Thursday 23rd February 2023
Waterfoot
Waterfoot is normally a place I would stop on the way home from an adventure up the North Coast but there have been a few signs that have made me inclined to make it a trip on its own. It’s not somewhere you can spend a lot of time which would suit me at the moment as I can’t do much/any walking.
What I can do there though is park beside the beach and have a short walk down. There is also a pub close to the carpark where I could get a bit to eat and rest up and there’s a shop if I want something basic.
The reason I’m thinking of Waterfoot is for a few simple reasons, it’s been brought up a few times and had me thinking about the place. There was a guy in hospital going round doing some checks on the oxygen pumps. I seen him when I was in the first ward and we got talking a little about what he was doing.
A couple of weeks later when I was in the next ward he came around to do the same checks, he didn’t really look at me at first but when I spoke to him he then remembered me and we started chatting again. He mentioned he was from around Waterfoot direction and was going to the pub with his daughter that weekend and was saying how good the food was there and that I should go.
At the time I thought yeah that would be something to look forward to for when I get out. I don’t often plan things ahead so this was unusual for me, but I thought it would be a good idea to have something ahead. Due to how things have been I’ve still not been able to get there, firstly with being so drained and now with not being able to be far from a toilet and the aches and also drained, but hopefully soon I’ll be able to get to it and enjoy it.
I was saying to my counsellor about this last week and at the weekend by chance I had a Facebook memory of a picture from Waterfoot, it was one of the first times I had stopped there and there were a load of ducks and geese about. A boy about 5 or 6 came with his mum to feed them but he got a bit intimidated by the geese and started to run back to his mum. The geese enjoying the food wanted more and started running after him and I got a picture of him running to his mum with the 5 geese in tow.
Every time I see it it always gives me a chuckle, it brings back memories of when I was there. The sun was out but it was cold and I was well hopped up and having a short walk on the beach. I’ll hopefully get there soon to make more memories of the place and find a nice spot to stop and eat.Thursday 16th February 2023
These Days
Sunday turned out to be not too dissimilar as to expected apart from falling asleep about six for a couple of hours which worked out in my favour, because of then I was able to stay up and watch the Super Bowl and still get enough sleep to be up early on Monday for the guy to come and fit the banister. It didn’t take him long and he done a great job. It has been helping me loads getting up the stairs and not as painful as I’m using the banisters to pull myself up rather than my legs to push up.
After that on Monday it was a pretty quiet day, I had food early in the evening so I was able to get and be at hospital without having to run to the toilet too much. This in a non-literal sense backfired. The actual appointment itself didn’t go too badly, the tests the GP done all came back negative so the hospital are doing more and extra bloods were taken for the osteoporosis doc too. This is when things always get confusing, do I still report to the GP about the stomach or do I now just do things through the hospital?
I was due to get my IVIG but with everything going on they decided to postpone it which was grand, meant less time there, but I did need to give a couple of samples although with eating earlier the night before and getting rid of everything before leaving, there was nothing there.
I ended up going back to my parents, which I normally do anyway and then back to hospital to leave them in. I was close to getting home when I got a call from the doctor and she wanted me to come back to repeat a test as the phosphate levels were dangerously low with the likelihood of staying in to get a drip, semi expected as I’ve been flushing everything out so fast but irritating at the same time.
I got home and grabbed the hospital bag and back to hospital again. I got there about four and at five the bloods were taken. It was a long wait for the results to come back which was grand as I was just reading, listening to music and expecting to stay the night anyway. About eight the doc came and said the levels had improved, at this stage I hadn’t been drinking and barely ate anything all day as I’d not been home.
When giving me the results she said I would be able to go home, but it didn’t feel like a “you can go home right now” so I didn’t pack and get ready to leave right then and sure enough she was back a few minutes later to tell me another level was now high, think it was the lactate levels which would mean I’m dehydrated unsurprisingly.
