Sunday, July 11, 2010

Reynolds Stone

The weekend hasn't quite turned out as I'd planned. Yesterday I set off in the morning for a beach party in Suffolk and was planning to take lots of bloggable photos of Dunwich Heath. Instead, I found myself in Essex, attached to an ECG machine. For a few terrifying minutes, I thought that was it.

My memory of the experience is hazy, but I do remember thinking that a mistake had been made somewhere. I was relatively young and healthy, ate my five a day and could fit into a pair of 34" waist trousers. I drank a bit too much wine, but didn't that thin the blood?

I also vaguely recall a slight disappointment about the banality of what might have been my final thoughts.

However, I slowly began to improve and the ECG tests showed that I had a healthy heart. Five hours later I was watching Placido Domingo in Simon Boccanegra. So what did happen? I shall see my GP tommorow and hopefully find out.

As I have no photos of Dunwich, here is something much better that I found in a book last week - seven illustrations by Reynolds Stone:







13 comments:

Thomas Hogglestock said...

I hope it was just heartburn. The Simon Boccanegra was great wasn't it? The illustrations are really fantastic.

Take care of yourself.

Jim Murdoch said...

Yes, final thoughts precede one would imagine final words. I find books with famous last words in them interesting. I mean, I can just imagine the pressure. I should start writing something now and memorise it just in case. I mean I’d hate to shuffle off this mortal coil with something like “Bugger Bognar.” Glad to see you’re still with us.

The Poet Laura-eate said...

Blimey Steerforth - you nearly gave me a heart attack! ;- )

Fingers crossed it was just a temporary blip and normal service will be resumed soon.

Perhaps a touch of heat stroke? I hope you are drinking plenty of fluids in this weather.

I do hope the quack quickly gets to the bottom of it and it is easily fixed anyway. Lxx

Steerforth said...

Laura - I've checked Google - that well-known source of infallible medical diagnoses - and it looks like hypoglycaemia. I'm 95% sure. I've no idea what that means, but at least it has a name.

Jim - "Bugger Bognor" may not be the most memorable last words, but they beat Fletcher Christian's, whose final utterance was "Oh dear."

Thomas - I thought I'd converted my son to opera. He sat down during the third act and said that it was "Splendid", adding "I'm not being sarcastic." But during the final scene, all I could hear was "Is he ever going to die?"

Georgie said...

The illustrations are wonderful - what's the book?

Steerforth said...

I was afraid someone would ask me that. The book was worthless and, very stupidly, I only kept the illustrations without taking a note of the book's title.

I tried to find the answer and failed, but came across this first class website: http://www.reynoldsstone.co.uk/main.html

JRSM said...

I'm so glad you're still with us! Look after yourself.

Actually, you make me wonder how many blogs that suddenly stop don't end because of the owner's boredom, but because the owner ceased to be. Most people's partners/kids wouldn't have the passwords to log on and explain, even if they thought to do it.

Steerforth said...

That was one of my thoughts as I lay not dying. Instead of any profound insights into the meaning of existence, I was wondering about passwords etc and emails I hadn't replied to.

Brett said...

I had several episodes of hypoglycemia once. Yes, the first time I thought it was a heart attack. Scary.

Richard de Pesando MA(RCA) said...

Oh Crikey - glad you are still with us. Just read a very long and detailed description of Hypoglycemia and it's given me a whole host of other things to worry about. I'm now at the age where everyone I know gradually succumbs to blood sugar issues.

Steerforth said...

Well, I've just seen the doctor and it all makes sense now.

Hypoglycaemia is scary and quite dramatic, but rarely serious and quite easy to avoid through drinking lots of fluid, eating sensibly and taking a break during long drives.

I'll put the last will and testament back in the drawer ;)

The Poet Laura-eate said...

Excellent news Steerforth. Though if you should be suffering from this as a pre-diabetes condition, this can often be controlled/arrested with celeriac (a member of the celery family) and Biotin tablets (a type of B vitamin available in small doses in food such as bananas or in larger doses in tablet form from Holland & Barrett). But plenty of fluids, shade and rest in hot weather is also obviously advisable.

Dr Laura-eate

Shelley said...

Placido cured you.