Hospitals should not allow visitors

My mom has just been in hospital for two full days, two nights and a morning for a hip replacement operation. As a result of covid, visitors were not permitted. And I'm glad!

Post-op, my mom spent most of her time in hospital sleeping off the anaesthetic, resting, seeing the physio and being monitored by the nursing staff - the usual regular blood pressure checks, drip maintenance, catheter check and removal, meds at set intervals, meals. It can be a busy time being a patient.

I was quite happy to let her rest and then have whatsapp contact with her when she was awake and I was there to pick her up on release.

My mom, Liz. Back from the hospital after two days and two nights there for a hip replacement.

From her side, she appreciated not having visitors too. She could drift in and out of sleep, not worry about how she looked and she didn't have to smile at other people's visitors either. Less noise too.

She spoke to some of her attending nursing staff about how they felt about the ban on visitors and they all appreciated that there were no visitors so that they could get on with their jobs of caring for patients and not attending to visitor whims and enquiries, which really disrupts their work.

It seems that wards at the hospital have been better arranged to group similar patients together. My mom was in a ward dedicated solely to orthopaedic patients. They're in-and-out in a few days and aside from needing some kind of bodywork, they are not ill and they are fully conscious and functional.

Of course, not all patients are as 'straight forward' as orthopaedic. There are patients with major illnesses, strokes, accident victims, terminal patients, unconscious patients and the like who spend not just two days in hospital. Adults and children can be in hospital for weeks (or months!).

So this is where I will add a disclaimer to the title of this post that says 'hospitals should not allow visitors'. Patients that have routine, elective surgery, and any other kinds of patients that are in-and-out in a few days and nights, do not need visitors. For their own healing and recovery, and for distraction-free, improved effectiveness of the nursing staff. And diminished spread of illness (from the visitors!). Mobile phones and wifi are a blessing and the patient can choose when to communicate - between sleeps.

We selfishly want to visit loved ones to satisfy our own need to see them, when what they really need is a whole lot of rest with no demand on their focus or conversational skills. They have enough disruptions with the nursing activities around them.

For critically ill patients, those rushed to hospital in an emergency and long-term patients, limited visitors would be beneficial (for the patient and the worried family). I'm not sure how many visitors maternity patients would welcome during their first days with their baby? I'm sure most would be happy for just the company of their partner and brief, limited visits from parents / sibling / in-laws (if any - they could just wait for her to go home)?

The flip side of not permitting visitors, is that there are always stories (true stories!) of patients left unattended for hours, drips that run dry, incorrect medication dosages that are given, meds that are not administered... And these errors are picked up by visitors. Do visitors keep nursing staff more accountable when the patient is unable to check themselves?

Optimistically, I reckon that with no visitors and minimised distractions in regular wards, nursing staff will be better able to do their jobs (less errors and neglect) and that patients can recover, rest and return home faster.

Consider patella tracking

The kneecap (patella) is a wondrous design that protects the knee joint from damage. An array of tendons and ligaments surround the knee cap. The tendons attach muscles, like the quadriceps, to bone while the ligaments attach bone to bone and serve to hold structures together and keep them stable.

The kneecap sits in a groove in the femur (thigh bone). When you bend your knee, the patella should stay centered, in the femoral groove. If the patella instead moves to the left or to the right - misaligned to the femoral groove - then this is known as patella tracking disorder. Common causes are weak thigh muscles and imbalances in lateral and medial muscles. Also tendons, ligaments, or muscles in the leg that are too tight or too loose. Of course, activities that stress the knee again and again, especially those with twisting motion (think quick direction-change sports like soccer and ultimate frisbee), can cause patella tracking disorder.

The pain / discomfort is felt around the kneecap.

This is relatively easy to correct long-term through a variety of stability and strengthening exercises like squats and leg raises. Taping and knee braces are bandaids that provide structural support to keep the knee cap aligned. 

I have another 'cause' to add to the list: restrictive clothing. Clothing that covers your knee can mess with how your knee cap tracks.

I have three examples.

