January 2016 – Dr Rod’s Odd Blog (almondemotion)

Collective Intelligence

If 100,000 other doctors, clinicians, nurses, therapists, lay people, patients, carers, survivors, problem solvers, academics, technicians, engineers, poets and philosophers had listened to my story, would they be of a similar opinion, would your certainty be the same?

Sliding in, struggling out

An old man living alone, is that the problem? Is the problem that it is a problem?

What do you do?

I have recently been asked to show what I do, to demonstrate, I guess, how much value I am for the money spent on me.

Chicken Soup

When I was young, my mum would make chicken soup every Friday night. I am not sure if mum used to cook other things; chicken is however the meal that is most lodged in my memory and my heart. I don’t remember ever being taught how to make it, I think I worked it out from watchingContinue reading “Chicken Soup”

What is dementia?

Whether we follow the Japanese and find a new name, or work to continue to change attitudes and behaviours, steering people away from the stigma currently associated with dementia is unclear – it is certainly the bogeyman that TB, cancer and HIV once were, we just need to work towards finding better solutions and ways to support people until we find a way out.

Catheters, old men & dementia

As time marches on, with each passing decade, more men will develop these symptoms, until, in their 80’s and 90’s, they are almost universal.

Advance Care Poesy

Call the therapists, the carers, the teams who are out there

to keep me

Here

Prisoners and systematic boxes

Alan Paton wrote Cry the Beloved Country, I sometimes cry for the beloved, the forsaken who don’t fit into our systematic boxes.

Advance Care… the future?

We can look at quantity of life – something we have very little influence over, or, we can address, quality – an area we can influence tremendously.

Planning ahead…

I’m sorry if this sounds a little dark, and that, is probably part of the reason most people don’t want to go-here.

Cannulas and Cannulae

I can’t imagine what modern medicine would be like without these colourful pieces of plastic.

You don’t have ‘x’

You don’t have ‘x’ – this can be good news for some, for others it doesn’t really help… Let me explain. If a person feels ill or has a specific symptom – (the easier ones tend to be breathlessness, chest pain or cough), there are a fairly standard set of tests or investigations whichContinue reading “You don’t have ‘x’”

Patients in pyjamas

Patients in pyjamas – it might sound a little flippant, but I think this is something that is very important. I cannot comment on the behaviours of other patients outside of the UK – we, in Britain, approach hospital attire in a special way; pyjamas. I don’t know when pyjamas began in hospital – whether backContinue reading “Patients in pyjamas”