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Author: Michael James
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Week 239 – October 12th – Flu and Covid 19 vaccine jabs
Took Claire to have her flu and Covid 19 vaccine jabs this morning at a chemist in Sidcup.
All went OK and hopefully these will protect her over the winter months.
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Week 239 – October 7th – After 33 years
After we got back from London, we decided to go to Bluewater.
We had been discussing about changing mobile provider as the service coverage we were getting with O2 was getting bad.
So we went into the EE shop, little knowing apart from leaving for about 30 minutes to sort out the O2 contract, that we wouldn’t be leaving EE until 3.5 hours later.
The service we received was excellent, it did help that we were with BT for our broadband, so that made that switch easier, as they work together.
Overall we were saving about £22 a month for the broadband and mobile contracts, which is pretty good considering Claire was upgrading from iPhone 14 to the new iPhone 16 and I was going to get Claire’s iPhone 14 to replace my iPhone 8.
This was after we had been with O2 for 33 years.
Let’s hope coverage will be better and also good to be saving money at the same time upgrading phones and service too.
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Week 238 – October 6th – Christmas food ordering already
Crazy, not long back from our fantastic holiday and were ordering food for Christmas.
Already some of the options were not available, were only just into October.
The good thing, was the sizes and prices were virtually the same as last year, so M&S were helping people with doing that. Well done M&S
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Week 238 – October 4th – Anticoagulant appointment
Well just after 9am, I get a call from the anticoagulant team and said could I get there for 11am to have an ultra sound and see them. Impressed that they called so early, but also showed the seriousness of the issue.
Thankfully this time there was no issue with parking.
I had my ultra sound and they were showing me on the screen where all the clots were in the left leg, I said, well I haven’t wasted your time, which they said no.
I then had my appointment and from the results of the scan, said that I had SVT, which is blood clots in the outer veins, which isn’t as bad as DVT, but if not treated could still cause the blood clots to travel around my body and cause more issue.
I was given 6 weeks of blood thinner tablet and to be contacted next week and after 5 weeks.
I have to say they were brilliant and very helpful and showed the NHS at its best. Let’s hope the tablet does what it should do.
The report showing I’m suffering from SVT 
The medication that I’m on, the Flucloxcillin is an antibiotic for a week and the Rivaroxaban (actually 10mg) is for 6 weeks. -
Week 238 – October 3rd – Urgent Care and A&E
For the last few days, I have had pain in my left leg and noticed some swelling was appearing. With not long coming back from holiday I was concerned about this.
Finally the pain that was much that I went to our urgent care centre for help and advice.
I was seen by a triage nurse quite quickly, but then had a 2 hours wait for a doctor, which was a complete waste of time, as he didn’t really look at my leg and I was told to go to A&E, after seeing him for less than a minute. It does make me wander what they can treat here.
So I drove over to the A&E, this was mid-afternoon, but could not find anywhere to park. In the end I decided to drive back home and get Claire to come and if we couldn’t park, at least she could drop me off and come back later.
This time we were able to park, after checking in, again saw the triage nurse quite quickly, though she wasn’t impressive with the service I had at the urgent care and marked me urgent.
Though I was still there for 4 hours. Once I saw a doctor and they looked at my leg, they said they would refer me to the anticoagulant team and should hear from them tomorrow. I was given anti biotic and blood thinner tablet.
We finally got home, just after 9pm.
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Week 238 – October 1st – Doctors appointment
This morning, I actually had a face to face doctor’s appointment. Of course they were running late, but this was down to a GP going ill. The appointment was because about 5 or 6 times this year, I have had a reaction to something, that has caused my mouth (inside and out) plus lips to swell and my hands and wrist too. Which has never happened to me before.
We believe it is nuts or seeds, but would like it confirmed.
I was hoping that I would have an allergy test there and then, but of course in this day and again, you have to be sent elsewhere for that to be done.
Well see how long, especially as the doctor marked it urgent.
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Week 238 – October 1st – The older generation
This morning I received an email from the Office for National Statistics regarding the older people in England and Wales.
Here are the main points.
“In 2023, the estimated population aged 90 years and over in England and Wales was 551,758; this was a slight increase of 0.2% from 2022, compared with a 2.1% increase in the previous year.
There were an estimated 14,850 centenarians in England and Wales in 2023; this is more than double the number of centenarians in 2002, but is a 0.5% decrease compared with 2022.
The large post-First World War birth cohort, aged 103 years in 2023, accounted for 9.7% of those aged 100 years and over; as this cohort ages and decreases in size, the effect on the size of the centenarian population continues to reduce.
There were just over twice as many females than males aged 90 years and over in 2023; this gap between males and females continues to reduce over time, from more than three times the number of females than males aged 90 years and over in 2002.
The sex ratio at the oldest ages continued to narrow in 2023, with 4.5 women to every man aged 100 years and over in England and Wales, compared with 4.6 in 2022.
In 2023, Wales had 26 people aged 100 years and over per 100,000 population; this was a higher proportion of centenarians than in England, which had 24 centenarians per 100,000 population.
These statistics are for England and Wales only.”
As always appear to be the case, women are still living longer than men.
The figure that caught my eye, was the 551,758, which against the whole population of England and Wales is very tiny.
So again make sure you enjoy your life.
