Not so strong

Friday 31st May,

I plan to leave hospital, and return to my flat!

Job done (ish)! I type from my Flat!!!!

I will still need care workers, as I cannot mobilise totally. I am still wearing my leg brace, which will be due off, in 3 weeks. I originally stated the wrong date (i can’t count)! It is due off June 20th!

Mistake!!! - Not 20th, actually 29th!

OK, I made another mistake, by claiming that the photo of me laying in hospital (in a purple Fiorentina shirt), was the wrong date!

I quickly include a music video for you, because along with David Gray’s album ‘Draw The Line’, I have rediscovered the more recent Stereophonics music. ‘Graffiti on the Train’ (2013) is a quality album!

Violins and Tambourines 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7MvC2CPLvqE

Mid-year is end-of-June, however this Blog was born mid-December, so

I have considered the end of May to be a good midpoint of each year for this blog, to select and review... 

May throughout Blog-life 

Blog born in Mid-December, 2010 - Midpoints of each year

2018 - http://patrickgoodacre.blogspot.com/2018/05/

2017 - http://patrickgoodacre.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/

2016 - http://patrickgoodacre.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/

2015 - http://patrickgoodacre.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/ 

2014 - http://patrickgoodacre.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/

2013 - http://patrickgoodacre.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/

2012 - http://patrickgoodacre.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/

2011 - http://patrickgoodacre.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/ - ‘I shall never hang-up the bike’

No Alarms, and No Surprises

Not so strong, and Not so stable

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tal_EkY-efsm

The 2019 Giro D’Italia (Tour of Italy) finishes this Sunday  with a Time Trial circuit around a city (‘In fair Verona, where we lay our scene’). It promises to be quite an amazing finish. All stages have proved special, but two have stuck out for me.

Tuesday’s  stage over the Mortirolo climb, into Ponte di Legno, was won by Maglia Azzura. Victor, Giulio Ciccone had been successfully fighting for the blue, King of the Mountains jersey throughout the race so far, and he continued on winning, racing over the horrific Mortirolo climb. 

 Above, riders brave  ascending the Mortirolo, as Vincenzo Nibali attacks.

Below shows the moment Ciccone wins the gruelling stage.

Thursday’s stage 18 was so dramatic. Damiano Cima fought off the sprinting, chasing peloton, after being part of a trio breakaway, all day. Dramatic!! 

Forza Damiano Cima! Stage profile suggests a breakaway being caught by the peloton...but...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/giro-ditalia/stage-18/results/

OK. I am an Arsenal fan.

Well done Chelsea.

Positives

My teams succeeded

Arsenal reached further this season in Europa, same in league!

Fiorentina avoid embarrassment of relegation, after a horrific end of season. New ownership, interesting. Potentially Chiesa could pay for an overhaul for Vincenzo Montella...v interesting.

...an old system

I am still in hospital.

The plan is to get out a soon as possible. That should mean this week, but so much support will be needed at home, therapists are all working hard, for me.

A photo from way back on April 20th, in hospital, following my original fall!

So, it seems that a few of you do seem to check this blog on a Friday anyway, regardless of whether or not I have advertised a new post!

Doctors and Therapists are able to make informed decisions.

However, the many, busy, Hospital ward staff...

 ‘don’t have time to watch the news .... 

... LET ALONE VOTE!’

(The words of a nurse who has been recently, helping me in hospital)

It seems that some EU citizens who are residents in England (and have been for however long) were not allowed to vote!

There has been a huge, unfair mix-up. 

Ok, there are problems throughout European politics, it seems. Results from the recent UK elections, show that there is now a large array of options for liberal voters, on the ‘left’ of politics. Passion for the Green Party is growing everywhere across Europe, as more and more people are recognising the problems that humanity is facing. Some shut their eyes to problems. Those on the ‘right’ side seem to have seen the government sinking, and ‘jumped ship’ to only one right-sided alternative (they are still stuck in the old left/right battle)!

