Month: February 2024

I go swimming early in the morning several times a week in our local Coral Leisure Centre. It was recommended to me by my surgeon following back surgery. Getting up at 6.15am on a dirty, wet, cold winter’s morning is no fun but the benefits of the swim make it worthwhile. The back stretches out and sets me up for the day. It’s not all plain sailing though.

I find it difficult to get changed in the cubicles because I’m not as flexible as I was previously and putting on a pair of pants while trying to keep the legs of the trousers off the wet floor is a tricky manoeuvre. Socks present another complication but for every problem there is a solution.

I wear shorts and flip flops, or sliders as they’re sometimes called, going to the pool and it makes getting dressed a lot easier. On my way home I often call into a shop, and I sometimes get some strange looks. I also get a bit of slagging, especially if it’s a cold day but it’s always good natured.

I wear shorts for most of the year and as soon as the weather improves, I’ll be into them until the winter comes calling again. I spend a good bit of time away too and one of the things I love most about life in Cyprus is being able to live in t-shirts, shorts and sliders. Dressing up for a formal occasion out there just means wearing a decent pair of shorts.

I have never been interested in fashion or brand labels, so the uncomplicated dress code suits me fine, but it seems my dress sense is being challenged. There are some who say that men of a certain age should keep their legs covered except in the privacy of their own home. If that were true it would have dire consequences for me, so it called for some urgent research.

Liz Hodgkinson, a British journalist and blogger, wrote a piece called ‘Old men shouldn’t wear shorts.’  She complained that at the slightest hint of sun, you see something that, quite honestly, should never be glimpsed in polite society or even impolite society – old men in ancient shorts.

She said the oldies openly parade their spindly, white, veiny legs on the streets, on trains, in pubs and restaurants, and even in the theatre without any shame. One 70-something friend, justifying his urge to put on shorts, said, ’We get over-excited when the sun comes out.’

Hodgkinson said, “Well, you might get excited but we, the poor onlookers, don’t. Quite honestly, we don’t know where to put our eyes, even if we’re the same age. You never see old women in shorts – we have far too much self-respect.”

Her final piece of advice was, “So, seniors, do us a favour – no shorts, please, ever – except perhaps on the beach. Admit it, you just haven’t got the legs, or even the face, for them anymore. And if you really, really can’t resist the urge, at least buy some new, knee-length shorts and put in some time at the tanning salon first.”

Well, I qualify for free travel next month so she might be talking about me, so I sought professional advice. I turned to Mr. Porter, an online only luxury clothing business. They say the answer to whether grown men should wear shorts depends on who you ask.

In years gone by, men’s shorts were frowned upon in all but the most casual of settings. In his 1964 treatise on style, ABC Of Men’s Fashion, Sir Hardy Amies wrote that a man should “never wear shorts except actually on the beach or on a walking tour.” Others said shorts should only be worn on the tennis court.

Times have changed and shorts are now more socially acceptable, but they advise that care should still be taken when selecting the right pair to suit your body shape. Shorts might look out of place at some venues too so it’s important to be aware of your surroundings unlike the poor guy in the States.

Bill was presented with a basket filled with assorted gifts by his sister-in-law on his birthday on behalf of his godchild. A book, a CD, a bag of blue tortilla chips, a large jar of salsa, a baseball cap and pair of black shorts. The shorts were a strange choice as he wasn’t known as a shorts man. A few weeks later though he was glad of them when he got an invitation to a Hawaiian themed pool party.

He rooted out the black shorts and a t-shirt and headed to the party. He was greeted by a friend who pointed to the Ralph Lauren logo on the shorts, something he never noticed himself. She saw that the logo was fuzzy, so she whispered to him that the shorts were inside out and back to front. He rushed to the bathroom, sorted himself out and returned to the party.

He soon got into the swing of things and pranced about for the rest of the evening in his new shorts. He attracted lots of attention and was delighted with his new image. He had a great time and couldn’t wait to tell his sister-in-law that his shorts were a big hit.

She hadn’t a clue what he was talking about until he reminded her about the basket of goodies. Then it dawned on her. She started laughing and when he told her about having them on backwards, she was in hysterics. There were tears in her eyes from laughing at which point he said he didn’t realise it was that funny.

When she was able to catch her breath again, she told him the truth. The shorts were actually a pair of underpants.

I learned something new that may be of benefit to our retired members particularly those who are partial to a bit of foreign travel and need to take a flight to get to their destination. I got the following advice from a consultant in the Mater Private Hospital today, so the source is genuine.

I always associated Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) or blood clots with long haul flights but that’s not the case apparently. My consultant recommended wearing flight socks or compression socks for flights over three and a half hours in length. That’s pretty much covers many of our regular hot spots and certainly applies to the “Irish Cypriots” of which there are many.

He says that our legs swell on flights at the best of times and that puts pressure on the veins which over time could interfere with the circulation. He stressed the importance of keeping hydrated during flights too.

People who have had surgery for prostate cancer or suffer from gout have thicker or stickier blood, which is more prone to clotting and, in some cases, it may be appropriate to get an injection before taking a long-haul flight.

Clotting can also be inherited or could come from chemicals which some of us have within the blood stream that we’re not even aware of, because they can only be discovered with a specific blood test.

It cost me €250 for this advice and I’m going to take it. I hope I have recalled it accurately and I pass it onto you for what it’s worth. Basically, it might be no harm to have a chat with your GP before your next trip. Cheers.

I wrote a piece not so long ago about an experience my wife had in the emergency department of the Mercy University Hospital in Cork. She ended up there last August after she fell and broke her collarbone while playing tennis. The treatment she received was far from what we expected.

We arrived at the hospital at about 8.45pm and Gaye was seen by a triage nurse who suspected the collar bone was broken. She was asked to take a seat in the waiting area and despite being visibly in distress and shivering with the cold, that’s where she remained until about 4.15am. Almost nine hours since she had fallen and over seven hours since she had arrived in the hospital.

Nobody came to check on her. The waiting area wasn’t crowded but things were moving slowly. At around 4.15am we were called to another area where a doctor checked Gaye’s injury and sent her for an x-ray. She was discharged soon after that.

It’s hard to blame the staff. They’re under a lot of pressure and working under trying conditions. I was very critical of the treatment she received at the time, and I stand over everything I said in my criticism of the Health Service Executive (HSE). The problems within the HSE are well documented.

The Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD) in an assessment of the health system last year concluded that healthcare in Ireland suffers from widespread inefficiencies, elevated costs and fragmented governance.

That’s plain to see but it’s only fair to highlight improvements in the system too when you see them, like those in the emergency department in the Cork University Hospital (CUH). That was our experience when Gaye presented there recently.

She was having some issues related to her original injury, so her GP referred her to the CUMH for tests. As soon as we arrived, we noticed the pod system. When we entered the hospital, we were given a ticket and shown to a seat in a pod in front of the triage area.

A few minutes later, she was called to give her details and shortly after that she met the triage nurse. Things progressed quickly then, and we were soon on the move into the Emergency Department proper where she was placed in another pod. There are about 55 of these things as far as I could tell.

For those who haven’t seen them, they are basically small cubicles with glass on three sides, and a seat to accommodate one person. The patient’s name is written on a whiteboard in the nurses, station alongside their pod number so gone are the days when nurses wandered around crowded waiting areas trying to locate patients. Now they know exactly where their patients are at all times.

The place was a hive of activity. It looked as if every pod was in use and when one was vacated, it didn’t stay empty for long. Nurses, doctors, porters, cleaners and other support staff were constantly on the move. It was hectic and while it looked chaotic there was a calm efficiency to the place.

Gaye had a number of tests including an MRI, so she disappeared for a couple of hours. When she returned, she took her place back in her pod and the doctor who had been dealing with her came to visit.

The MRI had taken longer than normal, and he apologised for the delay. He told her she was just unfortunate because they had a run of medical emergencies at the same time who required immediate attention, so she fell to the back of the queue. That’s as it should be. The most seriously ill should receive priority treatment and she understood that. No problem.

She wasn’t in her pod long when a trolly arrived with a lunch box for each patient and a bottle of water. Later on in the afternoon, the trolly appeared again with tea, coffee and a bun for everyone. It wasn’t expected but it was very welcome. 

I have no idea when the staff get a break because they don’t seem to have time to scratch. With such a constant flow of patients through that department, there is little respite for the staff and that got me wondering why anyone would want to work in that kind of environment? The short answer to that of course, is that many of them don’t.

More than 21,500 Irish young people were granted Australian working holiday visas over a 12-month period since July 2022. The highest recorded number of visas in at least 16 years according to the Australian Department of Home Affairs.

That number includes some of our nurses and also includes a 44% increase in the number of Irish doctors granted visas since 2018. The reasons for emigrating to Australia include the opportunity for a better work-life balance, and the ability to progress into senior roles more quickly.

