An exciting & busy week of current health & future plans

This past week has been looming large in my little diary for a few weeks now.
I kept looking to check that we really did have just Wednesday with nothing going on?  It's not unheard of for Hari to have a busy week but, for me to have one, well I really can't remember the last time I've had stuff on every day of the week.  As usual a lot of it was health related.  So let me take you through a busy week, Gill styleeee.....

Monday
Another gorgeously sunny morning.  Hari was off bright & early as always on a Monday morning, off to the Dechen Buddhist centre to do his volunteer stint as a receptionist....
I had an 11am appointment with my own personal Phlebotomist, Debbie.  She's one of the Practice Nurses at the doctor's surgery, and an ex-Phlebotomist (taker of blood = vampire).  She's brilliant, she's in and out of a good vein quicker than Kerry Katona can declare bankruptcy.  The doctor I've been seeing here at the surgery is trying to get my kidney function & my blood pressure down to good & safe levels (everything went a bit 'wooooo' & a bit 'wheehheeeyyyy' after my knee surgery) which means monkeying around with my blood pressure medication which in turn means regular blood tests and appointments with her to decide the next step.  So on this bright sunny Monday Debbie was not surprised to see me sitting in the waiting room clutching my lab form.

That evening I had a bit of a 'wobble'.  This happens to me every now and again.  I doubt my capabilities.  I know I am capable of doing things, of getting out of the house, of being independent and of being me. But every now and again my little sodding demons rattle around inside my head asking me who I'm trying to kid, telling me how old I feel & how useless I really am.
It's unfortunately a throwback to being with my ex, as he used to delight in telling me how useless I was and how no-one liked me.  It used to hit home and hurt then and its something I haven't been able to totally shake off.  This was one of those nights as tomorrow I had something positive to concentrate on, and for me positivity breeds doubt.
I had a good cry as that usually sorts it out but it didn't, I went to bed with a bit of a heavy heart pondering whether to cancel tomorrows plans.

Tuesday
Dawned, yet another gorgeous day in this mini heatwave we seem to be having.  I woke up mental saying 'be positive', but I didn't believe myself.
At 11am I had an interview at the Manchester College, this is what I was pondering cancelling last night as I truly thought it was above me, that there was no way I could do it although I knew deep down that I could.  Ever since I decided to try and get back into gainful employment I decided I would like to work in a hospital environment as its somewhere that interests me, I don't find it a scary or intimidating and I'm genuinely interested in the work. Sometimes when we're at MRI, we'll pass little offices in corridors, their doors propped open and in there beavering away are a teams of administrators, stacks of patient files and its a hive of activity.  And that excites me.  Yes, yes, I'm odd I know but it does.  I want to dive in there and start organising, start filing, start typing.  That to me is paradise.
So when I saw the Business Administration (Medical) course advertised at the local college I thought why not.  And so the day of my interview had finally dawned.  Is an interview at a college the same as a job interview?  What do you wear; keep it casual or smart or maybe smart casual?  Do you take your CV and references?  To be on the safe side I put a summer dress on, put my CV in my handbag, put a little bit of slap on and set off, trying not to be offended that Hari seemed very uninterested til I was actually walking through the door.  See, it doesn't seem like he thinks I'm capable so maybe I am kidding myself, was my thought as I got in the car.

20 minutes later I was outside the college parked in a shady spot in the main car-park as the 3 disabled bays out the front of reception were all taken by cars, of course none of them had blue badges but all of them had child-seats.  Funny that...

I was 15 minutes early so the receptionist pointed me towards some comfy chairs and told me to come back to her at 11, which I did.  She took me in to the library, logged me on to a computer and pointed me in the direction of Maths & an English tests.  Crikey, I didn't reckon on this!  In all it took me the best part of 50 minutes to do both, the questions seemed endless.  I thought I did OK on the English but not so good on the Maths.
So, back to the comfy chairs as the tutor hadn't turned up yet but we (me and a Spanish Amy Winehouse look-a-like) were assured she wouldn't be long.
A while later a lady bought us a cup of tea and explained that the tutor was at a different college and would be about 20 minutes.  We waited.  A long while later, it was now 1pm there was still no sign of her so I headed back to reception and explained that I had to go as I had a hospital appointment.  They said it was no problem and she would ring me to re-arrange my interview.

Stopping for petrol on the way I arrived at MRI where Hari was waiting as he'd been to yoga nearby.  We made our way to Cardiology in clinic suite C.  It was packed.  Ho hum.  More waiting.
In all we waited about 1 1/2 hours, but in that time I was called for an ECG, which took no time at all, and an Ultrasound.  The Ultrasound was ace, I got to watch my heart pumping away on the screen.  I saw the little 'murmur' or hole, flapping away between the ventrical walls (the bottom 2 chambers of my heart) and heard some of the wierd & wonderful sounds the blood flow was making.
I saw a Mr Atkinson who said he thought everything was fine and was loathed to do anything to upset things but wanted to trace my notes from 1994 when I had Acute Endocarditis, as if that happened again then closing the hole might have to be seriously considered.  Not on your Nelly, thought I.
After asking for a referral to a dental unit and that wish being granted we set off home.
That evening I re-arranged my interview with the college, Thursday morning it is.

Wednesday
Was our FREE day so we spent most of it sorting the garden.  Hari mowed both lawns and I pulled all the weeds up between the paving slabs in the back garden which was hard work and reduced me to tears of frustration at one point, but I felt satisfied when I saw it finished, although not while I was doing it!

Thursday
Hari was off before the crack of dawn, he gave me a kiss as he left on his way to Liverpool. I arrived at Manchester College again very early for my interview.  Last time the short journey had taken me 20 minutes but today with no traffic at the Mauldeth Road junction (where they're putting the metro tram line in) and every traffic light on green I was there in 10 minutes.  I was told to go to the first floor and room 121 and after a bit of 'do I go left or right' when I stepped out of the lift I eventually found it.
Bernice, the course tutor was lovely (she'd sounded it on the phone) and she quickly put me at my ease.  We chatted about the course, and the more I heard the more it sounded like my kind of thing.  She assured me I would qualify for funding and said she was happy to accept me on the course.  It would start in September and be 2 full days a week for 1 year with 9 hours of homework a week.  I was absolutely over the moon and more or less floated home (I drove really)

At 3.35pm we were both again at MRI for my Nephrology appointment (kidneys).  I was weighed, had my blood pressure taken and gave 2 urine samples, then waited. And waited. Hari had to leave me to go to work, so I waited, and waited.
It was getting close to 6pm and I was still waiting.  I asked a nurse where I was on the list, she told me there were a few people before me.  So knowing my grocery shopping was due to come between 6.30 & 8.30pm I explained I had to go.  They were very apologetic but I also felt bad about leaving the clinic unseen but along with the shopping delivery I also had a banging headache and desperately needed some air.
I managed to get me and the wheelchair back to the car which involved having a 'Little Britain' moment when the wheelchair developed a limp to the left and it became impossible to steer myself, so I got out and pushed it!

Friday
At 9.30am we we back at the doctors surgery.  Dr Foulds gave me one withering look when I told her about the appointment with the Renal team yesterday but she agreed 2 hours was a long time to wait.  The 2nd withering look came when she took my blood pressure, I admitted that I hadn't had my atenalol as it was still at the chemist.  There was a sly smile and a tut and she asked me to make an appointment for next week, no blood test this time but an appointment to have my bp taken after I'd remembered to take my medication.