On the Road Again...

I suppose I knew it was going to happen as my life is full of impermanence, but it has come as quite a shock to discover that not only does my contract at Proximus end on the 29th June, but my tenure in Jim and Olga's apartment, my home for the last two and a half years ends the following day.

I will be homeless and jobless! Not that I am really worried as this is part of my way of life for the last 11 years, but I will miss Brussels as I've made lots of very good friends here.

What next? Where next?

Well, I'm not really sure...

I had planned to hang around Brussels for a couple of months doing nothing much, but to do that I need somewhere to live and I hadn't factored in the rapidity of the sale of Jim and Olga's house. Usually such things take 3 or 4 months, but mysteriously Jim's purchaser has managed to get the whole thing sorted in a record breaking six weeks. Could it be anything to do with the fact that she is a lawyer?

Anyway I've got a walking holiday in the Alsace to look forward to in mid July and I am off to Mexico for the America's Interhash at the end of August. If I've got somewhere to live I'll swan around Belgium and France, otherwise who knows...

To add to the confusion there is a possibility I may end up in Dublin in the very near future, nothing is certain, and I know not to count my chickens, but it does make decision taking more complex.

The way the end of the contract has coincided with the loss of the apartment and the opportunity in Ireland would make me believe in a conspiracy, if I was paranoid...

Space - Engineers and Scientists

I am very keen on science and space exploration. I am still regularly visiting the Mars Rover Site to keep track of the two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity that are still trundling around on Mars 1230 'sols' (Martian days) after landing.

I remember the huge disappointment when Beagle 2 the space craft from Milton Keynes failed to make contact after (crash) landing on Mars on Christmas Day 2003 and I watched anxiously while the engineers tried to regain control of the Mars Global Surveyor after it went out of control following a software upgrade. And I remember the shock and horror when I discovered that the reason that the Mars Climate Orbiter crashed into Mars instead of going round it was because one set of engineers were using metic measures (newtons) and the other imperial (foot pounds) to decide when to fire the retro rockets to put into orbit.

Now there apears to be another Martian 'c*ck up' in the making. The Mars Polar Lander, Phoenix (pictured above), is meant to land at the north pole of Mars next spring and dig for signs of life in the permafrost. Unlike other landers it is using retro rockets rather than balloons and parachutes to land. A great idea, until you realise (as they only just have at Nasa) that when it has landed the area it is going to be digging in - directly around the lander (it hasn't got wheels) will have been blasted by supersonic exhaust gases from the rocket lander itself - either blowing away, roasting or at best polluting the very soil it has been sent there to examine!

Once again it looks like the engineers and scientists are not exactly communicating.

Nice one Nasa!

1000 Visits to my Blog

I noticed today that I've had

1000 visits

from my friends to my blog. Just to say thanks for the interest!

I know friends and family from all over the world have been recently using the blog to keep track of what is happening to my mother and it is heartening to know that and to see so much interest in her (and me).

By the way, you are all very reticent about making comments on my blogs. If there are things you would like me to talk about or tell you then let me know by posting comments. Did you know that I can always delete them if I don't like them?

So don't worry, comment away

Thanks!

Smoking Update Wednesday 13 June 2007

The following was posted by me as a comment on my original blog entitled "Smoking", but I know a lot of people didn't see it...

I had an incredible phone call with my mother last night! We were chatting away for half an hour and she was laughing and in an excellent mood through-out the call. She was positively excited about the delivery of the new reclining bed and chair today and full of plans and ideas for the future - I wondered if I had got the wrong number.

She tells me that the swelling in her ankles has gone down, but her feet, calves and knees are still swollen. She had to phone the doctors (without prompting from anyone) to say that she had almost finished the 21 days course of nicotine patches and has arranged for the prescription to be at the chemists today. She tells me she is still lighting a cigarette in the morning and stubs it out after a puff - and it lasts her all day!

She was full of praise for my eldest sister who came round on Tuesday and helped her sort out the 2nd bedroom where she is going to have her old double bed put. I have tried to persuade her to dump it, but she insists she needs it for all sorts of typical illogical reasons. I think she and my eldest sister had a great time together.

I was impressed on how different she sounded - not only was she optimistic and happy but she actually sounded different to. Her breathing was a lot easier, she didn't cough once while we were talking (and remember that as for 30 minutes) and the pitch of her voice has changed - it is higher and as a result she sounds younger - if you don't believe me, then give her a call (she would be delighted to hear from you) and listen for yourself.

She said she was aware the she was coughing less often, but she was still not able to breathe well, and told me she still gets breathless if she has to rush from the living-room to the kitchen.

I will be seeing her for myself on Friday when I will be taking her to hospital and I have offered to go in with her if she has a talk with the consultant (rather than just seeing one of the nurses).

We are moving in the right direction.

Smoking Update Saturday 16 June 2007

The following was posted by me as a comment on my original blog entitled "Smoking", but I know a lot of people didn't see it...

I went with my mother to see the specialist consultant at Amersham hospital yesterday (15th June). The appointment was with Mr Andrew Northeast, but in fact we saw one of his registrars.

