my mouth. I have realised that I now look very much like my grandmother, who didn't have a single tooth in her head, so her jaws kind of collapsed. She was one of those who, to avoid potential tooth problems, was given a present of having all of her teeth taken out as a young woman. My mother was the same but that was because she had bad teeth already. My grandmother never wore her false teeth unless she was going somewhere special (weddings, funerals, etc) but must have had fantastically tough gums because she could eat anything just using her gums to chew.

maglil55 said:

It's the same here. It's nigh on impossible to get a face to face. The criteria seems to be you get a telephone consultation first, then they'll decide from there whether you will need/require a face to face. It didn't much do my sister or the last brother to pass away any good. It took 8 months to diagnose my sister with an incurable stage IV cancer (hospital didn't have any full time cancer specialists (They had to "borrow" one 1/2 a day per week) and my brother had 2 telephone check ups which failed to catch a reoccurrence of his cancer (not surprisingly). He ended up in the same situation as your friend - terminal with weeks to live. I fear many cases are being missed with the current format. Even the pharmacies are saying they have no idea what the GPs are doing. We're having to order our repeat prescriptions at least 2 weeks in advance.

I saw a recent BMA report which said that Scotland was short of over 500 hospital consultants and, in some cases, they had given up advertising because no one was applying. I'm curious now just how many GPs we're short off?

Click to expand...

The hospital only gave DIL pain relief to last for 2 days so she had to try to get a further prescription from the GP. Alistair phoned to ask but the doctor who eventually did phone back (Alistair was actually standing at the reception desk begging for a prescription for her when the doctor rang him back) said he could only prescribe if he saw her (that's a new one these days). So there was some tooing and froing as the GP rang DIL while Alistair waited at the reception desk. The end of that was that a prescription was issued for one more day and DIL was told to go in to see the doctor. She protested that she was immobile. "So take the pain killers and then drive yourself in" - really? Drive under the influence of strong drugs? So - "OK get someone else to drive you in". If she couldn't get in, then the doctor couldn't (wouldn't) help her. It was a strike day, but Alistair is not on strike. So he had to alter his delivery route and leave work early (much to his manager's displeasure) and get home by mid-afternoon to take her in. She already had many health problems and is on various medications for pain so was given a prescription for (I think) temazepam and told to just double up on all her other pain medications, other than the already high dose Co-codemol. If it doesn't work, she can go back and she might be referred for scans and so on. That's another issue because the nearest MRI scanner is in Inverness. How to get there in her current state?