Grannymar

Would you like some Ice?

Following the 7th July 2005 London bombings, the Emergency Services found mobile/cell phones in pockets or lying around amongst the carnage with no idea of the holders name. Unfortunately some of the phones were all that remained. Some of these phones were used in order to discover the identity of some of the victims. Not an easy task.

I bet you have at least one mobile/cell phone.

Let us play a little game….

Imagine for a moment that you have… collapsed in the street/fallen under a bus/are in the middle of an explosion…

You are unable to help the Emergency Services with your identity or tell them who is your next of Kin.  What to do? Would scrolling through the phone book on your Mobile/cell phone help find out?

Is it John, Maisie, Puff Bunny or Mum?

John might be the guy you picked up met at the nightclub last night, Maisie the little old lady you visit once a week because she lives alone, Mum (91) half gaga and well… Puff Bunny says it all!

Can you imagine getting a call asking “Do you know the owner of this phone”?

“Yes!”

“Well now, I am sorry to tell you, S/he is under the Doctor (Northern Ireland speak for being ill) at St Methuselah’s Hospital/Hire a crane she is under a bus/bring a holdall, the bits are at the morgue!

At the back of a Passport is a space for the name and address of our next of Kin, why not the same in our phones?

This is where Ice Numbers come in.

In Case of Emergency

I use two ICE numbers, just in case the first person is not available or out of the country. Both are filled in in the same format.

Sample:

First name: ICE 1 Milly
Last Name: MacAdoo (daughter) -  follow up with the number in the usual way.

I am fortunate that this information is visible on the display screen of my mobile phone, so there is no waste of time searching.

Do think about it…. do something about it…. NOW.

The person you pick needs to be calm and sensible, know you, and be able to say if you have particular ailments e.g. heart problems, diabetes or allergies.  While you are at it, do the same with all mobiles in your household - children’s phones included.

It might save a life!

Simple?

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The topic Simplicity was set for us by Conrad, who unfortunately has had to step back from blogging for the foreseeable future.  Conrad we will miss your regular contribution and wish you well in all your endeavours.  I know you will visit and comment whenever possible.

Now hop along to see what our active members are offering today: Delirious, Maria/Gaelikaa, Magpie 11, Maria SilverFox, OCD writer, Padmum, Paul, Ramana, Rohit, Will Knott.

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This subject is revisited from an old blog post of mine from 2006.  Worth repeating.

One friend convalescing well following surgery two weeks ago.

One friend through surgery today.

One friend still waits a date for surgery.

An elderly friend now had pain relief in patch form instead of pills.

A young friend (13) will need to take medication for life due to an inactive thyroid.

Son of a friend (age 14) completed 8th day of six weeks radiotherapy treatment.

This makes my cracks and aches seem small.

First off let me thank everyone for their good wishes since I had the fall.

One week later I feel so much better, having Nurse Hitler home for a few days was both physically and emotionally  a great boost for me.  She knows when to ‘push’ and when to say ‘REST’!   I am black and blue all over and my face is not a pretty sight with the multitude of colours.

The news is good… I was told that I am cracked! But you all knew that for years!

I have a teacup crack just under my right eye socket and nerve damage to my face(thus the numbness).  All I need now is patience to let things settle and heal.  I am forbidden to blow my nose for six weeks and told to eat soft food.  It could be so much worse, the Dr told us about a guy on a liquid diet, he bought a full McDonald’s meal including coke and put the lot through the liquidiser!  I was never a fan of fast food, but that has put me off burgers for life!

The nerve damage, I have been warned, will be slow to recover.  Worst case scenario is 18 months…..  Hell, I won’t let that happen to me, I want to be back to normal pronto or else the Toyboys will all desert me.

Seriously though, I am following orders and doing what I am told.

It is good to be back.

I am taking a break right now.  A break!  Ha Ha!  This one is out of my control.

On Wednesday I told you about a fall I had and that after 3 hours in A&E I was told there were no bones broken and allowed to drive home alone.

By Thursday things were different.  Half the right side of my face was numb and there was blood in the mucous I coughed up.

I drove back to the same A&E Department at my Local Area Hospital. I saw the same team who looked after me on Tuesday.

Eight hours later (with no food) and several CAT Scans of my face and head, I was informed that there were two breaks in the bone immediately under my eye and a possible further break to a bone at the base of my skull.  Again (knowing I was alone) I was allowed to drive home, with an appointment for The Ulster Hospital, Dundonald, on the eastern edge of Belfast, on Monday afternoon.

