Just as I had got Meg safely in bed on Saturday evening and was doing some of my routine evening jobs, I received the news from my niece that my sister, who is two and a half years older than me, is in hospital. Although she is now in a residential home, it appeared that her COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) had worsened necessitating a stay in hospital. She is receiving oxygen via what I think is called the Venturi system (although the NHS might have another name for it) where a flow of oxygen is fed into the lungs via a mask and this takes a bit of pressure off the diaphragm. Because it is difficult to communicate with a face mask in place, it may be that I cannot FaceTime my sister but will await updates from my niece. But if there were any doubts concerning whether my sister had entered a residential home too early, these doubts must be dispelled by now as with this little episode, my sister's capacity for self care must have diminished a notch. So I have had one of my family members (our son) discharged from hospital about three days ago and now my sister is in for a stint so I hope the hospital do a good job in turning her around, which they surely will.
As yesterday was the first of the month, I am allowing my thoughts to turn to the next few weeks ahead. Having felt terrible all yesterday, I got up feeling a lot better after a regime of taking Flue and Cold sachets and generally taking care of myself. Meg and I undertake a visit down the hill to Waitrose as we both are need of a breath of fresh air, which we shall surely get. Perhaps because I thinking of some of our care staff, I reminded myself of two principles that were current in my career as a teacher of sociology before I moved onto other things. One principle of organisational functioning was promulgated in an article entitled 'The Protection of the Inept' , whose whole thesis was that all organisations kept inept people deliberately within their ranks. This was because the other organisational members could say to themselves that however badly they were felt to be performing, they were still doing better than 'X' who the organisation would surely sack first (but this does not always happen) The second principle is known as the 'Peter principle' and it goes like this. If a person at the very bottom of an organisation is supremely competent in their job, then the best thing to do is to promote them. The more they display competence when promoted, then the individual will be promoted to the point where they are barely competent and only just managing to cope. The author of the principle, Lawrence Peter, a Canadian author and educator expressed it thus: 'In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence. In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties.' The jury is out whether this principle works out in practice or was meant as an extended joke but nonetheless it is interesting to observe organisations in this particular way.
As it is the 1st of the month, I am filled with good intentions a little similar to New Year Resolutions. Conscious of what had happened to my son recently and also of the fact that my sister is currently hospitalised with COPD symptoms, I thought I had better started taking care of my own health and lung functions. So when I got up this morning, even though it was quite early at just after 6.00am I went outside into the garden and took a dozen deep breathfuls of air to get myself well oxygenated for the day ahead. Actually there is a fair amount of preparation to do before the carers arrive at 8.00am but fortunately I was all ready in time today. When I went on the internet to research good lung health recently, I discovered an elementary fact of human physiology of which I was ignorant. I know that health professionals often state that one needs to drink at least two litres of water to stay healthy. Many of us believe we should drink at least eight glasses of water a day. Fuelling this appetite for water is the '8x8 rule': the unofficial advice recommending we drink eight 240ml glasses of water per day, totalling just under two litres, on top of any other drinks. That 'rule' however, is not backed by scientific findings – nor do UK or EU official guidelines say we should be drinking this much. It looks as though this unclear information about how much water comes from misinterpretation of a piece of guidance from decades ago. In 1945 the US Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council advised adults to consume one millilitre of liquid for every recommended calorie of food, which equates to two litres for women on a 2,000-calorie diet and two-and-a-half for men eating 2,500 calories. Not just water, that included most types of drinks – as well as fruits and vegetables, which can contain up to 98% water. I now more fully appreciate, though, that the water transported through the body helps in the more efficient transport of oxygen to all of our vital organs and that it why a certain level of hydration is so important, particularly for those with an impaired heart and lung function.
As soon as we had viewed the political programmes, I made a phone call to our University of Birmingham friend and, as we normally do, we spent a very happy three quarters of an hour in his company. Then we made our way home and I engaged in my normal late Sunday morning dash around the kitchen whilst I was preparing a dinner of ham cooked in the slow cooker, broccoli and a baked potato. We had intended to watch the finals of 'Young Chorister of the Year' to be broadcast as part of the 'Songs of Praise' series. Instead, we tuned into the next episode of 'Pilgrimage' which was following the route of St Colomba who brought the Christian faith from Ireland to the Scottish highlands and islands. In the late afternoon, as it now officially the Christmas season, Channel 4 broadcast 'Mog at Christmas' which I was particularly looking forward to watching (a Mog is my nickname within the household) However I slept through this but afterwards we were treated to a re-run of the Raymond Briggs version of 'The Snowman' which is a very famous story of the little boy who builds a snowman and he two of them embark on a series of adventures both within and outside the family home. I always thought it was Aled Jones who sang the famous theme song of 'Walking Through the Air' but I was only half right. The full story is that it was a choir boy called Peter Auty who sang at St Paul's Cathedral at the age of 13 who recorded the theme song of the 1982 animated film, The Snowman, but in the rush to finish the film his name was omitted from the credits until the film was remastered for its 20th anniversary in 2002. The composer, Howard Blake, decided to re-record the song for a commercial for Toys 'R' Us in 1985. Aled Jones was chosen instead and the song became a hit single. Many people assumed that Jones, rather than Auty, was the singer in the version used in the film.
© Mike Hart [2024]