Dear Diary

[JohnM]

It'll be reet.  

[Bleep1673]

Johnny Isner heading to another 78-80, 5 set match at Wimbledon.

[getdownmonkeyman]

1 hour ago, ckn said:

A nice holiday in Italy with good friends.  Their first holiday without their kids since 1992 so they're thoroughly looking forward to it.

Currently in Lido di Venezia. Italy takes some beating, the weather is intensely beautiful.

[ckn]

13 minutes ago, getdownmonkeyman said:

Currently in Lido di Venezia. Italy takes some beating, the weather is intensely beautiful.

We're off to Sorrento, we went there in 2014 for a friend's wedding and loved it so going back to the same place.

[ckn]

I was reading this about Richard Bacon and his "pneumonia".  That's essentially what the wife had in 2016, she's the same age and she thought the same as him that it was an old-folk illness.  Some sort of lung infection that just got worse and worse until she was on a respirator, despite sending the tests off for everything that it could possibly be they still couldn't identify what was causing the illness.  They thought it might be a tick infection as the problem started in her hip then into a type of sepsis then the lungs.  They admitted bluntly that all they were doing was managing the symptoms and forcing air in via a respirator and hoping the body could sort itself out, thankfully it did.  She's still on morphine a couple of years later but on a far lower dose now than when they let her out.

It just shows how little we still know about the illnesses that can hit our bodies.

[kiyan]

1 hour ago, ckn said:

I was reading this about Richard Bacon and his "pneumonia".  That's essentially what the wife had in 2016, she's the same age and she thought the same as him that it was an old-folk illness.  Some sort of lung infection that just got worse and worse until she was on a respirator, despite sending the tests off for everything that it could possibly be they still couldn't identify what was causing the illness.  They thought it might be a tick infection as the problem started in her hip then into a type of sepsis then the lungs.  They admitted bluntly that all they were doing was managing the symptoms and forcing air in via a respirator and hoping the body could sort itself out, thankfully it did.  She's still on morphine a couple of years later but on a far lower dose now than when they let her out.

It just shows how little we still know about the illnesses that can hit our bodies.

Glad your wife pulled through and I hope she is fully recovered now.  You post reminded me of something I was told 20 years ago by a Doctor friend ( now deceased), which was roughly:

• 90-92% of Human ailments are cured/fixed by your own body.  Medical science can only cure 8-10% the rest is pain management and trying to delay things long enough that the body kicks in and fixes itself.

I really don't know how true that is, but I know lots of Doctors and none have corrected the statement.  For Richard Bacon, your wife it was the amazing skill of keeping people alive long enough so they pull through!

When people blame Doctors for nor doing enough or the wrong thing ( which you haven't) I get abit annoyed.  These are people like us all, they are not perfect - they do not claim to have all the answers or even always to get it right.  They have a lot of knowledge which they try to use to  help people . It is often an educated, best guess - more often than not it is correct, but we have to accept that sometimes it won't be.  Ir is not a perfect science!

Edit: having re-read ckn comment about the perception of an old folk disease, I thought I would add an extra bit.  The Doctor who told me that story, a 27 year old A&E  Registrar ( who had been my best friend from 1st year at uni), died at 27 with pneumonia.  He spent a week in hospital, they couldn't work out what was wrong but he wanted home so they agreed ( if he went to his parents), 4 days later he was back in ICU and 2 days later was dead.  It is not a old person illness..

 

 

 

[ckn]

7 hours ago, kiyan said:

Glad your wife pulled through and I hope she is fully recovered now.  You post reminded me of something I was told 20 years ago by a Doctor friend ( now deceased), which was roughly:

• 90-92% of Human ailments are cured/fixed by your own body.  Medical science can only cure 8-10% the rest is pain management and trying to delay things long enough that the body kicks in and fixes itself.

I really don't know how true that is, but I know lots of Doctors and none have corrected the statement.  For Richard Bacon, your wife it was the amazing skill of keeping people alive long enough so they pull through!