Elly is on her way and should be here shortly.

I am in no form for reading of any kind, Posts for Thursday and yesterday were pre scheduled, and there are a few more in the pipeline.  Please forgive me for not replying to comments or visiting other blogs at the moment.  My body needs rest and I am listening to it.

Elly will post an update after the hospital visit.

Don’t worry, I will soon be back teasing and playing with you all.

I hope @eolai won’t want to paint my multicoloured face when he arrives on Tuesday.

I know that from time to time I talk about the narrow blinkered people that I have come across in my years living in Northern Ireland.  Today I wish to redress the balance.

Yesterday morning I headed out with my camera and a long grocery shopping list.  I had three places in mind to take photographs, before having a coffee and finally doing the trolly dash at a large supermarket.

At my first point of call, I was disappointed in that the sculptures I had read about and expected to find, had been gone for many a long year.  A young lady at Reception, made a call and let me speak to another young lady at the newly refurbished Old Courthouse.  I posted a picture of it last Sunday in Openings 5.

I decided to move my car closer to where I was going and my final stop, so parked at the supermarket.

The young lady I was to meet at the Old Courthouse was Bernie and she was more than helpful.  One of my planned visits was to Pogue’s Entry, but I discovered it only opens from Thursday to Saturdays.  Bernie suggested that she take me there, and show me round.  I also spoke to a couple of gentlemen about Sculpture in the area and was brought on a tour of the Old Courthouse building.  What a difference the refurbishment has made instead of being left to decay and become derelict.

Bernie has a bubbly personality and it is obvious she enjoys her work.  We chattered easily as we walked the length of the street to Pogue’s Entry - more to come in a future post.  All I will say now is, I enjoyed my personal tour of the tiny cottage and once I sort through my photos, I will share them with you.

A big thank you to Bernie and her colleagues for their time and patience.

I walked back part of the way along the street with Bernie and teased her about going straight back to work and not to get lost - we could see the Old Courthouse so there was no way she would get lost.

I was focused on another photo opportunity and as I crossed the street I fell.  Fell full length and my face and glasses kissed the ground.  My right side took the brunt of the fall and I was worried I might have damaged my replaced hip.  My face was very sore and my teeth had caught the inside of my lip.  I didn’t move for a few moments since I needed to be sure that nothing was broken.  I know that jumping up is the worst thing you can do in these situations, sometimes even adding to the damage!

I heard a young lady ask if I was al-right.  She offered to lift me but I said to wait a moment or two and I would roll over.  I did and she helped me to a sitting position.  The young lady called Pauline, insisted on calling an ambulance since there was no member of family locally to come to my aid.  The ambulance came and they looked me over and decided that I should go to the hospital with them.  I did.

The medical staff were wonderful and caring.  They checked me over and had Xrays taken of my hips and face, thankfully there were no breaks.  My hand was dressed and a tetanus injection administered by a doppelgänger of Will Knott.

I know I will not win any beauty competitions right now, but the bruises will fade and and the soreness disappear.  Next time I go out of doors, I will watch where I put my feet!

Normal service will resume tomorrow.

After a busy morning I arrived home in time for lunch.  A leisurely lunch and time to settle down to writing a few words for today.

There had been a call and a message left for me on my land-line.  I checked it.

My elderly neighbour (85) had phoned looking for my help.  Her message was a little garbled a real sign of agitation.  I quickly had a bite of lunch and headed down to try and calm her down.

Like me, she lives alone and has only one daughter.  Her daughter is married and living about 5-7 miles away.  This week the daughter is in  Kraków with her students.  When left alone, my friend panics at the least thing.

Many months ago she was troubled with incoming calls with nobody speaking.  Her daughter was away at that time and my neighbour had run to the phone each time, in case it was her daughter calling.  After a couple of days she called for my help.

I arranged to add her name to The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) (a free service), the official central opt out register on which you can record your preference not to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls. I did tell her that if things did not improve to keep a notebook and pen by the phone and keep note of the date and time of these calls.

Things improved for a few months.

Calls began again on Friday evening.  This morning her phone rang every five minutes and of course she imagined it was an axe murderer coming to get her!  It was in fact that automated ringing for cold call sales. Do these companies give any thought to how intimidating these calls are for elderly people?  There must be a better way to make sales.

I have suggested that she should have her number made ex-directory and to speak to her daughter about when she returns.

