Humanism – Dr Rod’s Odd Blog (almondemotion)

Doctoring, fast and slow.

Originally posted on Dr Rod’s Odd Blog (almondemotion):
In my experience I have found three types of doctors; Those who work very fast, very slow or somewhere in the middle. This is obvious and logical as human behaviour is divided on the basis of a normal distribution, with most being average. In life, there…

Every time I stand up I fall over.

Originally posted on Dr Rod’s Odd Blog (almondemotion):
This is potentially a tricky one as it will blend medicine with an overall philosophical interpretation of what is wrong with some aspects of doctoring. Where to begin? I’ll start with the straightforward – a lesson in physiology. I will not go into the details as…

Florence Nightingale, Florence Synagogue, Dali and palpitations

‘Diagnosis – Florence Syndrome’

‘Treatment – avoid visiting Florence and/or trips to art galleries. Watch more TV’

Analogy

To me it means ‘oy vey’ and ‘there you go’.

The Waterboys, Gene Kelly & Worm Moon 2022.

I thought of the residents of my care home,

Was it disturbing their mental continence?

Would it influence me?

Black-belt medicine

For me, the difference between the two belts and their equivalents in medicine can be described as transactional and transformational care.

My mum – for International Women’s Day 8 March 2022

My mum Would pass thread through the eye of a tiny needle and perform what she called invisible stitches. It was what all the ladies wanted. The middle-aged women would call-in at our house Requesting alterations to aid their spread, their girth expansion from the time in-between diets. Mum would sit at her Singer sewingContinue reading “My mum – for International Women’s Day 8 March 2022”

Drowning in data, in war.

We fear crazy men who remain in power for too long, who climb to the top ensuring multiple mutually assured mechanisms of destruction for anyone who might threaten them.

The cost of loneliness (Roubles, dollars or robots?)

One patient recently attempted to resuscitate her (toy) baby when the batteries ran-out.

Ukraine and Ubuntu

I guess if he is great, Trump is great and, great is not so great.

Safety netting – to net or not?

Sure, some readers will think, ‘Honestly, this isn’t nannyworld, people have some responsibility, they should use their common sense.’

Desperately seeking Sheffield’s spirit

Poor old Sheffield.

Lots of students but a shrinking soul.

Boxing day reflection

Death – tradition – Jewishness – family – education – self-consciousness

It’s worse than it’s ever been. Just kidding… Not.

‘When will I receive my Covid booster?’ Asks patient Annie, 98, unable to leave her house for the past three years.

‘We are working-our way round,’ Says the doctor.

Woman vs Land Rover

I have just watched a short video clip of a woman driving a big black land rover over a woman protesting in the street. It was one of the worst things I’ve seen. The woman whose face was blurred had long fingernails. Like a witch. I don’t remember much else about her although I amContinue reading “Woman vs Land Rover”

Caveat emptor – learner beware.

That doctors and nurses aren’t working hard enough, that the poor are poor from choice, and, that good things come to those who deserve it or who were born lucky.

The offer of a natural death.

Occasionally the nurse in attendance might advise the paramedics or the doctors, ‘He was 100 years old, he was very unwell,’

A Grand Unified Theory of Nowt

I popped into Tesco yesterday; there was no pasta on the shelves (no petrol in the pump either).

Shady Towers, Social Care, Nora and Whitey on the Moon.

The PM announced a rise in NI tax this week. I understand this is to offset some of the damage they have done to the NHS over the past decade. Fantastic. (And yes, Whitey is still on the moon).

To stop or not? (Jerzy Kosinski, Oliver Sacks & other ideas)

If you watch the Robin Williams / Oliver Sacks movie/book Awakenings you will see what dopamine can and cannot do to the brain.

You get what you pay for. (this is not a happy one)

No, not the climate, not the uncollected bins, the zero hours, no, not the Shitty White Men travelling on purpose-built spaceships that fly over the filth and poverty of a world falling apart, all of it together.

If I told you I’m good, you would probably say I’m boasting & Teamworking

We want to be associated with the best – the best team, country, organisation.

Others don’t really care.

Some see the whole of the moon.

Others Brigadoon.

Two worlds

If their lack of safety is 10 times greater than your perception of safety, are they safe? Are you?

Four pounds

‘Think of it as an internship.’

‘I don’t want to be a waiter,’ he says.

‘I know, you are gaining life-skills and, well… Experience.’

He doesn’t answer.

To what extent has Covid damaged medicine?

the back wings
of the

hospital where
nothing

will grow…

Roundabout discovery of a great French composer.

Facts can be convoluted or linear.

They can be jaggedy or zigzag.

They can be true or false.

What matters.

Anyone who has spent much time in hospital will recognise the phenomenon of the invisible patient.