I’d pretty much only had a coffee about eight hours before and hadn’t been drinking as I was expecting to get the fluids. This annoyed me as I knew what the cause of this was and how easy this specific thing could be fixed and be able to myself. And yet I’d have to sit around for eight hours getting a drip and staying over after and quite possibly with everything that’s going on with the lungs, legs and diarrhoea they more than likely keep me in until things were resolved. I think if they had’ve just started the drip before telling me I could go home and not keeping me in just for the dehydration I wouldn’t have been annoyed.
They ended up repeating the bloods about an hour later at nine-ish, so I’d already been there for five hours and only two blood samples taken and was expecting another long wait for them to come back. By that stage it would be too late and would probably have been moved to another ward where I would have to stay the night either way and then probably no matter what potentially be kept in for the reasons above. The tablets normally come round about nine, later than I normally take them, and the ward I was in I know don’t stock all my tablets, so I would not be getting my tablets just to get some fluids rather than going home and getting all my tablets AND taking fluids to rehydrate which just compounded my frustration.
Thankfully the results came back really quickly and the levels had dropped because I drank a couple of glasses of water and so I was told I could go home… again, this time I didn’t give them time to change their minds, I packed straight away and went out to the nurse’s station just to be sure and they let me go. Out the door and decided to get some petrol for while I was close to somewhere cheap. Was nice driving through town and seeing busy streets with people out drinking, clubbing and generally having a good time.
Home, a bit of TV, some stew, pint of juice and bed!
Wednesday I was still a bit annoyed about the whole thing, I know they were looking out for me and making sure everything was ok, but it just feels like sometimes people can be over protective and considering there were obvious reasons for things, it just gets frustrating, very frustrating, despite the good intentions. But I keep it to myself and vent after rather than to the people at the time, or at least I try to.
Wednesday because of eating so late, I was pretty bad a bit later in the morning than normal and lucky I wasn’t going to hospital that day, finally it settled and was not a mad rush to get to the toilet each time. I had counselling in the afternoon which I quite enjoy, feels more like a friendly chat than anything but it’s very helpful and getting new ideas for different things.
The last few days I’ve been thinking about when things got really bad mentally for me and everything now is so much worse than then, with the lungs now being an issue, whatever this infection thing is, the general aches and the legs being a LOT worse than then which was the major issue at the time, things feel a lot better and I’m able to cope a lot better, mentally, without actually being able to cope any better, physically.
Today I was having a lazy day with extra pain meds to take the edge off and done a few things out of the house that needed done, they could be done early and I got them out of the way. Bit of lunch and then for some reason I started looking at ant farm videos…. And not alien ones…
Until the next time.
AlanSaturday 11th February 2023
More Updates
Hi everyone, I’ve added a few more updates to the site and more changes, the main is the “home” tab is now “about me” which now has the “Welcome” tab and a “Contact” information. The other change is the “Adventures” tab that is now “Photography” and it also includes an album for normal and 360 images. I’m tempted to change it from blog.lanspics.co.uk to the main domain lanspics.co.uk as most things on that site are now on the blog now too and I’ll be moving away from the photography so much and more onto myself. But that’s easily done if I decide to. Oh and I also done a bit more on the images, there is an option to show three at the top and three at the sides of the blog (or in the middle on mobile).
Back to the previous post I was about to phone the GP or at least try to, it ended up that I got through first time and they wanted me to come down to do a few tests so in the car and off I went. While in seeing the nurse the heart monitor didn’t work for me but worked ok for her and she kept trying and just wouldn’t get any reading for me. She ended up having to get another one and that seemed to work, although unusually my saturation levels where at 99% which is unusually high for me so how accurate it is I’m not too sure.
Soon after the doc came in to look at the rash and also thought it was a viral infection but it had died down considerably since Sunday which is obviously a good thing. Basically not doing anything and letting it run it’s course but for the diarrhoea will have to wait for the test results.
