not BA Phot
[14Apr23] In October 2021 I began documenting my NHS treatment, starting from 2019 images. This was prompted by a 12-day stay in Queen Elizabeth, Woolwich which I photographed extensively, but have not yet documented. In due course, I'll try to pull it all together here and then carry on as it happens.
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[25Oct21] There are several defining moments in most lives. The second most important is having a first child — unless it is kept at arm's length through nannies and boarding schools then your life changes in ways and to an extent that no-one could successfully describe to you.
But the primary event is learning how you are probably going to die (barring lightning strikes, under buses and similar mishaps). The knowledge never quite leaves your consciousness thereafter.
My self-perception is more as an expanding assemblage of symptoms than a personality.
Acquiring this knowledge changed my personality as a second stroke rewired my brain and tweaked all my bodily processes. Last year I started photo-documenting health events: there have been no diagnostic visits since Covid began, as the NHS has been busy elsewhere.
Hospitals are extremely reluctant to allow photography for reasons of patient confidentiality and so these often have to be taken surreptitiously.
[25Oct21] This is a continuation of the series begun during IP documenting my NHS treatment.
As I write this, it is my 11th day in Queen Elizabeth, Woolwich with at least one more day to go. I am waiting for a long-term cannula to be installed so that I can continue my medication at home, 4 weeks of a heavy-duty antibiotic, delivered intravenously by a visiting District Nurse every day. This to address an attack of salmonella and sepsis.
For the 11 days I have only been allowed to visit the toilet 10 yards away. Fortunately, I am considered a public health hazard and so have been allocated a single room.
All the photography has been in my room and a few in the toilet. I addition to continual testing of various bodily fluids, I have had two CT scans and an echo scan of my innards but, as usual, photography is not allowed in those areas.
The photographs are in several sections: Of Special Interest; Cannulas (which played a big part in my hospital life, and will do at home for another 4 weeks of IV); Treatment (general); From my Window; and The Rest.
[30Oct] I was released after 12 days on 26th. The IV antibiotics continue for 4 weeks with daily home visits by the local team of District Nurses.
[23Nov] This is my first day of relative freedom - no more daily home visits from the commendable District Nurses to administer my IV. Just two more visits to hospital for blood tests and a third to remove the PICC IV line and that should be it. I
But now back to hospital photographs. I do not make a habit of photographing the toilet bowl after I have used it, in fact this probably is a first, but it is a justified exception to the normal rules of decorum. This was after two days in hospital and I was beginning to eat again. I had a tuna salad on Saturday evening and on one of my several visits to the toilet the next day I flushed and fig B1 shows the residue - I was not digesting anything and the lettuce passed through me, survived the flush and floated back to the top.
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[17Nov] Five cannulas were inserted while I was in the hospital. Some worked better than others, some lasted longer than others. Most were used for the IV antibiotic, but #3 (fig. C3) was inserted for faster throughput for my second CT scan.
#4 fell out when I caught it on a piece of furniture, my wash-basin, I think (figs. C4-6).
After leaving hospital, one more cannula were was by a District Nurse (fig. C9), and I returned to QE after a week for the PICC line (fig. C10).
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