Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
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A brief personal message
As you know, due to illness my last blog was posted on 3 September. That it was posted at all was due to a colleague who for a few weeks had been posting my blogs to help ensure my blog would continue.
The blog being published today has been written and posted personally and I will continue to write one as long as I am able. So thanks to all who, during the past weeks, have continued to read it.
Let me end by saying you will find out more by Googling the following website: http://www.actaads.org
The BLOG
My Death has been t suspended Temporarily)
Today that I am sitting in front of my computer at home writing this blog would have seemed inconceivable to me at around 2.30am, Sunday 8th September. That it was inconceivable is due to the fact that I was lying on bed being looked after by paramedics who in the dead of night had transported me by ambulance from my home to Canberra Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Station. That I am alive and not a lump of dead meat was due to the care they exercised on the way from home to hospital. I have now reached the conclusion that, although the words of Dr Samuel Johnson’s were used in a slightly different context, I agree with him that the thought of imminent death concentrates the mind wonderfully.
In a sense I concentrated my mind so that it became my personal mental Google as it recalled my past life. Although unable to speak properly many thoughts reverberated in my mind and made decisions that would never be acted on. Then, mercifully, unconsciousness arrived.
Many hours later I awoke in a bed in the hospital’s acute coronary care unit where I was ministered to by a team of nurses who, as the rest of that day went by, helped encourage me to believe that my life wasn’t about to end immediately. Other people, Cardiologists and consultants led by Chief Cardiologist, Dr Ren Tan, also played a major role in reinforcing that assurance. Indeed no praise is too much for him, his staff or the nursing staff.
And let me also say thanks to my colleagues and friends who, when they visited, helped restore my confidence that life still had something to offer albeit that it was likely to be of limited duration. I say that because only a few weeks before when, less dramatically, I had been hospitalised with another heart attack.
In a non-medical sense, however, I reserve the greatest praise for my wife Valerie and daughter Elizabeth who, between them, make life worth living.
There are many other actors in this story of life and death such as the Community Nurses who every morning come to my home to administer a life sustaining injection. Of the many others, too many to mention, my colleagues in ACTAADS Inc (the ACT Association for Advancing Disabled Sport and Recreation) particularly Chairman Jeff House, Deputy Chairman Luke Jansen, Committee Members Ian Meikle, Michael Mecham, Mark O’Neill, and Liberal MLA, Steve Doszpot.,all of whom deserve my thanks for giving up valuable time to visit and help keep my spirits up
And let me not forget Chuck Lundquist who, during my time in hospital and since my return home, appointed himself chauffer to me and my wife. Other people who need thanking also are Merylanne and Peter Baxter, Dinny Killen and neighbours.
In part I have written this tribute to emphasise that becoming a patient at Canberra hospital is not to be feared, a fear that some people may have acquired after reading letters to the editor about difficulties faced by loved relatives and friends. It is true, no doubt, that mistakes have been made at Canberra Hospital but I suspect they occur due to inadequate management and administration procedures as well as staffing and resource shortages.
That said let me make the point that doctors and staff are not miracle workers but people dedicated to delivering the best care with the tools at their disposal. They do their best but clear they will do even better that if the tools and administrative procedures they work with and to, are improved.
Being frank, I think Canberra’s public would be happier if much of the money being spent on public art was spent on Canberra Hospital.
Comment welcome.
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Olympic thought for the day
Posted 4 August 2012
on:- In: Health | Sport
- 7 Comments
When the winning stops
And so the Olympic merry go round keeps turning in a whirl of excitement that puts pressure on the athletes to please the nation’s desire for gold medals. Unfortunately, if the gold medals do not come the fickleness of the nation comes to the fore, and because we cannot bask in the reflected glory a host of gold medals would bring us, we start looking for people to blame.
This effect is not particular to Australia; it can be seen in most nations only because people have false expectations of their athletes’ capacity. Many politicians, managers and coaches, aided and abetted by the media increase these expectations, the politicians as they seek to justify increased sporting expenditure, the managers to justify them being retained as managers; and coaches to justify their asking for more money to set up training and talent identification programmes.