When people blame Doctors for nor doing enough or the wrong thing ( which you haven't) I get abit annoyed.  These are people like us all, they are not perfect - they do not claim to have all the answers or even always to get it right.  They have a lot of knowledge which they try to use to  help people . It is often an educated, best guess - more often than not it is correct, but we have to accept that sometimes it won't be.  Ir is not a perfect science!

Edit: having re-read ckn comment about the perception of an old folk disease, I thought I would add an extra bit.  The Doctor who told me that story, a 27 year old A&E  Registrar ( who had been my best friend from 1st year at uni), died at 27 with pneumonia.  He spent a week in hospital, they couldn't work out what was wrong but he wanted home so they agreed ( if he went to his parents), 4 days later he was back in ICU and 2 days later was dead.  It is not a old person illness..

 

 

 

I was in a medical research presentation once and the doctor presenting said that the eventual aim of medical research is get the body to cure everything that is likely to take over an hour to kill you.  The very best medical treatments use the body's own functions as the weapon while they just target it where it needs to go; vaccines are probably the best known of these, they essentially give your body a small kick and your body then over-reacts to make sure if it came back for a bigger kick that it'd not be able to work.

Even things like antibiotics aren't long-term viable as we will eventually run out as nature is far better at evolving these things to beat us than our innovation is to keep ahead of them.  The goal is to give the body the means to do it itself as it can adapt on the fly for minor changes due to disease evolution, it's only major changes and new diseases entirely that confuse the hell out of the body.

On yur second paragraph, my wife was down to 5% usable lung capacity and the doctors made it clear that even 10-15 years ago medical ventilator technology wouldn't have been able to keep up enough to keep her alive.

p.s. if you read above to my other point about those people stiffing me last year, the start of that stiffing came in 2016 when my wife was in intensive care.  I was going through the above with the doctors giving me "the talk" just in case and I was getting huffy emails from other senior managers and my boss that I wasn't coming in for meetings.  My wife on a ventilator and more wires and tubes than a cheesy sci-fi show and I was working away most days, putting in more than full hours of work while sitting next to her (and widely abusing my NHS senior manager privileges to get to do so) and I still got grief over not coming into London for routine meetings where all they did was massage their egos.  Holding a grudge?  You're bloody right I do.

[kiyan]

16 minutes ago, ckn said:

I was in a medical research presentation once and the doctor presenting said that the eventual aim of medical research is get the body to cure everything that is likely to take over an hour to kill you.  The very best medical treatments use the body's own functions as the weapon while they just target it where it needs to go; vaccines are probably the best known of these, they essentially give your body a small kick and your body then over-reacts to make sure if it came back for a bigger kick that it'd not be able to work.

Even things like antibiotics aren't long-term viable as we will eventually run out as nature is far better at evolving these things to beat us than our innovation is to keep ahead of them.  The goal is to give the body the means to do it itself as it can adapt on the fly for minor changes due to disease evolution, it's only major changes and new diseases entirely that confuse the hell out of the body.

On yur second paragraph, my wife was down to 5% usable lung capacity and the doctors made it clear that even 10-15 years ago medical ventilator technology wouldn't have been able to keep up enough to keep her alive.

p.s. if you read above to my other point about those people stiffing me last year, the start of that stiffing came in 2016 when my wife was in intensive care.  I was going through the above with the doctors giving me "the talk" just in case and I was getting huffy emails from other senior managers and my boss that I wasn't coming in for meetings.  My wife on a ventilator and more wires and tubes than a cheesy sci-fi show and I was working away most days, putting in more than full hours of work while sitting next to her (and widely abusing my NHS senior manager privileges to get to do so) and I still got grief over not coming into London for routine meetings where all they did was massage their egos.  Holding a grudge?  You're bloody right I do.

I never though you were holding a grudge and am sorry if I suggested that, though I now understand why you might.  Surely that is a grudge against other managers in the NHS who expected you to work though a horrendous time in your life , not the medical staff?

Other than that I am pretty sure we are agreeing in what we are saying.

