Baby George and Pulmonary Atresia

George Peter Sams

George Peter Sams was born at 10:22 am on the 10^th October 2014 at St Thomas’ hospital, London. He has had the most amazing support from the medical staff there and is currently under care in the Intensive care ward. For those of you who don’t know my son (my third child) has Pulmonary Atresia, a rare heart defect that ultimately leaves half of his heart, the half that pumps de-oxygenated blood to the lungs to bring back vital Oxygen for the rest of the body, non functioning. We had the option to terminate early on but…

On Monday he goes in to have his first of three operations . This one is to put a plastic pipe or shunt into the closing hole in-between the ventricles that keeps the heart as a two (rather than 4) chambered pump giving him the shot at life. More will follow and his is not an easy road. He will have limited tolerance to exercise, complications to diet, digestion, renal function etc caused by the future ops and above him the spectre of early death on the operating table, or if his weak half a heart should give out. All the while we have agreed to give him this shot.

It just seems so bitterly unfair that this little bundle of innocence has already been given this massive handicap that could and probably will kill him eventually and we his parents have to make choices as to how long he gets to live or try and guess at what may or may not happen. I keep wishing our roles were reversed but to no avail.

Every hour I panic and worry that we’ve done the right thing, that he is going to be alright and that he has the best shot at life as he possibly can. I’m terrified of leaving the hospital on Monday unless I’m not there and…

I’m not a religious man, far from it, but for the first time in a log while I have offered up a silent prayer to my ancestors (especially my Grandparents) to watch over him and to take care of him. His fate is in the hands of the Doctors and in nature and all manner of things. If there is a higher reason or force controlling everything then I hope that George is dealt a better hand.

A good friend of mine said to me this weekend that I was tough, and I could get through the heart ache, pain and stress to come. The truth is – I’m not tough, I’ll get through this because I have to but in reality I’m terrified. I'm maintaining a steely façade and the "I'm good with this" stance to cover up the little boy inside who just wants to curl up into a ball and beg this to stop. This past year hasn't been the best for me or my family and more bad things are being pushed below the surface with the other repressed feelings. It is so repressed that the other day I started sobbing uncontrollably when I read that a German Cruiser sank with all hands a century ago! I mean really?

The raft I cling to is that he was a good weight, a healthy colour and alert and focused so should be strong enough to fight through the surgery and make a full recovery. He is one of us and my forebears were hardy and resilient. So should he be. He WILL be ok!

This whole blog post probably doesn't make sense. It is more an attempt to get my thoughts and feelings onto paper and definitely not a cry for help.

Medway obesity trap

mmmm Chicken *drool*

One of the on going issues within the Medway towns is the growing levels of obesity.

Now I have divided lines of thought on this.

Firstly, everyone has the freedom of choice and action. If you wish to gorge yourself on chicken wings until either you wipe out their feathered scourge or your heart explodes then please, be my guest!
If you want to only eat organic fruit and veg that has voluntarily fallen from the tree rather than been picked, please do knock yourself out...

However, the choice is somewhat of a myth and people are railroaded into buying crap.

It is true, I once served in an evil MacEmpire fronted by a creepy clown at a time when the Poundsaver menu first cane into being. You would quake to know how much a cheeseburger actually costs to make and the mark up but it is still a dirt cheap quick and easy snack. The smell of cooking burgers fills our high streets and station concourses catching is at our hungriest - if it isn't them it is those pasty shops!

They smell appetising - you know what doesn't smell appetising? Apples or sandwiches in the sterile supermarket aisles. We are victims of very clever marketing.

Then there are the frozen meals. It works out ultimately cheaper and less time consuming if you buy ready meals with enough E numbers in them to make the ingredients look like Enigma code strands and with "Meat" of unknown origin.

How many people make their own lasagne? Their own pizza? Buy from a butcher?

Time and shopping economically mean that people don't go to butchers and buy joints or chops, they'd rather supermarket things. Indeed the Medway Messenger reported last week that local butcher sales were up because of the horse meat scandal.

The playing field needs to be levelled and the education of families needs knocking up a notch.

Then there is exercise. Who has time? After 13 hour days I just want to trudge home and collapse before the TV or Xbox with the family. My days off are mostly engaged in house work, keeping track of hurricane Sophie and attempting to indulge in my hobbies. I can't afford a gym membership nor really have time. I do walk everywhere though as I cannot justify the expense of public transport which I count as exercise but that is about it.