After events, and only when they see an egregious difference between athletes, do commentators say that perhaps our athletes didn’t win medals because the other competitors were better. No; generally the excuse for not winning medals is that Australia had been outspent by its competitors.
Sadly, too, there is a dark side to the winning of medals which, in the main, does not become noticeable until the winning stops. It is only too easy to become depressed when the adulation stops at which time some successful athletes subconsciously decide to engage in behaviour that will keep them in the limelight.
I write this not to excuse their behaviour but simply to say that it’s about time we decided to treat athletes in the same way as we treat other performers whose capacity to perform at a higher level is longer than the athlete. We should initiate programmes that will bring them down to earth. That way, not only will their future be better but Australia’s image will be enhanced.
dca@netspeed.com.au
I welcome the federal budget
Posted 16 May 2012
on:- In: Disability | Health | Politics
- 111 Comments
Shorty version published The Chronicle, Canberra, Tuesday 16/5/12
While some economists might welcome last week’s budget, battlers will remember it as the horror budget that included the unwelcome carbon tax that will make them poorer and their battles to escape poverty even harder. And no doubt Treasurer Swan will be glad to lay claim to the dubious fame of having achieved a surplus albeit that it was achieved at the expense of battlers.
Having said that no doubt you will accuse me of cynicism when I say I welcome the Federal Budget not, I hasten to add, because I agree with the economists and Treasurer Swan and other budget measures I think disagreeable but, because just as every dark cloud has a silver lining, the budget announcement of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is this budget’s silver lining.
That it is a silver lining is due to it being one of the most, if not most significant pieces of legislation because it brings hope of new life to many people with a disability and carers. Thousands of carers will welcome the NDIS, as will health professionals whose lives have been devoted to helping improve the lifestyle of people with a disability. These people will welcome the NDIS with a huge sigh of relief because it is an initiative that has been a long time coming even if it will take time to be fully implemented.
Although it has come too late for me my enthusiasm for the NDIS is because it will help many people with a disability join the wider community and become part of what erroneously is called ‘normal’ society. Speaking for myself and also as a member of a family that had two physically disabled members, neither was ever thought of as anything but normal.
And I am still connected with disability. Within my large extended family, I have a niece and nephew each with a different disability. A twenty one years old nephew is autistic and a forty three years old niece has a mental disability. However, having been encouraged to be proud of their disability they have not allowed it to hinder them in life. They are productive members of society, my nephew stacking shelves in a supermarket and my niece working in childcare.
However, I find it unfortunate that in today’s allegedly tolerant society there are still people who use the word disability as a pejorative. If you are one of them I say to you: people who use disability as a pejorative are people whose disability is even greater that the people they are trying to disparage.
As for the NDIS, it will be a boon for family members because for many years many in authority exploited their humanity by taking it for granted that it was their duty to care for disabled family members. It is not before time that their humanity is being recognised. Carers will also be pleased the community at large supports that recognition.
Importantly too, for many of them, the NDIS will help ease the financial burden they face in caring for a disabled family member.
Apart from family members, thousands of volunteer carers will also gain recognition for helping the disabled. These special people have no thought of reward other than the joy they get when, with their help, they see people with a disability for whom they care, join in activities with members of the wider community.
At the same time, family carers and volunteer carers all of whom are a special breed of human being beings recognise that, although the NDIS has been a long time coming, it will be some time before every person with a disability and every carer will receive a benefit.
Ironically the idea of the NDIS was as one of the great ideas raised at the forum staged five years ago in the early days of Kevin Rudd’s Prime Ministership. That apart, it is pleasing to note that the legislation was passed without being affected by partisan politics, perhaps encouraged by the words of Victor Hugo: “a stand can be made against an army; no stand can be made against the invasion of a good idea.”
I only wish such political co-operation happened more often.
dca@netspeed.com.au
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- In: Health | Humour | Politics | Uncategorized
- 48 Comments
On New Year’s Day when resolutions are all the go I, like many others, will make some but in the interests of personal safetey will keep them secret.