"Medical Science generally tries to keep you alive long enough for your body to fix itself or  provides palliative care so you can pass away in the least amount of pain as possible"

[ckn]

1 minute ago, kiyan said:

I never though you were holding a grudge and am sorry if I suggested that, though I now understand why you might.  Surely that is a grudge against other managers in the NHS who expected you to work though a horrendous time in your life , not the medical staff?

Other than that I am pretty sure we are agreeing in what we are saying.

"Medical Science generally tries to keep you alive long enough for your body to fix itself or  provides palliative care so you can pass away in the least amount of pain as possible"

Absolutely, my grudge is against the managers.  The hospital staff were outstanding and Ipswich hospital is rightly proud that it's the best in the region by a long way.

Nothing in your post suggested I was holding a grudge, just my own additional comment!

[kiyan]

1 minute ago, ckn said:

Absolutely, my grudge is against the managers.  The hospital staff were outstanding and Ipswich hospital is rightly proud that it's the best in the region by a long way.

Nothing in your post suggested I was holding a grudge, just my own additional comment!

Bloody NHS managers, should all be rounded up and....  oh hang on  opps!

Such a generalisation (Mine) that all managers in the NHS  should be fired and ( while I have never worked in it) I have no doubt a good few should be as a waste of space, but equally I know that the NHS could not function without some of those managers.  Its all too easy to blame managers ( many times justified - generally in all civil service )but few Doctors have the skills necessary or interest,  and even if they do, I would rather they be treating people than ordering mops or sorting a £4 payroll issue!

[Shadow]

39 minutes ago, kiyan said:

Bloody NHS managers, should all be rounded up and....  oh hang on  opps!

Such a generalisation (Mine) that all managers in the NHS  should be fired and ( while I have never worked in it) I have no doubt a good few should be as a waste of space, but equally I know that the NHS could not function without some of those managers.  Its all too easy to blame managers ( many times justified - generally in all civil service )but few Doctors have the skills necessary or interest,  and even if they do, I would rather they be treating people than ordering mops or sorting a £4 payroll issue!

All the senior doctors I know would make absolutely terrible managers of people and processes, they spend their entire careers being the arbiter of what is right and what the course of action should be, which is exactly as it should be for a clinical decision. Unfortunately when it comes to dealing with HR issues where the situation is rarely, if ever, clear cut and needs a degree of understanding of an alternate viewpoint they have few skills or experience that would be relevant. 

It's a nice easy target for the ignorant to aim at, one manager for every 12 nurses...terrible but in reality management is a skill that takes time to acquire. It's often a skill that nurses acquire as part of their working life due to the nature of their role but Orthopaedic Surgeons and Cardiologists? No chance. NHS Managers are as important as the clinical staff. A good one especially so.

[ckn]

We got our plumbing stuff done today:

- New main inlet valve as it was sticking.  Very hard water problems...
- New three-way valve as it was the valve sticking that had fried the motor.  Yet more very hard water problems
- Rusted radiator removed, new valves and a spare put in its place.
- Fernox inhibitor treatment.
- Half a day of labour all-in, including the hour of emergency plumbing needed to stop the leak in the first place.
- Immaculate work including full tidy-up and scrubbing rust residue from the radiator off the other pipework.

£240 (£200+VAT) including parts.

And he was English...  Bloody English folk, driving down the prices of those good Polish plumbers!

[Phil]

Graduation day, just been to our daughter’s graduation ceremony, got something in my eye and another sort of lumpy thing in my throat 

 

#massivelyprouddad 

[Bearman]

On 7/16/2018 at 8:36 PM, ckn said:

We got our plumbing stuff done today:

- New main inlet valve as it was sticking.  Very hard water problems...
- New three-way valve as it was the valve sticking that had fried the motor.  Yet more very hard water problems
- Rusted radiator removed, new valves and a spare put in its place.
- Fernox inhibitor treatment.
- Half a day of labour all-in, including the hour of emergency plumbing needed to stop the leak in the first place.
- Immaculate work including full tidy-up and scrubbing rust residue from the radiator off the other pipework.

£240 (£200+VAT) including parts.

And he was English...  Bloody English folk, driving down the prices of those good Polish plumbers!

