We are currently in Adelaide for Angela’s birthday. During our visit we thought we should get a little culture, so we visited Adelaide Art Gallery. It has quite a varied collection of art, with some beautiful Australian landscape paintings and unique aboriginal art. However, one display particularly caught Angela’s eye. It is one of the permanent displays, a piece by the … [Read more...]
Coronation and clotting
As the Coronation is taking place this week, I thought I should try to find some link between the Coronation and clotting. First, I tried to find out if any royals had suffered from clotting problems. George VI died from coronary thrombosis, and I am sure other Royal family members have had heart problems or venous thrombosis, but none seemed particularly interesting. I also … [Read more...]
New Year resolutions for clotters
New Year is the time for making resolutions. If you are like me, they last for a few weeks at most but the intention is good. For people who have had a blood clot, these are three things that you might want to add to your resolutions for this year. Take your tablets regularly If you are taking an anticoagulant, you must keep taking it regularly. This is probably more … [Read more...]
Carols for clotters
This is a rather frivolous post but it is that time of year. I have modified a couple of well-known carols to bring some Christmas cheer to those of you on anticoagulants. The pregnant women's Christmas lament A Christmas carol to all those pregnant women having to inject themselves with low-molecular-weight heparin during the Christmas period. To the tune of O little … [Read more...]
Santa Claus atrial fibrillation risk
An article in The Medical Journal of Australia raised concerns that Santa has a risk of developing atrial fibrillation because of his advanced age and other risk factors. Currently, there is no guide to help manage his condition. Fortunately, the authors of the article have come up with some useful advice. They proposed the SANTA CLAUS mnemonic to aid … [Read more...]
Blood Red Christmas
Red and green are the colours of Christmas. But why have the colours become so synonymous with this time of year? I wondered if there was any link with blood. The main reason I tried to find a link was so I could show off our Lego Christmas Village in a post. It certainly has a red and green theme. We have been collecting a new house for the Christmas village every year for … [Read more...]
Frivolous Friday – Halloween links
Last weekend our house was packed. Overrun by small grandchildren dressed in various costumes from witches to superheroes, with a few movie characters thrown in. I believe Halloween has become a festival for children with some rather macabre decorations. I am not so keen on the "trick or treats", but find some of the myths associated with Halloween fascinating. Interestingly, a … [Read more...]
Frivolous Friday – modern art and coagulation
I'd never visited Australia's capital city, Canberra, so when an opportunity arrived for a girl's weekend there, I was very excited. I arrived there with two of my daughters and my daughter-in-law for the hottest weekend on record. The temperature was 39 degrees, so we were very pleased to enter the air-conditioned National Gallery. It was a great way to spend a morning (as … [Read more...]
Frivolous Friday – Cockney Rhyming Slang for blood
My mother has always told me that my brother is a Cockney as he was born at Westminster Maternity Hospital which was then within the "sound of Bow Bells" - in earshot of the bells of St Mary-le-Bow in London's East End. As an aside, these same bells are claimed by some to be the bells that caused Dick Whittington to "Turn again Whittington, Lord Mayor of London" Cockneys … [Read more...]
Frivolous Friday – “bloody-minded”
Maybe Friday is a good day to cover the meaning of "bloody-minded" Who hasn't known work colleagues who are "deliberately uncooperative" by the week's end? Or may be felt that way themselves? We're looking at some common figures of speech that include the word 'blood'. Last week's was"My blood froze" Apparently "bloody minded" is a British colloquialism which doesn't always … [Read more...]
