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Happy Náw-Rúz

March 20, 2010 in Baha'i related, Diary | No comments

At 17:32 GMT tonight (20th March) the sun crossed over the equator into the northern hemisphere. This event, called the vernal equinox, marks the beginning of springtime in the northern hemisphere and, in many traditions, the beginning of the new year.

The Bahá’í new year, starting at sunset on 20th March, is timed to be close to this event. This evening I had the pleasure of getting to our local celebration in Newcastle, a fairly modest affair with a short introduction about Naw-Ruz and the month of fasting that precedes it, followed by a few prayers and then a lot of food, some of which (a cashew nut and almond dhal and two pizzas) I had the joy of preparing and taking along. We share the task of providing food on these occasions, aside from your own dish you have no idea what will be on offer, it’s called a pot-luck dinner. As it happens all of us were expecting many more people than actually showed up, so it’s pizza and dhal for breakfast tomorrow too!

Counting from the date on which The Báb, the fore-runner of Baha’u'llah (who is the prophet founder of the Baha’i Faith), declared His mission in 1844, we have just entered the year 167 B.E. on the Baha’i calendar, and so I take this opportunity to wish all my reader/s a very happy Naw-Ruz, Baha’i or not, may the coming year bring much love, joy and happiness to your heart!

Below is a letter from Prime Minister Gordon Brown to the Baha’is of the United Kingdom:

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It gives me great pleasure to send my warm regards to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United Kingdom on the occasion of your annual reception.


This has been a difficult year for many Baha’is and I was deeply concerned to hear of the trial of the Yaran in January and of the arrest of other Baha’i members during the unrest in Iran during Ashura. Your dignity in the face of such discrimination is admirable and I have the utmost regard for your principles of equality and human rights.

I hope that this year brings both peace and prosperity to you all, and that in the months to come there can be a change for the better in the Iranian authorities’ attitude towards the Baha’i community in Iran.

[Signed: Gordon Brown]

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And the following is from Leader of the opposition, David Cameron MP:

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I am delighted to send you my best wishes as you celebrate the Baha’i New Year at the reception on 22 March.

The New Year is always a time for spending with friends, family and the wider community, and for looking forward to the months ahead.

It is also a time for considering many of the principles which the Baha’i community hold dear – like social justice, and a concern for the environment – which are of importance to our society today.

May I send my good wishes to you and your families at this time.

[Signed: David Cameron]

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Self-Centred Technology

September 18, 2009 in Comment, Diary | No comments

“James Herbert is writing a blog entry.”

Does that interest you? In fact, since you are reading this entry, I can give you an update on that:

“James Herbert has now published a blog entry.”

Perhaps you would be more interested if I told you something you couldn’t work out for yourself:

“James Herbert is looking forward to enjoying the culinary skills of Ladan’s aunt this evening.”

I have always had the feeling that blogging one’s daily thoughts on a blog, tweeting one’s moves on twitter and updating one’s status on Facebook  is to presume one’s life to be fascinating to a significant number of Internet users.

For this reason the bulk of my blog posts, when I was more active as a blogger, leaned more toward being news stories about the Baha’i Faith, but then the number of people and sources providing such news increased and, again, I found myself asking why people should find my version to be worth reading when there are now several official versions available at the same time.

I want to start bogging again, about life, Ladan, the Baha’i Faith, and technology, but have a hesitance about being too presumptuous that I have a voice worth hearing,  that others will be interested in what I am interested in.  I also do not want to write things about circumstances I am in that upset other people for the wrong reasons, as has happened with my Ladan updates in the past. So, I am coming back, but this is why it has been a slow and sporadic journey.

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A Ladan Update

March 27, 2009 in Diary, Ladan | No comments

I have wanted to write an update about Ladan, but it has been hard to decide what to write with a varied audience. Currently Ladan is in a stable condition not disimilar to that which she has previously been in when she has been stable before. In December Ladan was subjected to a hospital stay following an asthma attack with the possible complication of a chest infection, hospital stays are always fairly traumatic, this time Ladan was admitted following a day of notable improvement but her improvement was slowed by the stopping of all food and medicine while the hospital doctors assessed the situation, on each of the three admissions to hospital that Ladan has had for potential infections over the years there has been a deteroraton in this early stage, which is very worrying when Ladan is admitted while she has been improving, retrospectively it is generally agreed that the last two hospital stays might have been avoided by simply continuing with the prescribed course of action in the nursing home. It did not help that I had popped out when a doctor visited last time and so family observations and formal information relating to improvement in her chest were not communicated to the GP effectively. When Ladan is not well we try to be with her all the time, and when Ladan is in hospital where they do not know her at all this becoes even more important. Even after nearly 3 years in the nursing home most of the staff would be unable to distinguish between the different reactions that Ladan has to various forms of distress, and so for hospital staff who have never even seen Ladan in a relaxed and stable state the task of recognizing her needs is virtually impossible, at least in the nursing home most of the nurses will recognize if Ladan is particularly distressed and can then try to take an educated guess as to why. I never feel particularly comfortable being sat on a female ward all night long, even with the curtains pulled around. We spent the last part of our stay on a very friendly and efficient ward at the Freeman Hospital where, after a few days they managed to find Ladan a cubicle which made life more comfortable.

