Down to the hospital again today. I walked both ways again, a nice day for it, 25 minutes or so each way. Inconclusive, so we’ll wait and see and have another go in a couple of months. No news is good news as they say.
Category Archives: about me
like Lazurus the combination oven has risen!
Our much loved Neff combination oven, used 2 or 3 times daily since we bought it 6 or so years ago, was found dead in the kitchen on Sunday, having faithfully cooked Saturday dinner and a bread and butter pudding the night before.
But a nice man has just been and replaced an internal fuse and it’s working again! No big bill for a new oven.
Now all we need is for the Jaguar not to need much work for her MOT tomorrow and it will have been a good week.
Back in the MRI Scanner
Back in the MRI today. They wanted a scan from a different angle and also ones with die added to the bloodstream.
Now the MRI scanner I’m OK with as regular readers will know, but needles & stuff? Not my favourites and I hadn’t expected that today. I’ve had a lot of blood samples taken over the last couple of years and have only had the one wobbly moment, but today, it was lights out!
I had warned them that I can have problems, and had made sure that I was well anchored in the chair, so it was not big deal and I was soon back with them. They kept an eye on me for a few moments after the scan as well just to make sure I was OK before letting me go.
So another set of scans in the can. Thanks to the MRI team at GWH for looking after me and I’ll be back in a couple of weeks for the next set of results to see if they’ve found anything of interest. Watch this space.
Filed under about me
2010 BIFM Annual Conference, London
One of the premier global events for Facilities Managers. I’ll be going, and look forward to meeting old friends and making new ones.
When: 13th-14th April
Where: Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel
Theme: FM in a changing world
Chair: Sarah Montague, presenter of the Today programme
What else is there? Fantastic keynote speakers, an exhibition, an entertainment-filled gala dinner, and plenary, parallel and fringe sessions covering a range of relevant and exciting topics.
Tickets are available to book via the website link: www.bifmconference.com
Filed under about me, business life, Press Cuttings
more time with the NHS today
Off to the Great Western Hospital again today, partly for a review of my last MRI scan results and, hopefully, they will show that I haven’t developed a talent for growing salivary gland tumours after all. We’re pretty confident that I haven’t, that Larry the Lump was just a one off that needed three operations before I was finally rid of him, but you have to monitor these things.
The other reason for the visit is to remove the remnants of the wisdom tooth that my dentist left behind just over three months ago. I’ve joked before about this terraced house in the suburbs where I go every now and again to pay two women to cause me pain for half an hour, but on my last visit things did go wrong. Having declined to invest around £1000 (yes a grand) in having a tooth at the back rebuilt I opted to lose it. Nicely numbed up I lay back and thought of England (the good one we had before this government ruined it) and tried to relax, the crunch! The top of the tooth was just crushed leaving me with the base of it and its roots.
This was 10 days before I flew out to the USA for nearly 4 weeks and the root removal would have to be a hospital job, so with me not back until a couple of days before Christmas, it would be at least January before anything could be done, and here we are halfway through February. Part of that is because I have the A team looking after my other oral problem, and they have kindly taken the tooth extraction under their wing and scheduled me on their list and they have got me in 2 weeks earlier than it first looked possible to arrange.
So today is the day. Yes it’s pretty routine and, as I say, I have the A team doing the job, but I am a quivering wreck. I know that this is irrational and all the rest, but there it is. The best dentist I have had so far, back in Chelmsford, told me I had three problems with my mouth; small aperture, big tongue and teeth that would have served a horse well. He did manage to get in there and do a good job; most of his work is still intact and serving me well, but all other dentists have struggled with me over the years, even with just the routine maintenance.
I’m writing this in the hopes that, in doing so, it my help calm me a little. It has to be done; the remnants cannot just be left there and I haven’t been able to eat properly since the original botch up, and that came as soon as was feasible after my third operation on Larry the Lump, which in turn was as soon as possible after the second operation, so I have had works in progress in my mouth since last May. My mouth feel likes our road network – bits always coned off and dug up.
In fact it’s two years since the saga began. January 23 2008 I walked out of a consultant’s office with the news that I had a tumour and that it would have to come out before they could tell me more. I switched my phone back on to call home, but voicemail chimed in with the message that my Mother was not expected to see the day out and I should get to the hospital if I could. All being well today will draw a line under the whole thing.
2010 BIFM Conference – London
I’m thrilled to be speaking in one of the parallel sessions at the BIFM conference on its return to London this April. This is a truly global event and showcases the best that Facilities Management can offer.
If you’re interested in attending, here’s a link to the web site:
http://www.bifmconference2010.com/
Maybe see you there?
Filed under about me, business life, Press Cuttings
MRI scans – I get to have another one!
Having tried recently to reassure folks that these scans aren’t too bad I shall be putting myself to the test again in a couple of weeks. I got a call this morning to ask me in for another one so that they can have look inside my head from a different angle or using a different scan method.
Whatever. I’m off then to be squeezed into the tube once again and shall, as I suggested last time, lie back and think of something else.
I’ll let you know how I get on, but it won’t be too bad – trust me.
more fun with the NHS*
Off shortly for a couple of blood tests, this time at the GP’s (doctor’s) surgery. I understand that they need to monitor me from time to time, but we seem to be getting into some sort of spiral. At one time I might have to be checked every 3 years or so and those were usually at my own instigation as time and the nature of my job suggested to me that my aging works ought to be looked at now and again in case something needed attention.
Now I seem to be required to turn up more and more often and find situations like the one last year when, having told the surgery that I would be abroad for 4 weeks, they booked me an appointment whilst I was away and castigated me for not having attended when I didn’t even know about it, and stopped the supply of medication that they had told me I needed to take.
I sense the hand of central government in all of this. Am I now a statistic that needs to be checked off and appear on a return just to keep the practice’s performance figures in line or something similar?
Who knows for sure, but I suspect that it could be and, while the surgery are dealing with me, disgustingly healthy as I am, answering my phone calls, phoning me, seeing me, filling in my forms and all of the other things that they have to do, there is some poor soul who could have better benefited from their time than me. And I am ashamed of that.
* For my non UK readers, the NHS is our National Health Service
Filed under about me
Friday Fortunes
I can’t say that the day started that well; two lots of cash that should have appeared in the bank account didn’t and the postman hadn’t got a cheque in his bag from a third “promise”. The down side of working for yourself is when people don’t keep their word.
On the other hand the telephone has been kind, with three very welcome calls, one about contributing to helping others, a second to offer the chance to do some voluntary work and finally a possible paid job for me to think about.
In between the Wonder of Wokingham and I enjoyed the sunshine and had a ride out into the Cotswolds, visiting a couple of garden centres, a farm shop and Waitrose in Cirencester.
All in all a good day capped by a mixed grill washed down with some pink fizzy and time now to put our feet up and enjoy a book.
Filed under about me, business life
at last an F1 offer?
In my younger days I fancied myself as a racing driver and did do a bit of wheel twirling and marshalling before women entered my life and took all my time and money.
So the call to go to the HQ of Williams GP down the road at Grove came as a pleasant surprise. It’s a business trip though; too old, too tall, too wide and not to mention too slow to pedal the new FW32 for them, and anyway they’ve got the barrow boy and the incredible hulk bloke signed up to drive this season.
Oh well, maybe I’ll get to see some of the cars.
Did I mention that I’d seen FW in his F3 driving days?
Filed under about me, business life
The Voice of the Bloke at the Back 