For newcomers

At the bottom of each post there is the word "comments". If you click on it you will see comments made by followers, and if you follow the instructions you may also comment and I always welcome that. I have found many people overlook this part of the blog which is often more interesting than the original post!

My blog nick-name is SIR HUGH. I'm not from the aristocracy - my middle name is Hugh which relates to the list of 282 hills in Scotland compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891. I climbed my last one (Sgurr Mor) on 28th June 2009

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Saturday 29 August 2009

Post number 24 - The Leg

Well, it seems a long time since I posted a blog.

On Monday 17th August I set off with Jill (my daughter) to drive to Preston for shopping. On the way I felt flu like. By the time I got into a shop in Preston my whole body was a shivering trembling mass. Jill drove me straight back home and I went to bed. On Tuesday I still felt bad but pottered about until I noticed a rash on my ankle. I rang the doc at 4:00pm, saw him at 5:00 and was back home by 5:30 on a course of two different antibiotics. My GP’s diagnosis was erysipelas ( a bacterial infection).

The rash continued to spread up my leg and by Friday it looked as though it had been covered with beetroot juice and a blister the size of a ping pong ball had developed on the rear of my calf. I went back to the GP. The blister was lanced. The GP drew an outline of the rash with a biro and told me to contact The Primary Care Trust at the hospital if the rash spread over the weekend. It did.

With assistance from Jill on Sunday evening we went to the PCT at Kendal where the same antibiotics were prescribed, but double the dose, and to be administered intravenously by a team of nurses visiting me at home four times a day. A canula was fitted and I was given the first iv drip – by the time we got home it was nearly midnight.

On Tuesday 18th August I grumbled to one of the nurses that there seemed to be no improvement and nobody had bothered to look at my notes (I was in Kendal hospital about three years ago with a similar affliction on my scalp and face). To give the nurse her due she went back to the PCT and examined my notes and it was discovered that the antibiotic I had been given for the last thirty six hours had been totally ineffective before and I was summoned to return to the PCT. I had to ring Jill at Witherslack Hall School where she was attending a teachers’ training day in advance of her new appointment there which starts in January. We got to the PCT at about 4:00pm and by the time we got home again it was 7:30.

After this the new antibiotic started to take effect. The leg is comfortable whilst elevated but intensely painful to walk on. Yesterday, Friday 28th August the canula in my arm came out and the nurse at lunch time had two valiant attempts to put a new one in, but it seems my veins are not very prominent or user friendly for this procedure, so yet another three hour round trip to the PCT was necessary. The nurse who was supposed to be the wizard at inserting canulas managed at the third attempt.

So it is now Saturday midday and I am typing this waiting for the next nurse visit.

During all this upheaval I ordered a new i Phone and when it arrived I found there was no O2 coverage in this area so it was sent back. Today my new i Pod touch arrived which is a compromise but still a fantastic toy. Jill heard on the grapevine that O2’s exclusivity deal with i Phone expires on 8th October and after that it will be available to other networks. If Vodaphone can supply with a sensible contract I would want to take that up and hopefully sell the i Pod touch on eBay.

Finally I would like to thank Jill for her care and the sacrifice of a large part of her summer holiday in looking after me.

Wednesday 5 August 2009

Post Number 23 - Testing the Ipod

A practice to see how user friendly the IPod is for mobile blogging. We are going to try and add a picture from the pod!

Some problems with photo upload, this is the I pod Touch not the I Phone. We think the phone would allow upload of photos from its own camera.
Will investigate further

Saturday 1 August 2009

Post number 22 Jill on The Plinth

What a couple of days! We departed Preston station on the 4:00 am train for Manchester Airport. It was supposed to leave from platform 3 but turned up on 2 causing a panic dash to change platforms. Railworks forced a stop at Bolton and onward journey by coach to Manchester Airport.

On arrival at Heathrow the suitcase containing everything for the plinth did not arrive. Very unhelpful BMI staff gave us no confidence in believing it would be couriered to our hotel after arriving on the 2:00pm flight.

After several phone calls to the lost baggage department at BMI and only a vague promise that the suitcase would arrive "some time after 6:00pm" one of the hotel managers (Hashim) took it upon himself to ring BMI which resulted in the case eventually arriving at 6:45pm - what a contrast between the BMI service and the Raddison Hotel Leicester Square.




Jill's mission on The Plinth was to obtain messages of encouragement and aspiration for her pupils at Collegiate High School, Blackpool (we would be very grateful to anybody reading this for more contributions by email to: http://plinth@collegiate.blackpool.sch.uk ). The method was to use a fishing rod with postcards attached to be lowered to the crowd below, filled in, and reattached to the fishing line to be retrieved by Jill and then read out. Jill was wearing her school gown and promoted herself as the archetypal teacher, Miss Robinson. I was down in the crowd with more blank cards and pens, hustling people to participate and wearing a t shirt proclaiming me as "Miss Robinson's dad".

The response was fantastic and there was continuous interaction with the crowd for the whole hour in contrast with many of the plinthers we have seen so far. We got around seventy replies of words of wisdom and a number of email replies, some from across the world, on the official plinth website: http://www.oneandother.co.uk/

If anybody wants to watch the official one hour stream of Jill's plinth epic got to: http://www.oneandother.co.uk/participants/jill333