Just finished watching 'The Story of Swing' prom, live from the Albert Hall. Over recent weeks I've wallowed in the Sinatra series 'All or Nothing At All' (hence part of that peculiar semi-dream I reported the other day). My favourite album of the past year has been the Tony Bennett/Lady Gaga one. And the other evening I found myself listening with pleasure to Nat King Cole. Am I turning into one of my parents? (Unlikely, neither of them cared that much for music, did they?) No, I just think I'm going back.
In other news: Alan has a new knee. I went across to see him this morning. He did know it was coming, but was obviously in a bit of denial about the aftermath. He's one of the most active people I know, and being confined to a chair, regular procedures, and crutches obviously doesn't sit well with him. I hope I cheered him up a bit, I think so. He was obviously delighted to hear the 'one step at a time, mate' line yet again.
One strange thing is that apparently the BMC and NIHCE mandate that, after an operation of this sort, anti-coagulants must be administered for a fortnight. This is to minimise the risk of thrombosis; but of course it also means that the wound heals less quickly, which in turn means that he can't get on with the essential physio exercises. I know nothing, obviously, but I can't help wondering whether 'one size fits all' dictats of this sort are terribly helpful. His consultant is being circumspect to say the least, obviously thinking that the 'rule' is nonsense but a bit scared of advising a breach of it in case it rebounds. Alan thought he'd seen a wink, and has stopped taking them; it's stopped bleeding and he's started the exercises. So far so good.
In other (political) news:
On 'Any Questions' tonight, Priti Patel said " We won the election. We are in Government. And we're getting on with the job of running the country." Only one of these three statements is true: see if you can spot which one?
And how does this work? [I paraphrase the thoughts of a financial trader]: "The markets are in meltdown, the world economy is going to crash. What shall we do? I know, let's do everything we can to ensure that this actually does happen."
I was told that every patient should have a detailed risk assessment done, to ascertain whether anti-coagulants are to be advised, but there is no time for that, so everyone is given them, just in case. When I had my hip, I can't say I noticed that healing was delayed, but knees are trickier than hips.
ReplyDeleteMy sister took me to see Tony Bennett in London two or three years ago. He's quite remarkable - he put down his microphone for one song, deliberately, to show he could still fill the theatre with his unamplified voice.