I had a pair of tights that ended just below my knees. Every time I wore them, I developed a sore left knee. The pain and discomfort would sometimes disappear over night, or it would last for a few days. It took me a while to identify the tights as the cause. Stop wearing the tights = stop getting a sore knee. This was the first of two pairs of tights where I had this problem. With the second pair I cut I fabric to loosen the tension over my knee and the problem was solved.

In 2012, I had the pleasure of participating in a 24-hour rogaining event in Ireland. Before the race I bought a pair of really good waterproof pants. Berghaus. They have those pouches for your knee to bend. As it turns out, I found the crotch-to-waist length a bit too long for me and so I had to roll the top to get them to sit right and to ensure that the knee-bending pouch was correctly placed. After hours and hours of my knee hitting the seam, I developed a sore knee that I totally put down to patella tracking - where the lie of the fabric prevented my patella from tracking in its normal alignment and as a result caused increasing pain and discomfort. After the race I took the pants off and never had another problem. I've only worn them for short periods subsequently and have made sure to tuck them so that the pouch is properly over my knee.

Last week I developed a sore right knee - from doing not very much. And I put it down to the tight 'skinny' jeans that I was wearing most days. I spent most of my time sitting at my desk working. tight jeans, pulling over my knee, squishing my kneecap out of alignment... sore knee. I did a few nights of anti-inflams, stopped wearing those jeans and my knee is right as rain again.

I wa discussing this with a running friend this evening. His daughter wears knee-high compression socks that come just under her knees. If they are too high (like just under), she gets a sore knee. My 'diagnosis' is that the tightness of the top of the socks compresses the tendons and ligaments below the kneecap which alters how they pull on the kneecap to cause pain and discomfort. To remedy this, she makes sure that the top of the socks sits lower below her knee.

So, if you develop a spot of knee pain for no particular reason, consider what you are wearing. The type of fabric will have an effect - even stretchy fabrics - as illustrated above - can influence knee movement.  And, remember that weight gain and weight loss can change how clothing interacts with your knee movement. Clothing doesn't have to be tight; incorrect positioning of loose clothing (like my rain pants) can have as much of an effect.

The Art of Wronging and Righting

Over the past few weeks I have given a lot of thought to wronging  - both from the perspective of the wronger and the wrongee. To wrong someone is to act unjustly or dishonestly towards them. My feeling is that wrongs are seldom done with intention or malice and that it is our perspective that makes a wrong just that.

image from the internet

A couple of weeks ago I was wronged. Strictly speaking, there was no misdeed that took place, there was no malice or intent on the part of the wronger and I could logically reason the whole situation. But emotionally - that is where it hit me. I was hurt. Very hurt.

Of course, time and perspective sorts everything out, but I also had to work through how to move forward and to arrive at some kind of peace in order to interact regularly with the wronger.

As it would happen, a couple of weeks ago I unintentionally wronged a friend. And I didn't even know it until a via-the-grapevine message got back to me. In short, I was standing up for him to get R2200 from our club instead of the R720 that he expected. He took offence because I'd declined payment of the R720 because it was his personal expense but I wanted to give him the R2200 because it was money that he had spent that should have been refunded to him.

As you can see from this, the way in which I wronged him was completely unintentional, unbeknown and totally without malice. But he said nothing and so I didn't even know that I had wronged him. And he remained mad at me for weeks. Even though I have explained my reasoning and apologised to offending him, he is probably still a bit mad at me.

I have fortunately had very few instances where I have been wronged to the extent that I have limited or cut off contact completely with the person. In the two cases that I can recall, I was straight in telling them that I was mad with them and why. It changed our relationship.

These recent wrongs got me thinking about righting - when you are the wronger, how do you make things right and what level of 'forgiveness' can you expect from the wrongee?

I have come to the conclusion that I should treat the wronger the same way that I would expect to be treated if I was in their position. Because, that is what I would want.

That said, it is only possible to move forward and carry on with a healthy interaction if the wronger has acknowledged their wrong (even if the wrong was unintentional), understands the impact that the wrong had, and has apologised for the wrong.

In this light, forgiveness is possible.

On Wiki the definition of forgiveness is "the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offence, and overcomes negative emotions such as resentment and vengeance".

 I also found this as a comment on forgiveness and it rings true for me: "Forgiveness means letting go of the pain the incident is causing us. We forgive to give ourselves peace of mind, and in hopes that one day someone will return the favour if we ever offend them".