Bear in mind that Hogmanay (to the uninitiated that means New Year’s Day)is the day most celebrated by Scots. Like many of my countrymen I shall do my best to do it justice as I have done every year no matter where I was living at the time.
It is also the day that not only will the international anthem of humanity ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ written by the famous Scots poet Rabbie Burns, echo through the Scottish glens but also through communities in countries far, far away from Scotland on all the world’s continents.
I hope the sentiment of the anthem becomes the standard in life that everyone, everywhere, will come to follow.
But let me not spoil anyone’s enjoyment of New Year. Make your resolutions and do your best to keep them.
Unfortunately because of computer problems this will be my last post for at least ten days. So let me sign off in my native tongue with a traditional wish for you all: Slainte Mhath (Good Health).
Experts hints for wellbeing
Posted 3 November 2011
on:- In: Health | Sport
- 145 Comments
This article first published The Chronicle, Canberra, Tuesday, 1 November 2011
To ensure we live a long and healthy we’ve got ‘experts’ by the dozen warning that to keep healthy without adding too much to our waistline, we need exercise and a good diet. They also advise what we should and shouldn’t drink, not to mention giving up smoking. And that’s only a few things on what seems like an endless list of dos and don’ts
Not that I’m against being warned but after scrutinising their list I’ve come to the conclusion it’s a miracle I’m still alive even if some people think I’m a miracle the world could have done without. If you agree, write and let me know.
Regardless of my diet, but with a strong desire to keep living and contrary to Boadicea’s usual threats to dispatch me from this mortal coil, I decided to desist immediately from consuming the experts’ list of life threatening foods and drink and avoid areas where the air is so toxic that even the slightest inhalation could be dangerous.
On the surface it would seem that if Boadicea and I followed the expert advice about food drink not only would it help us keep alive and well and significantly extend our life span but our cost of living would slide in inverse proportion to the extra period of time we would live. Indeed my back of the envelope calculations suggested that the AFC (Allan’s Financial Crisis) would be averted not to mention that if my calculations were correct we would save so much money we could soon be in position to help Wayne Swan pay off the national debt. Not only did this make Boadicea happy, it made both of us feel we could made a difference.
However, paying of the national debt would be of great appeal to me because it might relieve me of having to listen to Treasurer Wayne Swan and various expert economists pour out a stream of solutions to the new Global Financial Problems that their advice caused in the first place.
However, as usual, Boadicea’s enthusiasm for expert ideas began to abate, at which time I said to her: if the diet experts advice also turned out to be as effective as the advice economists give governments about money, adopting it woud not have been a good idea in the first place.
My opinion was bolstered by more and more people telling me their consumption of chips, chocolate and cordial hadn’t done them much harm. In fact, Boadicea’s has long complained that no matter what she eats she can’t seem to put on weight. I must add that as my father he lived until he was ninety eigh his daily fry up diet didn’t seem to affect him either.
The fact is, the changing of eating and drinking habits is being driven by the Obesity factor. Indeed, obesity has become so much of an obsession that combating it has helped create another serious problem – anorexia. The great problem: early recognition of the problems are difficult although obesity becomes more obvious sooner.
Fortunately both conditions are treatable. Unfortunately in the case of obesity, young people in particular are often taunted by their peers, and though not intended to be maliciously, such taunting can lead to the onset of even more dangerous conditions.
In some cases however, obesity develops by overeating aided by lack of exercise. That lack of exercise in a country obsessed by sport seems odd. However, these days for a lot of people, sport participation means sitting in front of a TV set with a remote control. Unfortunately, in the late nineteenth century when professionalism started to dominate sport strong community participation in sport has declined. And as the world progressed to Radio, TV and Video, sport also ceased to be an activity and became an entertainment
So can sport opnce again become a strong community participation activity. I suspect arguments about this could go on for years without ever being resolved because, as is common in such arguments, some people will always say yes and some no.
In finishing it also seems to me that tracing the decline of community participation in sport would be a good subject for a PhD Thesis.
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