Haemochromatosis and The Shed

It always amazes me just how a simple thing can spark off a reaction that on the face of it is out of all proportion. Let me explain.

One of my sister’s boys, went for a routine blood test for a minor operation. The test showed that his blood iron level was way above normal. His local hospital in the small town where he lives hasn’t got the facilities to deal with this so he was sent to the large district hospital, in the nearby city. There he was screened for a condition called haemochromatosis
(read about it here http://www.haemochromatosis.org.uk/home.html).

Haemochromatosis is a genetic condition which is passed on by one or two faulty genes. The problem is that it isn't just a matter of too much iron in the blood. Having the iron at these dangerous levels can lead to arthritis, diabetes, liver problems included cirrhosis and cancer, impotence and adrenal problems. So you see, this is not something that can be safely ignored.

The genes can be passed on down either the male or female line and depending how many of the genes you have (you can be carrying one or two), your children may inherit these genes from you. This means that they too can develop this condition especially if your partner also has one or more of these genes (apparently one in 200 of the population have at least one of these genes). This makes it imperative that all members of the family of a patient with this condition should be screened. This is where we, as a family, are at the moment.

Looking just at my siblings, children and grandchildren, it adds up to my three siblings and myself, 7 nieces and nephews, my four children and their partners and nine grandchildren
(26 people all told), all of whom need to be screened if my sister’s boy tests as positive for the condition. As you can imagine, we are all somewhat nervous at the moment.

I didn't realise just how seriously this condition is taken by the medical establishment. It was only when I mentioned my nephew to my consultant’s secretary and got an immediate response from my consultant that I realised that this condition was not something that could be taken lightly. At the moment, we are all hoping that this is a false alarm or that it can be proved that my sister's boy contracted this from a blood transfusion, which is the only other way of getting this condition. I know it wouldn't be nice for him, if it did come from a blood transfusion, but it would mean that the rest of us are in the clear.

A few days ago, while the snow was on the ground, my better half came in from the shed where our freezer lives and told me it was leaking like a sieve. This shed is getting on for twenty years old so it has served us very well indeed. I am no longer capable of crawling about on a shed roof adding a new covering of roofing felt and I don’t want Jackie up there with her eyesight problems so it looked as if the time has come to get a new shed. In olden days it would mean getting out the phone book and ringing round for quotes. In these days of the internet, all that is needed is to open your internet browser go to something like Google and type in sheds from the UK. That got me 2.7 million hits and I was thoroughly confused by the sheer choice of sizes and styles available. I went to B&Q for a few bits for another small project and spotted a plastic shed on display. Now I had never thought about a plastic shed even though I had heard of them. One thing struck me right away was that the shed was a lot sturdier than I had imagined. Then another penny dropped – it didn’t need treating every year either. In fact it didn’t need any painting or maintenance at all other than hosing down to get the grime off it occasionally. Now this made it very attractive to me because as we are getting older Jackie and I are finding it difficult to maintain outdoor things properly.

When I got home I repeated the search on Google this time for plastic sheds UK. That cut the hits to 101K hits – much better. As I read the adverts it quickly became obvious that there are only a few manufacturers that make and sell plastic sheds in the UK so weeding them out to eliminate the very expensive workshop type sheds that we didn’t need brought the choice down to one of three models. We chose a Duramax Duramate 8'x8' Plastic Garden Storage Shed which would fit where the present shed stands. The web site offering the shed said delivery was around 4 weeks which would give us plenty of time to empty the old shed, pull it down and get rid of it so I ordered it. Two days later the phone rang and a young lady asked if we could take delivery of the new shed on Monday, four days away !!!! Panic Stations.

I needn't have worried, within two days the freezer was moved to the workshop on a temporary basis, the garden tools were stuffed in the junk shed and the old shed was empty. We stripped out the electrics and our Alarm Technician (http://www.anchorsecurityalarms.co.uk/) came and dismantled that part of our alarm system.

On the morning we had set aside to start dismantling the shed the phone went and a friend asked if I was up for a bit of barter. She knew that we were going to have a go at dismantling the shed that morning and we would struggle with it. Her computer was feeling poorly and her idea was that her husband Alan, a retired builder, would come and help to dismantle the shed and I would have a look at her computer. Within half an hour Alan had arrived and the shed was beginning to disappear. By lunch time the shed was in bits and piled up ready for burning and Jackie was digging out our pressure washer to clean the concrete pad that the shed had sat on. Thanks Alan you did a great job in a fraction of the time we would have taken.

The state of play at the moment is that the pad is marked out ready to drill the holes for the hold down bolts and the shed base is partially assembled ready to bolt down. However, mother nature has stepped in with a temperature of minus 2° so it is cold stopped play until the temperature rises somewhat.

Why have I told you all this?
Simply to illustrate how easy it is to research and then shop on line for almost anything these days. Gone are the days when you had to spend hours on the phone at enormous cost trying to locate that elusive part. Now Google or eBay can find it in very few minutes and for very little more can have whatever you need delivered to your door.