Had a quiet couple of days but as I was getting the car left in on Thursday I went down to my parents on Wednesday evening so that I would have less time to travel just in case any incidents occurred with my tummy. I was at my parents until Friday evening and it was nice, not that I done anything different, at the same time I was glad to get home, I like my peace and quiet and just doing things when I want to.
The work that gone done on the car looks really good and very happy with it. It was done by Cosmetic Car Repair in the Harbour Estate, would definitely recommend them. I have a new phone arriving hopefully today, it was supposed to arrive on Thursday but for some reason it sat in Preston for 2 days despite being guaranteed delivery by 1pm the next day. It seems to have finally moved and is now in Belfast.
Today’s plans seem to include sit about and watch the football and rugby on tv and if the phone arrives go and pick that up and maybe take the long way home for a drive but that will depend on how the tummy is. Oh I also got a call about getting a second banister up in the house which will be a massive help getting up and down the stairs. I forgot about the Super Bowl though being the night before so I won’t be getting much sleep or have to watch it the following day at some point.
Anyway that’s up to now, hope you are all well and speak to you soon.
AlanTuesday 6th February 2023
Updates
You may have noticed I’ve a few new updates and changes to the website, the general appearance is the same as it was but I have slightly changed the name to go with a new domain I got for free WeeAl.uk but also sticking with blog.lanspics.co.uk as it was before, They’re linked to the same place so they should be the exact same.
The biggest change is the Latest tab which used to be “list” which showed a list of all the posts, Now the latest tab shows the last 20 posts, they are also colour coordinated with another new feature and that is various types of post which is also reflected in the menu at the top. Archive is just as it was before which was posts about me and my health and in latest are the green posts.
TV will be post about various shows and films I’ve been watching and updates on them and are shown in purple, Sport will be about sport shown in yellow and all things Book related will be in red. Finally, Adventures, I don’t see me doing many new adventures apart from maybe the odd drive so I see this being more on adventures I had been on when I was able to and these are in light blue.
In the Latest tab it is possible to filter which latest 20 posts to show either all or filter by category. There is also a dropdown in each of the tabs in the top menu so you can select various posts. There still may be a few changes to this ahead as once there gets to be more posts it may not be suitable in the format it is although this should be suitable for a year I guess, depending on the number of posts in each.
Clicking on the main category top tabs will take you to something that was similar to the old “list” where it just gave a list of all the posts although now depending on the category you click on will initially filter by that category and again you can change the category or show all. It will also now show what category it is in beside each post and I might add the colouring but I’ll see how it looks.
I may add an option to make the grid in Latest to a list also so on mobile it could take up a little less space.
One final thing I can think of off hand that I changed was the general page layout of the posts, the title and date is a little larger and cantered along with the text of the post itself. There has always been an option for images in the posts but I don’t use it much but there are some changes to that I could make also.
If you have any ideas of things to change or update let me know and I’ll have a think about them and possibly add them. It’s been a nice distraction from everything working on it as today was another day of things, not really going wrong but things not going the way they would on normal days.
Until the next time, thanks for reading.
AlanMonday 6th February 2023
Breaking Radio Silence
Hi everyone I know I haven’t shared anything since August but I have still been writing and posting stuff. The reason I hadn’t shared it was because it wasn’t very “fun” and quite repetitive as I’ve not really been able to do anything too exciting since October. But then again it has been in dramatic few months.
One of my previous posts a summary I was going to share but the server was down at the time and wasn’t able to upload it. And so I’ll do a quick synopsis of the last few months up to the previous posts and then on from there.
At the end of October I started on new tablets which reduced my blood pressure and was getting light headed and dizzy, I also feel there is a connection with them and my leg getting more painful. Due to all this I had to take it easy and not push myself or really do anything. I lost quite a bit of confidence going outside and only went out when I had to with a lot of persuasion.
Gradually I built up a bit of confidence, or more, I didn’t want to let people down and be a complete recluse but I felt quite vulnerable, from the risks of being dizzy and sore, there was also the increased risk of catching infections this time of year.
