Wednesday and I wake up later than I wanted and immediately phone the GP surgery to get an appointment. I am in luck, despite my lateness in ringing I get an appointment mid afternoon. With the appointment sorted I take my vitals and find them to be good. My messages checked I get up and get into my training gear. I take my morning meds on the way to the garage and my rower. Once sorted I set the session for 45 minutes and get under way. I start fast expecting to slow towards the end but to my surprise manage to keep going. The outcome is that I row a new personal best since I started training again. I am really pleased, it feels that at last I am gaining ground, if I can keep this going I will be ready to get to grips with my diet, but that wont happen until after the weekend visit to my youngest daughter and grandson.
I record my session in my journal and then sit and watch the Budget while eating a bacon sandwich. Once I have grasped the relevant issues in the budget I take a shower and spend time reading more of Tom Hanks short stories. At the appointed time I walk down to the GP surgery and wait for my turn. After about a half hour wait I get called in. I slap my hand on the table and say “what’s that doc” and with out a moments hesitation he says “that’s a Dupuytren’s contracture”. He follows the required algorithm, notes my finger is more than 30 degrees bent, the finger will not lay flat on a table and a pencil could be passed underneath it. He types all this in to his machine and then prints out my referral letter. So in 10 days someone will contact me and give me an appointment date, doubtless a long way in the future. Ultimately it will probably mean an operation on my hand but I very much doubt that is not going to happen very soon. I return home via the post office where I send a letter off and get a paper.
Once home I do the crosswords and while I am working away I get a call from the cardiac unit in response to my call to the specialist nurse. The nurse has reviewed the correspondence between my oncologist and the cardiologist and agrees it looks like I do not need an appointment so she is organising a conversation in the cardiology team and will let me know the outcome. I see this as a good outcome. Today is turning out a good day. I return to my reading until my partner returns and the family eat tea together.
The evening is filled with a film, a Tom Hanks film Otto, which as I am reading his short stories is interesting. I keep an eye on the football scores and also on a friends reunion of family that has been abroad. At the end of the film I draft the blog, take my evening meds and go to bed. Tomorrow I need to train again so that I can go away for the weekend and have a rest period.
