Mum – In hos. Felt much better. Then Mr A came & told me my calcium was too high so he would get Dr Pryor to see me + bone X rays & more tests. Felt quite depressed about it all. Mr A came back & explained that it will need another op if tests etc are positive. P. Dorothy & Nancy came in aft. P & Margaret Culley came in evening. Sue also came & showed me Mr. A’s letter to Dr. Welch. W Started letter to Cecil. Wrote to Ann & Syd. Car to cost £60-£70. Had skull, spine & hand X rays in aft. Staff nurse said they were ok. But was that just to calm me? Mr Stephens called in in a.m.
Roger – Went and bought a gas cooker. We went into the shop at 11:30. We’d cooked our first meal by 3:00. I came back with the fitter in his van to show him the way. In the afternoon we went to the buses Lost Property dept. & found dad’s lost radio. Then we took the car in to the office and went to the Y.H.A. shop to join. Bused home then cleared the downstairs room so that we could get at the carpet.
Notes
Post-op Recovery
Mum was in the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital having had surgery for a renal stone just over a week earlier, see Chapter 116. She was feeling much better.
Mr Ashken
Mum’s surgery had been conducted by Mr Ashken (Mr A). During this period, mum was working as part-time medical secretary for his private practice and that of another surgeon, Mr Stephens, see Chapter 121. Michael Ralph Handley Ashken was consultant urologist at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital from 1968 to 1996. He was also President of the British Association of Urological Surgeons from 1994 to 1996. He was born in 1931 and he died in 2016. Mum was part-time secretary for his private practice from 1975 to 1980.
High Blood Calcium
Mum noted that Mr Ashken told her that her blood calcium levels were high. Presumably, this was the underlying cause of the renal stone. He wanted Dr Pryor to see her and he also wanted bone xrays and more tests. I assume the bone xrays were to see if the high calcium levels had affected her bones and the referral and other tests were to identify the cause of the high calcium such as primary hyperparathyroidism, see Chapter 116.
Dr Jack Pryor
Jack Sidney Pryor was born on 4 July 1933 and he died on 21 December 1988. He was a consultant physician, with a special interest in renal diseases, at the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital, Norwich. Born in London, he received his medical training at Charing Cross Hospital, where he was later to return as a senior medical registrar for a period of three years from 1966. In 1969 he was appointed senior lecturer in medicine at Charing Cross Hospital.
Then, in 1970 he was appointed head of the department of experimental therapeutics at Sandoz in Basle, Switzerland, and was responsible for designing studies in the early stages of the development of new drugs. In May 1971, he was appointed consultant physician in renal diseases at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, a post he held until his sudden death in December 1988. In 1958, Jack Pryor married Bridget Egan, a nursing sister at the Brompton Hospital. They had one son, Robert.
Depressed
Mum struggled with depression and anxiety during this period, see Chapter 116. On this occasion, she noted feeling quite depressed “about it all“. Although sometimes there was no obvious reason for mum’s feelings of depression, on this occasion concerns about her health were a major factor.
Mr Ashken Returned
Mr Ashken came back and told her that if the tests were positive, that is they confirmed primary hyperparathyroidism, she would need further surgery.
Visitors
Mum noted the people who came to visit her. P refers to my older sister Tricia (Patricia). She was the only one of the siblings who visited mum on this day. Liz and I had gone to Birmingham with dad. My younger brother Alan was away at Boys’ Brigade camp, see Chapter 124. Tricia visited twice, both in the afternoon and evening.
Dorothy referred to Mr Stephens’s NHS secretary. Sue was Mr Ashken’s NHS secretary. She showed mum the letter Mr Ashken had dictated to Dr Welch who was mum’s GP, see Chapter 116, Mr Stephens, the other surgeon for whom mum worked, called in to see her.
I think Nancy might have referred to Nancy Papworth, a friend of mum’s from St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church. She had been visiting every day, possibly because she was also an in-patient. Margaret Culley was another friend of mum’s from church, see Chapter 124.
