Wol's Riverbank tales: Part 3 Restoration

Horace

Hey Wol & Co - just wondering if you lovely ladies have received invitations to participate in some ongoing medical research..apparently an invitation has been sent to ladies of a certain age:eek: (unfortunately, I am the age - somewhere between 40 and 69). They want to take some blood, wee, spit and give you tests to do and then look at your medical records from now until you peg it and beyond:eek:

Went to quack today - offered me erythromycin (I declined) an inhaler (I declined as am not wheezy) and a chest x ray which I have to have (sigh) oh and I should chomp on honey & lemon cough sweets - its whooping cough (a cough that the chinese say lasts 100 days:eek:).

Went to Boots, the adjacent cake shop, the bank and Aldi where I got a bag of sugar, some twix lookilikee biscuits, a box of cornflakes (I had the urge), a bottle of french cloudy lemonade (not as good as the cheapo freeway stuff from Lidl) and 2 bunches of daffs - cost effective as they are both double bunches each costing 89p whereas the local florist will sell one bunch for £1.

Someone nice has done a good deed for me too and looked at my website and suggested ways for it to be improved..its not often that anyone does anything nice for me usually the other way round.

Its carnival glass with me - I cannot walk past a charity shop or antique shop without rummaging..still need a piece of blue and a piece of red. I also collect other stuff.

Karmacat

Horace, you have whooping cough? Thats awful :eek: you poor thing.

I'm certainly the right age to get the medical invite - how did you get it, was it via the doctor? And are you paid anything? :D:D

taxi73

I am that age and haven't had an invite.
Whooping cough ..you have my total sympathy with that..I had that along with two of my children years ago.We were all in hospital with it.

Horace

It's probably the 4th time I have had whooping cough as an adult - once I was ill for 6 months with it:mad: The flippin doctor sat there with a smug look on his face telling me that kids get vaccinated against it..so I asked for a vaccination and he then looked as though he had swallowed a wasp:rotfl: He kept muttering about inhalers and smoking so I pointed out for the umpteenth time that I have never smoked or even tried a fag:mad:

Karma - this invitation came direct from UK Biobank which is not for profit organisation set up to guard the database..the letterhead also tells me that the Dept of Health are involved, the NHS, The Wellcome Trust (which is cancer research), the MRC (medical research council), The Scottish Government, Oxford University and the Welsh Assembly. Apparently, the British Heart Foundation are also involved along with a few other health related charities dealing with arthritis and cancer research UK. They will pay your travelling expenses to their testing centre - now do I go by train or do I get a daysaver ticket on the bus (which one is dearer I wonder?:rotfl:). What they are doing is studying the prevention and treatment of cancer, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, dementia, joint problems and many other serious illnesses. They are looking for 500,000 people aged between 40-69 from all around the UK. They identify you from your NHS contact details.

Guess they have invited me because I am a regular user of the NHS seeming to spend my whole life at the eye hospital. It seems interesting so I shall confirm my attendance at their appointment and take it from there - I need to hear what they have to say first before committing.

Wol2

U WOT???????? :eek::eek: Efffing 'ell Horace - "THE" Whooping cough FOR A FOURTH TIME ......(Insert confused smiley)...sorry but that is a load of bull :mad:

Horace Hun - my immunology/microbiology (learnt by the way at Brum ) is coming into full play here: Yes, these days kids get vaccinated against "The Whooping Cough" - (i.e. the bug "Bordetella pertussis"). They get vaccinated so they can develop resistance to the antigens (bits of dead bacterium) and therefore NOT CONTRACT THE FULL INFECTIOUS DISEASE ...(my sister got it when she was 4 so I know what it's like ). The point being - a vaccine is possible - ie you can develop IMMUNITY once exposed (and I mean ONCE).

So bottom line for you (without vaccination) is that you got it once and then you should have developed immunity/resistance owing to bits of dead bacterium floating around inside you (assuming it was the REAL Whooping Cough) - i.e. YOU should NOT be able to contract whooping cough 4 times OVER :eek::eek: :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: (Yes, sorry but that is laughable to a microbiologist).

