{"id":352,"date":"2008-04-03T20:16:41","date_gmt":"2008-04-03T19:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/?p=352"},"modified":"2008-04-03T20:16:41","modified_gmt":"2008-04-03T19:16:41","slug":"thursday-post-301-time-for-a-change-of-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/getting-my-life-back\/thursday-post-301-time-for-a-change-of-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday… post 301 – time for a change of name?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At post 301, I did consider changing the name of the blog. It is something I have considered before, as the blog was originally designed to allow me to update my progress during my last stem cell transplant. That was over 2 years ago (!) but the blog continued to chart the ups (and downs!) of the treatment.<\/p>\n

The last hospital stay was over 15 months ago, and since then the blog has concentrated on aspects of “getting my life back” in all its various forms. So it is no longer a “Hospital Diary” as such.<\/p>\n

The name change I considered was “Peter’s Digital Diary” but, as you will recall in that last post, WordPress is a content management system. In simple terms, this means that if I change the title, it is reflected in the last 300 posts – including those that I wrote while I was in hospital – which seems a bit of a pity. So for the moment I have left the title alone, but I have made some minor changes to the ‘strap line’. Any thoughts from the readership would be welcome!<\/p>\n

\"LemonMy appetite continues to improve and I have put on a little weight. However I mentioned (in the comments to the last post) that I was looking forward to sardines on toast – something I used to enjoy as a snack. Sadly they weren’t quite as nice as my imagination lead me to believe. They were OK, but were missing something. I have a bit of a problem with the smell of fish anyway – so this was a gentle reminder that although my sense of smell and taste are slowly returning to normal (or a new normality) – I’m not there yet! On a plus note, I can smell the blossom on the lemon tree! (Shown here in all its glory!) And I enjoyed a mild curry for lunch today – progress indeed!<\/p>\n

On a more serious note… Patients who, as a result of the drugs “post code lottery” or rulings by NICE, have been denied expensive but potentially life saving or prolonging drugs have always had the option to get those on private prescription – BUT – the sting in the tail is that ALL NHS provided drugs then have to be bought privately – so the cost of treatment escalates dramatically. The rationale has been that it is “unfair for wealthy patients to ‘top-up’ their treatments” in this way and would lead to a “two tier system”. I personally disagree with that – if the NHS can’t or won’t supply a specific drug, then someone should be able to buy that themselves.<\/p>\n

It now appears that the legality of the the government stance is dubious, and group of doctors are proposing to mount a legal challenge. They are looking to establish a ‘fighting fund’ to pay for any legal costs should they lose. Details are at the Doctors’ Forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Feeder\"One of the pleasures I had when convalescing was watching the variety of birds at the garden feeder. I was able to chase away the “Tree Rats” (Grey squirrels) that attempted to raid the feeders, but now I am not at home all day, these vermin have become a greater pest. So I visited my good friends at The Really Wild Bird Food Company<\/a> for a squirrel proof bird feeder<\/a>. And it seems to be working! The food and feeding stations are protected by a ‘cage’ which allows the birds in – but keeps the squirrels out. While I am doing a shameless plug, they do have a range of excellent value bird foods, much of it grown on their own farm – the prices even include delivery. Richard and Lesley are lovely people – so please have a look at their web site!<\/p>\n

A longish post, so in time honoured fashion – Onwards and Upwards!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At post 301, I did consider changing the name of the blog. It is something I have considered before, as the blog was originally designed to allow me to update my progress during my last stem cell transplant. That was over 2 years ago (!) but the blog continued to chart the ups (and downs!) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-getting-my-life-back"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","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=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}