{"id":213,"date":"2007-02-11T12:18:20","date_gmt":"2007-02-11T12:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/?p=213"},"modified":"2007-02-11T12:18:20","modified_gmt":"2007-02-11T12:18:20","slug":"sundayoops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/life-on-hold\/sundayoops\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday…oops – time for a post!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Playmat\"I’ve just realised that it has been a few days since I last posted – just shows that I have been keeping busy! However first things first, and here is a recent picture of Olivia on her playmat! I have also been experimenting with some video, and my first attempt is here<\/a>. It needs either Windows Media Player or any application that will play .avi files. The feet at the end are NOT Olivia’s!<\/p>\n

And the final one of Olivia is this one, with Felicity.\"Playmat\"<\/p>\n

So what have we been doing for the last four days? Well a lot of it has been to do with Felicity’s new venture, Wedding and Event Planning, and the current project which is organising a wedding fair for our church (on a ‘no fee’ basis) to get some experience and publicity. There have been some links on this blog for a while, but the main web site is here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Although I am getting more active as each day passes, every so often something happens to remind me that I have a long way to go. I am certainly stronger in mind, and I can do more than I could four weeks ago – such as push round the vacuum cleaner, but every so often, something acts as a reminder that I am still physically quite weak. The obvious sign is my weight and physical appearances. The fact thatot a problem, and we carried it between us off the van. Easy because it was at least 12 1\/2 is a bit of a give away, and looking at my arms and legs, it is clear how much muscle wasatge there has been. Then trying to run up stairs is a no no, although I can now walk up reasonably quickly, I know that I have done it! And that shouldn’t really be a surprise given that my haemoglobin was only 9.5 at the last blood count – better than the 7 that I was admitted with at Southampton, but still below the normal range of 12-18. (My haemoglobin always was at the low end of the scale though, in the days when I was a blood donor – I think I am severely overdrawn at the blood bank these days) So gently does it!<\/p>\n

\"Generator\"Another reminder came on Friday. We live in a rural area and our electricity distribution is via overhead cables. These are prone to failure, particularly in bad weather and we we get about two power cuts a year with the last one during the gales in January. With two freezers and two fridges, it is always a bit tense, and so on Wednesday I ordered a generator to act as a stand-by for the house. It is only a small one, about 4KW, and will run off propane or petrol, and provides enough power to run the fridges and freezers, lights and the central heating pump. I have included the photo for the boys to look at – the girls have Olivia!<\/p>\n

Anyway, fantastic service from Edge Technology<\/a> when I ordered it on Wednesday morning. They beat their advertised price, got it from the manufacturer, did the propane conversion, and got it to me within 48 hours! So it arrived on Friday morning in the back of a white van. Now by coincidence, it weighs almost the same as me, so the driver needed a hand. Not a problem, and we carried it between us off the van. Easy because it was eleveated. But once it had been lowered to the ground, could I pick it a couple of inches to move it? Not at all – I just don’t have the upper arm strength. We did eventually move by placing it on wood skids, but it was a bit scary to have another demonstration of physical weakness.<\/p>\n

On Saturday afternoon our friend and vicar, Peter popped round, and then it was generator commissioning time. It works well, and the only bit left to do is sort out how it connects to the various appliances.<\/p>\n

The big event of the weekend was Olivia staying with us on Saturday night! We decided that it would give Tom and Vicki a break if we looked after Olivia for a night, so they could catch up on their sleep – so she came round yesterday afternoon. She was as good as gold – she slept for three hours at a time between feeds overnight, and settled well. It brought back some memories, and while it was fun for one night, I wouldn’t like to have to do it every night! Parenting is a young person’s game – why some women want to become mothers at the age of 50 plus beats me – you need stamina – lots of stamina!<\/p>\n

Now for a quick rant! (taking a leaf out of John’s Blog<\/a>! This concerns a drug called Erythropoietin – or EPO. EPO is a hormone manufactured by the kidneys, and encourages red blood cell production – just what is needed to combat anaemia! It can now gbe synthesised in the lab, and if injected into patients, stimulates red blood cell production. “Perfect”, you might think. Unfortunately, the not-so-nice people at NICE don’t gree, and have declined to approve it for treating anaemia in cancer patients. True, it isn’t cheap, and many cancer patients become anaemic as a result of their treatment. But let’s look at the alternative, which is a whole blood transfusion. Blood isn’t cheap either. Quite a lot of blood is imported (usually from the USA) which is an expense in its own right. Once bought, it has to be screened, stored (and whole blood has a limited shelf life) and processed. More significantly, there are some conditions for which whole blood is the only possibility, surgery, acute conditions, trauma, to think of three, and using whole blood in ‘non-emergency’ situations when an alternative is available, seems ludicrous.<\/p>\n

The blame cannot be laid totally at NICE’s door though, as their remit does not include “Quality of life” issues, and while the administration of EPO would considerably improve the quality of life of anaemic cancer patients, NICE cannot take this into account – hence their verdict of “Not clinically cost effective”.<\/p>\n

There are several cancer charities – including LeukaemiaCare<\/a> – actively campaigning for this to be changed. You could help by supporting them. Here<\/a> is a link with a little more information about EPO and fatigue in cancer patients.<\/p>\n

\"Flowers\"Right – rant over! I was out in the conservatory this morning, and I spotted this. A tub of spring flowers that has burst into life, and a welcome reminder that spring is round the corner! So on that note, Onwards and Upwards!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve just realised that it has been a few days since I last posted – just shows that I have been keeping busy! However first things first, and here is a recent picture of Olivia on her playmat! I have also been experimenting with some video, and my first attempt is here. It needs either […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-on-hold"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}