Black eye!

Yesterday evening John and I went over to Arrowe Park Hospital to visit Dad. I rested up most of the day, had a bath, and was ready for tea when John got in from work - he's on 9.30-5.30 this week, so was later home than usual. Every red light was against us - it took forever to get to the hospital. We only had to drive twice round the car park to find a space though, which is a definite improvement over daytime! I was virtuous, and wore my neoprene corset for the journey. Which I believe is why my back isn't too bad today following the travelling, but my legs are barely functioning.

We got told off for arriving late - Dad was worried we weren't coming when we didn't arrive on the dot of the beginning of visiting time (7pm). We managed to stay on a bit late to make up for it though.

Dad looks much better than he did when I last saw him, which was the day he was admitted. He's still on antibiotics I think, but didn't cough at all in the time we were there. Just as well, as he has MRSA throat infection so if he starts coughing and sneezing they will have to isolate him I think. We carefully did the alcohol rub hands thing on entering and leaving the ward, but can't say I noticed anyone else bothering.

He saw the physio again, from what we could gather - they will be trying to get him mobile again. The ward is very noisy - the TV was blaring out Coronation Street so all the visitors were talking loud to be heard over it. Dad is still speaking very quietly so I couldn't make out a lot of what he was saying. Plus there was one of those buzzer alarms going for ages that really scrambled my head.

I imagine as soon as the infection clears they will dump him in a "rehabilitation" ward, just hope it isn't the same place as last time, which was dire.

This morning I staggered on my lumpish legs to the bathroom, as I washed my hands I looked into the mirror over the basin and discovered I've developed a black eye overnight. Will have to try and find some eye shadow to match up the other eye so as not to scare the neighbours!

Second bloggiversary

It's 2 years today since I made my first blog entry.

I probably won't have much time over the next few days as my Dad was admitted to Arrowe Park Hospital on Tuesday morning. But I just wanted to mark my happy 2 year anniversary as I've got a less happy one coming up on March 9th.

Quacktitioners and The Quackometer

Discovered a really fun site today - The Quackometer. So I've been feeding a few pages into it... (Note, according to the site the Canard is the internationally recognised SI unit for Quackery.)

Lets start with the Lightning Process... The homepage scores 7 Canards. The black duck says...

This web site is using serious amounts of quack medicine terms. It is throwing in some scientific jargon and may be doing this to give an appearance of knowledgablity. It shows no sceptical awareness and so should be treated with a suspicious mind.

Now if you follow on to the page What is the Lightning Process we get 8 Canards. The black duck says...

This web site is using serious amounts of quack medicine terms. It is heavily using scientific jargon and may be doing this to bamboozle. It shows no sceptical awareness and so should be treated with a suspicious mind.

Moving on to Phil Parker's bio page we reach an astonishing 9 Canards. The black duck says...

This web site has more quackery than my village pond. It is throwing in some scientific jargon and may be doing this to give an appearance of knowledgablity. It shows no sceptical awareness and so should be treated with a suspicious mind.

The page on Details of The Phil Parker Lightning Process also scores 9 Canards. As does the Prospectus! So I thought I'd do a search on the man himself. Scores 6 Canards - am surprised it's that low! Possible Quackery pages found: 4880. This name appears on web sites with serious amounts Quackery!

As you may have gathered from some of my previous rants, I am not much impressed by Reverse Therapy and Mickel Therapy either. So I thought I'd run a few Quackometer scores on those sites too.

Reverse Therapy scores an amazingly low 1 Canards on it's home page... So then I ran the Quackometer on Dr John Eaton, the founder of Reverse Therapy. Came back with a more believable 5 Canards. Possible Quackery pages found: 349. But moving to his About us page we find the full 10 Canards! The black duck says...

The quacking noise is deafening. This web site is riddled with loosely defined terms and possibly pseudoscientific language with huge sprinklings of alternative medicine mumbo jumbo. It is full of scientific jargon that is out of place and probably doesn't know the meaning of any of the terms. It shows no sceptical awareness and so should be treated with a suspicious mind. It also looks like this site is trying to sell stuff. Buyer Beware!

