18 October 2012
Paul’ the computer’ came after lunch today to relieve ’my lovely’. As we are pretty well up-to-date in tweaking the computer Paul and I sat back and jointly enjoyed my daughter Chloe’s birthday present to me, a boxed set of DVDs covering the Hornblower series.
Life under the sail at the end of the 18th century when Britannia really did rule the waves and Britain was enjoying a level of success probably not exceeded before or after that period. The storyline covers the career in the Royal Navy of Horacio Hornblower from his early days as a midshipman – the lowest officer rank – to Captain (or is it Admiral?) I shall not spoil my enjoyment of watching these series to find out which. In any event, it covers a period towards the end of the 18th century and the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It in no way attempts to soften the life of these heroic figures, who through their dominance of the sea, shaped the control of many countries until the middle of the 20th century.
I mentioned to Paul how good was Windows 7 and how most of us cannot even touch the full facilities available through this programme. I really ought to spend time working my way through the various options offered on the tabbed bar at the top of each page. I would advise anyone using Windows 7 for the first time, to spend a little time to get acquainted with the options built into by the software designers. Inevitably, most of us just plunge into the programme in the specific area on which we are currently working and as a result fail to test run other options. We are all guilty of this, so I make no apologies just copy what I say, not necessarily what I do.
Did I mention that we were told quite recently that we had been granted (awarded!?) an extra one hour per day on our continuing care program. The readers will recall one of the main conditions, giving you this extra time is that the patient is most likely to die within 12 weeks. This latter condition is in the lap of the gods but must be based upon some statistical record, so here goes to try to mess up their statistics.
One of the nurses in Papworth Hospital, told us of patients who had survived for longer than the three month provision.
One who went 13 years and another 20 but I suppose balancing all of these responses there must be solid evidence driving the average figures down below 12 weeks. Let you me see where would 12 weeks get us? Well, roughly to the end of this year, so we will see. We can only possibly plan a week or two in advance and then there’s the Medicare side of things, who might say that I have plateaued in any particular area and specifically my breathing. The good Dr Michael, from Australia suggests, the way you are progressing. you will just fade away. A bit like having a pleasant anaesthetic. Nothing dramatic or unpleasant. Choking is unlikely to be the cause. That all sounds fairly satisfactory and nothing to worry about when is this fading away likely to affect me? How these doctors can be so specific about such dramatic milestones in one’s life, defeats me. The only way that one trusts the description on death would be to die and come back and describe it. No doubt my medical readers will read about this and hopefully provide some more concrete evidence upon which patients and carers alike can feel comforted by.
Smiler and Kimberly are due here tomorrow for lunch and I will continue to discuss what he needs to do on my demise, although I’m pretty sure I’ve covered most angles. Unfortunately Suffered Life, who are responsible to the government for keeping an eye on my pension , ensuring that it is within the parameters laid down, do not work at the week so I will have to check this out on Monday.