• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

"What have you eaten" Parallel Chat

Speaking to my brother this evening and he was telling me just what his operation will involve. It's absolutely horrific and terrifying - to me anyway.

The surgery is expected to last about 14 hours and is in 3 parts - 1 to replace the aortic heart valve, 2 to deal with the aorta itself (not sure what is to be done there) and 3 his temperature has to be reduced to about 15 degrees and his heart stopped along with the heart lung machine being stopped for about 40 minutes while they work on the part of the aorta that actually feeds into the heart. At that temperature, his brain and organs won't suffer from oxygen deprivation. After the surgery he will be kept in an induced coma for 3 or 4 days. Sounds awful. But they've done it before and presumably been successful. We live in hope (and keep on praying).
 
Annb said:
Speaking to my brother this evening and he was telling me just what his operation will involve. It's absolutely horrific and terrifying - to me anyway.
Click to expand...
It's amazing what they can do, nowadays, but terrifying all the same!
I'll have my fingers crossed it will work out very well and he'll be fit as a fiddle again!
 
Antje77 said:
It's amazing what they can do, nowadays, but terrifying all the same!
I'll have my fingers crossed it will work out very well and he'll be fit as a fiddle again!
Click to expand...

He had his first heart valve replacement 42 years ago, when he was 37, and is at present the longest lasting survivor of that particular heart valve procedure. Back then he was very fit and recovered rapidly. Now he's 79 and it's a different kettle of fish. However, he's very sanguine about it, having lived with the possibility of heart failure for all that time. But I was brought up knowing I had to look after my sickly elder brother, and I'm still very conscious of his vulnerability. I take it very personally. And I worry.
 
I ordered some liquorice sticks (twigs) from Amazon. I've never tried them before but Em is very fond of the sweet version, so I thought I'd try her with the sticks. Took one out of the packet - not expecting to be able to use them myself because of the high sugar content but I licked the end of one. Oh boy! same effect as artificial sweeteners. Threw it away very rapidly but started feeling very grotty immediately. And I suspect that Em won't like them either. So they'll all go in the bin. What a waste of £11.50. Still - can't be helped. It was worth trying, I guess.

Edit: Em came in from school and tried the liquorice sticks. They are now in the bin!
 
Last edited:
Shame about liquorice roots - I’ve been looking at peppermint and liquorice tea pigs as a way of getting a liquorice taste, before I became diabetic liquorice allsorts were my pick up treat when stressed as as a child I used to eat liquorice root and brought back memories! mmm wonder how I became diabetic ? they are almost all sugar! Didn’t do it often but clearly an obvious one to get ditched when I was diagnosed! I need to double check the carb content of the tea bags before I go ahead and order!
Edit taken out of trolley too high carb and decided not for me gone for straight peppermint!
 
Last edited:
Does your brother have a date yet @Annb ? It's definitely a huge operation but as you say, keep praying. It is miraculous what they can do now.
I was fortunate today since, although my delivery was very late, I did get everything. I was reading at the weekend that the ferry issues are leading to shortages in the supermarkets on the islands. The ferries certainly seem to be a problem.
To add a bit of cheer, here's another pic of little Luffy trying to look innocent!
 
maglil55 said:
To add a bit of cheer, here's another pic of little Luffy trying to look innocent!
Click to expand...
It definitely adds cheer, and I so much want to cuddle that little dog and get puppy kisses and bites all over even if it means I'll have to dress up in a bright blue blanket!
But looking innocent doesn't work, she's a dachshund and no-one will believe her!
 

No date so far, but they seem to be getting organised with pre-ops, ecg's, scans and so on, so we think it won't be too long. But he still has to have a PCR test and then self isolate for 2 weeks before going into hospital.

At least Luffy is trying to look innocent. Ginnie just barges through life and acknowledges that it was her , so "what are you going to do about it?"

Edited to fix typo
 
Last edited:
There was some ready made shortcrust pastry in the fridge to be used up - Neil bought it to use and then decided he'd better not have it - so I used the last of the packet of sausages with some streaky bacon and made some bacon and sausage rolls. I'll send them down to Em's family when they're cooled. They look good and it's used up the sausages and pastry but obviously I can't try them myself. No doubt Em and Braidie will eat them even if no-one else will.
 
Neil and the pizza with custard :

We were on an Iranian ship, just after the revolution. The new government ordered that people had to be given jobs, whether they had experience or qualifications or not. As a result, the man employed as a chef was actually a barber and was not very good at cooking. The chief steward did not get on with the chef but told him which recipes to use for the meals offered.

