Fuzzy-headed with boots on.

Well this week so far I've been scanned twice, had some blood taken, seen the bones in my hands on-screen looking like join the dots and been radio active. Yes, it's all happening here folks.

Dr Thorough ordered all this lot and the scans originally were a day apart but with some help from the receptionist at our Medical Imaging Dept I managed to get the second one done whilst I was waiting for the isotopes to start working for the first one.

Interesting experience being rendered radio active. One of the many warnings were to ensure no-one else came into contact with my urine for 24 hours. I was amazed they thought they needed to tell people that. Maybe they thought I was some sort of fetishist but well really, how odd, seeing as I am fully capable in that department. I was also to avoid kissing babies, so wouldn't do for politicians then. I had no warnings, however, about the weird, fuzzy head which seemed to come on almost immediately the liquid went in my arm. To kill time whilst it activated, a period of 3 hours, I went to Tescos and did the weekly shop, I forgot half and had to go back last night. Not cheap though, I managed to spend £95 the first time and the stuff I forgot was £32. Frightening for 2 people and 2 cats for one week. But I digress, I was walking round Tescos as though in a trance (hence the purchase of a set of baking tins and some roasting tins too) and I was trying so hard to concentrate that even the till woman seemed to think that I was a druggie or something. Didn't go well either when I chucked a pot of nacho dip straight over the conveyor and onto the floor, cue colleague announcement, "Cleaner to till 4 immediately, customer spillage." No one came.

I returned early to the hospital for a regular bone scan, hips and lower spine. The scans only took 4 minutes. Getting into position for the lower spine was another matter. Lie flat on back, bum pushed towards bed. Place feet 2-3 feet apart. Then turn toes in towards each other, making legs as flat as they will go. At this point some sort of plastic wedge was shoved between my knees to keep my legs still. Finally a thick plastic strap was velcroed over which pushed my toes each side down into the bed. If I couldn't get my legs flat apparently they could then weight them with sandbags. Luckily I was deemed flat enough. Then "Relax, and keep as still as you can for 4 minutes."

10 minutes later I still couldn't get off the bed and my sacro-iliacs were screaming. "Now that wasn't too bad was it? " I muttered something unintelligible and fled to Nuclear Medicine who were by then almost ready for me.

Having been asked at the MRI last week to remove all my clothes and to wear surgical scrubs in order to 'preserve the cleaniless of the examination rooms and equipment', I was expecting to get changed or remove outer clothes at least. The Bone scan required no shoes and the removal of anything containing much metal, underwear OK, biker's leather belts, NOT. The Nuclear scan however required nothing in particular, only removal of my glasses lest the moving bits of the machine damaged them. I was nevertheless still totally unprepared when I had the foot image done to be asked to put my feet, which were STILL INSIDE my walking boots, flat to the table and bend my knees so the soles were flat on the bed. No problem. "This machine can see through boots." Yeah but what about the metal bits? And the dirt?

Lastly, I had a separate scan of my hands and for this I could seen the screen clearly as the image was produced; I was by now sitting with my hands on an imaging table. I asked what the strange scan was in the left-hand of the two screens.

"Oh we're not interested in that, it's just part of your head and arms and your head's all fuzzy." You bet it was by then.

Braindead

I don't have the brain power right now for a lengthy post, suffice to say I am probably busier than I have been for the entire last twenty years. Last weekend I was at a marathon festival locally, it didn't rain and the weather was almost pleasant. It could have done with being a tad warmer but otherwise it was OK. Now I have the clearing up, a house which looks like a bomb site and WH's dreaded VAT to do. We *might* be actually moving house shortly too. Now there's a thing. More news on this later. Tomorrow we will have owned our second house a whole twelve months, it would be nice to live in it sometime.

All this and I am actually feeling reasonably well. Tired maybe but not that desperate bone crushing, nerve tingling, fiery pain I had for so long. I've been off my treatment for almost 3 months now and things are definitely looking up. I'm well on my way to a 3 stone weight loss too, necessitating some serious clothes shopping. My new hobby perhaps, but right now I just don't have the time.

If I could just slow down I might come to appreciate that feeling of doing stuff, wells loads of stuff really, and afterwards feeling, well, OK. It's taken me almost 16 years to achieve this and I want to savour every moment.

