Thursday, 24 July 2025

Hospital Visit

 On Tuesday at 5:30 pm I got a phone call from one of the GPs to say that because of the results of a blood test I had on the previous Saturday, they were sending an ambulance to take me to hospital for tests.  The ambulance arrived at 7:15 and after doing blood pressure and sugar level tests to me to the Leighton Hospital where I arrived at 8:30 pm, and was given further Triage tests. 

After this I was sent to the Waiting Room, where I was expecting to see a doctor and to be sent home that evening. However nothing happened. A spent all night without being able to get any sleep. There were only hard seats. People were trying to sleep across several of the seats or on the floor. In the morning I was offered a bed in the corridor, but still no doctors.

Fortunately I was rescued from this situation when a doctor arrived who was setting up a new facility for treating elderly patients in a separate ward (18). This room included just five other elderly patients. This new department was evidently just being set up, so was still a bit disorganised. However I did get a comfortable seat and some food. Though I was tired out due to sleep deprivation.

Eventually I was given discharge and caught the bus home arriving a 4:30 pm on Wednesday. 

It seems I will be asked back to the same department for checking in future and they will be liaising with other departments such as Urology and Renal. I have declined to have any dialysis, but prefer to have palliative care, which virtually means I look after myself. 

I am also supposed to have an operation to remove two stones from my bladder, though when this can be done is unclear. Personally I would also like to have the operation to remove my prostate blockage, but the Urologists are reluctant to do this because of the risk of incontinence.



Sunday, 6 July 2025

Numberlore

 Some years ago I produced a little PDF on Figurate Numbers, which I have continued to expand over the years in various forms. It is now coming together under the title "Numberlore" which as the name suggests covers a much wider range of topics.

Recently I have come across this website: Numbers Aplenty which includes lists of numerous classes of numbers that I have not come across before. Some seem rather trivial, but others are interesting..

Another website I've long been familiar with is Math Day of the Year Facts: Number Facts for Every Year Day ((1-30)) from "On This Day in Math" which has a similar eclectic selection of properties of numbers.

I would be interested to learn of other websites of this nature. The Numberphile pages on YouTube are another source of miscellaneous number lore. Also the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS).

My main interest is in whole numbers rather than irrationals, though they are of course related and turn up as limits of ratios of whole number terms in sequences. 

A curious book on numbers with a rather bombastic title is Numbers, Their Occult Power and Mystic Virtues by W. Wynn Westcott (1911) but its mathematical content is disappointing. The subject being mainly the occurrence of numbers in Bible texts and commentaries.