Our democracy could be considered as damaged or broken. Many of you may recognise a range of different issues involved (proportional representation of vote counting, number of newer or smaller parties, etc). 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster

The layout of the two houses in Parliament is striking to me. The two different houses are actually each long rectangular rooms, containing two opposing sides of seats, for two opposing sides of an argument. A set-up for a two-party political system. Confrontational, not constructive.  In my view, a better democracy would involve a greater number of parties arguing or discussing issues from a wide range of opposing aspects. Not just two. The current Houses of Commons, Lords (throughout parliament) are only sufficient for an old style of two-party politics. Britain has progressed to allow a number of new, small, young parties to break onto the scene, they  should be allowed to voice their opinion just as coherently as the main governing party. Everyone should be able to oppose, offering a chance for much broader, more balanced arguments and greater solutions.

From being only a senior position within the Conservative Party, Theresa May never won a General Election, to BECOME Prime Minister. Are we really going to let Boris just walk into that position, as well?

...Problems with our ‘democracy’...

Results from our recent elections are now complete...

https://campaigns.greenparty.org.uk/eu-election-results/

A couple of photos for you...

Staples

A few days ago, my surgery wound was seen as healing well enough for it to have the ‘staples’ holding together, removed. I must have a closer look!

View

The view of Kingston, from my hospital room. 

I am stuck, but it could be worse. 

Action Plan

I want to include the text this week, that I already supplied to Facebook, and onto the Kingston Green Party’s page (earlier in the week).

The text is a copy from the ‘Friends of the Earth’ webpage (https://friendsoftheearth.uk/)...

A Climate Action Plan includes...

6 key areas which we can change, and which affect us all...

TRANSPORT

What the government needs to do:

Stop the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030. Invest in brilliant and cheap public transport, cycling and walking everywhere.

What you can do:

Take fewer long-haul flights – and use the train instead of the plane for shorter journeys.

POWER

What the government needs to do:

Stop generating electricity from dirty fuels and ban fracking. Aim for 100% clean energy from the wind, sun and sea.

What you can do:

Keep your heating below 18°C and switch to renewable energy.

BUILDINGS

What the government needs to do:

End the misery of cold, expensive-to-heat homes. Fund a massive insulation scheme and shift to eco-friendly heating.

What you can do:

Install roof insulation(or ask your landlord to).

AGRICULTURE AND LAND USE

What the government needs to do:

Stop using our land for intensive farming. Double tree cover to help stop climate change and let wildlife thrive.

What you can do:

Eat less and better meat and dairy.

INFRASTRUCTURE

What the government needs to do:

Stop backing projects that fuel climate change, like airport expansion. Start making climate change a deal-breaker in all spending decisions.

What you can do:

Ask the government to adopt our Climate Action Plan. 

INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE

What the government needs to do:

Stop funding fossil fuels. Pay its fair share to support more-vulnerable countries to cut carbon pollution and deal with the impacts of climate change.

What you can do:

Help stop our plastic waste polluting other countries by calling for a new law.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Now I type, as I am stuck in hospital. I have had hip surgery twice (my thigh- joint popped out of it’s hip socket, even after the first surgery). So I am wearing a brace on my leg to hold it straight (restraining it from moving and potentially dislocating again)!

Man oh man, I was instructed that it must stay for 6 weeks! Negative news is always balanced by positive news.

I have had such positive news today. Yesterday, I was visited by a wheelchair mechanic who created an adaptation to my foot plate, which means that I can now sit in this manual wheelchair, even though my leg is braced up. Existing in a wheelchair, means that I can move (not independently, but much more than before)! For instance, I was wheeled downstairs to a  neuro-gym, this morning. I  as so content and happy.

I had the surgery, a week ago from today (Thursday 16th) so... 5 weeks, and counting... 20th June (i originally stated an incorrect week short)!.

Then... who knows?...

Truthfully, I do not know what to expect. I know that I will progress back out of here, and further, but how far, no one knows. 

My life is work. Many of you may feel that your work is your life, but i know that my life is my work!

One gulp!

A photo of how i woke up this morning!...

