I went to hospital this afternoon for my tests. I had the usual catheter fitted and blood sample taken. And then I had to wait.
My blood pressure is up again and my legs are starting to swell up. That’s a couple of things to worry about, but the lymph nodes that have bedevilled me – the doctor can’t find them. If they really have gone, that will be the best news that I’ve had for ages.
I had an echograph this afternoon and my kidneys appear to be quite normal as far as their make-up goes, but there is still a problem in that according to the urine sample that I gave, the protein loss from my body is accelerating.
But the worst news is about my blood count. That’s now down to 10.0, a loss of 9% over the last two weeks. Considering that while I was away in Canada for – weeks, then over that period of time I lost 10% of my count – that’s about a third of the current rate of loss.
That is causing them a considerable amount of concern and so the upshot is that I have to come back … next Thursday!
Yes, just one week, and that’s not even enough time for me to go home and come back again. How I hate all of this. But at least my little room in the hostel hasn’t been taken so I’ve moved back in and I’ll stay here. But what I’m going to do next if i’m on weekly visits I have no idea.
I had a difficult night last night – it took me hours to drop off. And then I had a very disturbed sleep. I was off on my travels too but as usual I forgot absolutely everything as soon as I awoke.
After breakfast I tidied up my room and then had a good shower and a change of clothes. And once I’d organised myself I went off to fetch Caliburn to load him up with the stuff from here. And I nearly squidged a cyclist who rode straight out of a side street without even a pretence at a glance at oncoming traffic.
I sat in the lounge here until it was appointment time and then walked up to the hospital for my appointment with destiny. 14:15 was the time of my appointment, and I was seen at … errr … 14:10. A far cry from the situation in the UK
“I needed an urgent appointment, and the hospital has made a special effort to fit me in. They are going to see me at 20:20”
“You mean at twenty past eight in the evening?”
“No – I mean in four years time”
Such is life with the British Health Service.
And I made all of 20 yards down the corridor on the way home with my catheter today. I’m improving.
And now I’m having an early night. I’m exhausted.
And fed up too.
Well, they said I had a trace of protein in my urine when I had my last drugs test though I suspect this could have been due to my being in the middle of a heatwave in SC at the time. Temperature affects protein excretion. Needless to say, they didn’t find any drugs so I didn’t get to have any interesting explanations to give!
I’m pretty exhausted too. The antibiotics plus flying from Gatwick to Dublin then Dublin to Chicago via Air Fungus (quite possibly the nastiest airline in the civilised world) then Chicago to Charlotte then spending the night in a Quality Inn that was so good that the roaches double booked my room.
I’m glad I took Thursday off. Back to work tomorrow though!
The bus is well nigh complete. I want to get my mechanic fellow in next to change the alternator belt, sort out a short in a circuit marked ABS, install a replacement wiper motor and sort out the mess the hillbillies made with the wiring under the bus.
Then I have to go through the things inside the bus to work out what’s worth keeping and what’s just taking up space!