While I wish you no wrong, either on the giving or receiving end, if you find yourself offended or offending, I hope that you'll be able to make right after some thought and a lot of understanding and compassion.

My VW Polo clocks 250,000km

I bought my VW Polo in mid-2006. It was second-hand (2003 model) and had 35,000 kilometres on the clock.

On Monday afternoon the odometer hit a new milestone of 250,000 kilometres. I love my Polo. With its seats down it acts like a bakkie ('pick-up truck') to carry equipment, gear, bicycles, products and even a lawnmower. It has been a faithful race scouting vehicle, off-roader, commuter vehicle and an all purpose car. It has taken me to races and places. I've transported any number of items on my roof racks - from kayaks to wooden poles, ladders, plumbing pipes and metal bars.

Polo, I look forward to many more adventures with you.

Double-shift school just makes sense

School properties are underutilised. During the morning, children are - for the most part - in classrooms and there may be some use of sports fields and other facilities for physical education lessons. From 12h30 to 14h00 classes end (depending on the grade) and, I would presume, the majority of the students go home. Some stay behind for after-school sport and cultural activities.

Class sizes are upwards of 28 to 40 (certainly in the government system) and as such teachers and space are burdened. The bigger the class, the slower the progress through the learning material - this holds true for running, hiking, biking, paddling... The bigger the group, the slower the group moves overall.

From what I have seen of Kyla and Ruben's school work over the past three years (currently grades 8 and 5 respectively), they don't cover that much in a year and learning would certainly be far more effective with smaller class numbers and a slightly shortened day to accommodate the double shift.

Putting schools on shifts is not a new concept. Double-shift schools maximise the use of resources, reduce overcrowding and accommodate more children overall. Fewer new school properties and all that these entail would need to be built.

Shift variations include having morning and afternoon classes or having full-day school on alternate days (the latter makes life more difficult for parents with children not at school at all on alternate days).

One property could host a primary school in the mornings and a high school in the afternoons, or, probably more feasible, is one school in the morning and a completely different school with its own headmaster and teachers in the afternoon. This would be more practical as teachers of the same grade could share the same classrooms (they could even work together to share material and classroom decorations too).

Whether a school has 100 children or 1000 children, the costs for maintaining buildings and facilities is the same. The property may as well be put to maximum use.

Driving past our schools in Parys in the afternoons and school holidays, I'm always disappointed to see the lack of use of facilities as I rarely see children out and about; and during the holidays - around three months a year! - there is no one on school properties at all!

Why are our schools not doing shifts? I have no idea. It doesn't make sense to me that they are not.

Hazel is running Ten10 again

On Sunday afternoon I enjoyed the special opportunity to run bit less than 20km with Hazel on Day 3 of her Ten10 challenge.

This is Hazel's 5th year of running 10 x Comrades distances (90km/day) from JHB to Maritzburg, with the 10th being Comrades itself. She started running on Friday and yesterday, Day 3, ran to Parys. Karen and I went out to meet her on the road, running with her to the day's finish.

Hazel, Karen and me. Photo taken while running!

Also running this year is Cornel. This is her first Ten10 and she is running incredibly well. She seems to have a natural knack for distance.

Hazel has been involved with animal shelters, having rescued a good many dogs while out on runs. She has provided homes for some, found homes for others, rushed to vets and raised funds for sterilisation programmes and to assist shelters with food.

While we were running yesterday she told me about a runner that she met recently who, while he was out on a run, saw a puppy being chased and stoned. The puppy appeared to have deformed front legs and it was being abused by a group of men. He rescued the puppy and has adopted it. As it turns out, the issue with its legs were purely due to malnutrition, which corrected within two weeks. When he saw the puppy being abused, the guy asked himself, "What would Hazel do?". He has named the puppy Hazel.

And then last week she got a call from a running friend to say that children were abusing kittens that had been born to a feral cat near a block of flats. Hazel dropped her girls off at school and got there about 45 minutes later. Apparently a 10 year old boy has smashed in the face of one kitten and was in the process of skinning it when he was stopped. Other children were looking on. Another kitten had been hung by its scruff on a barbed wire fence. Hazel says fortunately she did not see the state of the first kitten - the police had been called to intervene. When she is done with this challenge she will address this issue with the children's school and work with them to teach children about animal welfare.