Therefore, in light of what you;ve been told, please seek a second opinion from another GP - or, if they insist this is "yet another bout of whooping cough" preferably ask to be referred to the Microbiology guys at the QE...... NO WAY you get whooping cough four times without referral for serious investigation of your immune system (sorry )

You are not being looked after properly...I am speechless your GP thinks it is Ok to say you can have whooping cough 4 times :mad::mad:...but actually not that surpised........(All medics get only two weeks microbiology training for the whole 5 years of their degree ( unless they decide to specialise) - Micro and Immunology are the two worst feared topics amongst the medics and receive the least attention hence why the GP's are carp with diagnosing infectious diseases.)

It's not whooping cough until you have a proper microbiological (and serological) diagnosis....oooh I'm getting very very cross on your behalf Hun :mad::mad:

Please follow this up Hun and give me a bell if you have any questions

xxxx

Hugs Hun - I'm actually really all of a dither over this and VERY concerned for you - not necessarily because I think you have whooping cough "again" (and if you really do have then I am very concerned) - but I also think the GP you saw needs a CPD course !!!
xxx

Wol2

taxi73 wrote: »

I am that age and haven't had an invite.
.

Me too Taxi and KC- no invite ....(love it by the way KC about whether you get paid ....you go gal go.....:rotfl::rotfl:)

Pah and pants !! I shall make sure we shall have "special" badges at "The Rave" :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

We are obviously unique :D

(Sorry Horace :cool:)

Taxi :eek::eek: - you nad kids hospitalised last year with WC - that doesn;t sound good at all. Pleased to hear you're all better now :T

xxx

Wol2

OK OK...I won;t be getting female piggies for my boys just yet .

....but it's really NOT fair to keep a piggie on their own as they are such sociable animals and really need a companion (unless their name is [STRIKE]Roger[/STRIKE] Bandit...:rotfl::rotfl:)..in fact as far as most "piggie mummies" are concerned I would be regarded as a really cruel mummy for not letting my boys have companionship

Wol applies birch twigs

xxxx

Wol2

Here are "the MSE accounts" for 2009/2010:

Quidco...............................................£29.77
Sainsbury's CC cash back....................£56.53
Amex Cash back................................£43.14
Share dividends.................................£521.62....:eek:
Sealed pot...........................................£38.45
Surveys...............................................£37.00
BT refund............................................£64.42
Foreign Currency ...............................£134.34

TOTAL £925.27 paid off from Barcalaycard today :T:T

Karmacat

That Barclays payment looks good to me, Wol, well done.

I was only asking about payment for the trial because I know medication trials are paid for - lots, actually .

Hey ho.

Hmmm, lady piggies.......... what's their natural state, Wol, do the males have "harems"? Or are they "monogamous"? If they're monogamous, how do the male piggies manage that don't get a harem? Do they live solitary or are they banded in groups? (I'm no microbiologist, but I *am* an anthropologist, tho I have great difficulty spelling it this morning ).

Wol2

Karmacat wrote: »

That Barclays payment looks good to me, Wol, well done.

I was only asking about payment for the trial because I know medication trials are paid for - lots, actually .

Hey ho.

Hmmm, lady piggies.......... what's their natural state, Wol, do the males have "harems"? Or are they "monogamous"? If they're monogamous, how do the male piggies manage that don't get a harem? Do they live solitary or are they banded in groups? (I'm no microbiologist, but I *am* an anthropologist, tho I have great difficulty spelling it this morning ).

Hi KC

The top pig usually has a harem - but a lot of space is required to keep groups of piggies together. As I don;t have "free range" piggies, I was thinking of getting some rescued ladies for some of the boys (strictly one each ). It would be nice to get Ginger a new lady friend as I'm sure he's missing Whisp....and Beechie boy really needs a lady to keep his hair in check :rotfl::rotfl:. It's a shame that Muffin, my only girlie now, is such a grumpy old lady who won;t live with any of them. Grommie is about the only one she will tolerate (and that's only because he leaves her veggies alone :rotfl::rotfl:).....but I think he'd become piggie-pecked if they actually lived together

Sigh......I think I shall just have to let my boys carry on looking at piggie !!!!!! :rotfl::rotfl: