Good morning all from a very wet Glasgow.
Thanks Pants and Urms for the travel insurance info. The query arose after DH and I were having a conversation about whether travel insurance covers Covid or do you pay extra. Unfortunately, it won't affect us, since none of the specialist insurers will insure me nowadays!
Tiggy, I have a small watchmakers toolkit, which has a tool for opening backs, but have one cheap watch, I have never been able to open.
Thank you to all to those kind Goodmorningers who wished me well for my appointment, I was a bit overwhelmed, to say the least.
Unsurprisingly our trip yesterday was horrendous, two hours to travel 12 miles. DH said it was the worst driving conditions, he had experienced in twenty years! The road hadn’t been gritted and cars were sliding everywhere in the snow, plus it was dark and snowing. We saw the first gritter on our way home at 11.30 am. ? I'm guessing staff shortages due to Covid are the cause.
The dreaded junction was gridlocked, we counted six traffic light changes there and no-one moved at all. When the lights changed again, DH ended up facing sideways! ?
We had three near misses, I have never been so scared in my life. Poor unflappable DH was chalk white. He was determined to get me to my appointment. #myhero
To make matters worse, I had the first appointment, but when I tried to phone the hospital to say what had happened, my phone didn’t work, it was totally flat, despite it being on charge all night.
This is the very fraught conversation we had, after not moving for twenty minutes.
Me to DH: Where is the charging bank I gave you to keep in your car for emergencies?
DH: What charging bank?
Me: The one I bought for you to put in your car.
DH, I don’t know what you are talking about
Me –-through clenched teeth.-- Ok, where is the spare charging cable, I suggested you keep in your car? I can plug my phone into the USB port.
DH, I don’t have a charging cable in my car.
Me, very smugly I have both a cable and charging bank in MY car!
DH, well, we are in MY car and I DON’T have one.
At that point I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and zipped it! 
However, I could have wept with frustration, since I have waited two years for this appointment and could see the hospital in the distance. So near, but yet so far.. ?
Eventually arriving at the hospital, we found only patients were being allowed in and the social distancing barriers had been reinstalled. Poor DH was not allowed to accompany me to the clinic, the security guard eventually allowed him to sit in the foyer. I got to the clinic to find there were no patients and only two nurses. The consultant was stranded somewhere in the snow, as were most of the staff.
I overheard the receptionist on the phone, saying We have one, we have a patient!.
The staff were so kind to me, as I was very flustered and breathless, saying I had nothing to apologise for. Eventually a doctor appeared and explained that my consultant was missing in action, but he was happy to see me instead.
Due to the lack of patients, I had a very lengthy appointment, so the snow had actually been an advantage.
He diagnosed a major RA flare up, explained the months of awful 'flu like symptoms were part of it and injected me with steroids there and then. His suspicion was that, as with his other immunocompromised patients, the Covid vaccines had compromised my medication and stopped it doing it’s job. In addition, he will organise and appointment for steroid injections in my elbow and hands.
It sort of went downhill after that. He agreed that I was very unwell and something untoward is going on, with either my lungs or heart, so further investigations await me. I had a huge shock when he mentioned a further heart problem, discovered after my latest heart attack, that I knew nothing about! My cardiologist had never mentioned it. ?
RA is the culprit again!
Also, he managed to persuade the short-staffed x-ray department to do some x-rays while I was there, rather than me having to come back. I have rarely come across such a courteous doctor, it was heartening to see the way he spoke to both me and his colleagues.
Curious about the sign the radiographer had put on the door of my changing cubicle, it was only later, after I came out of the cubicle, that I noticed it said Sheilding patient. Worrying, but reassuring in a perverse way to see so many Covid measures back in place.
What surprised me was that the doctor was able to tell me how many lateral flow tests I had done and mentioned the PCR I had, due to DS having Covid, advising me that I still had to be extremely careful.
I did get brownie points for trying to keep myself safe and testing often!!! The wonders of modern technology! Big Brother is indeed watching me! ?
He suggested increasing my Fentanyl patch dosage, to get some relief. I declined saying that it would make me woozy and unable to function. I burst out laughing when he said in will it make you doolally? I hadn't heard that word in years! 
Not surprisingly it wasn't the best of news, but I am further forward than I was previously. The most important part was I could actually discuss the implications and prognosis face to face.
On the way home, we stopped off at Morrisons for a small shop, which turned into a very large one, as I haven’t been in a supermarket for some time. The shelves were quite bare, but what was there seemed to have jumped considerably in price. ?
I did get next year’s religious Christmas cards for 30p a box, a pack of vegetables for soup at 20p, a turnip for 11p, six dessert apples for 32p ( apple crumble for DH) and a few other reduced items. My world was back in equilibrium, I had managed to get some bargains!
I did negate my frugality, when I treated myself to flowers, a magazine and a piece of chocolate cheesecake, which definitely cost more than what I had saved! I am living for the moment!!!
Enjoy your takeaway Mick, we are having fakeaway tonight, I'm becoming quite an expert at it! ?
Special thoughts and prayers for GSomerset, such a difficult time. So many on this thread with health and family worries, I hope, as I do, you find that the friendship here is of comfort to you.
Whatever your plans, make the best of it, we never know what's ahead of us!
Please feel free to ignore and gloss over my indulging ramblings. I just need to get it out my system and don't want to worry my children, just yet.
Happy Saturday, everyone!
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