Compare the equivalent page on Mickel Therapy, which comes back Quack free! But then Dr Mickel is a qualified medical Doctor and MBChB MRCGP.

Moving on to the More about Reverse Therapy, we find "This site has a has a currently measurable quackery content of 7 Canards". I was somewhat surprised to find that the page on Bodymind only registered 7 Canards too.

The Mickel website doesn't really have an equivalent page. It has pages with videos on, but I don't think that the Quackometer works on those. But delving through the website I found a few pages that registered 1 Canard. And then I found this News page, which states:

The Matrix and Keys to Health

Mickel Therapy has undergone significant evolution over the last year. This has resulted in an additional understanding of ‘dis-ease’ states and how we can treat these. Dr Mickel is currently writing a new book that will expand on this information.
(snip)

Not surprisingly (look at the link!), this did rather worse, 6 Canards - The black duck says...

This web site is heavily laden with loosely defined terms and possibly pseudoscientific language. It is full of scientific jargon that is out of place and probably doesn't know the meaning of any of the terms. It shows no sceptical awareness and so should be treated with a suspicious mind.

I get the feeling that the way the Mickel Therapy website is arranged a lot of the stuff on it won't register high scores on the Quackometer, but the Reverse Therapy website gets higher scores because it tells you rather more about about the therapy. I wouldn't try any of these therapies myself (not that I can afford to). Even without the Quackometer scores.

More snow - but not much!

Had a gorgeous sunset last night.



Woke up a little after 6am to find John had left for his swim, leaving me with a pot of tea to keep me going till breakfast. Just a sprinkle of snow here in Liverpool, but the news has been showing kids off school in loads of places, disruption to trains and flights etc etc. Of course most places are getting more snow than us, but just maybe John'll get the sledge out of the loft before the weekend.



I like the way the snowflakes have swirled outside the window - looks like white scribbles, but maybe it shows better in a bigger picture.

I look out my window, and what do I see?

An airoplane flying over me...

And a ginormous tree too of course.

Poor Ruddy Ducks

Sad news - Ruddy Ducks are to be culled. Fortunately our own Ruddy Duck is cosily laid up for the winter in John's boatyard.

Snow and now fog

I woke up at 6am with the moon shining on my face. Even so it seemed very bright in the room, so I sat up and gazed at snow on the rooftops. After some thin sunshine, the fog rolled in.



The sun is just beginning to break through again now, so I expect what's left of the snow will melt quite quickly.



I hear there's more on the Lightning Process in the Daily Mail today - "How I beat the agony of M.E." - Emily Wilcox & Mum Esther Rantzen put it down to Lightning Process. The Mail is definitely giving this therapy some good publicity - it was only on 9th Jan this year that they last gave an example of a miracle cure using this "therapy".

A friend (thankyou Tom!) has also pointed out Emily Wilcox last reported being cured in the Daily Mail back in October 2001.

Apparently it's important for one to be Ready before attempting this Training.

Am I ready to take the training?

As with any training program we will want to talk to you before you take this training seminar to try and be certain as we can that this program is right for you right now.

Ready?

Our experience suggest you should only phone us if you can agree with these statements:

I understand that the lightning process is a training program and not a therapy or treatment. AGREE / DISAGREE

The process or trainer will not FIX you. We will however teach you the strategies which have others have used to recover from their M.E etc.

I understand that learning the lightning process therefore does not guarantee me any results. AGREE / DISAGREE

This is because it's a training program. We will train you in the same way as everybody else who's found this approach the key to moving their lives on. But we can't predict whether you will apply the training to your life or not.

I accept full responsibility for the effects of applying or not applying this training program to my life. AGREE / DISAGREE

I recognise that the mind and body can powerfully influence each other. AGREE / DISAGREE

I am prepared to look at and challenge my beliefs about my condition/illness, my health and myself. AGREE / DISAGREE

I am totally prepared to do the sometimes-challenging work of starting to think very differently that's required to get myself back on track. AGREE / DISAGREE

Oh dear, oh dear!

Take a look at the courses offered to train in the Lightning Process at The European College of Holistic Medicine. A snip at £3300. And then you can set up your own practise and begin to part patients from their money.

Guess I'm just a cynic!