Personal Firsts

[Lat-Literal]

A thread for posting information on activities you have just done for the first time. Anything from knitting to crown green bowls and bungee jumping to baking a cake.

This has been prompted by having just returned from walking a dog for what I realised halfway on the journey was the first time in my life and I loved every minute.

[cloughie]

A thread for posting information on activities you have just done for the first time. Anything from knitting to crown green bowls and bungee jumping to baking a cake.

This has been prompted by having just returned from walking a dog for what I realised halfway on the journey was the first time in my life and I loved every minute.

I trust you had instruction from Rufus Thomas.

[Lat-Literal]

I trust you had instruction from Rufus Thomas.

No but I will do if the neighbours ask me to take their funky chicken round the block.

Have your recently achieved any personal firsts cloughie?

Apple bobbing, tapestry, feeding ducks on a pond, driving a steam train, space travel......that sort of thing?

[Dave2002]

Done or had done? Today I had one of my ears cleaned out by micro suction and also the use of a curette. Scary! The other one didn't have the micro suction.
Quite why syringing is now considered more hazardous than having someone poking around with a sharp instrument I can barely imagine. I shall try to avoid this or the need for this procedure in future.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've just built a wooden Canadian canoe. I began it in May, but it's a bit late in the year to start paddling now.

It still needs varnishing and painting.

[Lat-Literal]

Done or had done? Today I had one of my ears cleaned out by micro suction and also the use of a curette. Scary! The other one didn't have the micro suction.
Quite why syringing is now considered more hazardous than having someone poking around with a sharp instrument I can barely imagine. I shall try to avoid this or the need for this procedure in future.

My first ear syringe was last month so that's two of us although I haven't got a clue what process they used.

I've just built a wooden Canadian canoe. I began it in May, but it's a bit late in the year to start paddling now.

It still needs varnishing and painting.

That's an extraordinary achievement Eine. It will be very exciting for you when it is placed in water. There is a man in my road whose hobby is woodwork and what was one of his two bedrooms is a woodwork room. I am always very impressed by ability and interest of that kind as the nearest thing I've ever done to it is taken photos of crafts men/women.

[Petrushka]

Done or had done? Today I had one of my ears cleaned out by micro suction and also the use of a curette. Scary! The other one didn't have the micro suction.
Quite why syringing is now considered more hazardous than having someone poking around with a sharp instrument I can barely imagine. I shall try to avoid this or the need for this procedure in future.

Sorry, Dave2002, microsuction is brilliant! Syringing can cause damage to the ear drum if not done properly (and many doctors can be a bit heavy handed about it) and if hearing is already poor then serious problems can possibly ensue. I had my right ear done by microsuction in 2007 and it did the business.

[Flay]

My first ear syringe was last month so that's two of us although I haven't got a clue what process they used.

And I had my first ear syringing last week! It must be an age thing

In the old days we would use a large metal syringe with a nozzle, and there was no control over the pressure used, and damage was not uncommon. Nowadays most syringing is done by nurses who have received proper traininig (better than most GPs) and using an electric pump allowing the pressure to be carefully regulated. Unintentional trauma is much rarer but not unheard of.

[Dave2002]

I have had my ears syringed several times over many years - and hopefully the doctors who performed this act did not cause great damage to my ears - though it's difficult to be sure. There is now in the UK a move towards the use of micro suction techniques which are claimed to be safer. Yesterday's experience did get rid of most of the wax. The curette business worried me. We are generally advised not to poke sticks and similar down our ears, so to see and feel a medically trained person doing the same is somewhat disconcerting.

I shall be more proactive with olive oil in future, to try to avoid having to have such procedures performed, or to reduce their frequency.

[Lat-Literal]

And I had my first ear syringing last week! It must be an age thing

In the old days we would use a large metal syringe with a nozzle, and there was no control over the pressure used, and damage was not uncommon. Nowadays most syringing is done by nurses who have received proper traininig (better than most GPs) and using an electric pump allowing the pressure to be carefully regulated. Unintentional trauma is much rarer but not unheard of.

I have had my ears syringed several times over many years - and hopefully the doctors who performed this act did not cause great damage to my ears - though it's difficult to be sure. There is now in the UK a move towards the use of micro suction techniques which are claimed to be safer. Yesterday's experience did get rid of most of the wax. The curette business worried me. We are generally advised not to poke sticks and similar down our ears, so to see and feel a medically trained person doing the same is somewhat disconcerting.

I shall be more proactive with olive oil in future, to try to avoid having to have such procedures performed, or to reduce their frequency.

Thank you for these comments and I wish everyone good health.

I developed complications with my ears in late summer that have been persistent and syringing did not turn out to be the answer. They involve audible phenomena but are not painful and haven't affected hearing. My newish GP has advised me to try to forget about it. She knows my brain has an extraordinary capacity when stressed to create all sorts of physical phenomena. In January, such was my condition I couldn't swallow food. Currently it's otitis media. People always used to talk about the weather when they weren't talking about anything else. Now they tend to talk about illness. When my parents met as teenagers in the late 1940s, my father's ears had been syringed with old techniques at least annually for more than a decade. It was simply regarded as a necessary routine by his parents and the doctors had never said no to it. Perhaps there was even medical thinking in certain places at the time it was all for the good. I don't think people should worry unduly about having to have their ears syringed when older, nor be overly concerned about the modern techniques which could not possibly be worse than they were in the 1940s. My father's hearing has always been good enough. It has deteriorated in his 80s but not hugely.

[Lat-Literal]

25 Oldest People To Accomplish Amazing Feats:

http://list25.com/25-oldest-people-to-accomplish-amazing-feats/

The information on the oldest person to release an album is wrong. "A More Perfect Union" was released by Pete Seeger (with Lorre Wyatt) at 93. The rebellious sounding "Buy This Fracking Album" was scheduled for release at 94 but not completed. I don't know if Elliott Carter's "Epigrams" was released while he was alive. He was 93 when it was completed.

[Flay]

such was my condition I couldn't swallow food and 50% of me felt that it could have been created by anxiety. GPs in the previous surgery were sceptical, inclined to see all matters purely in standard physical cause and effect ways and had they had their way I'd have had tubes down me and all sorts. My resistance to it was difficult for them and hence me as they have to do what the Government requires

Lats, that is nothing to do with a "government requirement." It is a cardinal symptom of oesophageal cancer, which only has a slight chance of cure if caught early. Your GP would have wanted you endoscoped urgently. The "government requirement" is to get the finger out and make the referral within 24 hours, and for the hospital to see you within 2 weeks. You probably caused your poor GP a lot of anxiety!

[Lat-Literal]

Lats, that is nothing to do with a "government requirement." It is a cardinal symptom of oesophageal cancer, which only has a slight chance of cure if caught early. Your GP would have wanted you endoscoped urgently. The "government requirement" is to get the finger out and make the referral within 24 hours, and for the hospital to see you within 2 weeks. You probably caused your poor GP a lot of anxiety!

I accept you mean well but we move on...!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is there any chance that we can change the topic to Alpie's canoe, please?

[teamsaint]

Is there any chance that we can change the topic to Alpie's canoe, please?

yes, I was intrigued by that.
Would make a change from everybody waxing lyrical about NHS ear cleansing......