Companies have got greedy and people lazy. Put in some effort and make a proper meal with fresh veg rather than chips.

SADS petition and Oliver King foundation

Sophie Howard - the post'll get more views if there is a picture of her

 on it, which will hopefully lead to more signatures!

I see a lot of petitions flying around Twitter, I do end up signing about half of them - at least the ones I believe are good causes!

Anyway, on the weekend, the former model posted a link to a petition that I duly read and signed and I think it is something that you should do too - after all it is a very worthy cause.

The basics are SADS - not the winter miseries but;

Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.

It is a growing problem which effects 12-35 year olds killing 12 people a week!

All it will take to reverse this is a simple ECG to see if there is a heart murmer or a problem that could cause a heart attack or cardiac episode.

The other measure that is being discussed is that for all public buildings to have a defibrillator and trained staff to use it so that if someone does collapse, as Oliver King a twelve year old boy who died at a public swimming bath, something can be done.

I won't reinvent the wheel by re-writing all the information that is on the Petition, I would just strongly urge you to at least click the link and read it - then if you agree with it (and me) then do please sign it.

The petition will be discussed by backbenchers if it can get to 100,000 signatories (currently at 76923).

Let's do everything we can to stop senseless deaths in young people and expand our knowledge on this growing health problem.

I will be bringing this to the attention of the Medway Libdem Exec committee in tonight's meeting to see if we can find out and or influence Medway Council to do it's part with defibrillators in public spaces too.

Take-aways, obesity and Medway's Kebabgate

Sturdee's take-aways; a thing of the past?

The debate over take-aways and schools within the Medway towns has reignited after a years silence.

The first whispers began in November with a report by the BBC stating the Council will be taking over from the NHS with responsibility over public health.

Cllr David Brake (con) is quoted in Dan Bloom's article Kebab-loving Tory: Let fast food firms sell near schools as saying;
I'm in favour (banning take-aways from opening near schools) it's taking away the temptation away for youngsters to nip out of school and up at the local chippy

However new zoning laws will not effect current take-aways.

Though this seems a bit like shutting the gate well after the horse has bolted as the BBC reveals "nearly all" of Medway's take-aways are within a 15 minute walk of a school.

My God! That means kids have to walk up to a mile to a chip shop! How many newsagents that sell coke and sweets or bakeries that sell cakes and pasties are also in this net?

If we start putting out restrictions where will it end? As Cllr Irvine said on his blog recently;

From my point of view it's a slippery slope, who decides what counts as healthy and what doesn't?

Then of course there is the School itself.

In December 2011 I was proud to announce that the then Children's minister Sarah Teather had brought in steps to capitalise on Labour's attempts to make School meals more healthy which had been sparked by Jamie Oliver's frightening expose!  She stated:

School meals beat takeaways hands down on the quality of food they serve but until now they have struggled to compete on price. Getting Children into the school canteen is vital - the benefits of healthy school meals are clear

The idea that Schools would now be able to compete with take-aways and offer meal deals to kids who would find it cheaper to eat in rather than wander out and get a Sausage and chips or cod and chips (paying £2.50 ish for a foot long sausage and a huge feast of chips from a local kebabbie).

This move was slightly undone when Michael Gove took away the obligation to meet the basic nutritional standard in academies and free schools which are unfortunately becoming the norm!

On top of that there is what the schools offer at dinner time. Chips, burgers, sausages, cake, chocolate are all freely available at school dining halls. When given a choice between Veg and chips I would put a fiver on nine kids out of ten saying chips! The Take-away isn't to blame and neither are the parents. After all when you send your child into school with money for school dinners you trust them to buy responsibly.

In response to Cllr Irvine's blog, Labours PPC and blogger Tristan Osborne is quoted (in the same Medway Messenger article) as saying the state should intervene: In the same way the council has the ability to change licences for alcohol sales in our pubs for the social good.
Erm... what?

I understand this is with a motivation to do good BUT it is ultimately striking a lot of innocents too. Firstly the take-away businesses themselves who are struggling to survive in this fragile economic climate as it is, secondly adults who, may want to get Fish'n'chips at lunchtime, the kids themselves....

The basis of British law is that you are free to do whatever you want as long as your actions or speech does not encroach on the sensibilities or freedoms of others.

How is nipping out for Sausage and chips encroaching on anyone's freedoms? The state cannot dictate be it pacifily or aggressively on what you eat. It's my body and if I want to eat Bigmacs until my heart explodes so be it. Any intervention by the state on freedom like this makes the German word Verbotten spring to mind.

