Post 487: Alone in the café, but not for long.
I woke up with a determined feeling today, a feeling that would serve me well but not as I thought it would.
I had fed the cat and as I sat on the bed, ready for a shower, I text the foot doctor again. He was meant to come and do my toenails but was a no-show two days ago and I wondered firstly if he was ok in himself and secondly if we could set a date for another appointment. I then grabbed a couple of towels and grabbed the chance to shower while I could.
I wasn’t long out the shower when the phone rang and my foot man was on the worst line ever but I got the gist that he would ring back later, or I hoped that’s what he said.
I got dressed in my carefully selected clothes for a scan, a plain t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts that had plastic buttoned pockets and fly, and noticed that the shorts had shrunk; either that or my belly had gained a couple of inches. Either way, I had got myself ready for the scan and grabbed my wallet and pills for later and made my way downstairs quietly because my Darling was asleep still, but at 10.30 I put my hoodie on and jumped into the car.
Twenty minutes later I was in the very long queue for the hospital carpark with a million other people losing their patience with the process. One in and one out was the way forward but it was painfully slow and I was glad I left a little wiggle room on the “time” to get parked up and with my phone on silent and the pill alarms temporarily off I followed the signs to radiology.
Within a few minutes I felt the business end of a cannula and a syringe of some isotope or other was squeezed into my right arm. I was told to come back at 13:30 for the scan, when the isotope would have dispersed and found its way into my bones ready for the scanning machine to see where it had collected.
I took the opportunity to grab a comfy chair in the café to read my kindle story and eat and drink my way through a decaf latte, two bottles of water, a cheese and gammon sarnie and a packet of chickpea crisps (in the shape of shells).
I was happy with this peaceful time to relax and read but it wasn’t long before someone had seen the tattoo on my forehead reading “talk to me”, and that’s what someone and his wife did.
Ha ha.
I was minding my own business when a couple sat close by me and they were talking to a nurse who was also in the café having a bite to eat and I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation which went along the lines of “how much weight have you lost” and “you must eat all you can” etc. etc.
The answer to the first question was 2.5 stone and when she relaxed after the nurse resumed her position the other side of the café the couple was left by themselves again.
I was bursting to butt in and help them with some nutritional advice but thought it an imposition as she was just diagnosed cancer of some kind or another I had learned.
But I suddenly heard my voice asking if I could make a suggestion after overhearing their conversation.
Well that started a long and very happy conversation about eating during chemo and how to survive that terrifying experience with the medication and the bodies reaction.
I was careful not to overstep the boundaries of this lovely couple’s future but we talked freely and became friends quickly. In fact, when they had to go eventually it was with sadness that we couldn’t talk longer. I had calmed her a little bit from the first chemo session and she looked a little happier even if it was only to have found a friend.
I spent a bit more time in that comfy chair reading my kindle and thinking about my new friends before I had to pop out to the carpark and sip a syringe of oramorph to dull the backache during the hour of scanning coming up very soon and then headed back to the radiology department for the scan.
I was immediately taken in and positioned on the uncomfortably hard plastic plank, then closed my eyes and lay there frozen while the machine whirred quietly around me checking every bone in my body.
The time went quickly and soon I was back in the car driving home, job done, perfect.
No sooner than I got home I had a call from the foot man who asked to come over in 45 minutes, to which I replied “yes”.
He came over to our home and while I chatted as replies to his distracting questions my toenails became beautiful again and with another appointment in six weeks time, he left me very contented.
After the podiatry and then a chicken and beetroot dinner I caught up with some texts, one of which was from my Big Sis who suggested my eye condition might be a cataract in my right eye. Oh crap I thought, that sounds like a good call from my sister, not that I like the idea of it.
More aging problems.
I shall find out on Thursday and then have to deal with that too.
My Darling was resting much of today as the tiredness caught up with her and she needed a bit more rest for her calf muscle, but on the whole was in good shape.
But, she didn’t like my continued ignorance of the breathlessness for the last week. So I’ve emailed the GP to see if she says I should have it looked into.
But, if the answer is “go to A&E” I would like to decline on the grounds of today’s A&E waiting room being twice overfilled with patients waiting for a slice of the doctors time. The expected time to be seen was something like 9 hours and that’s not fair on anyone, neither patients nor nurses and doctors.
However I am getting bothered by the odd time I’m breathless for no reason. I guess it’s my dodgy heart playing up, or something that needs checking. It’s something I have to put up with because the heart surgeon will not work on my heart so they will only medicate with drugs and that’s what I guess my GP will do (or get some advice on).
Happy days.
Tomorrow I have a catch-up meeting at work with HR and a couple of managers to check on how I’m doing in my role as a desk jockey and how I’m feeling right now etc. I’m hoping this will be a straightforward and easy meeting that I can stroll through. I’ll tell you later.
Other than that I’m ok so long as I can swig a bit of oramorph, but that’s only to help me through the back pain.
Sleep well
Take care