At first, I was fairly apprehensive, but now i realise that I just have to trust. I cannot taste any, all have to be swallowed as one!  

Some new music provided by The National. The new album is out today, containing this ultra-progressive masterpiece. Only one influencing band can be identified, by myself... the mighty Radiohead.

Hairpin turns

https://youtube.com/watch?v=W_aN81SBI3A

Why am I Green?

(Copied from a post, a last year... http://patrickgoodacre.blogspot.com/2018/11/blurred.html)

WHY AM I GREEN?

Many of you may have thought that results of the recent RBK Local-Elections would have thrown me off-track. Instead, I welcomed the experience of standing. I am very glad that I did so. I copy some key text from the link above, that explains my/our beliefs...

• I knew that 2015 was a year, for me, to get involved. I did not know which political party to join…
• Conservatives were the leading party in power, things needed a change. I have never agreed with their right-wing policies. Most of Britain does. This was/still is the problem. Most people seemed to be closing their ears to problems of others. People are led by the ‘propaganda’ they see in the news, or read in the newspapers. Readers will always consider what they read as ’neutral’. I just look at the front pages of the highly-popular tabloid papers, and i cry inside. Their stories are read as 'national news' by Britons. British people are showing such mental weakness, we allow ourselves to be sold these racist, hate-mongering stories. We are sensible, level-headed people so, we get wounded and made to feel a combination of hatred and vengefulness, at hearing of such 'news' stories. I have since realised that these ’newspaper/comics’ are bought by a certain group of people. Not all, but many of a higher age… 65+… These are the people who vote!
• Do younger people not care? We do, but we are letting our futures to be ruled by those of the past.
• These elderly voters may not fear what will happen in the future, 'our years', not 'their's'.
• It hurts me that there are very few of us, who feel as lucky as myself to be here. We are all unbelievably lucky, even those who have left us, are lucky to have experienced life on this planet. We owe humanity and our planet, so much.
• Humanity must exist in the future, for as long as possible. We owe it to the future.
• We risk to be reviewed as part of the ’21st Century Human Race’ who failed. Our desire and greed killed us.
• I DO NOT WANT THAT. 

• I was quick to understand that the Green Party stands for so much more than just 'climate-change', 'recycling', and the 'environment'. 
• It offends me when i hear friends talk about 'the Green Party', and 'recycling' as if they are two unique entities bonded together, and nothing else is even considered! The Party so much deeper than caring about one issue alone.
• Whilst recycling is a core part of the general belief preached, many, many more topics are discussed and problems tackled. 'Recycling' is such an almighty phenomenon, every political party understands it's importance. Some ignore, and some political parties are more active in regards of the topic, than others. 
• The Green Party, correctly uses true utilitarian politics, with best, positive results, for as many as possible. They do not allow for successes of one group of people, over another. I completely ally with this basic concept. It does scare me that the majority of our population does not follow this belief! Other parties make selections of 'favourite groups', often trying to increase their privilige at the cost of others. Are we not beyond this, in the 21st Century? The Human race needs to work together.
• A true democracy should no longer be a two-horse race. If you support the idea of a democracy, vote for what you believe in. Please show the power of your own mind. Don't feel trapped by just the two or three old parties, this is a new Century!

Take two

‘Don’t look at a problem, look through the problem’ 

A very wise quote that I heard from a fellow patient in hospital. Thank you Richard.

I cannot drink coffee if...

Served in a cardboard cup. Coffee should never be served in a cup which melts! Love your cup, be proud. Keep it. Re-use it.


Traffic-free! 

If Edinburgh succeed with such, thank you for leading the British Isles in such a way.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-48139403

I am sorry that this post is so rubbish. I cheer myself up...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48222957

As yet, i have not fully investigated this organisation, but they seem full of progressive, and potentially very positive solutions...

UBUNTOO.COM

Saturday April 20th, I fell in bathroom

Kingston A&E, x-ray, nothing found

I stayed overnight onto Easter Sunday, at my parents’.

