Putting things off

Putting things off

Do you procrastinate? Do you keep finding excuses not to do something that you know is inevitable, like tax returns or visiting the dentist? Often, it’s not the logic of sorting something out that convinces, but a friend saying that it’ll be ok: anecdote is more convincing than any quantity of favourable statistics.

And that’s why I spent three and a half years with the dubious delights of ISC before having an operation to resection my prostate. By the end of that time, it was entirely clear that pills weren’t going to make the difference, and at the end of June 2019 I went into hospital for what was due to be a night or two of recovery after the operation. On the morning, I’d got a drippy nose and a feeling of a cold coming on: a discussion with the anaesthetist suggested that the additional risk of going ahead was small, but that I might have an extended stay in hospital if the infection developed.

My day is blank from around 9-30 until 3-30, when I realised that I was still alive. As some sensation returned, I realised that the transfer onto the recovery trolley (or whatever it was – I wasn’t taking much notice) had twisted my back, and it was distinctly painful. Control of my limbs wasn’t sufficient to move the couple of inches needed for relief, and then a wonderful nurse asked me if I wanted something for the pain, and it got better. Clearly, grunts meaning ‘my back’s killing me’ are indistinguishable from those meaning ‘that operation really hurts.’

Of course, the infection developed, and I had the benefit of a 6am chest X-ray to make sure there was nothing going wrong in my chest, and intravenous antibiotics for three days. And on the fourth day, they let me out. While it took a good month for anything resembling stamina to return, the operation was a big success, and I wish I’d had it done as soon as possible…

And that’s the point. There will always be someone telling you that cleaning the sensor of your camera will wreck it. That applying a herbal poultice to the screen will sort things out. Or that it doesn’t make any difference. But ignore the cranks – go with the mainstream unless conditions are very unusual!

18 months on, I feel 20 years younger (in most ways), and I’m still a fan of the NHS, which is full of people who know what they are doing, and want to help people. And you can find my weakest period of posting images on EPZ back then – four days with only a mobile ‘phone to shoot, edit and post with, and very limited subject matter provide an all-time low for me.