Peter's Hospital Diary

A busy bank holiday weekend! I was at a BBQ organised by someone from the Dive Club on Sunday (thank you Dave) and excellent afternoon, finished with a round of croquet).

On Monday I went up to Corsham to start clering out my flat. I have moved most of the things, but I’ll be going up next week to finish moving out, clean it and hand over the keys. However on the way back I stopped back at one of my old work colleagues just in time for a BBQ – thank you Gareth!

Yesterday it was up to St Thomas’s for another ECP session which was successfully completed today. This may possibly one of the last as I was reviewed by a dermatologist and it has been decided that I will have two more sessions at the six weekly intervals, and then stop for three months with a review next March (3 months on) to see how I am getting on. Another small step in “getting my life back!”, Next week I have a haematolgy review and then I shall be going up to Corsham to finish clearing out the flat.

And on that note, I sent my details off to a diving medicine specialist and had medical approval to go SCUBA diving again – another small step! So this winter I think I shall be doing some refresher training in the pool and I hope get back into the water next year!

Onwards and upwards (although not in a diving sense! )

2 Comments »

Sorry for the delay in posting, but after my return from France (which now has an edited headline after my ‘Franglais’ was remarked upon by friend Julia!) I had a busy few days doing some work for a client locally, and then I went back to the Dive Club after a longish absence to discover an expedition to Cornwall was being mounted. So although I can’t dive (because I need a diving medical after all the treatment) I did volunteer to go down as expedition cook and general dogsbody. And I had a great time, although cooking two cooked meals a day and sandwiches at lunchtime for half a dozen hungry divers was quite hard work. However I have got the bug back, so I must see about getting a medical, and then getting out and servicing all my dive kit! The picture shows the diveboat – not me driving on this occasion – most of the time I was behind the camera!

I said in a recent post that I needed to do some software upgrading on the server. You may recall that I did an upgrade a few months ago but it stopped half way through so I ended up with a ‘hybrid’ system, partly Linux Fedora Core 10, and partly Core 11 – but as it worked and I was away from home, I left it. However I have now sorted that out and the basic webserver operating system is now Fedora Core 12. I have also updated the photogallery and changed some of the settings. There are one or two new and recent photos of Olivia, but I have removed some of the older ones (or at least removed form general view) but added a few new albums – including one from the last dive Expedition to Porthkerris in 2005. (The last time the club went there too) I’ll be adding more albums later now that the site is running again. In a few moments I’ll be updating the webserving software, and also the WordPress blogging software to the latest and greatest. Most of these are just maintenance upgrades, although the update to the gallery adds a couple of new features – but it all adds to site security.

Nothing much on the job front, but I shall start looking more urgently in September. Meanwhile I have been doing some of the little jobs around the house – sorting out a snaggette on the hot water system, and little things like that.

Good to see you back posting Richard – and it was really good to meet up with you at Simon’s funeral – while a sad occasion, it was great to meet up with people – and I think Simon would have enjoyed the day. And congratulations Gillian!

So on all fronts… onwards and upwards!

2 Comments »

A bit of a posting gap I’m afraid, but it was ten days of much needed chilling – well, working with Mark on his house. It was also an opportunity to try out a new camera, and I will upload some more photos to the gallery in due course. In fact the whole blog software needs some updating and sorting out.

My main job during the time was cutting the grass with the big boys’ toys leaving Mark to do the heavy duty DIY. However we did manage to get some time off, and we were in Pompadour for the Bastille day celebrations, a meal (at a restaurant run my an ex-pat couple and some celebratory fireworks. This is one of several I took during the evening.

It wasn’t all work, and a few beers were consumed round the pool, and I wandered around looking for for subjects. These sweet peas were growing wild in one of the hedges (it must have self seeded) and just invited itself to be photographed. However the best photograph I missed were two entwined snakes down by the pool house – as luck would have it, I didn’t have the camera with me, and they didn’t hang around while I got it!

I flew back last Wednesday (we drove out) and while the French Air Traffickers were having their annual strike, the FlyBe flights were still flying out of Limoges. (In fact the only ones flying out of Lomoges airport – there were some VERY grumpy Ryan Air passengers).

I am now in St Thomas’s having had the first of a delayed ECP session, with the second tomorrow! So, onwards and upwards!