Letter to Cecil
While I am not exactly sure who Cecil was, he and mum seemed close in the late seventies writing to each other frequently. My impression is that they had met on a Methodist Guild Holiday prior to 1975. This year, mum was disappointed that she had managed to book her holiday in Dunoon so that she was leaving on the day he arrived! However, because of her illness, their time together overlapped more than she had originally thought it would. He drove her and my siblings to Glasgow when they left and presumably dealt with the car when it broke down there, see Chapter 116. It is possible that his surname was Beck as I had noted that Mr Beck had been unable to bring the car to ours and it had come by AA Relay. It is entirely plausible that mum would refer to him by his first name but that I would refer to him more formally by his surname.
Over time, their correspondence gradually reduced and the last letter mum noted receiving from him was in July 1977. In June 1978, mum heard from Joyce Boxall that Cecil was remarrying and this upset her, see Chapter 114.
On this occasion, mum noted that she started a letter to Cecil. Presumably, she did not finish it at this time.
Letter to Ann and Syd
Mum met Ann and Sid (or Syd) Collins while on holiday in Dunoon in July 1976, see Chapter 122. She talked to Sid quite a lot. On one occasion, she said she told him about herself. He said he loved her and she noted that she thought he meant It in the right way. I am not sure what this means. I am assuming that mum told Sid all about herself, problems and all. Presumably, he meant he loved her in a Christian, fraternal way but I could well be wrong.
Mum noted that he seemed very understanding but she did not take to him in the same way as she had to Cecil. She wished Cecil or “someone” was there. In December 1976, Sid and Ann sent mum money to buy something for Christmas. Sid phoned sometimes between October 1976 and January 1977. However, the last call mum noted from him was on 3 January 1977, see Chapter 114.
Car Repairs
At this point, mum had a Simca that she and dad had bought in February 1972 before they split up, see Chapter 110. It had broken down in Glasgow at the end of a holiday mum had taken with my younger siblings Alan and Liz. They had travelled home by train and plane and the car had been brought home by AA relay with a burned out clutch. The car had been taken to Reliance Garage and the quote for the work needed was £60-£70.
Normal Xrays
Mum noted that the staff nurse told mum that the bone xrays she had had were “ok“. However, mum worried that she said that just to calm her. Personally, I doubt that that was true. I suspect that the radiologist’s report had come through and the nurse had seen it. she told mum what it said presumably because mum was visibly anxious but also possibly because the nurse knew mum’s job.
Gas Cooker
I was in Birmingham with my father, Royle Drew, and my younger sister Liz (Elizabeth). My parents had separated in 1973 and, at this point, dad was living and working in Birmingham, see Chapter 114. He was in the process of buying and moving into a new house in Walcot Drive in Great Barr, see Chapter 117. We were helping dad move into this.
On this day, we went to buy a new gas cooker. I noted that we went into the shop at 11.30 and we cooked our first meal on it by 3 pm! I noted that I went with the gas fitter in his van to show him the way to the house, see Chapter 125.
Dad’s Lost Radio
In the afternoon, we went to the bus company’s lost property department, see Chapter 127, and found dad’s radio. There must be an intriguing story behind this but sadly I don’t know what it was. I imagine dad must have left a radio on the bus but I don’t know how he did this! I also don’t know if he had phoned the lost property department or if we just went there on spec.
Car to the Office
Dad did not have a car at this point but had borrowed one from his office, the Norwich Union, see Chapter 127, to help him with the move. We then took the bus back to dad’s and cleared the downstairs room so we could get to the carpet.
YHA Shop
I was about to go youth hostelling in the Peak District, see Chapter 122. At that time, to stay at YHA hostels, you had to be a member. You had a membership card. When you arrived, the warden stamped your card. Now, you don’t have to be a member to stay but, if you are, you pay a discounted rate. While you don’t have to be a member to stay, you do have to show photographic ID.
YHA Retail Shops
Currently, the YHA does not own retail shops but there was a brand called YHA Outlets/Adventure Shops which was acquired by Karrimor in 2003. However, this seems to have closed down in 2004 when parent company Karrimor went into receivership with the brand being acquired by Sports Direct. It seems that, at the time YHA Outlets were acquired by Karrimor, they had 15 retail outlets, including in London and Manchester. I have also found branches in Bristol, Cambridge, Liverpool, Reading and Staines. It appears that the branch in Birmingham, in 1977, was at 35 Cannon Street. As of 2022, these premises were empty but Coral had been there until at least 2018.
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