Video Killed the Radio Star

As promised the weekend was spent lounging around in my Y Fronts having the odd scratch.

Honestly it wasn’t much more energetic than that. Carol and I went into town briefly on Saturday as I needed to buy some Y shaped necked t-shirts that don’t cover the stoma. Breathing through a t-shirt or sweater isn’t a problem really, but if I need to cough or sneeze it makes a bit of a mess. Luckily M&S came up trumps so we weren’t in for too long. The rest of the weekend was spent listening to BBC Radio 5 Live and their wonderful coverage of the Open Golf. Golf on the radio shouldn’t work, but it does, mainly due to the skilful and informed commentators the BBC employs.

I woke up on Sunday morning feeling pretty rough around the stoma area and realised that like an idiot I’d left Lary (Note the new and correct spelling) out for the night by accident. I’d been using a gauze flap over the hole for an hour or so before going to bed to help with my breathing and had forgotten when I’d taken Lary out to clean him. At this early stage the wound is still pretty raw and new, the effect of not having Lary in place for around 10 hours was that the hole had started to contract on itself. This made putting Lary back in place on Sunday morning a pretty sore and painful experience. That was an error I don’t intend repeating any time soon.

Monday was another day waking up and feeling rough. I’d had a poor nights sleep and one look in the mirror confirmed my suspicions. The right side of my face was puffed up and quite swollen and I couldn’t close my mouth properly. I mailed the CNS Team at RBH on a separate matter that morning and added in about the swelling. Jo quickly replied and put my mind at ease by advising that the lymph glans don’t drain properly whilst lying down and should drain during the course of the day, as always she was correct and by lunchtime I looked almost normal. Still slightly “Desperate Dan” around the chin line, but much better than when I woke up. Jo also mentioned that she has a patient who’s undergone the same procedure as me who’s looking to write about his experiences, he’d also like to talk to someone who’s in the same boat as him. I mentioned to Yun when I was in the Churchill that I’d like to offer something tangible back rather than just the blogging, so I’ve told Jo I’d be more than happy to meet up and offer any advice I can. I’ve been contacted by the RBH Lary Group (Hence the change from Lary to Larry). They meet up monthly and I’ll hopefully be able to attend the September meeting. From what I can gather it’s a very informal gathering over coffee and biscuits to talk about the latest medical advances in Lary care and to have a general chinwag. It could be that the only thing we have in common is Lary, but the worst that can happen is I waste an hour or so of my time, the best being I could make new friends who could help me through any issues I’m likely to come across.

I also had my meeting with the Practise Nurse at my GP’s following the District Nurses refusal to come out to me. It was a bit of a waste of time as the nurse hadn’t actually seen a stoma patient before and needed to check with a GP to see if there was anything she specifically needed to check. We agreed that I’m perfectly capable of looking after the stoma and Lary myself and the box that says I needed to be seen by a healthcare professional is well and truly ticked. The Practise Nurse can also tick the box saying she’s now seen a stoma patient.

I was a little bit early for my appointment at the GP’s and there’s a really good independent coffee house five minutes away from the practise that I’ve used numerous times in the past. So off I wandered. At the door of the coffee house there were five people, all with small dogs on leads who seemed to be a bit lost. After a bit of a game of “After you Maud” I finally made it into the shop and ordered my large cappuccino. I was followed in by the five small dogs and their owners who proceeded to make a huge fuss about settling the dogs down (Yappy little buggers – the dogs, and the owners it turned out) before making an equally huge fuss about ordering their bean based beverages. Now this next passage may seem a bit politically incorrect, but please bear with me, or just skip to the next part of the blog.

Once they’d settled down, and moaned about the lack of Oat Milk (WTF is oak milk?) they started to discuss the merits of the latest TV bollox that is Love Island. Picture the scene, one woman with a baby strapped to her chest with a sling thing, another with multi coloured hair, a bloke who was more camp than Butlins and two other ladies who looked like ageing hippies. The conversation then moved onto the chances of having a same sex Love Island shown on main steam TV, at this point they came out with every single politically correct phrase, saying or buzzword you could possibly imagine. They were trying to outdo each other with their “It would be awesome” comments. I was almost in tears of laughter, as was the young lady behind the counter of the coffee shop. Now it may seem as though I was prying on a private conversation, nothing could be further from the truth, I was sitting a good 20 feet away but the volume of the conversation could have been heard in Hampshire. This sort of conversation can be heard when any group of people get together who are trying to impress each other. It could be builders comparing the size of their jack hammers, bankers talking about the size of their bonus’s, etc, etc. Please don’t think of me badly, it was just such a cliché, and you probably needed to be there to find it funny, but life is pretty boring at the moment, so I take amusement where I can find it.

As regular readers may have noticed I’ve finally got around to watermarking my photo’s after years of promising myself I’ll do it. The main reason behind this is that some time over this summer I’ll be setting up my own photography website which will show off the pictures at a better resolution than Facebook allows at present. I’d been trying to design a decent logo however I haven’t got the correct software or the correct skills to do it. This is where the power of Facebook Friends comes into play. I noticed that someone I’ve known for a few years via London Irish had recently set up her own DTP / Graphic Design company. A quick message followed by a couple of emails produced the lovely logo at the top of this post. So, if you have any design needs I suggest you contact Sarah at Sarah Whitfield DTP / Graphic Design and see if she’s able to help. Her rates are very competitive. I’ve now started to watermark all the photo’s I put up on FB, they look pretty good in my opinion. Someone suggested that I ask folk who are using my pics as their profile pictures to make a £5.00 donation to the Berkshire Cancer Centre. Whilst it’s a great idea I wouldn’t want to put pressure on people, it could perhaps feel like one of the chuggers who ambush you every time you walk down a High Street. Watch this space. 

