Phew!

This morning TBSITW collected me to take me to the District General Hospital to see the consultant neurologist. It was a very good, productive consultation.

We then went on for her to do a little shopping at Homebase, but later frustrated at the animal feed place as it didn't open till ten.

Back to the ranch for a cup of tea then off to the surgery for a repeat blood test. The nursing sister did a good job of accessing a vein.

Home again where I was dropped off in time for lunch.

This afternoon the motability scooter man called and identified a scooter to fit my small space. He did all the paperwork and will return with one to try on Friday. He does all the contact work with Motability, so I just have to wait. Lead time about 10 days!

I phoned Bethany Trust and they are delighted to uplift my chest of drawers and computer desk. They too are coming on Friday......

After all this I had a cup of tea with the Scrabble players.

Exercises, Hair, Shopping and so on

This morning I headed off bright and early (or, at least, early) to my physiotherapy exercise class. I was able to do everything (much to my surprise) apart from the walk exercise. I found that every time I put my right foot down, it seemed to jolt my sore rib, which is, incidentally, a lot better.

After that I headed towards big city when the heavens opened. It was really quite scary driving through such driving, heavy rain. I just managed to keep an eye on the rear lights of the car in front and stayed in position behind him.

Don’t know what I would have done if he were going to London…….

I then went to M and S to try and get a sandwich for my lunch, but there were no disabled bays left, so I went on to the hairdresser to get my hair cut. After I came out, the sun was shining so I went to the supermarket to get a bottle or two of Noilly Prat. TBSITW had bought the last bottle on the shelves the last time she was there, but they had restocked.

Back in the car and heading home, the heavens once again opened, but by the time I got home it was more of a drizzle.

I have just finished reading The Princess of Burundi by Kjell Eriksson. Funnily enough, it was quite some time before I bought it as the title sounded rather twee. However, it is anything but twee (the princesses are fish).

I have long been an aficionado of detective novels particularly romans policiers, having started many years ago with Ian Rankin and his detective Rebus. Fairly recently I moved on to European fiction, starting with Italy and Sicily moving on to Spain, then Sweden with Henning Mankell, who led the way for many others from Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Germany (all in translation, of course). Police procedural novels have much in common whichever country they come from, but the different countries and authors bring quite different flavours to their books.

Then a. called to my attention a French author, Fred Vargas, and sent me a copy in French. I was quite surprised how easy I found it to read. Since then I have read all her works which are translated into English, but have now found some in French available through Amazon and my first is winging its way to me even as I write this.

Le Chef has given me a copy of Madame Bovary in French to read, but I feel I need a bit more practice with the language first.

The Princess of Burundi differs from most of the others by not having a prominent hero so much as an ensemble cast; someone likened it to Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels.

Do you remember how I wrote on Sunday’s post that I had walked out of M and S in high dudgeon when the assistant denied that the label saying “2 for £5” about flowers which had been £2.99.

Well, today I got 2 bunches just as good from the supermarket – and at only £1.99 each.

Later, I had to go to the surgery for the asthma clinic run by the Nurse Practitioner. I had hoped for some improvement on last year, but at least it is stable, and people with c.o.p.d. usually deteriorate from year to year.

Outpatients

Went to the hospital today to Outpatients. About the blogs from GPs complaining about referring patients to a consultant and finding that they were seen not by the consultant, nor even a "junior" doctor, but by a nurse; I have been fortunate to have been seen by the consultant on each of 3 visits. He has run his clinics to time, and always takes the time to explain things to you, so that the decision taken is a joint one.

I went today not entirely sure what decision to take, as the probability of success (by-pass of small leg arteries) is 50%. I asked if that probability was for one leg or for two - it is for one leg. Having studied probability I knew that that meant that the probability of success for two legs would then be only 25%.

Accordingly we decided to do nothing in the meantime (especially as I have pretty good pain control on amitriptyline), although I have to be careful of cuts or ulcers.

He said he would be very happy to see me again quickly if circumstances were to change.