Apparently on this particular day, part of the menu was to be ready made pizzas out of the store. But the pizzas, the chief steward knew, were not very cheesy, so he told the chef to make a cheese sauce to serve alongside. However, he made a mistake with the recipe number in the book he had given to the chef. The recipe was for custard. Chef did actually realise that it was a mistake but he had a score to settle with the chief steward so just did as ordered and made custard.

The dining room steward served the pizzas and then came round with a sauce boat saying "you won't be wanting cheese sauce..." Everyone agreed, picking up the hint but Neil insisted that he did want sauce with his pizza. And he ate it happily and told us that he had enjoyed it.

He couldn't do that now.
 
Annb said:
Neil insisted that he did want sauce with his pizza. And he ate it happily and told us that he had enjoyed it.
Click to expand...
That's a brilliant story, and I agree with both Neil and Em's adventurous and open minded approach to food!
After all, you only know if you don't like something until after you've tried!
 
Antje77 said:
That's a brilliant story, and I agree with both Neil and Em's adventurous and open minded approach to food!
After all, you only know if you don't like something until after you've tried!
Click to expand...

Very true. But I'm not going to tell Em about this particular experiment. Her parents wouldn't thank me.
 

My brother just heard today - his operation is on 24th February Don't know yet about PCR test and self-isolating but they'll have to get on with it - that's only 8 days away. The hospital he is going to is the John Radcliffe in Oxford and, I gather, it has an international reputation for heart surgery. Best hands to be in, I suppose.
 
BG's been all over the place these last couple of days. Full blown hypo hit me around 7 pm yesterday - BG had been hovering in the 4's for a bit, despite efforts to get it a bit higher (and despite being at 15.9 in the morning) - maybe I over-compensated, and then a sudden drop which took me by surprise so I didn't recognise it for what it was for a minute or so.

Low again most of today but the last couple of hours it bumped up to 12 or so. Need to take some insulin and actually eat something.

Just made some cold brewed coffee for tomorrow - just about ready to go into the fridge for the night. I tried some instant coffee (was that yesterday? I think it was) and felt horrible afterwards so I'm trying some proper coffee tomorrow. Neil very kindly just ground a lot of beans for me - my arms won't let me make the effort to do it myself and the jug we have needs quite a lot of coffee in the filter to make a jug full.
 
Had a good yarn with my GP yesterday, she increased the Oxycodone dosage to 10 mg capsules, but left me on the Fentanyl 26 mcg patch. So all good there.

She is happy with my leg from the photo's I showed her as I had it dressed by Blue Care yesterday. She has given me some tablets called Metronidazole 200mg to crush up and sprinkle on the dressing to kill any odours to try, this will be hopefully a replacement for the carboflex pads thta we are using at present at $5.40 each one gets expensive.

Got request forms for SN Pathology for a full lot of blood tests, including hba1c.

The best bit was she told me next time I need a appointment and to save me going there, we will have a free 15 minute phone appointment instead om me paying $80.00.
 
Started the day early because I had to go to get blood taken to check on how anaemic I am. Had quite a lot of fluid before going - to make sure there was blood there to collect, including a mug of the overnight cold coffee. Pretty strong but very nice just as it was - didn't think cream would be a good idea at that time of day. Used lots of energy to get into the hospital - not far to walk, but it just about finished me off. Had to rest for about 10 minutes to recover once inside. Amazingly the blood was taken by a student nurse who found a vein first time! Anyway breakfast was bread and marmite.

Not sure what to do about the rest of the day because I'm feeling awful - could it be the coffee? BG was 5.6 10 minutes ago and dropping but not dropped far enough for a hypo (not yet anyway). Maybe just not enough energy for all the moving around. Struggling to breathe once back in the car and still not recovered by the time we got home and had to walk again to get into the house. Not far, but too far.

I'd just collapsed into the chair when my cleaner arrived - an hour and a half before expected - but when she saw the state I was in, she decided to go away again and come back at the right time.
 
Letter in the post from Raigmore. Doesn't confirm the date for surgery, but included consent form and a form showing what the surgeon intends to do. It does say that I will be left with a scar and a mis-shapen breast. the last time I had anything cut out it was on my nose and I was told there would be no scar - wrong. My nose has a 1 cm diameter red circle right on the end of it. So glad we have to wear masks these days. There's no-one left who would be able to remark on scarring this time, so it doesn't matter.
 

That’s a novel idea with the metronidazole. I doubt it’s available in topical format as It’s an antibiotic which works against anaerobic bacteria, so normally prescribed for abscesses and deep seated infections. I hope it works for your leg wound, what an inventive GP you have, how nice to hear of one who thinks outside the box
Great news about the free appointment next time too.
 

Sounds absolutely exhausting Ann, I hope you are starting to recover your breath a bit. Great work by that student nurse.
Keeping everything crossed for your op.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…