XHosp

Saturday, 28/12 - noon - I'm home :)

So what? Everybody is.

Few words of explanation...

At the beginning of December I was feeling a considerable fatigue, which wouldn't go away. Even taking it for a walk didn't help.

Then next step came - I started feeling out of breath.
As a result, I didn't sleep the night before Christmas Eve because I had to strain really hard with every breath.
 I called "Nurse-on-Call" and she told me to contact my family doctor immediately (there was always an ambulance in the back-up, but I preferred to check simpler options).

The doctor saw me in half an hour, listened to my lungs, categorically recommended not to move from the chair and called an ambulance.
Before the ambulance arrived I managed to call my wife to prepare a bag with the necessary things for me.
The ambulance was kind enough to pull up to our house (300m away) and let me go home to say goodbye to my wife and collect my things. However, they definitely did not want to drive our car home.

In the hospital they performed number of tests and decided to keep me for few days in the cardiology department.In this situation, the family spent Christmas Eve without me, but they joined me and we sang few carols together.

In the cardiology department it was like this...

I got a single room, I noticed that more than half of the rooms were empty.

Diagnosis - water in the lungs, cause - heart failure.

Action - tablets to drink water, limit fluid consumption to 1.5 liters a day - for me this is rather normal, although recently I may have been drinking a bit more.

If this works, they will let me go home with a recommendation to see a cardiologist, whom they will inform about my case.

It worked - I got rid of a lot of water, which somehow insidiously gathered in me - although I noticed that my feet were swelling, I thought I would check it out after the holidays. I did not realize that at the same time I was gaining a lot of weight - now in two days I have lost 5.5 kg and I am back to normal

Here is a recommendation - weigh yourself every day and write down the result.

I am attaching a few hospital photos...

Nutrition - the portions were tiny, but it was enough for me.

Below - yesterday's dinner...

It was quite tasty, although the vegetables were a bit overcooked and of course everything was not very salty (but the goulash was seasoned quite well).

A portion of medicine - I took the pink ones regularly, the black ones were a multivitamin, they added the white ones - for dehydration.

On the Christmas Day I was visited by children and grandchildren,  they even brought me a Christmas cracker...

I was probably most moving around patient, I discovered a small asylum in the open air.

Unfortunately the air was not very nourishing, probably there was an air conditioning outlet nearby. Temperatures were variable - the first day of Christmas - 33C, the second - 36C, Friday - 18C.

There was a bookshelf..

But I brought some reading material with me - an exceptionally well-chosen reading material - entering the profession of a medical specialist in Australia. Maybe it was this reading that brought out the wolf from the forest?

Saturday, around 11, my wife picked me up from the hospital and we went to the supermarket to buy some fruit - I can now walk without getting out of breath.

I thank all the readers of this blog for your concern and kind words.

I wish you... good HEALTH - for the whole New Year.

Barefoot on the grass

 One day, I left home, walked to the park and... took off my shoes...

I felt Mother Earth under my feet.

Because it all started with Mother.
Even at preschool age, she encouraged me to walk barefoot in the grass behind the house in the mornings, in the dew.
I was not very eager to do it, anyway for the first 11 years of my life I never put on rubber shoes, only leather.

It was 1952, the Olympic year, and on that occasion I watched newsreels of sports competitions in the cinema. I paid special attention to the US athletes - in the newspapers and radio news (Communist Poland) I read/heard about their decadent lifestyle and here - athletes, not worse than the Soviet ones.
Especially basketball players - all in stylish sneakers.
And then domestically produced sneakers appeared in stores.
When I mentioned to Mother that I would like to have some, she grabbed her head in despair - it's murder - rubber, the foot doesn't breathe.
And so, without breathing - for 72 years.

Last Sunday I overheard on youtube a health program that my wife regularly listens to, and there - the electrostatics of the human body.
I didn't need more - I hurried to a nearby park.

Of course, I moved away from the paths sprinkled with sharp gravel and looked around.
Firstly under my feet... on a golf course...

On a cricket field...

Eventually I walked mostly on medium height grass on the oval, 
Then I looked up...
Trees intertwined in an embrace...

There is no aggression, so it is not wrestling.
 Perhaps it illustrates the history of a relationship... love, rivalry for influence in the family, and in the end - staying in the hug just for survival. 

 Anyway - I felt hungry. I glanced at the trees one last time...

Looks like we will have broccoli as a vegetable for dinner this night.

By the Way - my favourable place for barefoot walks is an oval in nearby Wattle Park.
On Saturdays it is occupied by rightful owners - cricketers...

Their field is marked with plastic bowls - red and blue on an image above.
It leaves a lot od space for me... and one risk.
In cricket the highest score (6 pts) is awarded when a batter sends a ball behind a line.
Luckily they did not hit me :))))

P.S. Here are 2 randomly found articles about benefits of barefoot walking 
1. Electrical connection with Earth - CLICK.
2. Muscles and bones - CLICK.

Working as a mule

Sometime ago I landed in a bit shitty hospital...

The reason for my stay was to connect an extra lead to my pacemaker.
I had a pacemaker installed few years ago and I believe it saved/prolonged my life.
In last 2 years there was a noticeable degradation in my heart's capacity and my cardiologist suggested connecting another lead to my pacemaker to activate more thoroughly my heart's muscles.

It was a bit surprise for me that my old, but not so old, pacemaker has been replaced by a new one. I asked what happened to the old one? Apparently there is a rule that this type of devices must not be recycled so it has been returned to manufacturer to make a best possible use of it.

While in hospital I watched TV, ABC 7:30 report, and there was a report which made my heart pacing faster.
They reported, that hospitals or companies running them receive kickbacks from manufacturers, up to 50% of cost of the device.
That means, that the hospital buys a device for say $25,000, installs it and sends a bill to the insurance company, which pays the price. Than, some time later, the hospital receives $12,000 back.
It explains why private insurance premiums are rising so fast.

Transcript of the 7:30 Report - HERE.

What puzzled me is that on one hand - few companies mentioned in the report responded with statement, that they just selected pacemaker from the official listing. On the other hand some doctors said that there should be more transparency in pacemaker choice, that patients should be more involved.
I do not see it as the main issue. I trust my doctor and do not feel qualified to verify technical details of his/her decision. In my opinion whole issue is about money circulation. If the hospital received any money from the manufacturer then it should be returned to the party which paid the bill - private health insurance, Medicare, patient.

For the time being I feel as a mule - an ignorant carrier used to channel money between some secret players.