Random Factoids (or are they?)

20% of the World's active CCTV Cameras are in the UK!

That is really scary, I mean what kind of a government/society feels it necessary AND acceptable to video it's citizens (sorry Subjects) to such an extent.

And regardless of the any reasoning about why we are the most heavily spied upon country in the world, it's not as if crime has been reduced as a result of all this CCTV action. At best they move crime from one area to another, at worst they remove other crime prevention activities and provide an audience for criminals/scallies. You know, it doesn't take rocket science to work out how long it takes for the authorities to respond to an incident seen on a camera. So anyone who really wants to break the law can do so in the knowledge that no-one will be along for 10 minutes or however long it takes. On the other hand, random acts of inconsequential law breaking (pissing in the streets) are punished with a zeal.

The end result is that there is no effect on dedicated lawbreakers, but minor infractions by generally law abiding citizens/subjects are punished.

Criminalise the law abiding and ignore the criminals! What a strategy.

But it's only Chicken Pox ...... Part 4

And I don't know anymore. I rely on other peoples views, knowledge, recollection and what they experienced.

Elaine kept a diary for me, so that I would know whatr happened. Or at least had a timeline of things, maybe no more. Not her fault, no-one could have done more or better.

So fact time!

In ITU - they put me in their SARS room because I was infectious, I was their first guest. Filtered air, negative pressure through an airlock to stop infection etc. They had to get a special bed in that constantly rolled me from side to side so that the "crap" in my lungs didn't get a chance to settle.

Do you know what ITU (Intensive Care Unit) means, one on one care 24 hours a day, it's a Nurse sitting at the end of the bed constantly monitoring you. Oh, and adjusting things, you know this measure a little low so we tweak this drug here to change that.

When you are on a ventilator one of the problems is that your body goes "hmmm, I'm not breathing, therefore I'm pretty much dead, so why should I do this kidney thing (shuts the kidneys down), and that liver thing why bother (shuts down liver) so the longer you are on a ventilator the more your body gives up and shuts down. So for me most stuff start shutting down, I go diabetic, blood pressure fluctuates, stop peeing, blow up like a balloon (new Nurse to Elaine, has he always been a big man?) bloated so that I am almost unrecognisable. My friend Mark comes to visit and is warned what to expect, he mentally prepares himself, goes in to see me, takes one look and says I'm not prepared for this!

All the timne, I'm just not getting enough oxygen and that's still the problem. It seems that there is this machine, that works a bit like a dialysis machine except that this takes your blood out, adds oxygen (like a fake lung) and puts it back in. They want me to be on this machine, but it's in Leicester, and it's experimental, and they can't get me there because they can't take me out of ITU because I'll die (there I've said it) even if they tried to move me by helicopter. So they keep going, rolling me from side to side, controlling my bodily functions as best they can, pumping oxygen into me and hoping I'll survive.

You know and all the while Elaine is visiting me several times a day, looking after the boys, keeping everyone else up to speed and in the loop and trying to keep positive and sane when this mad thing is happening to her husband. Because at the heart of this I've only got Chicken Pox for goodness sake. How bad can it be?

Me, I'm off with the fairies at this point. I have so many dreams and realities from all of this that it will take me fuckin ages to get it all out, but I will somehow and somewhen.

This is now far harder to write than I ever imagined.

Laters.

Blunkett and Clarke - snippet

Perhaps Charles Clarke could detain David Blunkett for 90 days until we've all had a chance to investigate his "alleged" breaches of the ministerial code of conduct?

But it's only Chicken Pox...part 3

Now, where was I, oh yes, spent Sunday night in hospital and slept.

Next morning, I awake on the Medical Assessment ward at Farnborough Hospital in Kent. Being looked after, and getting even spottier! This is fine I suppose, but I am still finding it harder and harder to breathe and not really getting any better and at the back of my mind is the worry that Chicken Pox shouldn't be this bad, but in classic NHS style no-one can tell me what's happening.

Over the next couple of days (Monday and Tuesday) I drift along in a bit of a haze, concentrating on breathing. I am given regular Nebulisers of Ventolin that help a little. During this time I progress from the tubes that deliver some oxygen to both nostrils, through a normal mask to a "special" mask that had a pneumatic rim that was supposed to have a tighter fit to my face, to get more oxygen into me. Clearly this wasn't working!

By wednesday it's been a week now and I am still getting worse, so I am not happy and my family are really worried. Elaine and the boys (Matthew and Sam) are keeping my spirits up. By now I have spots everywhere, and I mean everywhere, Elaine says one day that at least you can't get spots on the palms of your hands or soles of your feet - which is when I show her that you can!

During this time, and I'm not sure when it happened, I started to get visits from someone called Paul, he was the only person who really talked to me about my condition. He would come twice a day and take a reading by putting a kind of clip on my index finger. I now know this measures the amount of oxygen in your blood. Paul was an outreach nurse from Intensive Care, and was monitoring my status while they decide what to do with me.

As an aside, it is noticable that I have a lot of visits from random groups of student Doctors and other medical staff. Who all have a good look and move on.

At 6:30 AM on Thursday morning I am intubated, anaethetised and put on a ventilator in Intensive Care. Things are really getting out of hand!

to be continued.....