Yesterday I booked an appointment at the Riverside wound clinic, which meant making an early start to walk there by ten past nine. When I arrived I discovered that I wasn't expected. The person who made the booking booked me into the first slot in the second room in the clinic which wasn't in operation. Only one nurse was on duty and she was waiting for a patient who was yet to arrive. I was able to book a slot for Thursday this week and take some medical supplies away with me.
Later I had a phone conversation with one of the GP team, reporting back on my condition after finishing the sixth course of antibiotics. My blood pressure hasn't dropped from its worryingly high level. I'm still waiting for a cardiology specialist appointment to address this concern, and tomorrow I have the pre-op assessment. We agreed it was likely to trigger a speedy examination to ascertain whether they would be able to operate on me, because of the three week time frame for preparing the surgical list. Tinkering about with medication in the meanwhile seems unwise. I was insistent that it's the state of the wound which is the root cause of the high blood pressure, just as it was before I had the first round of surgery twenty months ago.
In other respects, I'm as fit and well as I can be. My daily walking mileage is back to normal, better in fact, after a few days last week when fighting off the cold led me to reduce by 20%. I've come through a heavy cold without setback, and my head has been a lot clearer in the past week or so. than it has been for a long time. I'm just hoping my immune system won't weaken further, in the run-up to the operation.
After a damp and misty yesterday, it's back to a warm sunny autumnal day today, no need for a top coat, good for the spirit. Infection rates continue to rise across Wales, and now four North Wales local authority areas have had restrictions imposed. Across the country there's a great deal of media fuss about how the so called 'rule of six' limit on people meeting socially is to be interpreted. Not even the Prime Minister can make it unequivocally clear.
Is it so hard to say that it's better if people avoid face to face socialising altogether? The pandemic is trashing the economy globally and locally. It's going to drain the wealth of many if not all nations profoundly. Jobs will be lost, people will suffer, whether people can and do socialise in the short term or not. Socialising without strict constraints will cost lives. Many seem resistant to the need for any kind of constraint, and don't understand the risk they pose to others.
This is a time to rethink what the healing of a community, of society as a whole really means, but not everybody gets it. Coming to our senses collectively and doing the right thing is proving much harder than it was hoped for.
It was cousin Ivor's funeral today, just as Clare and I were sitting down to lunch. We remembered him in prayer, as we said grace. How long I wonder will it be before it's possible for remaining cousins to meet and celebrate the lives of those who have died since we were last able to hold a family gathering. How long before I'll be able to meet with my sister Pauline's family to celebrate her life together?
The most important think is not forgetting to keep on asking the question.
No comments:
Post a Comment