Too tired to remember Easter.
Easter passed me by this year. It’s not because I’m an atheist. I think beliefs, faiths, meanings are essential to our well being, but very personal and for me not to be culturally regulated. I believe in love, metaphysics, forgiveness, wild places and regular exercise. No, it was because I spent Easter in the Intensive Care Unit of the Oulu University Hospital, fighting off Malaria. I’ve already described the circumstances in my previous blog (But they don’t get Malaria in Finland, 10th April). What I want to think about in... Read more »
the ‘umble spleen.
It lurks tucked up behind the stomach, a soft black leather purse moulded to the contours of adjacent organs like a dark shadow, the sort of organ you’d ignore, a remnant, a vestige, a redundancy. No wonder surgeons removed the spleen with impunity if they were operating on the stomach. ... Read more »
But they don’t get Malaria in Finland!
Certainly not in the north in late winter, they don’t. How on earth would a mosquito survive temperatures of -10. But this illness was strange. I know it’s cold here, but shivering that starts when you are sitting in a warm room; the shaking that won’t stop despite going to bed... Read more »
Lost
‘Oh, dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.’ It was like a metronome, every second. Simon worked out that at this rate, she would say oh dear, 3600 times an hour, up to 50,000 times a day, 15 million times a year. But the mantra had some more intense... Read more »
Epitaph
Reader! If thou hast a heart famed for tenderness and pity, contemplate this spot. In which are deposited the remains of a young lady, whose artless beauty, innocence of mind and gentle manner obtained her the esteem of all who knew her. But when nerves were too delicately spun to bear the rude shakes and jostlings, which we meet in this transitory world, nature gave... Read more »
It only hurts when I laugh; living with an injured back.
When I was a physiologist, I used to ponder the cause of the sensations I felt in my body, the reactions of my gut, what is was about feeling sick that made me yawn or sweat, why a headache made he muscles on the back of my neck sore. I... Read more »
The dangers of going to bed.
It had been a long night. Although my hospital bed allowed me to adjust my position, the slightest movement of my back was agony, and I could not get comfortable. The plastic mattress was damp with sweat and my pyjama top was rucked up my back and impossible to adjust. I... Read more »
