NHS and medications

With this Brexit thing rumbling along at an ever slower pace, and the fact that this new Prime Minister is determined to take us out of Europe at any cost, I do worry about things like the NHS. 

As a lot of medical research is done between the UK and Europe, I always thought it was best to stay in the European Community, but perhaps I am wrong.  

However many Members of Parliament lied about the true reasons for leaving Europe, and very few stood up to tell the truth, leaving the general public to pick up the pieces 

This has lead many to believe that this is the  worst parliament for quite a long time, as we have no viable government and no opposition party Willing,  to stand up and be counted, because that is needed  for the less well off etc.

But if this all goes ahead, what will happen to our medications, as many if not all come from abroad. 

I have heard of Doctors trying to restrict medications, or change them for cheaper less efficient types, and this is just the start. 

The NHS like many parts of our services are in a dire state through all of the savage cuts, brought in by this government, and it can only get much worse, before the next election, and that is frightening to many people 

I think that its time that services like the armed forces, education and health should be dealt with by cross party committees, and not one individual political party, because over the last ten years all of our services have been savagely butchered.

Let us hope that something gets sorted out soon with Brexit,  and possibly a change of government so we can get the country back on a stable footing again. 

Not Coping with hot weather

After the hot weather recently, I realised that I don’t cope with it anymore. 

This seems to cause memory and cognitive problems, on top of the other long term breathing problems, Bronchiectasis and Emphysema.

Prior to this I guess I just assumed the breathing was down to my asthma, until I was rediagnosed with these two problems. 

I was always fine when we were on holiday abroad, but it seems that it’s the humidity causing the problems. 

While I like the weather to be warm these days,  I don’t like it to be too hot, otherwise the wheels come off and I get agitated and stroppy as my dear wife says. 

We went to our static caravan, but had to come home as it was too hot and airless, making me feel totally ill. 

I love being there because it’s a lot higher than it is at home, and the air is much cleaner and healthier, but I guess that’s life. 

As the weather is cooling down we are going back for a few days 

Understanding the obvious in life

We have always had a dog at home, ever since we were lead to believe that we could not have children.

However, not long after our first dog settled in at home, we found out that my wife was pregnant, so our first dog Major, became our daughter "Claires" body guard, as he protected her from the moment she was brought home from the hospital, and not even my mother in law was allowed near to her carry cot.

This was something new to me as I had never heard of animals being so protective like this ever before.

Major had not seen claire before,
but for some reason, he instantly took up his role as her protector.

After our son Mark was born, the same thing happened again, and he protected us all in more ways than one, until he died of cancer.

Not long after this we got another dog "Ben" , who was very nervous, but as I became ill we seemed to get closer, without me realising what was going on.

After losing my job as an Engineer to this illness, I spent a lot of time at home, and Ben, started to follow me everywhere I went,  but I never understood why until much later.

Around this time I started to see things in the house, but could not understand why Ben never moved from my feet, and never seemed to notice these things.

This was usually birds, flying around the house,  then this changed to big "spiders"

My wife later told me, that if Ben never moved, these things were not there, it was simply my brain playing tricks.

After being finally diagnosed with Early Onset Lewy Body dementia and was put on medication we realised Ben was ill.

He then died of cancer and that was very hard to cope with at the time, because there was a strong bond between us, something I did not understand at the time.

Afterwards the vet told us, that he had been ill for some time, but had probably kept it hidden until I had been diagnosed , then decided it was his time to go.

This made life do much harder, to understand at the time.

However this proves that animals are much more understanding, and in some cases more caring than humans, because they have the ability to pick up our problems.

Although Ben drove me mad at times, when he was following me around, I guess he was protecting and watching over me, so in many ways he was doing something similar to a dementia/ service dog, apart from the fact he was not trained to do the job.

He had his own problems with his nerves, and became a physical wreck when there was fireworks going off, so I spent time sitting on the floor holding him and trying to calm him down.

I vaguely remember being called out at night to go to work, as I was on call for emergencies 24 hours a day.

When I got home Ben's head would be poking out of the cat door waiting for me to return.

I often wondered if someone had done something to him earlier in his life, and that was the cause if his nervous problems.

However apart from that, he like Major   was a lovely dog to have around.