15/04/24 Good news, mostly

I have my appointment for CT scan and pre-assessment at UCLH (Euston) on Wed 17th, probable surgery date for the cement injection Thursday 25th. Of course there were the usual NHS complications over contradictory messages about the appointment and arrival times. Sadly you just have to accept that as par for the course these days. At least it was all digital and not reliant on what now passes for second class post. Fifth class in a third-world country, more like.

My blood sugar levels (HbA1c test) have drifted up gradually from high 30s (OK) to 41 and 42 (borderline "pre-diabetes") and now 45, which isn't actually diabetic, that starts at 48 or 49). Probably age-related increase in glucose intolerance rather than anything nastier - I hope! So I've been put on a pre-diabetes course for a couple of months now and am trying to make a few diet changes (basically, eat less!) and get the exercise up a bit. To that end I've got a pair of carbon-fibre Nordic walking poles and use them to power along the corridors here. Gets the heart and lungs going better than any amount of ordinary walking. Took them outside yesterday for the first time.

Mine are black with red trim - not luminous green!

Had a burst of the arthritis or whatever it is I get occasionally in the base of my right thumb. Well, it's there at low level all the time, but these acute bursts happen maybe two or three times a year and make my right hand both painful enough to disturb sleep and 75% useless for most things. I treat with Volterol and Co-Codamol (with the usual consequences) and whichever herbal ointment I've talked myself into trying on an "it just might work" basis. The attacks build up over a few days, bad for a day and a half, I sleep better on the second night and it's gone - or at least as gone as it ever is - in the morning. Works every time, I have no idea why...

25/03/24 Back to Boules

First session of 2024 yesterday as the temperature was not too bad yesterday morning and for once it wasn't raining. Played two doubles matches, lost the first one 13-0. I was very very rusty and had trouble staying in the lane at first. But it started coming back in the second game and we won 13-8 and I played some balls I was very happy with.
The four new pistes are now in use and we have fancy new scoreboards as well. Zoom right in to see them...

22/03/23 What's new?

Time for what is now becoming a monthly update, and the answer to the "What's New?" question is not a lot. Or anything much.

Still in remission.

Still waiting for a date for the cement process.

Mobility still not too good, keep aiming for a decent number of steps a day but they do get harder, range gets shorter and my speed over anything but perfectly flat ground gets slower. Often need to go and walk the corridors here to get the step count up - at least I can work up to a more respectable speed there, while running the old "Straight, square, balanced, even" mantra through my mind... Learned that one from a so-called osteopath in Suffolk at the end of the 1970s, never forgotten it.

Today's post - we now get two deliveries a week, more or less - contained nothing about bone cement dates. I keep hoping. But it did have a thick sheaf of paperwork about my recently-renewed mobility scooter insurance. Last year I had great difficulty and trouble and phone calls before getting any documentation out of them, either paper or online. Now I have four separate but identical copies of it... Sometimes you just can't win.

On to next month.

03/02/24 Cement

Good news. Have had phone call with the surgeon at UCLH and he's agreed to do the job. I asked him about waiting times and he said "A bit busy at the moment with post-Christmas and strikes, but we don't usually have very long waiting lists". Whatever that means. Hoping to have it done before my next "follow-up" at RNOH Stamore on 4th July, which seems as if it might be a little pointless now.

19/01/24 Stanmore again

Yesterday, my "follow-up" appointment with Mr.Gerrand at the RNOH in Stanmore. Very limited parking on site and few roads nearby, so booked a "Just Park" spot a claimed 15 minutes walk from the hospital - but not specified which of several widely spaced entrances that meant...

Satnav found a big problem on the M11 so sent us on a very slow route through Epping to the M25 but even so we arrived on schedule - all credit to Google Maps for predicting the journey time accurately. Got to Outpatients Reception 20 mins ahead of the appointment time rather than the requested 30, but can't argue about that. Then sent off for X-rays, which meant a one hour forty-five minute wait...

Finally got in to see the big man. Images showed no significant change from last time. Talked through it all again, with me emphasising my concern over the high risk of a serious fracture of the left hip socket if I have another fall or etc.. He still wanted to push for a hip replacement, I repeated the Broomfield man's view that there's not enough good solid bone to attach one to. Something of a stalemate in the negotiations until he came up with the idea of "cementoplasty" - i.e. injecting a cement filler into the cyst to improve its strength. I'm familiar with the idea for repairing myeloma-induced vertebral compression fractures but apparently doing it on this larger scale is a new thing and there's a man at UCLH doing it. So I'm being referred on to him. The idea has its attractions - no need to replace a joint that is working well, and it's a keyhole process (done with a scanner and under anaesthesia) so quicker recovery. 

We shall see...

This is quite technical, but interesting: <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3036515/>

19/12/23 Over

Two more unarguable negative tests, yesterday and this morning. So I'm declaring myself Covid (and mask) free. And tomorrow I can resume my statin and amitriptyline, had to have eight days off them because of interactions with the Paxlovid.

17/12/23 Not such good news

 Today's test showed a very faint second line. It's not over yet...