Which in the end was a massive downfall, after Christmas I came down with a really bad cough and some ferocious fevers and a few hours after midnight on New Year’s had one of the worst I remember and going into a coughing fit. I waited a couple of days before phoning the hospital and they brought me in. I ended up staying there for over two weeks and you can read about it Here and Here. It was an experience and a lot worse than I care to admit. Anyway, I pulled through it and got to a level where the doctors and me were happy that I could go to my parents for a while before heading home home.
It was nice being at my parents but it just wasn’t home, I’m too used to being on my own and I wasn’t doing much to increase my abilities, apart from using the stairs to go up to the loo or to bed I didn’t really improve. The day after getting out I did have to go home though to get a few things and with the limited amount that I did do I had noticed that I was still very weak and not able to keep my breath. I was able to manage though so long as I took my time and took plenty of breaks. When I do anything it’s like I hold my breath and there only so long I can do that before I need to stop to get the saturation levels back to normal again.
After a few days back with my parents I decided that I would be better going home, I would be doing a bit more around the house and hopefully improving on the breathing and fitness. This started off ok, I would get out of breath very easily and have to stop and get my breath back. When I do anything my saturation levels were dropping to about 80-82% but after a couple of minutes the levels would return to about 94% (my normal) and then I could go again.
It was knowing your limits and knowing when to stop and recover, I didn’t notice much of an improvement the first couple of weeks but I didn’t mind that with something the doctors had said when I was up at hospital after getting out.
I was initially a bit disappointed that I hadn’t improved much if at all, but I knew I was really bad in hospital and I’m a little older each time so I was putting it down to the combination and I would soon turn a corner and be up and about again. The doctors though told me that they had only ever seen one other patient with this infection and they also had a transplant but their lungs were in much better condition that mine, not having had any surgery or lymphoma and it took them a long time to recover and get back to any normality.
This made me feel better that I hadn’t improved more and that it will be a slow journey back, although I doubt that I’ll ever be back to even what I was before in September never mind four years ago. At least I’m being fed the reality of things rather than a fairy tale and false hope, and I can properly adapt to how things will be.
While I was in hospital with not doing much moving around my leg got a lot better and wasn’t as sore, then I started getting up walking and it was starting to play up again and the more I moved the worse it got and now it’s VERY bad, worse than it has been. I had a bone density scan in December and the Osteoporosis doc told me the spine is marginally stronger, which is good, less likely for more fractures in that, but the hip is worse which is where the pain seems to be originating, and the knee. He also told me about a possibility of a atypical femoral fracture which can be caused by one of the drugs I’m on and is getting the Radiographer to take a closer look at an MRI I got done to see if there are any signs of that.
The MRI just happened to be the Tuesday after I got out of hospital and showed that there was Avascular Necrosis in my knees and hip and I am getting referred to more doctors in Orthopaedics about that. I’m not sure what they can do that the Osteoporosis docs haven’t already done, may as well go and find out.
I’ve also been getting a lot of help, an occupational therapist came out to the house to assess things to see if there was anything I could do with to help me around the house and advised to get a few things and with living close to the depot they arrived in a couple of days, still some stuff to arrive but that’s not from the centre and need things signed off.
And they have helped loads so far already, I am very pleased with them. Also started back on the counselling which has been nice, it’s just mostly been a chat about things, despite everything that has gone on, I’m not overly bothered by it and also starting to see a physio which will be sore but hopefully will help give me a bit of strength in my leg so I can do a step with each leg rather than using the one on each step.
I did order a couple of nice walking sticks though rather than the hospital ones, obviously the hospital ones are much sturdier but the others look and feel nicer so I’ll keep one in the car to use out and about. A few days ago I started getting a dodgy tummy and having to run to the toilet, not being sick, but it has been incredibly irritating and don’t know what has triggered it as I’ve not been anywhere for a week nor ate anything different than I would normally and everything well within date.