Hazel is one of the bravest, strongest and most capable women I know.

You can donate to the shelters that Hazel has nominated through the Ten10 website. Or you can do your own thing by donating to your local shelter or by dropping off dog/cat food for the animals that they protect.

And, if you have the capacity, consider being a forever home to a shelter animal.

And, sterilise your animals. Neither you nor they need to have puppies or kittens. Shelters are overflowing.

Follow Hazel and Cornel on their journey and if you're in the area where they are, catch them on the road and give them a cheer or run a few kilometres with them. You can follow their movements on live tracking at trackrace.tk/ten10_2018

WIPs

In the world of knitting and crochet we have a lovely three-letter acronym - WIP (Work In Progress) - that refers to projects started but not yet completed.

I've been quite agitated recently because I have a bunch of WIPs - not just crochet projects but all sorts of other things - like the replacing the silicone around the basin (I pulled most of it off but haven't finished the scraping that needs to be done before I can replace with new), a work project I'm excited about but haven't made any progress on and a bunch of crochet WIPs and crafty projects (damn Pinterest for its project ideas!) that I haven't event started but that I want to do.

With crochet it is easy to end up with WIPs, especially if you do big projects like making a blanket. A blanket, for me, isn't something I work on all the time so while the blankie is still a WIP, I'll complete a few smaller projects. Some become bigger and they end up as WIPs too.

On Ravelry -  a pattern/project/social sharing site for knitting and crochet - you can set up projects and add start and finish dates, include details like hook size, yarn type, how much yarn, money spent on yarn and photographs of your project. There's also a 'progress bar' where you can indicate how far you are - 10%, 30%, 85%.

I appreciate having a projects page because much of what I make is not for me and over time I forget about what I've made. This is a great way to see how I've spent my time.

On Monday night I completed a 'Sophie's Universe Crochet-A-Long' blanket that I started at the end of January. I haven't worked on it full time so in that respect it has actually gone quickly. Six months is not bad at all for a blanket of this size. She's big and heavy and lovely.

The past two weeks have been all about finishing Sophie to free me up to work on Stella's blankie and also to start a Corner-2-Corner blanket. I've got the yarn for both of these projects.

There's a distinct satisfaction in completing a WIP and on Monday night when I changed my project status on Ravelry from WIP to completed I breathed a sigh of relief.

It isn't just in crochet that I have a WIP issue. I like to think of home and work tasks of projects - displayed like my Ravelry projects - that I can monitor and gauge in terms of time, materials, cost, outcome and progress. I have a dozen home and work tasks not even begun as well as those not yet completed.

I'm on a mission to complete WIPs. Finishing a project takes it off the to do list and brings with it a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. And it frees up time and energy to start new projects.

Living in a post-antibiotic world

Sobering. Indeed.

One of the best TED talks that I've watched for a while - it is one that has you thinking and wondering for days and weeks after watching it.

We have been living in a golden age where we don't die from an infected finger nail, or a bladder infection, or a chest infection.

Going in for an operation is unlikely to be life threatening. Post-op infections can happen, but usually you're fine because the would was probably sealed with an antibiotic treatment and infections that arise later can be treated.

When you fall off your bicycle and gash your leg, you go home, apply disinfectants and sleep soundly that night.

How would our adventure-activity behaviours have to change if we didn't have this protection?

I wouldn't jump into most rivers or dams if I had a cut on my arm and, fearful of cuts, I certainly wouldn't walk into the water without shoes.

And negotiating barbed wire fences... I've been scratched a few times over the years - fortunately without infection. But this could be a risk.

Would you go slower riding your bicycle down steep hills and would your get off to push through technical sections where you'd be likely to come off? Even a little tumble and a light graze could prove deadly in a world without antibiotic protection should an infection arise.

Yes, the world would be a very different place. We'd actually need to have serious, all-the-time concern for our health.

Even though we do benefit now from protection, it is well worth being far more careful so that you don't need to take antibiotics, using them only when absolutely necessary.

Watch this.