DNR - Do Not Resuscitate

If your doctor has written a DNR order at your request, medics are not required to resuscitate you if your heart stops. It is designed to prevent unnecessary suffering & your family may not override it. DNR can be regarded as passive euthanasia.

It is another medical ethics situation where, just because it is possible to prolong life, which is what medics are trained to do, it may not be the right thing for the patient. Everyone who is going to have surgery should think about what they would want to happen should their heart stop & should make clear their wishes, not only to their medical team, but also to their family.

That said a lot of people simply do not want to think about what might happen. They may be more focussed on just coping with the surgery itself. They may be too ill to think about DNR. They may be unconcious. In reality very few people go into hospital having made the decision. That means if there is a problem the medics or the family decide. The family may not be best placed to make the very emotional decision, especially if they have not been prepared for a relative to die & said all that they would want to say.

I think the important thing is what sort of life the patient had before surgery & is likely to have after surgery. In my case I'm 74. I've lived a very fulfilling & interesting life & have lived alone for 10 years. I have a shedload of co-morbid chronic conditions, including heart conditions, & pain & fatigue on a daily basis.

Life generally doesn't get easier as you age, whatever your health is like. Just because the average life expectancy for women in the UK is 83 - 86 (depending on the stats), & many live much longer, doesn't mean that is a good thing. 

What matters is the quality of that life - how happy or contented you are, whether you are able to socialise regularly with good friends & family, whether you are able to manage the day to day things we all have to do, whether you are reasonably healthy & active, whether you feel that there is a purpose to your life....I could go on & on.

So, I think it's a gamble - Cling to life on the basis that it's the only one you get, (unless you believe in reincarnation) - Or risk a possible slow decline or even an unpleasant one. Or "check out" gracefully without any pain & find out what, if anything, is on the other side. 

It seems a no brainer to me.

Bionic Woman - My Pacemaker & Me

I had a pacemaker fitted in 2009. https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/treatments/pacemakers  So I've been Bionic for 10 years.

Now it's got to be replaced. Without it I would be I trouble & I think I can tell that it needs replacing. I'm getting some weird symptoms which could well be attributable to the heart conditions I've got.

I have Complete Heart Block / Arrhythmia / Bradycardia - Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrullation & a Floppy Mitral Valve. Once again evidence that God had an off day when she made me! Why have only one heart problem when you can have a whole set?!

Anyway the message is good. The surgery is fine. You are awake & only have a local anesthetic. That said, all you can feel is fairly strong pressure as they push the device firmly into the shoulder. It did seem to be a tight fit & went on for some time, but it really isn't a problem. I think I remember  feeling the wiring going into the heart, but I'm not sure. Fortunately that doesn't have to be replaced - only the actual pacemaker box.

I find the whole thing amazing. The technology, the skill of the surgeons & the fact that someone invented this relatively small device that can keep me alive & kicking, (well, maybe not actually kicking). It is battery operated. So, presumably, am I.

 

It sounds so worrying, heart surgery, but this really isn't. It's quite simple, it doesn't take that long & it works. The amazingly named William Greatbatch, an American electrical engineer, invented the first implantable one in 1958. So there has been plenty of time for them to be sure they work & iron out any little glitches! Always reassuring - my pioneering spirit doesn't stretch as far as trying one out for the first time. 

I look forward to 10 more years of a perfectly beating heart! Not everyone can say that. Good old NHS.

Complexity - My Life

I was born in 1945. I don't remember a lot about my childhood, but it certainly wasn't complex. Neither was my adolescence - just the "normal", for the time, period of growing towards adulthood.

My 20's, 30's & 40's passed in a continuum of family & professional life, which was incredibly busy & sometimes stressful, but on the whole, again, not complex. Things were relatively straightforward.

