Tag Archives: Covid

The state we are in, your future and mine. Echoing emptiness & uncertain tomorrow.

When you seek help, we will create systems of such complexity that no one who enters can ever arrive or find their way out. We will make Kafka laugh.

Long distance relationships

It was a toughie. It took me an hour to unravel what was what, which medicines were which, what had been stopped, started, changed, what he could and couldn’t do, what he understood, what the family understood, the plans for further tests and follow-up.

Hospital at home, virtual wards and turning care in the community on its head

The doctor calling the ambulance rationalises their actions, ‘I don’t know what will happen to their chest (NB not ‘Albert’, but his chest – a lapse into pathology and medical-speak

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.’

The week that was and was not!

Still recovering from IDLES my daughter tested positive for Covid.

Should I or he or she or they stay at home or go into care?

Locked in a room, when you are 90 and if you have dementia and significant physical and cognitive impairment is horrible. It is cruel and harmful. It is what our older folk have to do, whilst we, the rest are out and about, living it up.

Broken hearts, or why telephone consultations are less than 35% effective (homage to Heathcote)

Although doctors are being battered over the head for not enough F2F appointments, in reality, telephone reviews are much harder than seeing a person in the surgery.

Take away, facial expression, eye contact and body-language and it is far more difficult to know or understand what is going-on.

Thinking mindful – geriatrician asks his followers to ‘get high’

My mind has been in a Japanese meta-reality rather than on Wong Lane

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.

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.

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”

State of frustration

I wanted to begin by discussing my recent practice FB post. I called it >very frustrating situation<. That was the best I could think at the time. What is or has been frustrating? Well, I won’t go on too much about Covid (lie). The vaccine has been rolling out over the past month. And, inContinue reading “State of frustration”

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.

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.

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”

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.

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?

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.