Although Ladan has remained healthy and stable it took a couple of months for her to return to her best. Meanwhile I am still looking for a flat or bungalow to take Ladan back to (which, although there are plenty of suitable places for sale in todays market, will have to be one already belonging to the council or a housing association for now), when we do that Ladan will be able to have a much better, personalised, environment and level of care, and things will hopefully also be much easier for the rest of the family for the most part too.

During the aforementioned hospital stay I was not able to get Internet access to update the blog (Facebook worked in a simple form), I am now set up to write articles from my phone (this is the first one I am doing this way) so that I will be able to update the blog under such circumstances.

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Ladan update, 21/10/08

October 21, 2008 in Diary, Ladan | No comments

In my last update about Ladan I mentioned that I was hoping to try a Parkinson’s medication called Levodopa with Ladan because it has been found to reverse minimally conscious state in a number of people around the world. I had managed to find somebody who served on a coma recovery board in the United States who was a consultant in Argentina with experience in using the medication and this consultant was kind enough to give me recommended doses and other relevant information. When we came to starting the trial our doctor pointed out that the doses were higher than anything she had seen recommended for use in Parkinson’s disease and so, in case of any problems, we would not be able to go higher than half the recommended dose. We decided to continue as sometimes the lower dose has the desired effect, today was the last day on that dose and we are now back on a lower dose for a few days before stopping with the medication completely. I will write in more detail about this when the medicine has been stopped, and I will include mention of some encouraging observations, but there has been no obvious major change in Ladan’s condition as a result of the medicine to date.

Friday, just gone, was an important day for me. It was exactly one year on from Ladan becoming very ill, which turned into one of the worst events of my life. The following day, the 18th October, Ladan was rushed to hospital and was clearly struggling. Her condition worsened over the next 20 hours and the doctors where doing nothing at all. Eventually, after a lot of talking about whether they should do anything, they stepped in and prescribed a medication that she has an allergy to. It took a while before Ladan was on the right medicine and recovering… and even when her chest started recovering her treatment was such that she had terrible pressure sores all over the back of her body… and this was with myself and my mother-in-law being there 24*7 and pressing for Ladan to get the care she needed when required. There were other factors that made it an even worse day, and ironically the date had a personal significance which meant I wanted to spend some of it very peacefully relaxing with Ladan while enjoying my favourite soft drinks… but Ladan wasn’t well enough for it to be relaxing in the end.

This year, then, I wanted the day to be something more special, so I arranged to take Ladan back to the flat (where I sleep a little at night) for the afternoon. It was just the two of us this time. It was so peaceful. No mater how quiet you try to make things in the nursing home there is always a tv or a loud conversation, or some rushing in the hallway outside, keys jangling, trolleys rolling… always something you can hear… and the chair I am sat on right now, next to Ladan, is functional but not good for really relaxing in. Being relaxed with Ladan by my side, listeneing to some favourite tunes, looking through a few old photos, it was relaxation like I had not had in a very long time. The staff at the home also commented on how relaxed Ladan was when we returned.

The cold weather is setting in now and I am really hoping we don’t have to face another hospital nightmare this year. Right now, Ladan thankfully seems well and settled.

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Ladan Update

September 18, 2008 in Diary, Ladan | 1 comment

My blog has become a little geekish over the last couple of posts, and I may have another very geekish post up my sleeve soon too, so I thought I should jump in with an update about Ladan as that is, after all, one of the main things for which a lot of people visit this blog.

The summer, if we are still calling it that, has been a very stable time for Ladan, no real fears of infection or other problems. It would have been nice to get Ladan out quite a lot but it has been a very wet summer, finding a good day has been difficult. There have, however, been about three trips out this summer, two to the flat where I spend some of the morning sleeping and one trip – a tiny bit further afield – to Ladan’s uncle’s house in the north of Gosforth.  Ladan’s uncle Shahram and his family regularly host Bar-B-Qs and meals at their home for the family and Ladan would often go there while she was living in Newcastle before we got married, indeed I visited there quite often while visiting Ladan up here. It was, therefore, a familiar environment to take Ladan to and also presented an opportunity for the family to spend time with Ladan in a more natural environment.