So I'm trying to decide when life became complex. I think it was in the 90's. A lot changed then. For a start the Web had been invented in 1989. https://blazepress.com/2014/03/25-years-internet-stuff-happened-year-web-invented/

I can remember saying that I couldn't see the point of computers. I can also remember going on a course for teachers when BBC Micros were given to primary schools in the 1980's. I ended the day putting a sticker on the screen saying "This Computer doesn't understand me". The whole thing was beyond me & I wanted nothing to do with them.

Now I love my computer & spend far too much time on it. My life is on my computer & my smart phone. If I were confined to the house I could easily happily exist & do most things. However I would be quite isolated.

But the drawbacks are huge. The internet can be a force for great good & is also all consuming. We live in an age of exponential technological change. The only simple thing in my life is swimming. Everything else usually spirals into complexity. I have access to information on an industrial scale. I have to accept incessant change. I never stand still. The world is full of conflicting information - This is the "Post Truth" era. I always seem to be busy sorting out my life.

I would quite like to get off the roundabout. I would enjoy peace & calm & stability. I want the world to stand still for a moment so I can enjoy it. I get tired of noise & constant stimulation. It isn't just the difference between my urban & rural life. It's much more than that.

We humans are in danger of running ourselves ragged. We have no time for reflection & the enjoyment of simple pleasures. I look at children & young people & I am beginning to actually be really concerned for them. This is the new normal for them.

It's not normal to me.

 

Following my Blog

I have only recently realised the implications of Google shutting down Google+. It means that all my friends who read my Blog don't get any notification when I do a new Post any more. They may think I no longer have anything to say - (surely not!) Or they may think I have died - (again probably not!)

Whatever they think, there only seem to be two ways of receiving or being notified of my new Blog Posts:-

• Clicking on the link in my email signature at the bottom of my emails, (which obviously only works if I have sent you an email)
• Going through a complicated palaver which I am about to outline.

The Blog is called Senile Sealion.

https://senilesealion.blogspot.com/

1. When you open a Post go to the "Subscribe to" box in the top right hand side of the Post & click on the drop down arrow in "Posts".
2. Then click on Netvibes & set up an account if you haven't already got one. (It may also work in the Yahoo link, but I haven't tried that).
3. I signed in with Google, so it's linked. 
4. The only thing I selected from the menu of things you could chose to be notified about was Womens Blogs. I don't want all the other dross that's in there.
5. Then I put in Senile Sealion & Dashboarded it.
6. So on my Dashboard I have a tab which says Interest - Senile Sealion. 
7. It doesn't give me all the past posts, but I think it will show anything I do from now on.

This Post is by way of being a test. So if you have done all this,in which case you get the Carlill special medal for persistance,& you now get notification of this Post I will be well chuffed.

If it doesn't work I have no idea what to do.

Do let me know - Hurray!!! Apparently it works. 

Fraud & Fraudsters

My Santander credit card has been hacked - again! It is really frustrating because the first thing the bank do if there is a suspicious transaction is stop the card. So you have to wait for a new one.  It therefore pays to have more than one card & account.

Banks have quite sophisticated fraud detecting software. My accounts are probably scrutinised more than average now. Banks are quite good at compensating card holders if any money has actually left the account fraudulently.

I simply don't get how my cards can have been hacked. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/credit-card-fraud-works-stay-safe/

I keep mine in one of those supposedly protective aluminium boxes. I don't give my cards to anyone else. I do buy quite a lot on line though, but I look for the padlock sign & only go to reputable sites.

The trick is to act quickly to stop the fraudsters using the card. Banks now text to tell you there may be a problem & you text Y or N according to whether you recognise the payment.
https://www.rd.com/culture/credit-card-hackers/

The idea that there are rings of people all geared up to use your card as much as possible in as short a time as possible is a revelation to me.

Just think what the criminal mind could achieve if they put it to beneficial use.

Face the Fear

I've just bought an automatic transmission car after driving a manual car for over 50 years. My thinking was that, given that my body is definitely wearing out, I would be better off not having to change gear. (A left shoulder rotator cuff injury a couple of years ago keeps resurfacing).

I had driven an automatic in America a very long time ago & the salesman did go through the "how to" instructions. But it was at the end of a long buying process with a lot of information & form signing. My brain was on overload.

