Archive for the ‘COPD – Codgers Old Puffing Disease’ Category

Podge Gets it Wrong Again

Posted: January 29, 2026 in COPD - Codgers Old Puffing Disease, Health, Podge
Tags: , ,
0


Podge saw his GP on Friday (23/01) as part of his long term care plan. At the end of the review she said all looked good but did say that he should try to keep more active. So with that in mind, on the Saturday he decided he really needed to get the garage tidied so that he could get both bike and treadmill operational. Part of this involved upturning a garden chair and putting it up, leaning over his bike to do it, onto a storage box. Naturally, Podge being Podge, he lost his balance, totally, and fell straight to the floor (even his head bounced though that part seemed ok) and ended up trapped under the chair & bike. He couldn’t move: He tried waving to  Tubbs who was in the kitchen who thought he was just waving at her so she waved back while turning up the music to listen to one her favourite songs: Then she realised he was actually waving from help. She came out to find him in a mess on the floor and had to, and managed to, free him and help him to his feet and back indoors and onto a kitchen chair.

The pain was quite bad so he took Ibuprofen and Codeine  which made him drowsy, that was good, and so he called it a day and went to bed. The next day, Podge peed blood but this, he vaguely remembered was possibly due to Ibuprofen reacting with his blood thinners.

So, Podge just rested taking Paracetamol but the pain wasn’t going away and both Podge and Tubbs started to worry that Podge had broken something so, come Monday they dialled 111. The initial contact said that they would get a clinician to call him back within 60 minutes, failing that, they would send an ambulance. This upset Poor Podge – Podge doesn’t like ambulances. Eventually somebody did call back though he didn’t really seem to know what was going on or even what day it was, then his computer ‘crashed’. He told Podge to go straight to A&E and he would send ‘a letter’.

Podge reached A&E at 12:00 (ahead of ‘the letter’). There, he was examined, prodded, pulled, pushed made to stand then sit: They agreed that it was obvious he was in great pain so gave him morphine type painkillers (twice): They took an ECG (A-Fib confirmed) and took lots of blood while putting in a cannula as he was going to need a CT Scan. While inserting the Cannula, the doctor forgot to stop the valve or whatever it was and Podge’s blood went all over his trouser and over the floor – Poor Podge.

After a while, Podge and Tubbs were summoned to the CT Scanning department (they offered to wheel him round but felt he needed to stretch his legs so they walked V V slowly).

Inserting Poor Podge into the scanning machine was extremely painful and took three nurses to get him to lie down in the right position and then, off went the machine, whirring away up and down his torso and then, it was all done. Podge and Tubbs were then sent back to A&E Department to await the results of his blood tests and the scan.

Eventually, at 21:00 they, the doctors, happily reported that no bones or organs ‘seem to be’ damaged but they remained aware of how much pain he was in (even Patients waiting to be seen frequently helped Podge stand up each time he was called and for that he was very appreciative and, Tubbs was even getting on well with another patient who was showing her photos of his last diving holiday in the Red Sea!). The doctor provided two options for the next phase: Option 1 – stay in Hospital for pain management; Option 2 – go home with lost of strong painkillers. Podge decided that breakfast back home would be much nice so went for option 2. So they gave him a box of strong prescription strength paracetamol and Codeine and home he went.

And that’s where Podge, and Tubbs, are today though the pain is now greater probably caused by the poking and prodding and the the stress and strain of trying to breath and use his inhalers. The doctor did say however that it could take anything from 2 to 6 weeks: Still, it’s only pain so mustn’t grumble though that bit is very difficult.

Poor Podge

As a postscript Podge and Tubbs cannot fault any of the nursing staff and doctors at Swindon A&E. They were marvellous.

#51 St Maarten – Day 27 (Day 6 of Week 4)

Posted: August 19, 2024 in 2024, Another Cruise, COPD, COPD - Codgers Old Puffing Disease, Cruising, Memories, OaP, P&O, Podge, Retirement, Travel, Tubbs
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1


Back to St Maarten today (20th March 2024).

There are in fact four ships in today and, it’s very hot. St Maarten will no doubt be way too busy ( I know the picture suggests not busy) for it to be relaxing. So, there won’t be much exploring today: just as well really, as poor Podge seems to have caught some  sneezing germ making breathing truculent 🥺 – Poor Podge

(more…)

Hip or Hernia?

