The Vilest Person I Know Of (Excluding Rupert Murdoch & Assorted Politicians & Child Sex Abusers)

[molly bloom]

I've been out of hospital for about a day and a half now, having had a gallstone successfully removed from its lodgement in a duct between my liver and bowel.

While I was in the ward I met a very charming man of Greek descent, who grew up in Greece and spent his teenage years in Canada. He's in his late sixties, and has liver cancer.

When he was forced to come into hospital for more aggressive treatment, his landlady decided to take advantage of his absence to change his locks and evict him.

I've never met her (just as well for her) but I confess that other than Margaret Thatcher, it's the first time I've ever felt violently inclined towards a woman.

I'm going to 'process' my anger by visiting Mr. A. later today- I went to Walthamstow yesterday where there's a pretty decent Turkish supermarket/wholesalers and I've bought him some halva, Turkish delight and some Greek yoghurt. It's not like he's watching his weight, after all...

I'd have liked to go on today's anti-cuts march/demo. , but having recently spent 36 hours without food or water and undergone an ERCP, I think this time the personal trumps the political.

Have a good Saturday everyone.

[SlowwHand]

She's a hag, that's for sure.

I hope you and your new friend are doing well.

[Dauphin]

Hmm, did you get the whole story or are you totally reliant on his say-so that this is what happened?

And yes, as Slowwhand says in his second sentence.

[C0ckney]

I hope you and your new friend are doing well.

[molly bloom]

Hmm, did you get the whole story or are you totally reliant on his say-so that this is what happened?

Let's say I accidentally 'eavesdropped' on a conversation between a social worker and an old friend of Mr. A's when I was hooked up to an I.V. saline drip and awaiting my intramuscular antibiotics injection. It seems his landlady recently went through a messy divorce and this is somehow tied in with her current shenanigans...

As of Saturday, it seems he may have been found a new place to move into, but it's still unfurnished, has no landline (fairly important for someone in his late 60s with advanced liver cancer) and his possessions are still back at his landlady's.

Stress like that he doesn't need.

He enjoyed his Greek yoghurt, has had several pieces of rose and lemon Turkish delight, a couple of Tunisian dates and some cocoa halva.

Last night another friend of his dropped by to give him a shave- as I discovered after nearly four days in hospital, feeling clean shaven and well groomed is a great morale booster, and the nurses generously allowed me to go home (I live within walking distance of the hospital) and have a proper shave (face and head) and I felt much the better for it.

Tomorrow I'm going to drop in again with some hummus, olives and pitta bread. I've left him an old Walkman with some Miles Davis, Nancy Wilson and Sarah Vaughan to listen to (he likes jazz).

I dug up an old cassette of 'Music of Ancient Greece' since I don't have any Theodorakis, but Tuesday I'm going to hit the local charity shops and see if I can't unearth some other stuff he'd like. Unfortunately before I left to live in Australia I gave away nearly all my cassettes, so most of what I have left is not really to Mr. A's taste.

[Dinner]

It's nice of you to help out an old man who's clearly not doing well health wise.

[MikeH]

Yeah.

[molly bloom]

It's nice of you to help out an old man who's clearly not doing well health wise.

Well- I could write a long ode to or paean for, the N.H.S. . Then again, as the nurses said, I could be one of the patients who just get the treatment, demand and complain and never say thank you, but I was brought up to believe that please and thank you cost nothing but can mean a lot.

I also thought (possibly a little selfishly) that if it were me hospitalized with advanced liver cancer it'd be good to have a few things that reminded me of home and better days. That and a little karmic balancing definitely makes me feel better about myself- so perhaps I'm not as altruistic as I thought...

To tell the truth, when I was admitted almost two weeks ago, it was on a morning when after a week of feeling really quite unwell, I had actually improved to the extent of not feeling nauseous at the thought of food, and up to keeping an appointment at 09:45 on Wednesday 16 March.

It was only when the person I was meeting said to me:

" I'm not joking - but are you unwell ? Your eyes are yellow and your skin looks jaundiced."

before I'd even had the chance to say hello, that I realized a trip to the hospital might be a good idea. Don't dilly dally with the liver....

I was seen and admitted so quickly, I didn't even have the chance to bring any extra clothes or books or music with me, and then it was chest and abdominal X-Rays, blood samples, blood pressure readings, followed by ultrasound on Thursday (& I.V. saline and antibiotics and intramuscular antiobiotics and regular blood samples and blood pressure monitoring) where I saw my gall bladder up close and personal and three further stones bouncing around like pinballs, then an M.R.I. scan on Friday and diagnosis and treatment the following week.

I looked up my symptoms and it said amongst other things: 'excruciating pain in upper right quadrant, similar to labour pains' so I didn't feel too wimpish after all, because the pain had been so bad it prevented me from sleeping for more than an hour or two at any one time, and the most I had to eat on any day for almost a week and a half was 4 zero fat yoghurts and a few cups of ginger tea to combat the nausea.

Still, I'm in famous company: the lovely Marilyn Monroe had her gall bladder removed. The operation scar can be seen in one of her late photo sessions-

�She hated the scar on her midriff from a recent gall-bladder operation, I told her it was beautiful. She was at a time in her life when she needed to re-invent herself, I think that�s why she accepted to pose for me, she drank gallons of Dom P�rignon, got drunk and fell asleep.� (Bert Stern)

http://phorm-design-life.blogspot.co...nroe-1962.html

However, I definitely don't recommend gallstones to anyone, in the gall bladder or elsewhere, so I'll be having my elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy in about a month to six weeks time, because I don't fancy a rematch.

And all because we have a familiar predisposition to hypercholesterolemia. I don't even have butter or margarine in the house, and the only cooking oils are olive or pumpkin and sesame, so someone's clearly giving me saturated fats osmotically when I'm asleep...

Stay healthy everyone.