So the first problem was facing the fear of actually driving it home. I managed not to hit anything, especially when manouvering into my very narrow carport. Then I tried to get the key out of the ingition. It wouldn't come out. I had the shame of having to ring the saleman. It's a safety feature. You can't get the key out unless the car is in P (Park). Who knew?

Days went by & the car sat in the carport in splendid isolation. I just didn't want to face reversing out & driving away. In the end I decided that I was being ridiculous & needed to just face the fear & do it.

I got in & tried to start it. Nothing happened. You have to have the gear in P (Park) & your foot on the brake in order to start the engine. I may have been told that but I didn't remember. I had to get out of the car & do what I should have done in the first place - read the manual.

What would be helpful, instead of a big book with instructions for both manual & automatic cars, plus instructions for intelligent or non intelligent keys, would be a simple Key Points flow chart for starting & stopping.

There is an art to writing instructions, but sadly very few manufacturers have mastered it.

So I've contacted a couple of driving schools to arrange an automatic driving lesson. While I'm at it I'm going to re-learn how to reverse. I live in fear of having to do that because I know that my crumbling neck limits turning my head. (Yes I do know that I should use the wing mirrors & I do try).

All in all, my message is that whatever your fears are it's no good hiding from them. They aren't going to go away, they will just nag at you.

Be brave - Face the Fear. Every time you do your confidence will increase.

Collapse - The Descent of Man

The last paragraph of Jared Diamonds' excellent book says "Past societies lacked archaeologists & television". (I would add computers & social media). "We have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of distant peoples & past peoples." As in:- the decline & fall of Easter Island, the Greenland Norse, the Khmer Empire, the Anasazi, the Maya or the Myceneans....The world is on the way to becoming Easter Island. We are literally chopping down the trees as fast as we can. I worked as a volunteer in Malawi for MicroLoan Foundation & saw first hand the deforestation for farming. Never mind what grazing cattle & planting trees for palm oil is doing to vast swathes of virgin forest.

Human beings don't seem to learn though. We are in the process of a collapse of our planet, not just a civilisation. Although we seem to be doing our best to achieve that too.

On a Spring day it is hard to believe what a parlous situation we humans have created in our world. I think Greenpeace's "Climate Emergency Mainfesto" is excellent & must have involved a lot people in a lot of work.  

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#label/Charities%2FGreenpeace/FMfcgxwCgVPzPSdMRhBTZStCmrjWzDfn?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1

I can understand, as an informed lay person, what the issues are & the implications of the massive shift which needs to take place. I also know that if humans are to survive, significant action needs to happen now. We cannot risk any more delay .

I have three issues about tackling Climate Change:-

• Many people in the world do not have the benefit of my education & access to information, so will not understand that there are very few choices left. People need clear, step by step, brief, actions they should / should not do. Like an A4 sheet of Key Facts in insurance policies
• The main problem lies with big multinational companies, not Joe Bloggs in the street. Big business creates the pollution, is ruthless & is profit driven. There needs to be a clear program to tackle the issues with business - a combination of carrot & stick, because we are already at, or close to, the tipping point. The legal situation needs to be clarified, strengthened & enforced.
• Politicians are the key. If there isn't political will then change either won't happen or will happen too slowly. We need to lobby hard & make this the most important political decision today. Brexit pales into insignificance in comparison, but is sucking all the air out of every other political issue.

I'm 74 & have a daughter of 51 & twin grandsons of 13. I can envision a future of civil strife, being on a war footing regarding our food security, inadequate power for light & heating, more chronic illness due to poor air quality....What on earth, (literally), has my generation done? This has happened on our watch & there is enough scientific evidence to show how bad the situation already is. Maybe we need a Grannie Revolution!

Greenpeace is doing a great job - Our lives & the future depend on it. But we, individually, are all responsible for what we have done & what we need to do now. No one can "pass the buck". Or we are just lemmings running over the cliff edge.