Hospital Season Ticket

Today was Hospital day Maria with her MRI Consultant results, me with my CT Scan. Maria's consultant was running really late so I managed to get my scan done 30 mins early so I thought we were onto a winner. No such luck we didn't get out the hospital until 14.00. 3 hours after the initial appointment time. Anyway things looking good for Maria, looks like she don't have epilepsy but she needs to see another consultant to see why these episodes are happening it could be panic related after all and it could be psychological, anyway the consultant said he would sort all that out and arrange an appointment with the guy from before. Brilliant! I drove today hurt like mad but I think I ned to get used to doing things even if they hurt so I can get back to work. And on that note I finally got a claim form from my "Government backed" mortgage company in fact not 1 but 3  wonderful eh! Anyway I took it last week to my doctors for filling in etc and was told it could take some time as the doctors don't see this a priority. Well to me it is a priority and also I am going to have to pay to have the thing done anyway so where is the customer service in that. Now I know that doctors are there to treat patients etc. but they are getting a fee. It like going to a solicitor and saying you want a letter sent and they say yes I'll charge you but I'll do it whenever I can its not my priority.  I'd like some vegetables please you ask at your local shop and the salesperson says yes I'll get them when I'm ready to do that its not my priority  and Oh! by the way that will be £7.92!  The claim cannot progress until the doctor signs it then it goes to my employer then I have to send it off to the claims company who I am sure will not want to pay anything out if they can possibly help it so they will take their time meanwhile I am on half pay and trying to make ends meet good eh! When I phoned the doctors the person I spoke to was very good and said she would do what she had to do to get the form filled in. That's Ok then!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I have just finished watching Spiral in my iPhone a rerun of the series first shown in 2006 I think by BBC 4. I remember watching the first couple last year and thinking WOW! this is great but then they put these things on so late that I forget I have seen them, so thank you BBC for the re run and thank you iplayer and iPhone for the ability to see them again when I am ready to do so. That is what technology is about, getting what you need when you want it and the iPhone and I dare say other new mobiles deliver. I now do not know what I would do Communication wise if I didn't have my mobile. I am going out for a walk shortly and I will take my iPhone with me to log where I have been and how long it takes me so that I can put it up on the web to make sure  am getting some exercise so that I don't put any more weight on  ( it isn't working by the way). So even by looking at Spiral made circa 2005 and looking at say Wire you see directly the use of mobile technology.

Now having text my daughter (up stairs revising) to ask what time we should go for a walk I have half an hour to get ready great this comms thing! As I said Lazy Sunday afternoon. 

St George's Day

Thursday came and went I thought it was Wednesday so I didn't really do anything about celebrating this day as most people in England it comes and it goes and we talk of making it a holiday and celebrating all that is good about this country and then we are too late and so we wait until next year and the same thing again!
We could take a leaf out of the St Patrick's day celebrations. Firstly find a brewery to sponsor the day a good honest English brewery. Aah! we hit the first snag there isn't one. OK then lets look to our Englishness (like the Irishness) well do we go down the Morris dance route or the National Front route (read their policy statements and they refer to the "British" the "English" but who are these people surely not just white working class but all people who live and can vote in this country). Do we celebrate the Cornish pasty or the Stotty cake. You see the problem there is no unifying trait that says English there is just a mish mash of local and regional variations. So what do we do? Well we forget about it until next year and the debate will start again. When all is said and done we don't care anything about the religious status of the Patron Saints anyway we just want an excuse to have a good time and for that you don't need any saints especially a Roman soldier from Turkey. Its that bit of everything again!

Consultants News

Well what a hectic day MRI scan in the morning and then back for the Doctors report in the afternoon. Good thing is that he said I can begin exercise again swimming, bicycle rides and driving as long as it doesn't hurt. That will be the day! Anyway I got the green light. I then told him about the aftercare ( or lack of it ) and he said he had produced something that was going through committee stage at the moment so watch this space! 

I am not planning to go back to hospital to see if it has been implemented! Anyway just got side tracked sorting twitter stuff and "Twanalyse" links. So the top and bottom of it is that I have to go for a CT Scan

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He reckons (the consultant ) that some people develop further symptoms by virtue of the fact that they are our into certain positions in surgery which irritate the other vertebras and when he looked at my MRI scan he said there were vertebras 4,5,6 which could have damage done to them. So he said he would order a CT scan now I was thinking Oh! no! not to wait another 17 weeks for that but he just gave me a card and I went to the appointments desk and she said for me to sit down and she would come with the diary. So I sat down thinking yeah! 3 months next Wednesday. SHe came and said she apologised for not being able to get me in this week but would next Wednesday do. Well I nearly bit her hand off (metaphorically speaking of course). So Next Wednesday 12.15 be there or be square as they say.  After that I can negotiate a phased return to work. Normality here we come!

Season tickets for the hospital

Schools begin again tomorrow, well most schools the catholic ones have another week so not all schools are open therefore the roads will anly be partially crowded. Maria will not be there anway as she has her MRI scan for Epilepsy in the morning and then I have my long awaited appointment with the consultant who carried out my operation. Hopefully I will know more about what is going on. Things like how long will the pain last and can I do exercise yet as the pounds pile on.
Bodil had a party for her birthday everyone enjoyed themselves and the food was great, lots of it.
Louise goes back to Uni tomorrow, I will miss her she has been great these past 10 days. This was the weekend that the "TurfLodge Clarets" were to go to Burnley to watch the Sheffield United game but unfortunatley Sky made them an offer they couldn't refuse and they changed the game to Monday so road trip off until next year shame as I was really looking forward to it and to visit my mums grave to tidy it up and put flowers on it. We will get there another time.

