For some reason I had an appointment for an anaesthetic pre-assessment today, even though no operation has yet been scheduled, presumably because they hadn’t had the results of Monday’s MRI. But I went along anyway, hoping they did have the results, and the ‘simple’ bowel op had been scheduled, meaning the liver spot was no longer of concern, and they just hadn’t told me. Of course, this wasn’t the case – they’d pre-booked the pre-assessment just in case that was the situation, but it wasn’t. The results weren’t on the system, and there wasn’t even a record of them having been discussed. So the consultant anaesthetist ticked the boxes to say I was fit and healthy enough to have anaesthetic, and therefore the op, should they be doing it at Yeovil, and then, ten minutes after my arrival, sent me home. The strange thing is that they’ve booked an outpatients appointment for the 14th for me, which I mentioned, but no-one knew whether that was intended to be pre-op or post, or whether in fact it had also been booked on the off chance.
So the upshot is that I’m still none the wiser as to what operation I’m having or where, or whether or not chemo will be involved. And so we wait, again.
Fortunately I have more than enough to think about with my wife’s own treatment – now almost at an end after seven very long weeks – to have the headspace for all the future permutations of my own, so I’m just not thinking about it, but instead just getting on with walking the dogs, shopping, cooking, cleaning and so on.
In fact, because I was back early from hospital, I was able to give the dogs their morning walk, which turned out to be quite exciting, bird-wise. We just went to Ninesprings, our local park in Yeovil, but, in order, saw a Garganey…
… a Kingfisher…
… a Treecreeper…
… and a ringed Grey Wagtail. Not sure yet what the rings mean, but I’m hoping someone on Twitter will tell me.
The photos are all rather grainy, as it’s very overcast down here right now, but an exciting collection nonetheless, and not bad at all for a municipal park. The Garganey is exciting the twitterati particularly, as it visited briefly in December but then disappeared, but seems to have returned this morning. As far as I can tell, from the reaction on Twitter anyway, I was the first one to spot it. Go me.
Alastair Swinnerton 