To cut to the chase the doctor said that my mother has a mild circulatory problem. The arteries in the leg are clear down to the point at which it divides into 3 sub arteries in the ankle where there is some sign of hardening of the arteries and/or blockage. The veins are similarly in good condition and the valves in the thigh and the knee which often fail are working, however the valves in the calves have failed and are leaking. This combined with her immobility has caused the pooling of blood and other fluid below the knee and the ulcers. He suggested that my mother has "mild heart failure" which is causing fluid to build up in her lungs.

Generally my mother is in good shape. So much so, when looking at the results of the artery tests the doctor said "You have never smoked, have you?" I almost fell off my chair - and if you don't believe me, I have a recording of the whole consultation, that when I manage to get it off my mobile phone I will send to you.

He recommended the following:

1. A chest X-ray to see the condition of her heart and lungs and to see if there is a fluid build-up. We had that done immediately afterwards and the results will be sent to her GP next week
2. An appointment to see her GP next week to discuss the breathlessness and the X-ray. He suggested that the GP may prescribe diuretics.
3. Compression stockings - we were sent immediately to get my mother measured up for them, but unfortunately the woman who does this is on leave. my mother has an appointment for 2:30 on 6th July for this.
4. More exercise
5. Keeping her feet up in the recliner and in bed
6. A six monthly check-up with her GP. He was stunned that my mother has never had a chest X-ray and does not know her blood pressure status.
   

After the appointment I discussed all these points with my mother. She said she had taken diuretics once, and implied that as a result she didn't need to take them again! She also said on multiple occasions while with the doctor and with me before and afterwards that her GP has 'more important things to do than see her'. She said believes that she shouldn't bother the doctor and anyway she didn't want to 'hear the bad news' so she would only go to the doctors when she had a list of things wrong. The doctor and I tried to impress upon my mother that the emphasis was now on prevention rather than cure.

So all in all, much to everyone's surprise, my mother is in good shape. She has had a nasty shock with the sudden flare up of what appears to be just a combination of acute Cellulitis combined with her chronic problems of the leg ulcers and poor circulation. The circulation problems themselves are mild and can be effectively treated by compression stockings, leg elevation and exercise. Of course exercise itself is an issue because of her breathlessness. If we can get to the root cause of this and discover whether it is emphysema, heart failure, or just smoking then perhaps she will outlive us all!

I am not sure how much of this has yet sunk in with my mother and I certainly don't want her to think she can take up smoking again as she hasn't got the dreaded "smoker's leg". The consultation itself was I think a bit confusing for her. First of all the consulting room was a little echoey and secondly the doctor was african and had a fairly strong accent that she didn't understand.

So she is OK, she hasn't got Peripheral Arterial Disease, and is not in risk of having her legs amputated. I won't apologise for shouting "Wolf" - the last few weeks has given us all a wake-up call. It has finally got my mother off the evil weed and she is delighted to be off it and I think it has also made us all realise that we weren't doing enough for her. Please please keep up the contacts you have made with the old lady. She does really enjoy the attention she is getting and it is really helping her.

If you haven't contacted her recently, then please either phone her, or alternatively write to her. Writing may sound odd, because of her eyesight being so poor, but she loves to receive letters - write big, or alternately type it into Word and use a large font. I know my brother does this and she can read what he writes... Try it with 18 point font this should be legible. Also please encourage other relatives and friends to contact her by phone or letter.

Smoking Update Thursday 31 May 2007

The following was posted by me as a comment on my original blog entitled "Smoking", but I know a lot of people didn't see it...

The acute problem with my mother's legs has been diagnosed as Cellulitis - a bacterial infection of the underside of the skin (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulitis ) though believe me her legs looked a lot worse than the pictures shown on Wikipedia). The Cellulitis was probably brought on by Stasis Dermatitis (the brown patches on her legs) that in turn is caused by her sitting still all the time and by the poor circulation in her legs.

She is now using the nicotine patches and tells me she has stopped smoking - Horray! I wonder how long it will last. We are not out of the woods yet. Her legs are still in a terrible state and she still needs to see the specialist but I feel she has made some progress in the right direction.

Cider Update

I just thought I would complete the story I posted last October.

The cider lived in demijohns and the wine fermenter under bubble airlocks in the loft above the garage until just after Easter.

If you remember March and April were very warm and the winter had been mild, so I was a little concerned that the fermenation would be complete and like the previous year the cider would be flat after bottling (no secondary fermentation), so when I bottled it I primed each bottle with half a teaspoon of sugar.

Finding enough bottles was a major issue. I dug out a load of Grolch bottles that haven't seen the light of day for years - since the late 1980's if my memory serves me correctly and scrubbed around for other suitable containers for the gallons and gallons of cider we made. It was a boring and rather disgusting job washing the bottles as many of them had dead insects and spiders in them! This time I took the bottles to the cider - in previous years I've carried the bottles and the heavy demijohns of cider up the steep drive to the house, bottled it and then carried the heavy bottles and empty demijohns back down to the garage (how silly is that?).

The actual syphoning off of the cider was an easy task and I managed to get a taste of it and was delighted with most of what I tasted. The content of one demijohn seemed a bit watery, but the rest was good. But even after all my searching for bottles I still have one and 3/4 demijohns full of unbottled cider.

Having done that then all there was to do was wait...

Until now - I opened the first bottle 2 weeks ago in mid May - the cider was clear and sparkling and tasted... GREAT!

If you would like a bottle or ten, you are most welcome... Provided I can have the empty bottles back afterwards.