4 Comments »

It has been a busy and poignant week. The main ‘events’ have been the funerals of Simon (from BT) and Jane, a friend from University days.

It was an early start on Thursday for the drive down to Faversham from Southampton, but it was a good journey and I arrived at the Church in plenty of time – and just as well as the car park, and subsequently the Church, filled up quickly.
Among the many people gathered to celebrate Simon’s amazing life were some BT colleagues I had met during the “Get on and Get It” broadband campaign from 2003, including Philippa, Sonya and Sarah. Richard (a frequent commentator on the blog!) was also there, so we had a good catch up. I finally got to meet Christine, Simon’s wife, with whom I had had many chats over the last few weeks. After the service, we went to the burial, in a natural burial ground about 10 minutes drive away. With the dreaded words”You can’t missed it” we eventually arrived towards the end of the interment, but the photoshows some of the many people at the graveside. The burial ground is next to a field where Simon’s horse grazes, and this photograph shows the view from Simon’s resting place. The rather brown grass is testimony to the hot weather! After the burial we went back to Simon’s ‘local’ for a beer and a bite to eat, and an afternoon of remembering. In fact the afternoon of remembering went on until after 8 o’clock, when I dropped Sonya and Sarah at Faversham station before driving up to Corsham in preparation for the trip up to Huddersfield.

So I was up early on Friday to drive to Oxford to meet up with Faith, who drove. It was another poignant occasion, but a lovely service, written by Jane in the last few months. Again it was good to put names to faces, and also to meet up with other friends from University days (Judith, Di, Dina, Sue, John and Paul). While the occasion was sad, Jane had been able to say all the things she wanted to say to her friends, and as before the reminiscing went on into the early evening, before Faith and I made our way back to Oxford, and then (for me) onto Southampton.

I feel a little tired today! Earlier in the week I had made a start on some of the household jobs, the biggest being washing and painting the side of the house, using some staging borrowed from Mark. However next week, Mark and I are going to his house in France to do some work on it, drink a few beers and have a break. I had some hospital appointments, but I have managed to move those, so I will be away for just under a fortnight.

So – onwards and upwards!

9 Comments »

Seems to be no end to sad news, as I am sorry to tell you that Simon died on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning after his long battle with lung cancer. I had spoken to him only a few days earlier, and although he sounded frail, he was quite cheerful, and I misread just how far down things had progressed.

We first met during the BT Broadband Campaign in 2003/2004 and although that came to a close in 2005, we remained friends and he was very supportive to me during some difficult times. He was diagnosed just under four years ago, but after an initial operation seemed fine and we met up a couple of times in London for a beer or two, when our visits coincided. The last one was about 4 months ago. He will be missed, and my thoughts are with Christine and his family.

Update – just had this from Simon’s family:

Simons funeral will be next Thursday, 8 July at 10.30 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Faversham then to the burial ground and pub. We are asking for donations to Marie Curie rather then flowers

Back in the mundane…

My contract ended yesterday, I was out for a curry last night, and we are meeting up for a farewell drink at lunchtime today. There is still a possibility of another contract later on, although it is looking less likely now than at the start of the week, and I need to make a decision about the lease on my little flat. However I have a week to decide, and as it is on a monthly rolling lease, even that could be deferred for another month.

So I shall go home either tonight or tomorrow morning and have a look at the list of household jobs!

Onwards and upwards.

5 Comments »

The lovely weather continues! I was in Wales over the weekend, a very pleasant drive across the second Severn Crossing. The weather was perfect – although I had to be careful not to overdo the exposure to the sun.

My contract ends tomorrow. Although there have been actions to try to renew it again, they have so far been unsuccessful, so it looks as if I might be spending a little time in the garden, and there are also some household jobs that need to be done.

Another sad note though. Those of you who know Simon (BT) will remember that he has also been fighting a cancer battle. Sadly, things are not going too well for him, so please remember him in your thoughts. While he was a strong proponent of ‘Onwards and Upwards’ I fear that is not an appropriate comment at the moment.

Comments Off

The Dental Access Centre seemed to have done a good job, but over the weekend, (lovely weather – just right for a Pimms and a BBQ) I got the feeling that the restoration had failed. I was able to make another appointment at the clinic, who reassured me that the filling was still in place, and that the bit that I thought had failed was just a bit of surplus flashing from the restoration margin. A relief, and I didn’t actually need any treatment – although I still had to pay another fee for the ‘time elment’ Ah well, I suppose it was worth it for the peace of mind.