Muffled sounds, drum beat and dementia

Norwegian Wood

Yesterday

Michelle

Penny Lane

All resonating, taking me back and creating an atmosphere.

Phone fraud and Mammeloshen*

I remember experiencing a sensation similar to that which a fly must feel as it slips down the throat of a pitcher plant. Suspicion mixed with curiosity.

Safe in heaven. Thank you Freda.

Me and my dog and silence.

Silence is sometimes needed to re-charge.

And yet, Freda is gone and I never really said hello.

Hey Mr. Blue Sky

What became even funnier was the background I occasionally use of a photo I took in the winter of a cob-web.

Klara, digital capital, Superman and me

When I say be me, that is, have integrated all my past memories, thoughts and ideas, my behaviours, imaginings, hopes, anxieties, abilities and failings.

Dementia, David Cameron and losing ground

I am no historian. I struggle with details. Dates and times have never been my thing. I am however a reflector. I look at the world around me, absorb its colours and ponder. I was going to say ‘think’ although FEEL is probably more accurate. For once, I will not quote Bruce Lee (Google, ‘almondemotionContinue reading “Dementia, David Cameron and losing ground”

Function versus behaviour

Nothing works with Florence, distraction, diversion, joking, cajoling, all the old tropes fail. You have to accept that Florence isn’t eating and leave her alone.

Naked, dead and John Cooper Powys

I don’t want to be an old man with two large books in his possession which are both half-read.

favourite patients

‘I’ll be along in 15 minutes.’

How do you reduce the risk of Covid over Christmas?

You can still hold hands if someone is wearing rubber gloves; you can still laugh or smile wearing a face mask.

Together, we live in dementia.

A basic human right – the right to family life has been bolloxed.

Little hands, absent feet and beautiful people

Of the 147 initial survivors, by the time they were rescued 13 days later only 15 were still alive, the others had been murdered, cannibalised or thrown into the sea.

Online persona

I have written a few blogs. 820 to be precise. / It makes me wonder, How people who have never met me See me. / I imagine there are two groups – Those who have met me, friends and family, who from reading, have perhaps gained some insight into who I am beyond or separateContinue reading “Online persona”

How long until I die? (Locked down and out in 2020)

Often old men and women will seek human contact, particularly when feeling isolated – and when I reciprocate with my gloved hand (that they don’t appear to notice as being anomalously purple or blue) we are able to make contact, to connect.

Covid, pants and barriers to communication

I met an old man last week, his pants were poking out of his pyjama bottoms. They were the same as mine M&S blue stars; I was going to tell him and everyone else in the room about our shared underwear but, the facemask and the goggles, gown and gloves Got in theContinue reading “Covid, pants and barriers to communication”

IDLES Lorax beauty & we all fall down.

I am the Lorax.

I speak for the trees

For the trees have no tongues.

IDLES shout for me.

this is me, again, and what you and i want or do not want when the ambulance is on the way.

I have become victim to the system bias of considering diagnoses and discharge destinations to be of more importance than the person I am discharging.

opposite the optimism / down stream

I see school children in groups walking around as if nothing is happening; dumb to the reality that their future is being burned through the profligate nature of government spending on failed schemes for virus control or overall chaotic mismanagement of the crisis.

Two roads, fever, speculation and biases

Heuristics are the pathways or grooves laid down in our subconscious that make us behave in a certain way; habit. Something works this way, I will do it again, and again and so long as all things are equal, I am ok. If a variable changes and I don’t notice, I can be in trouble.

Transactional and transformational healthcare

In life There are 2x of interaction; The first, transactional. I give, you take. Quid pro quo. A pound of wheat purchases half your chicken. Transactions are the basis of life, they are the mechanics; the organ-grinders the fuel. Transactions aren’t bad, nothing good or bad, just, difference. Continue reading “Transactional and transformational healthcare”

daydream believer, this can’t be a second-wave; i haven’t had my summer holiday yet.

And, yes, those bureaucrats, the apparatchiks who felt things were returning to normal will be once again on the back-foot and find themselves redundant, scraping the earth with their over-long arms, their Neanderthal gait giving it all away.

A long line of worriers and wear a facemask?

I come from a long line of worriers, which is apposite as the subject of this blog relates to discussions with my brother about Covid. You see, he has been a mask wearer. He also has asthma like me and the combination of worrier, asthma and the time of Covid is a toxic cocktail forContinue reading “A long line of worriers and wear a facemask?”

Thursday morning. Not another blog about advance care planning!

If this narrative has held together, my point is, we can offer just as good, if not better care, treatment and support for particularly older people in their own homes than is available through high-tech medical interventions.

Waterstones – family trip to Sheffield, book buying and a form of review

After that last election, the one which brought the clown and his Merry Pranksters to power I deleted news and Social Media apps from my phone; it was only with the arrival of Covid that I allowed them back in.