Yesterday though I was scratching my back as it was a bit itchy, nothing unusual but it was really nice and later I started scratching my chest which is unusual and I took a look and had broke out in a rash all over my chest and back which is very unusual. Initially thought it was just a reaction to something but didn’t look like any of the rashes from that.
I am prone to getting shingles so I thought with having the dodgy tummy I was just run down and gave the shingles the opportunity to take hold again but normally it’s on my head and blistery. I thought I would be best getting a bit of advice and went to the chemist who said it looked like a viral infection, so it could be shingles, but probably another one. And that brings me up to now again, I have to try and get through to the GP in the morning to try and get an appointment made with them and hopefully be put on something that will help ease it and the tummy too. I just hope I get through and don’t have to phone hospital as I really don’t want to end up in there again.
Until the next time, thanks for reading.
AlanSaturday 4th February 2023
Going On An Adventure
Or well, maybe not, not like they used to be, I used to be able to go on proper adventures leaving that morning and not being home till late that night while all day be busy walking around everywhere. Some if not most of my adventures where fun and living in Northern Ireland was great for it, we have a lot on our doorstep, from mountains and forests to lakes, coastlines and cliffs.
Whatever you’re after there was always an option to do whatever. Some of my favourite spots where Slieve Croob, Killard Head, the walk from Dunseverick to Giants Causeway and Ballypatrick Forest. We’re lucky we have so many amazing spots so handy.
Unfortunately with the way things have gone my adventure days are over, I’m very limited on what I can do and walking is one that I can’t really do, there are a lot of places that are just out of bounds to me now and I couldn’t imagine being able to get to them. I am hopeful that I will still be able to get out on some drives to different places go have a read, maybe a bit to eat and then home again. Hopefully be able to get to places to relax, a different type of adventure than what things where before.
With that, there may be a lot of reminiscing on different adventures and walks that I had been on when I could and when I was finding new places to go to. Which would be nice to maybe get back to again someday but I don’t think it would be possible.
For now, though we’ll just have to see how things develop.
Thanks for reading.
AlanSaturday 4th February 2023
The Box
Watching TV is probably the most common thing I would do at the moment, weekdays is when I would watch different things the most and I would regularly watch Coronation Street, Emmerdale, House of Games, The Chase and Bridge of Lies and Click. The ones not on as often would include Love It or List It, Location, Location, Location, George Clarks Amazing Spaces, and some of the talk shows as well like Graham Norton Show, John Bishop, The Last Leg.
I enjoy quiz, cooking and DIY shows, not that I’m any good at any of them I just enjoy them and I really enjoy shows like Homes Under The Hammer and Building off the Grid. Documentaries and Adventure shows I quite like, ones about space and travel around the world and tech and learning about things.
I also watch a decent amount of films, although so far this year I haven’t been doing that much at all, my attention span is quite limited so far this year and have only managed to watch one film and that was the new Jurassic Park which I actually fell asleep pretty much as soon as I put it on, just that I was so tired at the time and nothing to do with the actual film.
New things I’ve watched this week include La Brae on Paramount+ which I’ve quite enjoyed a mix of time travel, dinosaurs and survival and Star Trek a Strange New World, I’ve only watched the first episode so far but I think I will enjoy it. Also on Paramount is Halo which has been entertaining enough so far, I’m definitely getting into it and seeing someone’s take on what the future will look like is always fascinating to me.
On Apple TV I’ve been watching Ted Lasso, The Morning Show and Ewan McGregor and Charlie Borman’s the Long Way Round/Down, entertainment, something different and something a bit adventurous.
I just found a couple of days ago that with BT Sport you can watch Discovery+ for free which I’ve been waiting for an offer on to get so this was perfect, it has a lot of shows that I used to watch but couldn’t anymore. I’ve been able to watch Building off the Grid and there is also How It Works and lots of documentaries about civilizations and tech which I’m looking forward to delving into to learn some new stuff.