Have you got one of those anti lime things fitted? 

When  I worked at RR they had them fitted throughout the factory including the boiler house.

Mine is a coil that goes around the pipe inside the house before the stop cockand is plugged into an adjacent electric socket.I fitted mine 20 years ago and have had no problem with lime since. Our kettle never furs up.

[ckn]

36 minutes ago, Bearman said:

Have you got one of those anti lime things fitted? 

When  I worked at RR they had them fitted throughout the factory including the boiler house.

Mine is a coil that goes around the pipe inside the house before the stop cockand is plugged into an adjacent electric socket.I fitted mine 20 years ago and have had no problem with lime since. Our kettle never furs up.

We had a proper high-grade water softener fitted when we moved in, the water was so hard that it killed that after 5 years.  The other stuff like the anti-lime coils can reduce it but can only do so much.

The standard for grading water hardness is:

• Soft water contains less than 100mg of calcium carbonate per litre
• Moderately hard water contains between 100 and 200mg of calcium carbonate per litre
• Hard water between 200 and 300mg of calcium carbonate per litre
• Very hard water contains more than 300mg of calcium carbonate per litre.

Here's the water analysis for my area: 418 mg/l Calcium Carbonate.  We're essentially chewing chalk when we drink...  You can find your rating via your water company's website, I just searched Anglian Water hardness for my provider and I got there.

There are some areas of the country where the calcium carbonate level is comfortably under 10mg/l

[JonM]

Ours is 322 mg/l - gave up with the softener long ago.

[henage]

On 7/16/2018 at 8:36 PM, ckn said:

We got our plumbing stuff done today:

- New main inlet valve as it was sticking.  Very hard water problems...
- New three-way valve as it was the valve sticking that had fried the motor.  Yet more very hard water problems
- Rusted radiator removed, new valves and a spare put in its place.
- Fernox inhibitor treatment.
- Half a day of labour all-in, including the hour of emergency plumbing needed to stop the leak in the first place.
- Immaculate work including full tidy-up and scrubbing rust residue from the radiator off the other pipework.

£240 (£200+VAT) including parts.

And he was English...  Bloody English folk, driving down the prices of those good Polish plumbers!

Very good value . 

[Bedford Roughyed]

321 mg/l here.  

[Shadow]

13 minutes ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

321 mg/l here.  

I must be next door to you.

320 mg/l

[jayemm]

84.6 in the West of York and we think we have hard water!

[Shadow]

19 minutes ago, jayemm said:

84.6 in the West of York and we think we have hard water!

I always knew you were soft up north 

[JohnM]

We use a couple of in line water filters to a third tap in the kitchen sink, for tea making etc. Removes the film of s.c.u.m  on top of tea. Filters last 6 months from Pozzani. https://www.pozzani.co.uk

According to Anglia Water...

The water in your area is hard.

To help set your domestic appliances, the water hardness in different units is:
	271 mg/l (or parts per million)	:Calcium Carbonate
	108.4 mg/l (or parts per million)	:Calcium
	18.862 °C	:Degrees Clark
	27.1 °F	:Degrees French
	15.393 °dH	:Degrees German
	2.71 mmol/l	:Millimoles

[ckn]

We’re having a quiet night in, sitting in the garden sharing a nice bottle of wine. The only thing spoiling it is that Jimmy’s Farm is a couple of miles from us and it’s their annual music festival. 

I’m not complaining, people are allowed to enjoy themselves, it’ll just be nice when it stops though. 

[ckn]

43 minutes ago, ckn said:

We’re having a quiet night in, sitting in the garden sharing a nice bottle of wine. The only thing spoiling it is that Jimmy’s Farm is a couple of miles from us and it’s their annual music festival. 

I’m not complaining, people are allowed to enjoy themselves, it’ll just be nice when it stops though. 

Their kicking out act seems to be Paul Young. 

[ckn]

I'm staying at a luxurious Travelodge in London tonight as we're off out to celebrate a very good achievement.  I'm now thinking I might have been better staying at a more premium hotel just for the air-conditioning.  It's damnably hot and humid...