BAME, BME and me

The colour of our skin is various, the shape of our face, head and hair, yet, our eyes, seem a constant.

He has brown eyes doesn’t mean a thing.

Hospital acquired infection, Covid, Coroners and the solstice

Ignaz might not be happy, but Donne would be chuffed.

Covid – my brain, my brain! What is happening to my brain?

Serial processing; switching backwards and forwards from concentrating on Word to Outlook to Chrome uses mental energy;

Placebo – Serotonin, what it is to be a doctor, foray into shamanism and farewell Maisie

I have always accepted this concept; it has taught me humility.

Francis Bacon’s interpretation of our health service as it struggles to catch its breath.

A drooling, dribbling, stuttering, stumbling, drug-addled bully, we express our love through brutality.

Charles-Bonnet Syndrome and other thoughts about physical and mental illness

Out optic blind-spots continuously adapt to provide us with a seamless sense of reality, only becoming real when we reverse into a wall that we didn’t see.

The last big weekend of the Lockdown*

The weather has changed; yesterday we were basking in too-hot sun, today, the wind and clouds have gathered.

Self-organisation, the current state of the world and what has worked

Our growth, our evolution has happened unconsciously, at an intuitive, human level – we have been feeling not thinking, reacting not planning, doing what feels right rather than what we are told is right.

Lockdown, solitary confinement and loneliness

Imagine the harm done to those people previously ‘living well’ with dementia who for six weeks have had a dramatic reduction in visitors and day-centre attendances; even the bitter-sweet routine trips to GP surgeries or hospitals have been done away with.

Death in the time of Covid – why I have stopped looking at the official figures

‘Will my mum be recorded within the statistics?’

I haven’t been asked that yet.

Covid – difficult moment when the answers are not straightforward

All we can do in the Time of Covid is to do our best and act in good faith.

Covid has made me crepuscular

It’s odd. When I was a kid this was how I used to function; it appears to be happening again. Crepuscular is the behaviour displayed by certain animals who are active at dawn and dusk; not nocturnal, I suspect because their eyesight isn’t brilliant and they like their sleep and, neither diurnal as I guess,Continue reading “Covid has made me crepuscular”

Testing in the time of Covid…

We have closed schools which has reduced transmission; we can’t close care homes.

Infection then and now, the Great Influenza and Covid… lessons from the past, reflections on the present.

You wouldn’t send someone into the centre of Fukushima wearing a plastic flimsy? Well, the UK has allowed that to happen.

Marathon and a sprint

The slower we move now, the more people will become ill or die.

Do Not Attempt (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation) and Advance Care Plans in the time of Covid

Well, if nothing (but everything) has changed, what is the big deal about DNACPR and ACP; what is new?

Don’t stand so close to me (some details on Social Distancing)

This will all soon be over and we can get back to huddling, cuddling or whatever.

Infection – (My thoughts on what people should be doing in relation to PPE).

I sometimes think of an unusual title for my blogs to draw people in. I was actually going to call this one ‘facemasks’ but thought that would do the opposite. I’ll keep going. Well, yes, it does relate to facemasks. In the past week I have said ‘facemask’ and ‘PPE’ (Personal Protective Equipment) often. AContinue reading “Infection – (My thoughts on what people should be doing in relation to PPE).”

In a few hours it will be Mother’s Day.

I feel awful. The message came through that the care home I support was opening for an hour to allow relatives to see their mums. Just an hour, strict hygiene, in the resident’s bedrooms. I asked the manager to stop. ‘If one person gets Covid, many will die.’ I said. It is almost impossible toContinue reading “In a few hours it will be Mother’s Day.”

Moving-on from Victorian Medicine (Still on the subject of Covid – a future direction for clinical assessment)

How do we cope with Covid when we want to minimise clinical examination?

Covid – Why panic-buying puts you more at risk

There is still plenty of bread, flour and beans in the UK.

Covid – My blog is calling (Week one, through a doctor/dad/outsider’s lens)

Fear of doing the wrong thing is a fundamental of quality improvement. If you are afraid to act because people might call you out or think you stupid, you won’t do anything, and the quality won’t improve. It won’t necessarily deteriorate either, yet, in times of radical change, that is worse.

Broken sleep & Coronavirus (Bruce Lee, the philosophy of time and space and this week)

Getting rid of the routine allows people to focus on what is important. (Bruce Lee said this in the 60’s – ‘Hack away the un-essential’)

Pishers, Michael Rosen, viral illness and the Passover story (timely I know, as it is Easter soon)

Well, talking with my family when I had the distinct need to panic buy and hoard face-masks and rubber gloves the other day, (I didn’t); not only is this deeply rooted in the brains of every one of us, it is (at least I believe) amplified in some groups.