Time to start waiting

Since my gall stone gave me trouble last Sunday the discomfort and occasional pain beneath my right side rib cage hasn't hasn't gone away. A familiar symptom of inflammation, although it has recurred seldom in the three years since I switched to a dairy free diet. Now that I have almost completely recovered from my five rounds of surgery, I decided it was about time to start the process that will most likely lead to keyhole surgery to address the problem. 

As soon as I was awake this morning I rang the surgery for a telephone appointment, then wrote out a history of the trouble and what I'd done to mitigate the symptoms. Then I was ready when I was called by a GP at half past eleven. As a result of our 10-15 minute conversation, I have a blood test next week and an ultrasound scan has been ordered, the necessary first diagnostic step to confirm the symptoms are what they're supposed to be, and not something else. 

A course of action will then be proposed that will most likely mean getting in the long queue for surgery. The worse it gets the more likely that I'll be seen sooner rather than later, though I'd rather it didn't worsen. I spent far too long coping with the fistula and getting sicker awaiting treatment.  The trauma of those long waits are still with me and surface from time to time in my body memory if not my mind.

Once the GP call was over, I went out for some fresh air before cooking some chicken for lunch, Clare had prepared the veggies and some vegan protein balls for herself. I remembered Rufus' recommendation to drink some cider with lunch, which he found helpful to mitigate pain and discomfort from his gall stones - he is waiting for an operation already. Clare bought me the bottle of cider which I drank when she was out shopping, and at the end of my afternoon walk, I bought a larger one which will last over the weekend. It seems there's something about cider and even cider vinegar which helps the stomach to maintain an alkaline environment. We'll see if it works for me. 

The document I've been working on with Rufus lately, I ran past my old friend Roy, still in Alicante, and it was well received. Rufus is now trying it out on other parties, likely to be interested in a pioneering ministry initiative.

I watched the second half of the 'Dalgleish' episode this evening, which was fairly convincing. Clare went away and watched Royal Welsh College music videos on her tablet, less convinced than I that another 'hudunnit' was worth the time.

News reports from across Europe mention a significant rate of increase in covid infections - a fourth wave that is leading to a resumption of restrictions. It could be happening here as well, though high vaccination up-take means Britain is coping better with already high infection numbers. As I see it, all of Europe and the UK are paying the price for lifting restrictions early. Masks and social distancing contribute to curbing infection spread, even if it's less easy to say by how much. If they were obligatory everywhere it must help make a difference. For every person that does the right thing, however, there's another than doesn't care and things they have a right to be careless and risk infecting others.