Journal.ie interviewed nurses about their experience of working in different healthcare systems. One emigrated to Perth and she said there was no such thing as a patient ratio in Ireland. She used to have eight patients on a day shift in a private cardiac unit at home and could have had 12 patients to herself on a night shift. In Australia it was strictly four patients to one nurse in the public hospitals.

Another nurse worked in two different hospitals before she went to Australia and echoed the sentiments about the lower patient load. She trained in a public hospital with staff shortages and long hours. To work in Ireland again she said she would need to see an improvement in pay and conditions, higher staff levels and a lower patient to nurse ratio.

We really need to start looking after these people.

World Sleep Day this year takes place on 15^th March so get ready. If you didn’t already know, the idea behind it is to highlight the plight of those who have sleep problems and to educate people all over the world about the importance of sleep.

I don’t need to be told because I already know how important sleep is. I get cranky too if I don’t get enough of it. What I didn’t realise though is how many of us have difficulty getting a night’s rest.

According to the American Sleep Association, between 50 and 70 million people have some type of sleeping disorder. The most common of those is the inability to get any sleep at all or not being able to stay asleep for a full night once they do nod off. Mild to severe sleep difficulties are problematic for many.

To celebrate World Sleep Day, the organisers suggest you should take the day off and sleep as long as you want or, in a less extreme manner, grab a 20-minute power nap during a lunch break. If you feel refreshed afterward, it means that you needed it.

That could be difficult though if you’re someone who struggles to get to sleep in the first place. It certainly wasn’t the case for an ex-colleague of mine from my Blarney days, the late Dan Ahern. Dan had mastered the art of grabbing forty winks.

Driving a patrol car around the countryside in the dead of night for eight hours wasn’t easy. In those days we did a week of nights from 10pm to 6am and most people who work the night shift will tell you it’s tough on the body. Particularly at the start of the week until your system gets used to it.

Whenever Dan felt himself flagging, he would pull into the side of the road, push back the seat, close the eyes and within seconds he’d be out for the count. Ten minutes later he’d sit bolt upright, wide awake and full of beans for the rest of the shift. I always marvelled at how quickly he could recharge his battery.

I couldn’t do that. I needed a full eight hours sleep to function but now as I get older, I don’t need as much. I do get up more during the night, but fortunately I have no difficulty nodding off again. That’s not the case for everyone though and that’s tough because tiredness can drag you down. It can also be harmful to your health.

The Times UK published a study that estimated 40-70 per cent of older adults have chronic sleep problems. Even worse, those who don’t get enough sleep between their forties and sixties could be more prone to developing dementia.

Another study by a team from the University of Pittsburgh, found that participants with persistent insomnia, which was defined as having trouble falling asleep, waking up in the night or waking up earlier than planned on three or four nights, had a 60-75 per cent increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Our sleep quality declines as we age, becoming shorter, lighter and more fragmented. Greg Elder, professor in psychology and associate director of the Northumbria University Centre for Sleep Research says most mid-lifers report that they tend not to have too many problems nodding off but struggle to stay asleep.

The time we spend asleep decreases as we get older, but the experts tell us we shouldn’t be getting too excited about it as long as we get somewhere near 7-9 hours of total sleep. Not everyone needs exactly the same amount and that’s good to hear because six hours seems to be enough for me. There are some tips too.

A little booze has been shown scientifically to help some people fall asleep faster but taking a nightcap will not guarantee good sleep. A small amount of alcohol, a nip of whisky or sherry, might make you feel calm and sleepy, encouraging sleep onset.

If you do wake in the middle of the night, the worst thing you can do according to the experts is to lie there thinking about it. They suggest if you’re lying there trying to sleep for 15 minutes and it’s not happening, then you should get up and go and do a quiet activity such as reading or knitting until you feel sleepy enough to go back to bed.

Another suggestion is to cut back on caffeine. As a stimulant, caffeine can make the mind and body active, so it’s best to avoid coffee, tea or other caffeinated drinks at least 6 hours before bedtime. Keep the bedroom cool and an hour before bedtime turn off the computer, television, smartphone or other devices as the blue lights can interfere with good sleep rhythms.

That information would have been handy for a high school student Randy Gardner who decided in 1963 to try and beat the world record for staying awake which at the time stood at 260 hours, or just under 11 days.

