written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Saturday 21 March 2015

To be continued…

Location: Stroke Ward, Victoria Hospital, Blackpool
Dateline: Saturday March 21, 2015
Your dedicated Saturday Blogger writes:
 
I was surprised to find myself admitted here yesterday, after what I took to be a migraine refused to go away. Having spent an entertaining Thursday night in A&E, I was given a CT scan and told I’d had a TIA, a mild stroke, the only obvious symptom of which is a small eclipse, slightly blurred peripheral vision in left-field. However, such events are triggered by something and the consultant wants to establish exactly what – so I am awaiting further tests which, given this is the week-end and the NHS is under stress, aren’t likely to be completed before Monday. I stay here in the meanwhile, having been dissuaded from discharging myself.
 
It’s the first time I’ve been in hospital on my own account since I was a baby and it’s an unnerving experience to be on the receiving end of so much medical attention. For someone who considers himself to be fit and leading a healthy lifestyle, it’s been a bit of a shock. I can’t fault the staff or facilities, both are excellent, but I could have done without this hiatus (as you may imagine) because there is so much going on with Blackpool Supporters’ Trust, Dead Good Poetics, house-renovation and all. Maybe therein lies the problem, but I don’t think so.
 
If not completely random, it is nature’s way of saying something is not right and I will take the best advice to get it remedied. I try to dismiss the thought that it might have been much worse and hope to be out of here soon and getting on with life – I have unfinished business.


 
Something and Nothing
It was something and nothing.
The doctor called it an event
but it seemed hardly worthy of the name.
 
If that was a brush with mortality
it was like the very finest sable
being trailed over my left eyelid
by the Master Painter.

I heard no cosmic laughter,
felt no shock
but I’ve acquired an irritating blind-spot
at seven o’clock
(and many minutes after).


Thanks for reading. Have a good week. Normal service will be resumed soon. S ;-)

3 comments:

christo said...

Sorry to read of this, Steve, though you describe a TIA very clearly considering how fuzzy the stroke makes us feel.
MY own first one in 1996 put me into Victoria for a fortnight, and, like you, I've nothing but praise for the quacks and the nursing staff.
Slow down is the best advice I can offer, but please design your own exercise routine to recover any loss of capability in your limbs - I was offered physio only two months after the hospital stay, but getting as much as possible working again asap is down to our own determination.
Look forward to hearing good progress and to seeing you on Friday 3rd April at Moo Bar.

Steve Rowland said...

Thanks for all the kind thoughts and best wishes. I'm back home and forcing myself to take it easy for a few days. The only symptom has been that slight blurring of left-field peripheral vision which I hope will clear over time. As a precaution I'm now snaffling something called Clopidogrel daily, an anti-clotting agent. I hope it doesn't make verse worse! ;-D

Lady Curt said...

Sorry to hear of your admission to hospital, but glad that you are now back home. Follow all the advice given. Hope to see you on the 3rd ,but if you choose to opt out then I'll understand.