Return to living as independently as possible (support is needed). My stubborn determination makes me attempt toilet transfers. Again, and again, i am only half successful. I could transfer to the toilet but then would collapse, returning to my wheelchair. And Again. And Again. Fortunately, vital support/aid, could always be found from family, friends, and neighbours.

Determination, will power, and my love of pushing pedals, powered me to sit in my flat, on my ‘MotoMed gym-bike’.

It was just over one week later, Monday 29th April, I felt shoots of spasticity, up my left leg, through my left hip, agony in the supermarket!

I return to hospital and have  had physios and doctors deciding that surgery on my hip was needed. So I am told by the nurse who is pouring morphine down my throat...

‘Ive been told by the physios who almost ready to see you, to give you a strong painkiller.’

....Bring it!

Last Friday, I was surgically operated on. I am sat in ‘recovery’, feeling such relief.

Monday 06th

It takes all, to make all. Last night, I had severe spasms again, in my legs, resulting me to cry out in pain. I apologised to the rest of the ward, soon after. Embarrassed, but I do realise that hospital patients generally should recognise that disability can affect everything. They will be strengthened by this ‘gain’, as long as they can view it as such.

I go for the x-ray check-up Tuesday, from which it is discovered that my hip has become dislocated again (providing me with an explanation for  Sunday/Monday night’s pains). 

I had surgery (hopefully my final), yesterday, Thursday 09th but I am now trapped by wearing a full-length leg splint on a bed with pillows surrounding me, holding legs in various positions.

   

From hospital

Doctors needed to remember which leg!

Live.
I type this ‘live’ from my hospital bed as i start a long recovery from the large surgery that i had today. I spent about 5 hours ‘out under anaesthetic’. I realise that it was about time that i posted, so i begun to make some notes, earlier this week. I don’t think there will be pictures, but i will try and work out how!

Anyway, my notes, so far...

I type this post in ‘extended note form’. I am not typing as one piece, but this post will be a collection of extended notes. I am not in a coffee shop, but in hospital. It pains me to tell you that currently, I feel to have spent much  of current life (since October 2006) in one, as much as the other!

A ‘temporary blip’!

... the name given  to my fall, last Saturday. Totally out of surprise to me, I fell transferring from my wheelchair, in my bathroom. I couldn’t get back up. I felt that I had fallen on my left side (my weaker of both). I called my Careline, ending up going to hospital.

I spent much of the following week trying to recover (invaluable support, supplied by my parents). Only in reflection do i find that I had forgotten to take my meds. Having been reducing my medication under observation, I then forget to take a portion anyway!

Did you forget to take your meds?

Over a week later, I started my weekly journey into my local supermarket. I ignored the quiver I felt in my leg, when I turned, reaching for a bunch of bananas. I continued on, into a refrigerated aisle aiming for a packet of gnocchi.

ooooOOOOAAAAARGH!! 

I screamed with pain. I could do nothing. 

I have always been confident of owning my mental, cognitive abilities. The pain was affecting me so much, that I lost these! I didn’t realise at the time, but I was also having a panic attack! No stop. I felt my chest imploding! WHAT? (I had never had anything like this before...

OW! My leg!

Breathe. What, I can’t breathe?!

My leg!!!!!!

Oh man, the whole supermarket must looking!

My chest is imploding!

The staff first-aider was very helpful, even though no one knew what was wrong.

That was Monday. Today it is Thursday (almost two weeks since my ‘bathroom fall’), and I have had a  CAT Scan.

I was told fairly swiftly afterwards that I have fractured my hip! Tomorrow I will hopefully have surgery! At least I now know the reason for my sudden screams of pain, Monday.

I lay in hospital awaiting surgery, on Friday morning as i type this. The neck between my femur (thigh bone), and one of the main sockets in my hip, is broken and being replaced. Not the whole hip, but a key part.

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2019/04/23/marissa-nadler-stephen-brodsky-droneflower-interview/

Toilet for the

Third gender

Hospital patient trolley experience 

Nadia Reid

https://www.nadiareid.com

Preservation (2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yay24OXOW3k

Ubuntoo.com