Status Update

For the past week+, Fiona has been Covid-positive and I’ve been negative, so we’ve been isolating in separate rooms, I guess you’d call it self-and-each-other-isolating. She’s well on the mend now and I still haven’t fallen to it, despite the small size of the Shadowplayhouse.
But I did fall prey to falling down last night, twice. Dizzy spells. A long boring visit to A&E established that my low blood pressure was likely to blame, and now I’m back at home with a slight bump on the head.
It should have been a good opportunity to do some writing and watch some films, and I have mostly failed to do this, but I do have an exciting project in the works, and some programme notes to do for the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival next month, so I’d best get on with it.
February 25, 2022 at 6:50 pm
Very happy to hear that Fiona and you are on the mend! Experience has taught me that low blood anything can be quite unsafe.
February 25, 2022 at 6:54 pm
Thanks for the update – the blog silence was beginning to worry me. I hope that both of you will be in good health soon.
February 25, 2022 at 8:21 pm
Wishing you both a quick recovery. Does David have low blood pressure or low blood sugar? I suffer from the first as well as form high blood pressure thanks to SIUC’s attempt to deport me over 15 years ago for refusing to sign a form criminalizing me by Governor who later went to jail for violating Ethics Law. I fought it but the ordeal took its toll.
February 25, 2022 at 10:31 pm
Double blood pressure!
I have had low blood sugar when my diabetes meds got overefficient, but now it’s just low blood pressure, which I prefer.
February 25, 2022 at 10:41 pm
I have been an interested follower of your blog for some years. I am sorry to read you’ve not been well. I hope you two will recover soon.
February 25, 2022 at 11:00 pm
Thanks! I seem to be fine now. Don’t be a stranger!
February 26, 2022 at 12:25 am
Glad you are feeling better. I looked up the Weird Fantasy story you used as an illustration…maybe inspired by the original Benjamin Button story?
February 26, 2022 at 4:46 am
I’m glad to hear you both are doing better – COVID made its way through our house recently despite our efforts to isolate. Hope there is no repetition of the dizzy spells.
February 26, 2022 at 10:55 am
I’m so sorry to hear this. So horrified, and the relieved, when I saw Fiona’s tweets. I hope things get better soon
February 26, 2022 at 11:23 am
The dizzy spells are here to stay, or at least until my blood pressure rises. Momo the Shadowplayhousecat is doing his best with that.
Alan Moore wrote a Future Shock for 2000AD about a man living his life backwards, inspired either by Fitzgerald, or Weird Fantasy, or both. He was a lightfingered chap in those days.
February 26, 2022 at 1:53 pm
So you and Fiona have become “Elizabethan. Glad to hear you’r on the mend.
February 26, 2022 at 2:15 pm
Everybody get better as quickly as possible. And stop getting dizzy!
February 26, 2022 at 2:54 pm
I’ve had low blood pressure all my life so I’ve had a lot of practise. You can pre-emptively deal with it by choosing how and where you sit – slumping with your head at near-body level works very well. Bus and train seats and low armchairs restrict the circulation so half-rise now and then and twitch your muscles while you’re in one. When you do get up, do it gradually – about thirty seconds of knee-bends to get the blood going, then stand up straight. If you’re going to keel over it’ll be soon after you get up, so pause until you’re sure you’re OK before you abandon the possibility of sitting down again.
Good luck!
February 27, 2022 at 12:07 am
Thanks, Roger, I’m trying to implement those ideas. Kind of like Michael Caine tapping his hands to let the camera operator know he’s going to stand up.
February 28, 2022 at 1:30 pm
Michael Caine didn’t have to remind himself he was going to stand up in a few minutes and get ready for it. I don’t know if it’s malice or incompetence on the part of bus and train makers, but it’s safer to miss your stop than fall head-first off a train or bus!
Health-wise, it seems, unless you faint in the wrong place, you will live for ever getting more and more depressed, according to a specialist doctor.