I had meant to write this earlier in the week, but I received some sad news over the weekend when I learned that my friend Jane was about to be admitted to a hospice, having battled for over eighteen months against bowel (and subsequently liver) cancer. Her condition had suddenly deteriorated, and she died on Tuesday evening.
I had first met Jane at University, but we had lost touch in the intervening years, until she heard about this blog. Having read about my health problems, she asked a mutual friend if I would mind getting back in touch with her when her diagnosis was confirmed.

I was glad to do so, and we had many chats and three trips up to Yorkshire in the subsequent months. We knew some months ago that there was no cure, and at the last visit we both knew that it was the last meeting, although we spoke as recently as last Saturday, before she was admitted. It was a sad moment, but one tempered by that fact that all that had to be said had been. But she will be missed, not only be me and all her friends, but by her immediate family, Paul James and Michael.

But, as Jane would be one of the first to say, we continue – onwards and upwards.

1 Comment »

It was another good weekend, starting off with a chilli evening with Sue and Mark, and having a little play with Mark’s Ipad! Saturday was a bit of a DIY day, starting to put up some shelves for Katie, who having finished her finals is moving back home and starting a job in Basingstoke next week. It was also Katy’s birthday yesterday, but we celebrated it on Sunday with a beach hut party on the sands at Bournemouth. A bit breezy, but very sunny, as my sunburned knees showed when I got back to Corsham! Strange weather too – bright sunshine one moment, and torrential rain the next, and clearly an area of high pressure as French radio station burst through loud an clear at one point on the journey!

My contract ends in just over two weeks, and while there is the possibility of an extension, it isn’t certain, I hope I’ll know by the end of the week.

My tooth is starting to be troublesome, in that the edges are rough, but I have found a Dental Access Clinic in Chippenham, for those that either need emergency treatment or don’t have a dentist, so I hope they will fix the problem, and spur me into getting a more permanent arrangement.

But that apart, all seems to be well, so…Onwards and Upwards!

4 Comments »

Pity about the weather – too good to last! ECP went well, although the early Sunday morning start meant that I had to travel up on Saturday evening for two nights in Gassiot Hpouse at St Thomas’s. Not too bad although the street noise on a Saturday is pretty bad, and of couirse I lost an evening at home! But we did clean up BBQ for a bit of al fresco cooking! The ECP itself was uneventful, and on completion I nipped downstairs to the eye clinic.

The considered opinion is that I don’t have conjunctivitis in the infectious sense, but I am suffereing from mechanical abrasion caused by the dry eyes, another GvHd symptom. I have upped the artificial tear regime, and I also got a prescription for another artificial tear – eyelube which, I’m told, “stings a bit”. I’ll find out tomorrow when I collect the prescription from my GP, but the more frequent use of the artificial ears has helped. I have another appointment with my optician tomorro, so we’ll find out if there has been an improvement.

I was at a trade exhibition yesterday looking at shiny web applications – which was interesting, and back in the office today, and back home again tomorrow afternoon.

And I need to find a dentist. I seem to have lost a filling – but finding one is not easy .

Still – Onwards and upwards!

12 Comments »

Just realised that another ten days have passed – although I have enjoyed reading the comments on the last post – congratulations to Gilian!

The bank holiday weekend was a bit chilly – however I took Rachael into Southampton to book a six week adventure trip to Australia to round off her gap year, before she starts at Cardiff University in October. Sunday was a little damp, but the weather was a bit better on Monday when I took a quick trip up to Yorkshire with friend Faith to see Jane – our friend from University who is unwell. We had a good afternoon with her in Huddersfield, before nipping over to Harrogate to see other friends from that era, Dina and Chris. I finally dropped Faith off in Oxford at just before midnight, and got back to Corsham just under an hour later. A long but very good day.

This week has seen the weather improve – always uplifting! I am taking Rachael backpack buying this afternoon when I get home, and then I am off to London tomorrow evening for an ECP session on Sunday morning, with the second on Monday morning – before going to the opthalmic clinic on Monday afternoon.

I’m pleased that the conjunctivitis seems a lot better, but it will be something I want to discuss at the clinic. I hope I’ll be able to start wearing the contact lenses again soon!

So all ticking along quite nicely… onwards and upwards!

8 Comments »