We are taking small steps forward toward getting Ladan out of the nursing home and into a normal house or bungalow, but things cannot move forward properly until we have a property, and that probably involves a wait of indefinite duration for a local housing association to have a suitable property available. Our case manager is fixing up a meeting with somebody who can help talk me through the various other options that might exist and their consequences.

A long while ago I mentioned a medicine called levodopa which I was hoping we could try with Ladan some time. It is normally used in Parkinsons disease but has been found to have a dramatic influence upon a small number of people who are in a minimally conscious state. There have been a few barriers to trying this medication, including a lack of clear information on how to use the medication in this situation and questions over Ladan’s stability. Ladan’s GPs have been very positive in this matter, as they have been over moving Ladan into home environment, and we now seem to have overcome most of the barriers, so it looks promising that we may be trying this medicine very soon. I will, of course, update this blog with the results of the trial… I might also write a fuller introduction to what it is all about in the next day or two… encourage me to do so if you would wish to read it.

The colder autumn and winter months are, generally, the ones where Ladan is at greater risk of developing chest infections. Over the last few years I think Ladan has had to go onto anti-biotics at least once during this period, last year we ended up in hospital twice and so I am hoping for a smoother ride through this winter.

I remain aware that many people are keeping Ladan in their thoughts and prayers and this a blessing for which I am truly very grateful and am deeply moved by. Ladan has remained very strong through this ordeal, rather than deteriorating she becomes increasingly stable, so please do keep those prayers coming if you can. Thank you.

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Remembering the blog

June 18, 2008 in Diary, Ladan | 1 comment

It has been so long since I posted to this blog that I had forgotten how to do it. My apologies to those of you who have been checking regularly for updates.

Thank you all very much indeed for saying prayers two months ago, I was very touched by the response. Ladan has remained stable, and there is slightly increased activity toward getting Ladan and I into a bungalow together so that I can be the one primarily looking after her (which I am to some extent anyway, but not at home).

I have been trying to start up a small business offering some web, internet and multimedia services, I’m still working out how I can best use the gaps of time between the interruptions that come from being with and caring for Ladan, this will become easier when we live together properly but even now I am optimistic that I am getting there slowly.

I have had Ladan back to the flat I currently sleep in a few times, and then we had quite a few trips to the local park, Jesmond Dene, where Ladan took me for a walk the first time I came to visit her in Newcastle. With summer looming, albeit the cooler Newcastle version of summer, it was decided that Ladan should have a daily tablet to prevent against hay fever, unfortunately this knocked Ladan for six and made her much sleepier, since then we have not been out, Ladan has stopped taking the tablets as a daily medicine, there have been a couple of other medicines that Ladan has had over the last few weeks too and I am hoping that soon we can be back to our normal regime and I will be taking Ladan out again a few times over the “summer”. When we go out we do not take any nurses or special equipment with us, so I prefer to have Ladan a state of medical fitness and awareness that I am familiar with. We have yet to have the first non-family member come to visit us and spend time in the flat with us, which will feel like a big step toward normality.

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Call for Prayers

April 8, 2008 in Diary, Ladan | No comments

Firstly, there is nothing wrong that impels me to write this.

Thursday 10th April, please may I request that all our friends, indeed anybody who is willing to, says special prayers for Ladan, or thinks positively for her if they are not the praying kind.

This is more by way of experiment then necessity, Ladan has been very stable for the last few months and, as usual, has her very bright days as well as her tired days. I have noticed that, on a couple of occasions, the brighter days have coincided with several people claiming to have had Ladan in their prayers. While we are waiting to hear the doctors views on the use of another medication which, in a very small number of similar cases, has had amazing results I thought it might be nice to focus prayers on Ladan for one day with close to the same kind of intensity that she was receiving them when she first had her stroke. Those who are familiar with Ladan’s case will know that Ladan was showing good signs of consciousness until an incident in hospital, one and a half months later, knocked Ladan into an even lower state of consciousness.

If an experiment isn’t reason enough for you, then 10th April is also our fourth wedding anniversary.