I grant fact that obesity is on the rise, I also admit that my body is hardly a temple but I think going after hard working caterers directly is the wrong way to go about it, as is going after the schools - after all they can only effect kids during school hours and term time.

What needs to be done is advice and education for parents who are the ones who decide what their kids eat in packed lunches and also feed them for the other 2 meals a day. This is happening with new adverts on the television encouraging better nutrition.

This is also only part of the battle. Time constraints on busy families and the need to feed kids quickly means eating whatever can be made quickly or cheaply and super market chains do sell "Bad" food cheaply and veg for a lot more. Although, this again is changing as Sainsbury's are bringing in their "Eat healthier for cheaper" with almost War time frugality to stretch a joint of beef out over 3 dinners - something I can get behind!

If Medway Council want to discourage obesity and encourage a healthier lifestyle there are COUNTLESS options available to them. I've been working on one for the Medway Libdems and although I'm not allowed to talk about it yet it will encourage a healthier regime but more to follow soon!

They need to improve outside facilities, encourage places like the Blacklion swimming pool (I know it has had a name change but it will always be the Black lion to me), Splashes and other sporting venues to be cheaper for families and kids to go to, more green spaces for children to play in and better cycle routes.

Although the youth of today is now uploading itself to the internet or sat on their Xboxes during their free time rather than being out and running free, partially because society has waged war on "lay about teenagers on the streets" and partially because computer games offer more scope than wandering the streets of Gillingham in the cold and wet or sitting down at the Strand wasting time.

There are a lot of avenues open to the council to improve health in Medway and tackle obesity (if they can get over Society's sedatary past times) and scope to further educate and advise parents and children about nutrition, avenues that do not dictate what you can and can't do and curb freedom of action, a basic human right, because it's for the social good as they see it.

Measure B passed by LA county

Aurora Snow

Precisely a month and a day late I am writing about the success of Measure B voted for in Los Angeles County.

Not heard of it?

No, nor had I until two months ago and that was through an obscure channel and I'd forgotten about it until this morning - hence the delay.

A while back I read this article by adult performer Aurora Snow and found it quite interesting.

Basically the bill is a battle of freedoms and liberties.

The Pro B wing argued that performers in the adult industry had the right over their own body and freedom from disease.

The anti B wing argued the state that the LA county was attacking the industry's freedom of speech and expression. The industry also argued that it was self regulating and that performers had to be tested regularly. Interestingly though, as Miss Snow pointed out, only for HIV, Gonorrhoea and Chlamydia with a zero need for Syphilis or Herpes or any others.

I'm personally fairly indifferent to Pornography as an industry as I believe that if someone willingly enters into the that line of work, like Miss Snow did, and they enjoy the work, moreover willing adults buy the magazines and movies then that is up to them as long as it is not invading my personal liberties or it is where minors can get at it then it is all fine. One of the fundamentals of law is that you are free to act as you will as long as you do not cause negative effects on another person's liberties and what you do behind closed doors in your own time (again, not effecting someone elses Liberties) is your private business.

However, no matter what your feelings are towards the adult business you have to respect the right of the performers to be disease free and not give in to industry pressures or bullying. It is akin to workmen being forced to remove Asbestos without breath masks and hazard suits. STDs can be deadly and those that aren't can have a really negative effect on your life and everyone has the right to work in a safe environment.

Further to that is the cultural stigma against safe sex. Anything that can add to the idea that safe sex is good for you is a bonus. Those who want to engage in casual sex with multiple partners in their personal life should really par take in safe sex to cut back on the risk to themselves and others. Miss Snow puts it perfectly when she states that when there was a slip up on set she had to contact previous industry partners and her boyfriend at the time. If the adult industry starts showing performers engaging in safe sex then surely that will transmit to those watching the movies too.

I am happy to report that the measure was passed with 55% of the vote despite some big company support for the Industry's "No" campaign shown in Gail Dine's Guardian article and is now law.

Any one working in a workforce is entitled to protection from reasonable danger by their employer and they should provide the means to make sure they are kept safe through contraception and paying for health checks.

The downside is that having been quite vocal against the Industry's preferred stance, Aurora Snow now fears that her career will be harmed. Only time will tell but in my opinion it should not be held against her and that she can continue - I unfortunately fear that her career will suffer harm but hope that an individual standing up for what they believe in will not face any repercussions on this.