Faster Than A Speeding Speedy Thing

I don’t consider myself to be particularly savvy when it comes to computers but I can get by doing most things if required given a little bit of thought and tinkering and I should have trusted to these skills last night while configuring my broadband connection. Foolishly though I printed off the instructions for doing this from the Virgin website and followed them. A decision that probably cost me an hour, you live and you learn. In the end after ditching the instructions I got myself back on track. So I am now getting speeds of 2.2 MB which is, surprise, surprise, a lot better than my old 52k connection and there is a free upgrade to 8 MB on the way.

So, what with getting home from work late, taking longer to configure broadband and installing anti-virus and firewall software I only had time for an hour or so gaming before fatigue set in. It was weird playing on World of Warcraft without someone next to me on a networked PC such as the set up at both Billy and Steph’s or Graeme and Sam’s. I realise now just how much information I had gleaned from having a fellow player next to me and how different it was playing solo, as it were. It did put a whole new perspective on things and made me take in more of my surroundings not having anyone to rely on to point me in the right direction.

Another Fine MESH

This could be the last post I have to make from my old antiquated home set up or work PC because my gleaming brand new PC arrived yesterday morning. Now when I said could it was because I have no faith that I’m going to be able to get the whole thing up and working without any further hitches.

Further hitches I hear you ask? Well when the computer arrived all the boxes were there it just happens that the contents of the boxes were not what had been ordered, at least we were sent the wrong monitor. After Gills amazingly calm call to MESH to inform them of our disappointment at the error on their part, which is why she makes this sort of call and not me, we were informed that, yes, they had made an error and that they would dispatch the correct monitor presently. No apology or anything just the admission of error. Bastards.

Not wanting to let the situation get the better of my blood pressure I have tried to remain calm about the whole thing which has been helped greatly by Gill taking charge of the phone calls but it still rankles. Luckily I was able to use our old CRT monitor as a stop gap until the correct one arrives and the PC is set up. All I need to do tonight is set up the broadband connection which should be active today and, hey presto my World of Warcraft addiction can be fed to its hearts content...well as long as Gill lets me.

I had planned to have a days leave tomorrow to allow me to play all day but work is building up and I don’t want to leave too much hanging if I need to go for my surgery. As we approach the end of the financial year many of the drug companies are pushing trials to get them in the 2005 figures so there is always extra work at this time of year. I’m also due to be off on Friday but I’m determined that that will remain unchanged regardless of what work is sitting waiting to be done. I need the break and my alter ego is in need of some sneaky, slice and dice action.

Thunder Stealer

There must be something in the air at the moment because not being content with my current health status or the fact that her mother is still in hospital my mam decided she wanted to get in on the act. I was bleeped at work on Friday afternoon by the nice people on reception at Accident and Emergency to tell me that she had just been admitted but that they weren’t sure of her condition. Obviously I dropped everything and headed straight up there and was ushered into the room to see her. My dad was with her and he told me that my mam had collapsed in Eldon Square car park just before he had arrived to pick her up from a shopping trip.

Thankfully she was conscious and had done no damage to herself when she fell. Looking very grey and drawn she suffering from extreme nausea and was constantly retching. Suffering mainly from that and a severe chill she looked like she had food poisoning or a bad infection. She had an ECG in the ambulance on the way to hospital and that was normal as was her blood pressure so it looked unlikely that she had suffered any coronary episode. In truth her blood pressure was way better than mine.

I stayed with my parents for an hour or so whilst we waited for a medic to review my mam but in the end had to make my excuses and head back to the unit just so I could give them an update and make sure nothing requiring my immediate attention had arrive as it usually does on a Friday afternoon. As I made it back to A&E I saw my mam being wheeled around to X-ray for a chest X-ray. She had regained some colour and wasn’t retching as much, which was a relief. The X-ray was normal and when we got back to A&E they told us that arrangements had been made to admit her to the RVI overnight for observation.

I stayed with her until the ambulance crew arrived to do the transfer then arranged for Gill to come and pick me up and take me home. I had been phoning around to my brother and sisters to give them updates and arrange for nighties etc to be collected for my mam and made further calls to let everyone know she was now being transferred. I have to admit that by the time I made it back home I was totally drained and decided that I wasn’t going to visit that night because everyone else would be heading over and I didn’t want add to the crowds. Lisa phoned me when she got back from visiting to say mam had improved some more after being given further anti-emetics and that the doctors had identified a urinary infection and suspected that was the cause of her condition.

As things stand today she was discharged with a course of antibiotics on Saturday and given instructions to take things very easy for the next week or so. Visiting yesterday she looked much brighter and the nausea had mainly resolved. I reemphasised that she should be taking things easy after she mentioned getting the train down to Preston to attend a meeting of her sugarcraft guild and hopefully she has paid heed. I was going to say that it has been nice to talk about someone else’s health problems for a change but that would be bollocks so I’ll just say that I hope that once I’m sorted this page will cease to be a health bulletin....for anyone!

Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

Well let’s get the apologies for my lack of posting out of the way first...sorry. This is down to a combination of factors but primarily due to a continued problem with my internet access at home and a general antipathy to do anything other than survive my days at work and try and get as much sleep at night as possible. I have no idea what the problem is with my dial up connection but I’m getting broadband access as of next week so that won’t be a problem for much longer, he says with fingers crossed. As for my lack of get up and go that has been down to the seemingly interminable wait to see the surgeon and get any sort of timescale for my surgery. A wait which thankfully came to an end this week.

The surgeon was very pleasant and informative going through all the possible side effects: 1/300 chance of paraplegia, less than 1% chance of death during surgery (he informed me that he hasn’t lost anyone yet), 5% chance of severe pain in my scar and a 50% chance of contracting a chest infection. The upshot is that I’ve signed consent for the surgery and am on 24hr telephone standby to go in as soon as a theatre slot and intensive care bed become available. In reality that could be anytime from today until mid summer but more likely to be sooner rather than later.

I’m not sure how my body/mind has reacted to the news. In some ways I feel as if a great wait has been lifted from my shoulders but equally I feel drained as if I now don’t have anything to drag my sorry ass towards and unable to concentrate on anything without my thoughts drifting towards my surgery. So basically I feel knackered, up-beat and distracted all at the same time. Ideal for working in the light hearted, concern free world of clinical trials.

On the subject of clinical trials the recent news of 6 men fighting for their lives after taking a new drug in a trial has caused concern that we are going to be in for a difficult time recruiting volunteers for our studies. Entering into a clinical trial is never an easy decision for a patient to make and tragedies like this can only make that decision harder. At the moment the reason for the severe reactions suffered has yet to be determined but it looks as if there has been a dosing error either in the manufacturing or prescribing of the drug or the initial laboratory tests have been compromised in some way. My thoughts go to all the victims, their families and friends and also the staff at the trail centre involved.

Still Here....Still Waiting

Well let’s get the apologies for my lack of posting out of the way first...sorry. This is down to a combination of factors but primarily due to a continued problem with my internet access at home and a general antipathy to do anything other than survive my days at work and try and get as much sleep at night as possible. I have no idea what the problem is with my dial up connection but I’m getting broadband access as of next week so that won’t be a problem for much longer, he says with fingers crossed. As for my lack of get up and go that has been down to the seemingly interminable wait to see the surgeon and get any sort of timescale for my surgery. A wait which thankfully came to an end this week.

The surgeon was very pleasant and informative going through all the possible side effects: 1/300 chance of paraplegia, less than 1% chance of death during surgery (he informed me that he hasn’t lost anyone yet), 5% chance of severe pain in my scar and a 50% chance of contracting a chest infection. The upshot is that I’ve signed consent for the surgery and am on 24hr telephone standby to go in as soon as a theatre slot and intensive care bed become available. In reality that could be anytime from today until mid summer but more likely to be sooner rather than later.

I’m not sure how my body/mind has reacted to the news. In some ways I feel as if a great wait has been lifted from my shoulders but equally I feel drained as if I now don’t have anything to drag my sorry ass towards and unable to concentrate on anything without my thoughts drifting towards my surgery. So basically I feel knackered, up-beat and distracted all at the same time. Ideal for working in the light hearted, concern free world of clinical trials.

On the subject of clinical trials the recent news of 6 men fighting for their lives after taking a new drug in a trial has caused concern that we are going to be in for a difficult time recruiting volunteers for our studies. Entering into a clinical trial is never an easy decision for a patient to make and tragedies like this can only make that decision harder. At the moment the reason for the severe reactions suffered has yet to be determined but it looks as if there has been a dosing error either in the manufacturing or prescribing of the drug or the initial laboratory tests have been compromised in some way. My thoughts go to all the victims, their families and friends and also the staff at the trail centre involved.

Wow

With plenty of time to reflect on what my surgeon might say to when or indeed if, we ever meet I have to find something to keep myself occupied. Recently this has consisted of reading as much information about World of Warcraft as I can get my grubby mits on. There are a multitude of websites out there on the subject and a very healthy number of forums that debate the far end of a fart on all things WoW. No matter what you want to know on any possible subject concerning WoW there is an answer to that query out there waiting for you to read it. It’s quite fascinating looking at the information and wondering just how many hours it must have taken to collate it all.

I’m toying with the idea of setting up a new blog to cover the topic of WoW. I don’t want to have this page taken over by post after post on the subject and I get the feeling I might just end up doing that. Of course if I endlessly play the game I might not have the time for any posts on any subject. Although I’m sure Gill will keep a log of my playing time and inform me politely when she feels I’ve been spending too much time with the computer and not enough with her, at least I hope she will be polite.

Of course for this to be a problem I have to have a computer to play on and we took massive strides to sorting that out the other day. BT have been booked to come and put a phone point into the back room, replacing the Heath Robinson effort we are using currently, and a new computer has been purchased and is due for arrival in a couple of weeks. We are splashing the cash on a quite high specced machine from MESH with dual processors, powerful graphics card and 19” TFT monitor all for a jaw dropping £1.4K. This baby is going to have to last us a looonnnggg while. I just need to sort out a broadband connection now. I’m thinking of remaining on Virgin but they have a download limit each month and I’m not sure if online gaming counts against this. Anyone out there know?