Sleep on Monday night just didn’t happen, I was coughing badly which meant I had to keep cleaning Lary out. Eventually I gave up and went downstairs to watch TV and have a cup of tea. For the first time in a few weeks I was actually in pain and resorted to my mate morphine for some assistance. It didn’t work, normally I’d be knocked out within minutes, this time I was still awake at gone 3am and the sky was starting to lighten with dawn approaching. The lack of sleep meant that Tuesday was a wipe out, I had no energy to do anything at all, so veg’d out on the sofa. I was trying to watch Netflix, however my efforts were defeated by errant son and number one daughter who were both on line, daughter up in Leeds seems to be still bumming off my account, hmmmm………

I dragged myself out of my stupor enough on Tuesday evening to go up to OBR for a Physio’s appointment. One of the many advantages to being a member at Redingensians is the ability to use the Physio facilities if there is a space. As my shoulder is still painful following the operation I thought I’d take advantage of the service. So I rolled up to see the wonderful Victoria. I’d always thought Vicky was a lovely person who wouldn’t say boo to a goose. Blimey, how wrong was I? Once she had me on the couch she pummelled my shoulder into submission whether it wanted to or not! After about 20 minutes of torture it felt so much easier than it had for a few weeks. Vicky knows her stuff, she knew exactly where to work on to ease the muscles that had basically locked up. She’s also come up with some great ideas for the future to help with the scaring and my neck movement. Vicky has her own Physio / Massage / Injury clinic over in Hartley Witney, call Body Reset Clinic Body Reset Clinic  I can’t recommend her services highly enough (She told me to write that otherwise she’ll really hurt me next time!) – 

The remainder of the week was spent relaxing and trying to conserve / build up energy. I did meet up with an old friend on Thursday for lunch which in itself was something of an achievement for me. The last couple of nights I’d been struggling to eat properly and had been having the problem of food reappearing via my nose as the throat passage was getting blocked quite quickly. So, it was with a degree of trepidation that I arrived at the Highway Man over on Exlade St, would I make a total arse of myself in public rather than in private. A couple of pints of Loddon Hoppit preceded lunch of a shared scotch egg and sausage roll (far posher than it sounds!). Whilst I struggled slightly and had to make sure I took sips of drink between each mouthful and making sure the mouthfuls were not massive, I managed without spouting any food back out of my nose. So I can now put a tick next to the box that says “Eaten out”. Next stop, Nino’s?

A number of people had asked what my voice sounded like now, so I thought making a short video would be a way of letting those I haven’t seen face to face how I was getting on. Max acted as cameraman and we managed to do it in one take with no swearing. It won’t win an Oscar, unless it’s entered into the Foreign Language section, but it gives an idea of what I do to be able to speak each day. The full YouTube video is here if you’re interested – Putting a Lary In Video

When I watched the video back before uploading I was slightly disappointed how I sounded. In my head I sound crystal clear, I didn’t realise that I was having to force swallow so often. There’s some way to go before I’ll feel 100% confident in speaking to any formal degree, but at least now I know I’ve still got to work at my voice. Being able to use the flat base plate more often will certainly help with my confidence.

Following many, many, many requests (ok, two) I’ve also made a short video of 15 different movies quotes, I’ve tried my best to add in accents where possible, with limited success. 15 Movie Quotes perhaps “Lary Man quotes the movies” will become the next internet sensation, suspect not though 😊 The “Messy” background is my mistake as I shot the video myself using a tripod. I stupidly thought I could edit it via Lightroom and crop down the image, opps. There’s one curve ball within the 15, how many can you name? I think my career as a video blogger may well have finished after the two efforts, and I'll stick to still photography. 

For the last god knows how many years we’ve tried to have a short break in Cornwall in August. Since I was a young lad I’ve been going to Porthcothan Bay near Padstow, first with my parents, then with Carol before we married. We even spent our honeymoon there. When the kids came along and were old enough to enjoy camping there was only one place we were going to go. This year I’m not really up to camping in a tent, managing the stoma at this early stage really needs running water and electricity on tap. We stay at a site called Carnevas Holiday Park  which has been run by the Brewer family since we first started going there in the 1970’s. To get a tent pitch is usually pretty easy, but to contact Caroline in July and ask if they have any statics free for August was probably pushing our luck a bit. Well, she came up trumps with the final caravan available, so a week at the coast is on the cards. A further advantage of having a caravan rather than a tent will make it easier to self-carter. Whilst the small step of a pub lunch has been passed I wouldn’t want to have the pressure of myself of eating out each night.

The week ended with a pleasant surprise as Anna made a surprise home visit for the weekend. And I've cracked 78kg on the scales #fatbastard 

As always, thanks for reading.

To be continued……

#Shoulder2Shoulder