Posted: June 30, 2024 in COPD, COPD - Codgers Old Puffing Disease, general, Health, Podge
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

Re-Posting in advance of a new Hospital Visit adventure 🥴

Well, there we were in 2020 and it’s been a long time since I wrote anything under COPD. I make no excuses because that’s exactly what they would be, excuses; seeking to lessen the blame; but the blame is all mine :-).

(more…)

Podge v COPD Week 14

Posted: July 28, 2020 in 2020 Challenge, COPD, COPD - Codgers Old Puffing Disease, Cycling, Diet, general, Hadrian's Wall, My Virtual Mission
Tags: , , , ,
1

So, just what on earth has His Podgeness been doing since the beginning of June: No Posts, not updates, no progress reports, noffink. The truth is, Podge has been feeling very very sorry for himself having somehow picking up three chest infections in a row 🤧. But, with three courses of antibiotics and steroids, it does look as though those nasty germ things have been beaten into submission.

😏

That should help explain the gap between ‘Podge V COPD Week 6’ and ‘Podge V COPD Week 14’

After a shaky start, I did manage to do two rides last week totalling 38 and a bit miles. It was tough and hard on the lungs but good at the same time. This week, my goal will be to do 100 miles: Time will tell (as will my lungs and legs 😂).

As the charts show, my weight and BMI go up and down as much Roland Rat in ‘Splat the Rat’ but I aint giving in.

  • Not going very well 😢
  • Time to take the diet seriously 🍰

Podge must try harder.

My major goal is to complete 2020 virtual miles in 2020. To date, I’ve completed 508 leaving a mere 1512 to do in the next 158 days: I reckon I can do it so long as I don’t have to take too much more time out. I’ve also walked 43 miles against the Hadrian’s Wall challenge leaving just 47 to go.

As I’m so fond of saying, COPD sucks but I ain’t giving in. I must do better. I will do better.

Until next time, Go Podge Go.😷

Podge v COPD Week 6

Posted: June 1, 2020 in COPD, COPD - Codgers Old Puffing Disease, Cycling, Diet, general, Hadrian's Wall, Health, LeJog, OaP, Podge, Rome-2-Home, training, Travel
0

On the 18th May, Podge reported that he’d lost 4 packs of lard: Yay, go Podge Go. On the 25th May, Podge reported that he’d put back on 4 packs of lard: Poor Podge had to go and sit on the Naughty Step 😢. Podge went into meltdown and took drastic measures including the Toal ban on Jammy Dodgers: The ban did also include Anti-Viral Medications (AVMs) but that ban was quickly rescinded. This week, Podge is happy to say that in the past week, he has lost two packs of lard (that’s a loss of 50% in 1-week, of that lost in the first 4-weeks). I therefore conclude from this that Jammy Dodgers clearly encourage Lard and AVMs make little or no difference, 😂🤪 and Podge is sticking by that.

In edition to losing the lard, my BMI has dropped to 30.3 and Body Fat has also dropped to 44.6 while Body Water has gone up to 39.7. The changes are small but, they are all in the right direction: Despite all being, currently, the wrong side of the trend line, all is good in Podge’s world.

Anyway, back to the job in hand. Over the past week, Podge has cycled a total of 74.45 miles and walked a total of 9.4 miles (not bad for COPD St3).

This means that some serious progress has been made on the challenges currently underway (Lands End to John O’Groats [LeJog] and 2020 in respect of cycling and Hadrian’s Wall and the Inca Trail in respect of walking).

I’ve added the Inca Trail purely to encourage Mrs Me to join me on my walks but I don’t report on it. The progress report on Rome-2-Home has been dropped as it is running alongside LeJog and I don’t actually like the route; cycling along major highways just isn’t realistic. For 2021 however I will remap Rome-to-Home to follow the route I would have done if I’d done it for real; as originally planned for at the beginning of the millennium. That route will be sooooo much longer, but prettier.

All rides on Bkool and reported through Strava. All walks measured using my Apple device.

All virtual challenges are tracked through  ‘My Virtual Mission‘ and challenges entered through The ‘Conqueror Virtual Challenge‘ site.

All rides are done in my garage (walks done elsewhere 😋) as my GP has banged me up for a minimum of 12 weeks (reset to start from the 11th May ) due to having Codgers Old Puffing Disease (COPD Stage 3). 😭

Wish me luck – I surely need it.
Go Podge, Go. 

Podge must stop eating

Older Entries