On top of that I enjoy watching to odd bit of reality TV like Love Island and I’m a Celeb, car crash tv and once you get into it you just need to keep watching it to see what happens next.
There’s plenty to write about but no doubt I’ll forget about what I have been watching, maybe I should just spam a show and then talk about it? I dunno we’ll see what happens.
Tonight, I think I’ll just watch some Saturday night TV and try and relax, I’m feeling a little restless this evening.
Thanks for reading
AlanSaturday 4th February 2023
Books and Reading stuff
Reading is something I’ve always wanted to do more of and recently I’ve been able to, in 2021 I read 100 books, quite possibly more than I had ever read my whole life and in 2022 it was 93, more than I thought I had and might actually be more as I haven’t updated my list in a while but I think I’m up to date till the start of January. I definitely have been slacking this year so far, having only actually finished a few books in over a month, but I always go through phases of where I would go a month or so of not reading and then all of a sudden I just seem too read loads all at once.
At the moment I am going through a few books, I’ve been taking my time going through The Lord of the Rings and I am on The Return of the King, I haven’t started it yet but that’s on the to read next list, yes list not actually to read next. I’m also working through the Foundation series and am on Book 4 – Foundations Edge, I quite enjoy this type of book, it’s just very my thing, a whole new universe and using the imagination to create this place.
Our Bookclub Book this month is The Cows by Dawn O’Porter, this is something I would never have picked up on my own never mind reading it, which is the thing I enjoy about Bookclub I read stuff that I would never have looked at and broadens the mind. The thing about The Cows is I actually quite enjoyed it too.
The Kindle book I am reading at the moment is Lady Joker Vol 2 by Kaoru Takamura, I read volume one back during the summer and enjoyed it and so ordered it as soon as it was on pre-ordered, it was released a couple of days ago but I haven’t got round to starting it yet.
I would also use Audible when I’m out and about mostly when driving or out shoping etc. I’ve been working through this one for a while and it’s quite a long one and if I’m honest I haven’t been paying attention to it so if you were to ask me what it’s about I would struggle to tell you, but it’s The Count of Monte Cristo.
I’ve also got quite a few Ian Fleming books (James Bond) and books from the Hornblower series. I’ve a lot to listen to, read on the Kindle AND actual books.
And thanks for reading this.
AlanSaturday 4th February 2023
A Weekend of Sport
My first sport post! Weekends for me are all about sport, from the moment I wake up on Saturday to going to bed and with everything around the world, from the mornings watching the A-League in Australia to the NFL or MLS in the evenings in America and everything in between including rugby and cricket.
My favourite to watch would be the T20 cricket, although I can’t watch too much, too often, once a week would be ample. Football would be the sport I would watch the most with maybe four or five games on a Saturday or Sunday, not that I’m fully watching it all that time, I would be doing other things while it’s mostly on in the background such as when I’m reading or doing anything on the computer such as writing this.
As much as I enjoy watching sports, I don’t know too much about it, well I know the game itself like the rules, minor tactics etc but when it comes to knowing about the players or teams, I don’t pay attention, it was just this morning I realised I don’t even know who is top in the A-League or where anyone is in the table, I just enjoy watching it. I find with the A-League both the teams always want to win, they don’t sit back and defend, although the skill level is not as high as the PL it’s much more enjoyable, fast paced and end-to-end.
Everyone who’s into sports always thinks when they were younger they were amazing at sports the only one I was half decent at was cricket, I was good at throwing and catching things and had fast reflexes. After primary school I didn’t really get the chance to play many sports with my health so who knows if I would have ever got a chance at being any good at any.
Today After the A-League this morning there is another match starting now and then the Arsenal match is on at 12.30, The Six Nations begins again today so I will watch that and then more football later this evening in the PL and then the French League, although I have other things to watch as well on the TV so I may get diverted if the games are not that great and I’m not in the mood for them.
Have a great day!
Alan