We did a year!

Thanks to all those that have persevered with my ramblings over 2012, it seems we have done well! According to my ‘annual blog report’ we have had readers from 23 countries, a total of over 1700 reads in all so give yourselves a pat on the back.

I don’t think anybody could have predicted where I would be at the end of 2012, its certainly not been an easy ride and I foresee more challenges in 2013. I remain committed to my plan and I will achieve the changes in life that would have, perhaps, been better achieved before the accident. I am nothing if not stubborn and hopefully this will see me through the coming year, they may be gaps, rants and silliness on here (same as this year) but I will continue to record my path.

I hope you all have a great evening to slip into 2013 and I look forward to confusing and entertaining you next year.

Incidentally 302 posts in year, not quite one a day but hey pretty close especially if you discount the period when I was not capable!

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What have I learnt

24 hrs with a BP monitor, what have I learnt?

1 – don’t let inflatable pipes wrap around your throat whilst sleeping
2 – there is a whole world outside of charts
3 – 253 can be the first number in a BP measurement
4 – 40 can be the second!
5 – you ain’t gotta be an athlete to have 40 BPM

Lets see what my doctor makes of that bad boy!

Sneaky stats and funny numbers

The new WordPress statistics coupled with some questions lead me to believe that Jo had a big catch up yesterday, so well done for getting through so much rambling!

I have spent a night being bleeped and pumped by the BP monitor, thankfully when I had garrotted myself with the pipes and cables it beeped to warn me that it was not getting a reading. When you consider the pipe that it was pressurising was wrapped around my neck its of little surprise!

Readings calmed down to normal and healthy during the evening, I have no idea what they were while I was sleeping but this morning I seemed to wake up dead. Now there has been much debate over the concept of waking up dead, I can tell you it’s possible as my little box of electronics confirmed by being unable to see my BP/Pulse. I tried the normal things of straightening my arm and standing up and eventually we got some numbers, around 136 which is ok over 62 which is not!

I have many more experiments to do so that I can see how to guide the numbers back but I do think this will be another conversation with the doctor that starts ‘well this is all very interesting’

Anyone know a good hospital?

So far I have seen about 5 readings, they are only shown briefly, and the best (lowest) was 254/142 now I have no idea what that means so I consulted Dr Google! Oh I see it now Dr Google is no longer my friend, oh how he has turned with his graphs and statistics, none of which I appear on! Apparently they are not good numbers, well between friends they are actually quite bad.

Well I’ve considered the prospect of twice an hour ‘obs’ and how that fits my sleep pattern and have concluded a bottle of wine is well deserved. Investigation of the unit, its an engineer’s trait, reveals that it was due calibration in May 2012 so I’m thinking its out of date and the readings are not accurate but I think my test was flawed….. I wrapped it round the wine bottle for one test and the result was several error codes and no reading, its ok I won’t keep doing it and one miss read is to be expected!

My guess is it will, somehow, average ok and I won’t have the hassle of binning another set of drugs, high blood pressure indeed.

Bloody Cells!

For Christmas I purchased my daughter a blackberry as instructed, because she is blonde I set it up for her as well.

So I loaded credit and then I have to start the BlackBerry services at a cost of £5 per month on the orange, I refuse to call them EE, network. This simple task is achieved by sending a text stating ‘start BB’, I started to do this on the tenth of December. When the text response was a message telling me that the BlackBerry service had come to an end I called them and they explained it was a server issue.

Now for those that don’t know it costs 25p fixed cost to speak to an adviser on Orange PAYG and to give an indication of the success I have spent £2.75! The Indian call centre is very careful to explain that it can take up to 24hrs, despite me now being on day 18!!

It also transpires that there is a mechanical issue with the new phone so I ordered a replacement (gold star to phones 4 u, your advert is horrible bit ordered boxing day and arrived this morning). Replacement arrived with the sim inserted and registered so given I have had to buy £10 credit on the purchase I thought I would start the BlackBerry service on this sim and if it works she can keep new sim . . . .

No credit on the sim! I called the supplier who was very nice and told me it ‘can take up to 48 hrs’ is it me? Is it orange? Has India declared an unofficial war on us via their call centres?

Hmmmm

This afternoons task will be to research the affects of alcohol on blood pressure, not the long term health affects since these are doubtlessly bad I am interested in the immediate affects.

Getting 24 hr BP monitor fitted this afternoon so need to know if the pub is going to be a bad idea! If the pubs a bad idea where on earth am I going to find a healthy candidate to strap the bloody thing to? Don’t they understand that I don’t do pills, hence no painkillers!

When I was in hospital they checked my BP every 2 hrs and it was no inconvenience, what’s the betting that this thing will drive me mental overnight and stop me sleeping? My other thought was to attach it to a small animal for a short period of time since logic tells me that this should drive the average down quicker, although there is a risk that I look like I die for a couple of hours a day!

New methods?

Well I’m most surprised to find ten Christmas Day views of the blog, at first I had visions of challenging the Queen’s speech next year but then I realised the cause. I have no way of seeing what devices accessed the blog but my guess is it will include several new devices as the blog is explored on freshly unwrapped gifts.

I cannot write without an honourable mention to Dave who made my Christmas lunchtime pint with his story of rolling in drunk to his, first floor, flat at 2 am this morning. Having collapsed on the landing his irate wife questioned just what he was doing there, thinking in his feet or, more accurately, his back he came up with “I broke my back” . Now at this point we would all be hoping that some logic was reminding him that he is in his fifties and schoolboy excuses don’t hold the hope they once did but oh no not our Dave who valiantly answered “well how did you get up the stairs?” with “Erm hello Mum, Happy Birthday” yes you guessed it Mum’s birthday is in August!

A good laugh had by all and most importantly had with Dave, that is what makes community people.