Update 21
Frustration with my condition got my week started on Monday when it drove me to take two medical initiatives. Firstly I rang the surgery and suggested that perhaps my doc’s diagnosis of oral Thrush could have been wrong - three different drugs having had no effect, I felt the question had to be put. Happily the doc offered to examine my mouth again on Wednesday - result! Next I emailed the Consultant Neurologist who diagnosed my tumour. I asked if he’d had other patients with foul tasting mouths and a propensity to gag on solid foodstuffs? His practice manager replied promptly that he was away this week, but that she’d ask him as soon as he returned - at least a potential result there.
Saw the doc on Wednesday morning. He examined my throat and declared there to no longer be any sign of the oral Thrush, however he offered no view as to what was now causing the bad taste, though apparently I do need to drink a lot more water. We talked about my difficulty with swallowing food without gagging and he’s referred me “urgently” to a specialist team to examine my swallowing which is made harder by a shortage of saliva. He confirmed that my three months of self injecting to deal with the pulmonary embolism will conclude next Monday from when I shall no longer need the Fragmin.
On Friday afternoon I experienced another few minutes when I couldn’t form my words or swallow properly. We rang the Palliative care number and M spoke to Becky. She advised that if it happened again lasting for more than 20 minutes I should take 8mg of dexamethasone tablets, if I can’t swallow the steroids then we should call the paramedics (999) for a steroid injection. This was my scariest episode to date and was accompanied by strong headache and severe pain in my left hand. Liquid Morphine came to my aid.j
As the week came to an end, the flood waters were still lapping around Ms Braverman after her dodgy email behaviour, her use of “dog whistle” language in the House of Commons and then the overcrowding at Manston airfield - there’s nothing attractive about her politics on any level whatsoever - she may even be worse at the job than her predecessor, Ms Patel. They’ve both come to champion the kind of mean-spiritedness that sadly defines the modern Conservative party. It will be a contributing factor to the inevitable split that has faced the party since Brexit - the ERG & Co ( plus the Farageists) to the extreme right, ‘One Nation’ Tories to the centre left.
Long time readers will recall that my initial prediction was for three direct results of Brexit:
The Conservative party will split
Ireland will reunite (well before Scotland departs the Union)
The UK mass production car industry will cease to exist
Every one of those predictions looks more likely now than when first made.
I note that in spite of his departure from number 10, Johnson is still having an impact on government thinking: his decision to attend the COP27 event has forced Sunak into a major U-turn. having insisted he was too busy to attend, he now finds that after all, the budget planning is going so well that he can afford to spend a couple of days in Egypt. It seems that regular U-turns are now the defining policy of modern Conservative Prime Ministers.
We’re now into series 5 of the West Wing and I’m appreciating Kwasi Kwarteng’s (the very same) book ‘’Ghosts of Empire’ which examines some of the more recent fall out from Britain’s previous era of world dominance.