A sleep researcher called William Dement from Stanford University was just starting his research in the field of sleep science and got involved a few days into the experiment and found Randy to be upbeat and unimpaired. However, as the days wore on, the experiment threw up some results. His sense of taste, smell and hearing and his cognitive and sensory abilities began to be affected.

By the tenth day, Randy was unable to complete simple mathematic equations and experienced hallucinations and a lot of confusion, but he managed to stay awake for 11 days and 25 minutes.

I struggle with mathematic equations all the time and I’m in a constant state of confusion. I have the occasional hallucination too. Maybe it’s time for a little whiskey and nap.

I arrived in Paphos Airport in Cyprus at half past midnight. I had been travelling all day, but I wasn’t finished yet. I still had to collect my rental car and make a two-hour journey up the motorway, so I was anxious to get the car and be on my way.

This was back in the days when car hire was affordable. It was my first time using this car-hire company, so I was a little apprehensive. The reviews were good though, so what could possibly go wrong?

The first alarm bell went off when I couldn’t see my name on any of the cards being held aloft by the various taxi drivers, car rental agents and travel company representatives. Still only mildly concerned, I went outside to check another group but couldn’t see my name there either. A second alarm bell started ringing.

OK, so maybe the guy was just running a bit late. It was too early to panic, but when all the card holders collected their passengers and left me standing alone outside, I accepted the time to panic had arrived.

I only had an office phone number and an email address for the company. I had hoped the phone might have been forwarded to a mobile, but it just rang out. I sent a couple of emails in the hope that someone might be monitoring the account but that didn’t work either. I searched the website for an emergency number but couldn’t find one, but I did find a Facebook account, so I sent a message to that.

When it got to 2am, I realised I was destined to spend the night in the airport. I briefly considered getting a hotel room in Paphos, but I figured that by the time a taxi arrived out from the city, collected me and dropped me off at a hotel back in the centre, it would be at least 3am and if they had no room, I could find myself stranded again only in a different place. So, I decided to hold tough.

Paphos airport is very small with limited facilities and those they did have were closed for the night. There were some metal seats in the arrival’s hall, and I threw myself across a few of them. In terms of comfort, they ranked 0 on a scale of one to a million. Whatever way I turned my body, a piece of steel tried to pierce a rib. I dozed on and off until 5am when the coffee shop opened for business. I headed for that refuge.

I found a place to charge my phone which was my only contact with the outside world. The last thing I needed was to miss a call from someone trying to supply me with a car. With my phone back to full power and coffee in the system I went outside to get some fresh air and walked around the car park for two hours. On the positive side, the weather was warm even though dawn was just breaking, and I was also building up steps. You find positives where you can.

I was prepared for the long wait until the office opened at 9am so I was pleasantly surprised when my phone buzzed around 7.15am. It was a message on Facebook from the car hire company asking me where I was. I told them I hadn’t moved all night – I was still in the same place. There was nothing more said, but I clung to the hope that help was on the way. I had been on the go for about twenty hours by now; I was tired, and my mood was deteriorating.

About fifteen minutes later a car screeched to a halt outside the entrance to the departure hall and a man of my own age came rushing towards me calling my name. He was obviously flustered and stressed, so much so that I was worried he might have a heart attack.

We sat into his car, and he introduced himself as Antonis, the owner of the company. After spotting my message on Facebook he jumped out of bed and headed for the office where he found the bookings for Saturday and realised the wrong time had been placed opposite my name. Someone had written 1400 hours instead of 0030 hours.

He brought me to his house where his wife was already making breakfast and offered me the use of a shower. He had a car ready for me and kept apologising for the mix up. I knew it was a genuine mistake, so I just wanted to forget about it and be on my way.

Instead, he introduced me to his wife and the three of us sat on the patio and had breakfast. It turned out Antonis and I a few things in common. We were the same age for a start. We both write a weekly column for a local newspaper -his is in Paphos – and we both had a history with a dodgy prostate.

His wife, who’s name escapes me, worked as a health inspector and they spent a bit of time in Clonakilty in Cork some years previously when she was attending a conference. He spent his time touring the county while she was working. They both loved their time in Ireland.

As I was leaving, the guy responsible for the booking error arrived, and he was reeking of guilt. He kept apologising over and over until I was getting embarrassed.

After the breakfast, Antonis guided me from his place back onto the motorway and I was finally on my way. After meeting these lovely people, the long night in the airport was soon forgotten and the tiredness had worn off. I have some new friends now too.