Post Easter

Well that is that! Easter over and the summer to look forward to. Bodil's bash didn't go ahead as Maria had an episode so we cancelled then later she woke up and was fine. Its strange how these things effect you, I am now inwardly worried when she goes out and I little concerned when she doesn't contact me through the day but as she says life goes on and she isn't going to let a little epilepsy change her life. The get together didn't happen but we all met on Easter Monday at St Gabriel's and had a great time especially around the Brazier getting smoke all over our clothes. I don't know what it is about fires but they are very hypnotic and peaceful I could have stared at the brazier for ever watching the ashes change and the reaction of the fire to a new lump of tree very calming I thought. The down side is having to wash our clothes now because they smell. The highlight of the weekend was going to the Sage to see the Harald Haugaard Trio what a performance and the CD is even better (yes I bought a CD but only for the girls I have downloaded it to my itunes). Louise had me watch Calamity Jane! I had forgotten what a great film it was and the songs just stay with you even after the film ends

Online Music and other things!

I caused a stir in the household by suggesting we get all the CD's on itunes and then buy no more just download them and while we are at it why not do the same with videos and DVD's. Mutiny was the cry and I even went as far as saying we could read books online all of which I am OK with even to my surprise the books. This from someone who has cherished books all his life and loves reading them but I do more reading on line nowadays I am just thinking of the space it would save in the house. The thinking behind all this has been Spotify. At least no worries about copyright so therefore the musicians are not losing out (well we will wait and see). I downloaded this app and was blown away by all the artists I could listen to. I just hope the royalties do go to the musicians?? Writing this though I have resorted to using my iphone and playing the music I know I have paid for. I just don't think the majority of people will bother an iota but once there is no music being produced anymore as it is not profitable then we will lament the online downloaders who didn't pay.

Louise is coming home for Easter tomorrow, that will be funny as she has really established her self at Uni so home is less "home " than it was in September. I hope she copes, I am sure she will. My neck still hurts and I am still vexed at the amount of information I was given on what to expect but as Bodil says there is only 2 weeks to go before I see the consultant. I am really going to go to town on him - no I am not he has done a good job probably its just I don't know what to expect now that I am 3 Months post op still getting dizzy spells and aching in my neck and arms. I'll shut up now.

Maria had a "sleep deprived EEG" yesterday the Nurse was brilliant in setting her (and me) at ease, we won't get the results for ages though until she sees the consultant in June and before that she has to have an MRI scan of the brain. Soon we will know and all will be well once they have identified what the problem is and they prescribe the correct medicine. The question of the day was? What is an EMG? SORTED!

Lounging in the sun. I wish!

What a great start to April this year sunny days but cold winds but no rain but then today the weather changed and here we are waiting for the rain to come. What is it about the English that makes them so hung up about the weather. I suppose it is a conversation opener but then so is " where did you get that jacket is looks really good on you".

So the g20 circus is over and the country can get back to doing what it was doing before and wait for the promises to not appear or appear in a diluted form. Is this the cynic in me coming out. Well I don't agree with the way the RBS has handled themselves and I really don't agree with former CEO getting extortionate amounts of pension money but by the same token I do not go and smash the RBS windows and enter the bank and basically commit a looting offence. I wish someone would tell me where it says a human being can be so angry and upset with what an institution has done that it is acceptable for them to resort to that level of destruction. I bet there is no one that can. It is just mindless destruction in the name of something else. Did the people who did these acts get arrested I think not! I take that back, in the interests of making sure what I say is correct I have searched the news sites and yes they were arrested or at least some of them were. But yet again the reason for the fact they put windows in at the bank was that one "came from an unconventional background, having left school at 13 and living an itinerant lifestyle at a series of protest sites, including a long-established roads demonstration in Edinburgh." Guardian, so that's OK then! And talking of the Guardian and the question Nick Robinson asked of the USA President, yes I agree he did stumble over his words his speech writers were unable to come to his aid and not only on that occasion. As watched throughout the sessions he answered questions off the cuff and as you or I may well do paused for thought and errred and ummed but at least he was approachable he has a good style whether this does translate into an active determined style to change the world we will have to see, I am not a following type of person but he does walk the walk, I'm just not too sure we walks the walk he maybe toddles the toddle at the moment.
The big event of the week has gone and the second big event of the week is happening today. No now the Burnley Darby game although that is important, but the Newcastle United soap opera. Gosh you couldn't script this saga any better what a boost to the town (toon) what a media frenzy, what a talking point. Just wait until Saturday evening and then see what is being talked about. I hope that they stay up I hope Alan makes a name for himself I hope that Burnley meet them either in the Championship or in the Premiership. Nuff said! Wait for the next exciting installment of the United story!
And just on a final note if there was any doubt now about my decision to reject religion it has been bolstered by the shocking video of a 17 year old girl being publicly flogged by the Taliban. What an disgrace that these people hide behind religious tradition to justify their actions. I could put a like to the video on here but as a mark of respect to the poor girl I will not. Searching the net will find it. And we wonder why the world is in such a mess. I will be impossible to change peoples opinion because they carry out their actions on behalf of a spiritual presence what a load of bullshit! They carry out these acts because they like it and they want to show people they are in control. Abhorrent is too short a word! Now the sun comes out I want it to rain to sympathise with my anger. There's never an RBS bank to hand when you need one!