Grounded

Got a date with a sugeon and his knife again in a couple of days so it's busy, busy, busy here as I strive to do in 2 days everything I want to do in the next 4-6 weeks, the length of time I must take it very easy. This time around I'm going to be good, or even more of a pain as far as Worst Half is concerned, no cooking, cleaning or lifting anything heavier than a mug of water, and no driving for at least 3 weeks. I set out to do this last time but things didn't always work out and I just did what I had to. Now I'm having the resulting damage repaired so I've decided that as I don't want to go through this a third time, I might as well be over cautious instead.

Meanwhile, my lovely cleaner Mrs T is having one of those 'special' birthdays so I must be up early tomorrow before her visit to arrange her present. Seeing as she did enough ironing to last half a lifetime last week and I have another mountain again already the gift had better be good. Actually I really can't live without her now and I do feel a bit sorry landing her with all this but I've been sorting out my holiday stuff in advance and also digging out a load of really old favourites which now suddenly fit again, after 6 or so years in the 'just in case box' so of course it all had to be washed and pressed. I am the living proof that saving stuff 'for when I lose weight' does actually sometimes pay off. Now over 2 stones lighter, I have just discovered a long forgotten interest in clothes shopping, trouble is, I don't want to buy too much as at the rate at which I am going none of this will fit again in 3 months time, it will all be too big. Then I really will chuck it out and save Mrs T any more grief.

Shopping however is off the agenda for the next few weeks, even when I can travel there's no dampner like a bored male to stop you looking at anything interesting, as I will have to have a chauffeur for a few weeks more. I'll be living vicariously through those members of the family who can get out and of course there's always the internet. After all, I do have a holiday in a months' time to plan for. Accordingly I have ordered a few little goodies to arrive next week to give me something to look at although I expect I'll be sending WH to the post office to return most of it, especially if he catches sight of the invoices.

Tomorrow I'll be potting up the rest of my herbaceous cuttings ready for the move to the new house. Someone donated about 50 ten inch plant pots so I'm busy filling them with stuff which will grow up over the next few months and then be transplanted in the autumn to create an instant 'mature' herbaceous border. It also means I get to take most of my collection of hardy geraniums which I would hate to lose. We did move a few bits from the new house down to WH's garden prior to us totally devastating the back garden and it's amazing what has come up. Today I spotted a mouse plant and a tiny cyclamen amongst a jasmine we have saved. It breaks my heart that the garden was so overgrown and such a mess that we had no real option but to cut it all back. During our visits this time last year we barely saw much more than weeds and grass and now all these little gems are appearing. In what remains of the garden itself I search every day for seedlings and signs of unusual things. Earlier we discovered at least 20 varieties of daffodils and narcissi, some very old varieties when I looked them up and a row 2 metres in length of what I think must be colchicums but of course we won't know until they flower in the autumn.

Meanwhile I'll be looking at flowers of a different nature later this week, on the TV, and making mental plans of the garden I'm going to make when I've recovered.

See ya!

What I've been doing this last week

A whole week's gone by and it has flown. I'm knackered. Anyway here's a brief resume of my activities:

1. Dug a whole huge patch of my back garden and removed oodles of Three Cornered Leek which had taken over. It was only AFTER I planted it I read a quote from Alan Titchmarsh which said it was a 'pernicious weed' and never to plant it in a small garden.

2. I have redone the stone border around 90% of my back garden. It's so unusual to be able to garden so early in the year, the weather was fabulous last week and the ground so dry it was almost a pleasure.

3. Spent 3 hours shopping at Cribbs Causeway on Sunday, bought a few gems and joy of joys Anne Harvey has reopened her shop so that was cause for more expense. ( Yes I know it's part of Alexon and NOT an exclusive designer shop but I like their stuff and it FITS)

4. Got sunburned, in April!

5. Emptied the whole of Mother's flat, disposed of the rubbish and cleaned it all out. That feels so good.

6. Saw middle step- daughter and bump last night, not long to go now. She was working, so we just called in briefly on our way past.

7. I have been playing Hayseed Dixie's fab new album. As usual I prefer the original material but they just bring a smile to my face and a bop to my step.

8. Reorganised my entire garage contents ahead of our imminent move; if we're keeping it, it's in a plastic storage box, colour coded and labelled in order of importance. Following this activity I had a trip to our local tip with a whole car load. Spring is for cleaning. Right?

Do you notice anything different reading all this??

I am feeling a lot better and I have the energy (and a little weight loss) to prove it. A trip to Dr Wonderful on Monday will hopefully confirm we are on the right track. It has only taken 15 years.