On two recent occasions, the first being Ladan’s birthday on 10th February, I have been able to take Ladan back to the ground floor flat I sleep in near to the nursing home. The flat is full of items that were Ladan’s before we married and therefore hopefully a mini treasure trove of memories. Furthermore it is a quiet and comfortable place to spend time, which is also great for me. The second occasion was on the visit of a friend from the south, it seemed a much more natural place for Ladan to be receiving a guest. I am hoping that the next occasion will be this Thursday afternoon. There are several things that can happen on the day which may prevent this from happening, but that is the hope.

I have uploaded a few video clips from our wedding to my Facebook page, I will upload them elsewhere soon for those who are not on Facebook. I also hope to put up a short video in the next couple of days showing a few shots of where Ladan currently is and the flat in Heaton.

Thank you in advance for your participation on Thursday, there is no particular time and no particular prayer, just as much as you feel able and willing to offer on that day will be most appreciated.

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Another hospital stay

January 2, 2008 in Diary, Ladan | No comments

From 17th – 24th December Ladan was in hospital again. To clarify, Ladan is usually in a nursing home with 24 hour cover by nurses qualified to a critical care level, general practitioners are on-call and usually visit within a few hours if a call is important. On this occasion, as on October 17th, Ladan was too unwell to be cared for in the nursing home and was admitted to hospital. The primary problem was again thought to be an asthma attack, possibly aggravated by a chest infection, another potential causal factor was also identified on x-rays.

For this stay we remained on Ward 43 of the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, this ward is an extension of the admission ward and we only remained there due to a shortage of available beds on the main chest ward. The staff were friendly and Ladan was well looked after, she did not develop any of the skin problems that resulted from her last stay in the hospital. As usual, Ladan’s mother and myself made sure that one of us was with Ladan all day and all night.

Ladan’s condition was not quite as serious this time as it was on October 17th, though at times she seemed to be really struggling to breathe, which is of course very difficult to witness. On this occasion it also took a bit longer for her to show significant improvement, probably because Ladan was treated with regular oral medications rather than intravenous medications (which go directly into the blood stream). Nonetheless, she did improve and by the end of the stay we were just waiting a couple of days for a doctor to say it was okay to go. Officially Ladan has to be transported by paramedic ambulance and all ambulances were refusing to do non-emergency transport for patients on Christmas Eve, so it was only through the kind efforts of the staff on the ward that we were able to get back to the nursing home, it would probably heave been a few more days otherwise.

Ladan wasn’t particularly settled when we left hospital, she was still wheezing quite a bit, but as soon as she was back in her own room and had enjoyed a proper shower she was looking and sounding much better, and right now she is seeming back to normal again.

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Contents may be hot!

December 3, 2007 in Diary, Humour | 2 comments

Last Tuesday morning I awoke to the sensation of slightly itchy legs, itching in an almost tingling and non-stop fashion. I kicked my hot water bottle from between my legs and tried to get a few minutes of extra sleep before getting up and facing the cold air that awaited me on the other side of my duvet. This was the second night I had used a hot water bottle this year, the previous night I had filled it from the hot tap and it had still been warm in the morning, on this occasion I had part-filled it from the kettle and it had retained a good amount of warmth in the four hours I had been asleep. My attempt to fall asleep again was being hindered by the tingling in my legs and so I decided to get up, I kicked the duvet in much the same direction as I had kicked the blue hot water bottle a few moments earlier and threw my tingling legs over the edge of the bed. My legs in full view, I could now see the cause of the tingling, a large area of each leg had been scalded by the hot water bottle. I would have been shocked that I had failed to wake up as my legs cooked but for the fact that this had happened to me once before. On the previous occasion I had awoken in my flat in Harrow with my pyjama top stuck to my chest, when the scalding calmed down I was left with a small heart shaped scar on my chest for about a year, a fact that I found amusingly appropriate because I had recently had some very severe chest pains which had been diagnosed as pericarditis, which is a scarring of the lining of the heart.

On this occasion the burning wasn’t quite so severe, I had nothing stuck to my skin, just three large areas of redness and blisters, I poured cold water over them for a while, but nowhere near as long as I should have done (which I wasn’t aware is about 15 minutes), partly because the cold water was freezing my feet. On advise of the Boots family health guide I then applied some large Melonin dressings, with bandages, to each leg to help keep the wounds covered and clean. I have been most impressed with how, just keeping the burns covered over, they healed without itching very much. There are still a couple of irritating marks and blisters left but for the most part the legs are looking normal again. I have Ladan to thank for the health guide and first aid kit that got me on the right path so quickly.

I haven’t used the hot water bottle again since then yet, but with the cold weather we’ve been having up in Newcastle over night, I will have to place my trust in it again soon… without, I am sure, any assistance from the kettle.

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