Impact

Obviously there is the impact of the collision with unyielding metal on my head. I'm waking up with an awful headache every morning. Being vertical does seem to make it recede eventually. Yesterday I had two episodes of flashing lights which are usually the precursor to a migraine. My shoulder is still painful & really limits what I can do. I'm trying not to take too many pain killers, but can only get some sleep at night if I do.

The other impact is on my life. Now, after almost a week, I am really fed up with being confined to the house seeing no one. Normally my life is quite busy. I swim 4 or 5 times a week & usually see friends at the pool. I volunteer at the community centre once or twice a week. I'm a volunteer usher at the theatre most weeks. I am doing a Psychology course in a group. I normally go out of the house at least once every day & would usually meet people I know. I need to go into Oxford to do a couple of things, but don't feel fit enough to face that yet.

If I am ill or have hurt myself, although it's not necessarily my fault, I can accept it. I am, after all, used to years of coping with chronic conditions & pain. This is different. This has happened to me through no fault of my own, but because someone else did something thoughtless or even negligent which put pedestrians at risk. I still don't understand why I didn't see the cycle rack - was I distracted by something? I know I tend to look down at the pavement when I'm walking because the pavements in Oxford are so full of pitfalls for pedestrians & I don't want to trip up - How ironic is that?

The big consolation is my friends who have read my Blog. So many have emailed or phoned to commiserate & see how I am. Without exception they have encouraged me to take this further, either report it to the police or get legal advice or both. Their support is wonderful & much appreciated.

So some good does come out of adversity.

Accidental Injury

Day 5
Today was a milestone - I was able to wash my hair. It's not easy when you can't raise one arm, but if I bent over the sink I didn't have to. Probably only another woman would appreciate how much better that made me feel. Fortunately I have been able to shower having had a wet room ensuite installed last year. Getting going in the morning seems to take ages.

The bloody scabs on my face  are starting to peel off. I'm trying not to knock them because I don't really want a permanent vertical scar line down my forhead & nose! My eye sockets are changing colour. The black / purple is changing to a delightful mix of green, yellow & red - very Lucien Freud. I've had two bouts of flashing lights today. I used to have dreadful migraines, but now I just tend to get the visual disturbance - Not twice in a day before though.

Which Legal responded to say that they don't give advice on accidental injury, but I should contact a solicitor. In my experience the Law & Lawyers just complicate matters & are extremely expensive. It's not the course of action I would chose. However the consensus of my friends seems to be that I should, so I have contacted 2 local law firms who have specialists in the field.

It's all such a b..... nuisance. Not what I want to be spending my time doing. I just think I have to consider the possible repercussions of a head injury.

Concussion Repercussions.

4 days on from the head injury - still can't remember anything about Monday. But the swelling has gone down considerably & the pain is significantly reduced, so I only have to take pain killers at night to be able to sleep. The range of movement in the shoulder is very limited, so I have to help the arm to move with the other hand - dressing & showering is difficult. I couldn't drive. Not only because of the concussion, but also because I couldn't change gear.

I tried walking into Summertown this morning to get some pills & food - Extremely slow. My legs feel like lead & I was tired out when I got back. Resuming swimming obviously isn't going to happen any time soon. My whole life has been halted.

On the way I went into the Wine Cafe to thank I, who apparently found me. She wasn't there, but the owner of the car, R, was, so I have got her details. Obviously she came face to face with my injuries, but she didn't ask how I was, what had happened at the hospital, what treatment I've had / will need. Nothing. Nada. Rien. She did accept that the car shouldn't have been parked as it was, but no apology or concern whatsoever.

Yesterday friends said the accident should be reported & I should take this further because there could possibly be long term effects given my age & the injury. (Wish I knew a lawyer). I am a member of Which Legal so have sent them an email to ask advice.

Suing wouldn't be my natural course of action. The woman was moving into a flat above the Wine Cafe, I think it must be a new job. She was rushing because she was late for her shift. We can all make mistakes. Accidents happen. I just find her attitude to the pain, disruption & cost of all this to me & everyone involved quite unbelievable. She was happy to give me her insurance details & seems to think that's the extent of her responsibility.

Maybe it's an age thing.

Accidents - Concussion & Dementia!

My lovely daughter M has had a taster of the senile me! I had an accident on Monday afternoon walking to one of my volunteer jobs. I was knocked out & badly concussed. So much so that I can't remember any of Monday at all.

Some North Oxford idiot, in a big 4WD, had parked their car so that a huge cycle rack on the back protruded out over most of the pavement & I walked right into it. I have no idea why or how because of the memory loss. Someone found me on the floor & somehow called M & the ambulance. A kind person, I, brought a chair out for me to sit on. When the ambulance didn't arrive, a Good Samaritan, J, took us to hospital in his car.

M is obviously going to be excellent at dealing with someone with no short term memory because I apparently amused the occupants of A&E enormously repeating things over & over. I also had no inhibitions & pointed out things about other people in a loud voice - For example how silly it was not to do up your shoe laces because you might trip up. (I doubt M found it funny after several hours & I imagine it's quite surprising someone didn't take exception to me & add to the facial bruises!)

Apparently I was triaged, had scans, xrays, blood tests etc. But none of it registered. The result is no broken shoulder or nose, but a face like a prize fighter's after coming out the worst from a boxing bout.

We eventually got home late in the evening. M had been told I had to be watched for 24 hrs. My lovely grandsons couldn't hide their shock when they saw me the next morning.

