Stent plus three. Or how the world has changed.

29 Aug 2019 was the day I was wheeled into Royal Papworth to undergo an angioplasty which, according to Dr Kilani who performed the procedure, probably pre-empted a heart attack and who knows what the consequences of that would have been. But that was then and now is a different time and the country has changed.

In the year since Stent plus two we have been ‘living with Covid’ which has meant more or less normality. There have been no more lockdowns, events take place as they would in pre-Covid times, and restaurants and bars are free to ply their trade without restriction. But the virus is still rampant, people are still getting infected and it appears that more people are dying of, maybe with, it than at any time since the start of the pandemic. It’s only very recently that the requirement to wear masks in pharmacies has been lifted.

The impact of the last two years is still being felt by the NHS. Hospitals are under incredible stress with long A&E waiting times, lots of people being in hospital but not needing to be there, an ambulance service performing below par and treatments of other diseases playing catch-up.

GP surgeries should be doing better but would I be cynical in suggesting that many rather liked the control which Covid gave them to control patient flow? It is not easy to get an appointment and the practice of having to ring in the morning to get an appointment on the day continues. It’s a nonsense for so many reasons.

Add to the above Brexit which has deprived the NHS and our social care system of so many people and I can’t imagine the response to my ‘crisis’ of three years ago being possible. I remember easily getting an appointment, maybe it was the use of the magic words ‘chest pains’, although I grumbled about the time I spent in A&E I was processed quickly and efficiently and the only waiting was for tests to be carried out. Then I was admitted to wait for an opportunity for an angiogram which duly took place just two days later and then I was discharged and out of the system. It was brilliant at the time, I’m grateful for it and thankful that it had not happened in today’s circumstances.

But back to me. I’m fine. My blood pressure drifted up at one time to something like 130/65 but has now come back down to 120/60 and below. The long term trend is stable and shows many shorter term peaks and troughs. My weight is steady at 65kg so I’m thinking that my low sat fat diet is doing well and that there are no indications at present of blood pressure related problems. I’ve not yet had a blood test, I’ll get one arranged as soon as I can get an appo fixed at my GP, I continue to take just four medications and to maximise my consumption of avocados which are supposed to be great cholesterol reducers.

I continue to be physically active. I’m a regular at the gym and attend two cardio sessions, one in Zoom and one in person, a week. I haven’t been running so much, my last 5k was in February although I did run 4k in May. I must resume now that the weather’s cooler.

Out and about I enjoyed a photo weekend in Hampshire in November of last year, and weeks in Switzerland in February (above), in Sorrento in May and in North Wales in June

I have also continued to shed responsibilities having now stepped down from the Parish Council and the Eastern Learning Alliance. I continue as a trustee at Histon & Impington Green Spaces which, to be honest, I don’t really enjoy. I chair its Fundraising and Communications Committee. Workwise I continue to work with Sensotec and have also spent some time with Macsa, my first post-Covid airflights, which has now come to and end.

Back to the second part of the subject of this blog post: we are post-Covid but Brexit is still hurting and now we’ve got the energy and cost of living crises brought on at least in part by the war in Ukraine. Plus a Tory leadership campaign which is likely to result in a more rightwing government out of touch with most people. We are going to see a winter of inflation and shortages. People will get rather angry. I worry.