My friend’s real problem is the early stages of Alzheimer’s. For some unknown reason she listens to me, and I leave her feeling calmer.  Today it took a cup of coffee and three hours of gentle chat.

I also discovered that last week she had a fall and hurt her ribs.  She has not been X-Ray’d, so I have promised to take her to casualty tomorrow morning.

I hope I wake up early in the morning!

It has been a busy week.

Monday I was up and at it very early and and on the go all day.  I did meet some nice people, that always makes me smile.

Yesterday I drove 70 miles and despite it being a murky wet day with the clouds touching the ground, the wind shield wipers swished a regular rhythm to clear my view.  The good news is that I could see so much better than the last time I drove that distance.  It was a mixture of twisted byways and Motorway traffic throwing up sheets of spray.

I also had a return visit to the hospital this week and my eye passed with flying colours make that more colour and clearer detail!  Oh, by the way Elly, that guy we met last time was chatting me up forty to the dozen again!!!

I am one happy bunny!

Fingers crossed that tomorrow goes as well.

The clouds have lifted…

BIG TIME.

When I awoke this morning we were smothered in mist.

Now it has lifted and with it some of the mists of gloom that hung about inside my head for the past few months.  Problems that have gnawed at me, causing me concern, no longer loom so large.  I have them in perspective.  I can and will deal with them. 

The sun is shining and I spent an hour in the garden, sweeping, clipping and generally clearing the detritus of winter’s harsh weather.  There is nothing like physical labour to clear the cobwebs. I now have the added bonus of being able to see clearly the fruits of my labour and remain pain free.

I am indeed blessed!

This pitcher or jug was a gift given to me in the autumn of 1998.  I always like the colours.  It was only following patch removal post cataract surgery that I discovered how intense the colour pink was.  I am literally seeing it with new eyes….. well one new eye anyway!

Now I have had my rest and the sun is still shining….

“Hi Ho Hi Ho it’s off to work I go“, well just for another hour!

*skips off singing*

I hate diets!

I hate listening to people talking about ‘Going on a Diet‘!  Every day since Christmas I have heard someone mention the excesses of eating over the holidays and the need to diet.  If it was not on the radio, in a newspaper it was on the blogs.

Well, by now you all know I do not and never did carry excess weight.  I do have very long arms.  They were well honed from years of SOS - Stretch or Starve!  With eight of us round the table when we were small in number, you had to learn quickly to stop talking and eat up.  Hungry brothers don’t like to sit on ceremony and wait for two hundred mastications per bite!

We were all long and lean in our household, so it never seemed other than normal to us. In fact for many years I was underweight.  Nobody understood why, since I always had a good appetite and enjoyed my food (so long as there was no dairy products in it).

It is not all fun being THIN.

• In school the Headmistress, a nun, called me over and asked what I had for my breakfast!  She was serious!  She seemed to think I was starved and should be sitting down to a full Irish every day.  I saw red - I often did with the nuns. I told her that we didn’t have servants or a string of nuns in the kitchen to cook it for all eight of us like they (the nuns) did in the convent!
• People think you are anorexic or bulimic and starve yourself on purpose to get that look.
• Women, particularly those who have a thick layer of natural insulation see no wrong in pointing out how ‘THIN’ I am. One such lady poked me in the ribs - in company - to emphasise the fact!  I wonder if I had poked her in her layers of fat and said “Look how fat you are!”, how she would have liked it?  I didn’t. Mammy taught me it was rude to point and being pass-remarkable was very bad manners.
• You feel the cold. Big time!
• Clothes don’t have a shape to drape over. At one stage Elly said to me, “If you get any thinner you will have to go to New York or Paris to buy your clothes!”  Size 6Uk was seldom available at that time.
• Age shows all the quicker on a thin face and neck.

Variety is the spice of life. Indeed it would be boring if we were all the same - just like a bunch of Lego people.  Television and Sales marketing have a lot to answer for.  The models we see on TV and in Magazines are all airbrushed.  Why do you think the rat pack photographers who chase the Celebs make so much money?  It is for the photos of personalities sans make-up or dressed down and off duty?  Do you put on full face paint and Sunday best to slip to the corner shop or supermarket?

Nowadays people are willing to hand out enormous fees to health farms and fitness clubs.  How many actually get their moneys worth.  How many religiously attend once or twice a week as they hoped to do at the beginning.  Like Coleman’s Mustard, the fortune is made from what is not used!