It's not appropriate to go into all the circumstances here, but it is interesting that the person whose car it was, & definitely knew what had happened as a result of their poor & probably illegal parking, didn't have the grace to ask how I was or apologise. Instead she apparently left a very jolly message on M's answerphone, which incensed M quite reasonably.

The thing about this story is that one thoughtless person has caused all the people involved so much time, cost & trouble. The cost to the NHS must be considerable & there might be long term consequences as I'm in my 70's. The people who helped me really put themselves out & were kind & considerate. M had to leave her teaching job & spend hours in A&E & then come home to check on me the next day. She is very capable, but it must all have been very stressful & worrying.

I have been in quite considerable pain for 2 days. As well as the facial / head / shoulder injuries all my leg & arm muscles hurt because I must have fallen quite heavily. In effect I have lost a complete day of my life & may never recover it. I never turned up for two appointments on Monday & have had to cancel everything since. I'm not sure when I will be fit enough to resume my life.

I'm trying to keep a balance between the many people who were kind & helped me & the one person who is responsible for all this but doesn't seem capable of accepting that responsibility. An enquiry how I am & an apology doesn't seem too much to ask.

Not sure where I will go from here. Accidents happen, but this was an accident waiting to happen.

PS

Someone who was blind or partially sighted would stand no chance. Equally if the weather was bad & you had a hood up, or very bright sun. I think the point is that it was predictable that the obstruction might cause an accident.

I'm a Demographic Statistic

That's me - Woman, Baby Boomer, 60's hippy, Retired, Pensioner, Home Owner, Widower, Financially Secure. Costing the NHS because of several chronic conditions - (having contributed all my life through National Insurance & taxes). Not working so not contributing to the GNP. Volunteering since early retirement - so actually contributing quite a lot unpaid.

How do you value a person? How important is one person in the grand scheme of things? A grain of sand maybe? How much influence / impact does one peson have on the world? Seemingly it depends on the individual and how well known they are. Fame isn't a measure of value though.

A few unusual individuals do actually make a difference - for good or for ill. My main influence on anything will have been as a teacher. Only my students can judge whether that was for good or ill. I suppose individuals also influence their family, friends & aquaintances.

It's all ripples on a pond. Each person starts a ripple which spreads out from them at the centre. The ripple can be beneficial or malign. I think the only thing we can hope for is that it's the former not the latter. If each one of us tried to do good, be kind & considerate the world would be a better place.

 

It really feels like a battle for the survival of good over evil, hope over despair. We need more positive ripples.

The Arts - Are they important?

Unbelievably according to the latest paleo-archeological information, the oldest art was created by humans during the prehistoric Stone Age, between 300,000 and 700,000 years ago. This seems to indicate that art fulfills a very basic human need & wasn't seen as a waste of time.

According to the Guardian - "Abandoning the EU could potentially result in a loss of €1.46bn of funding granted to the creative industries, impacting profoundly on the cultural climate of creative Britain". According to the Arts Council, "between 2010 and 2015, figures show that total spending by local government in England on arts and culture development and support has been reduced by 16.6 per cent, tending to hit regions outside London the hardest". Conservative Government policy, unsurprisingly, is "to encourage private donations, including through the tax system, and to support arts and cultural organisations to increase the range and effectiveness of their own fundraising". In other words privatisation & cuts.

My life has been very Arts orientated. I played the piano & have always loved all kinds of music - Opera is a passion. In my time I have enjoyed drawing, painting & textiles myself. I am a volunteer usher at the Playhouse theatre. In my working life as a teacher & head teacher the arts were a very important part of the curriculum in the schools I taught in. There is a strong relationship between arts, culture & education which we are at risk of losing in the current state of straightened financial times.

Humans have basic needs & I would argue that the Arts are one of them. Are we really so impoverished that we are prepared to risk losing the creativity which has defined humankind since the beginning? What sort of people will we be in a future without the Arts?


www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/paleolithic-art-culture.htm


www.artscouncil.org.uk/  https://www.britishcouncil.org/arts

 

Brain Drain

My Brain / Central Processing Unit seems to be developing faults.

It does seem to process information reasonably effectively, but retrieval seems to be becoming a bit erratic. My CPU adds, compares, stores & moves data gathered by my senses. It manages the data allows me to access it when I need to - In theory. In reality data goes in, but sometimes just won't necessarily come out again when I need it. There is a time lag.

I try to trick it back into function, for example by re-tracing my steps when I have set out to do something then forgotten what that was. Although I remember faces, (good visual memory), I often can't remember the names that go with them. So I have a visual link to the name - Eileen Atkins for example is an eye & a hat. Bridget is a bridge.

This is, of course, a common problem. Not just for people of my age.

A universal myth is that we only use 10% of our brain. However human beings use virtually every part of their brains. During an average day, humans use nearly 100% of their brains. I think mine is getting tired. After all it has been continuously functioning, without maintenance, for 72 years. Possibly my CPU is overloaded with information. There must be an awful lot in there after all this time. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a delete mechanism other than the stuff I forget. If I could select what is deleted it might make more room for the stuff I actually want to access.

My CPU has various types of storage for all this data - long & short term memory for example. I think my issue is with the Random Access Memory. My CPU can't cope with the randomness of my RAM. There should be some mechanism for me to tell it in advance what I'm going to need to retrieve.

Sadly my CPU knows an awful lot - It just doesn't always share it with me.