So what would I suggest?

• Ditch the scales and turn the mirror to the wall.
• Eat three regular meals EVERYDAY - at the dining table and not at the computer, If you are surfing the net or watching TV, you shovel in the food long after you need it and also condition the body to ‘watching means or needs eating’.
• Cut out the snacks in-between meals.
• Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Would you drive a car with no fuel in it?  No?  Then why do that to your body? It has to last waaaay longer than any car.
• A poached egg on a couple of potato cakes is way more satisfying than on toast.  With that for breakfast you won’t need the mid morning snack.
• A banana is a great source of natural energy.  A ripe banana will give you a quick boost but it will not last long.  A more firm banana gives a longer slow release of energy.  Why not try it sliced over a bowl of cereal or add one to a Smoothie for breakfast.
• An apple in the mid afternoon is actually more reviving than a cup of tea or coffee, with or without the choccie treat.
• Try not to eat late in the evening.  Going to bed on a full stomach is not good for your body or your partner, if you have one.
• Go for a walk at lunchtime if you can and at least around the block before bedtime.  It moves the food on its way, is good exercise, is relaxing and gives you time to clear your mind of the stresses of the day.  This is all an aid to good restful sleep.
• When you were a child, did you spend a fortune on a gym and fancy gym-wear? No. You ran about and played with a skipping rope, a hoola hoop or a ball.  All these are still available and very cheap.  You have to use them to get any benefit, they do not work in a cupboard.
• If you really want to lift weights try two large tins of fruit.  When no longer needed use the fruit in a pie or crumble for all the family.
• Eat normally but smaller portions.  Put them on a smaller plate and it looks like you have a large helping.
• Find determination and stick to your goal.

I feel like I have a swimming pool of water in my ears. The left ear is worse than the right one. Last week when I was out and about I met an acquaintance, and we stood in the street to chat and catch up on each others families etc. The usual traffic was passing by and I realised that I was concentrating on her mouth. OMG! I was trying to Lip Read! This is a recent phenomenon. In fact I have only noticed it since my last stay in Cardiac Care.

In Message in a Bottle Part 2 I mentioned that event and how I was in the early stages of Hypothermia. My temperature was checked every 15 minutes by a contraption that was stuck in my ears. Now I wonder if that had anything to do with my problem, or is it yet another side effect to a new medication added to the basket full I already have.

I spoke to my GP about it and she examined both ears. She said I had plenty of wax in there so we started with drops to see if they might dissolve and solve the problem. They didn’t! Next stage is to have my ears syringed on Wednesday next. This is a warning, if you see me wobbling about the street I will be ‘jober as a sudge’ and not under the alfluence of incohol! Nothing louder than a whisper will be allowed around here for the remainder of the week.

Excuse me! I apologise. I have burped! My mother would be horrified; she always told us it was impolite to burp. I will try not to do it again.

As I put my hands back on the keyboard I realise they do not match today. The right has a long scratch that has formed into a scab while the left one has a multi-coloured bruise. These blemishes are my reward for a few hours in the garden the other day. I only have to think about touching something and a bruise appears. It is enough to make me shiver.

It set me thinking. Why do we shiver, bruise, form scabs on scratches burp, or have excessive wax in our ears?

Why do we shiver?

When we shiver, our bodies are doing the opposite of sweating. Sweating cools the body by putting a layer of liquid on the skin. Shivering tightens the skin and shakes the muscles, a process that conserves and generates heat. You can stop your shivering by bundling up—just like your mother says.

Why does a bruise turn colours?

A bruise is actually a pocket of blood under the skin caused by a broken blood vessel. It changes colour and fades as the body reabsorbs the blood from the bruise.

How does a scab form?

Scabs patch up holes in the skin. Certain cells in our bloodstream recognize when our skin has been broken. These cells, called platelets, start patching the break in the skin and call in other blood components to help complete the process. They do an amazing job. Don’t make your platelets work overtime by picking your scabs!

What causes a burp?

When we eat, we swallow air with our food. Our stomach already has air in it from bacteria that produces gas and from chemical reactions caused by digestive enzymes. When there is too much air to fit in our stomach, we force some out in what we call a “burp.” It’s funny that something considered impolite occurs so naturally.

Where does ear wax come from?

Ear wax is made by skin glands near our ear drums. The wax protects the ear canals and acts as a barrier against bugs and bacteria. Only in cartoons can it be used for candles!

So now you know!