Monday and its CT scan day later so I need to get going in the morning. I get coffee and cook an omelette. Of course the TV is full of returning Olympians espousing their philosophy of life, success and achievement. I go for an early morning training session. I get to the garage and strap into to the rower. This was going to be an average level 5 half hour. I get going and realise its harder going than I expected. I put it down to yesterdays hour but then realised that I had accidentally put the level at 6, not what I intended. I persist and get through a reasonable session.
Metres 
Time & Calories
Well that went better than I expected to so its off to a refreshing shower and a smoothie to recover. I am enjoying the smoothie looking out of the kitchen window into the garden and I notice that the the roofing felt on the apex my beloved Shed had come away. Nothing for it but to get the ladder out and a few tools and get up on the roof. For some reason the felt had come away along one edge adn folded over on itself, which means it was getting close to peeling off altogether. So I get my freshly showered arse up on the roof and re tack the edges on the exposed felt. It goes reasonably well but will need watching in case I need to re felt the roof as a whole.
Ladder up! 
The edges re-tacked
By the time I am finished putting the mornings tools away its time to head to the hospital for the CT scan. Its a relatively short drive so I get to the hospital in good time and mask up to get to radiology. I check in and get given two labels and directed to waiting section C where I find some more people in various stages of the process. A nurse takes my labels and disappears. A few minutes later I get called out to a smaller room where a nurse asks me all the questions I answered on the health form they sent me. I am told to take my necklace off and my jacket. I am taken into a clinical room and the nurse fits me with a catheter and explains what they are going to pump into me and how it will make me feel. They lead me into the scan room and I jump up onto the couch hoping for a brief nap while they get on with it. Unfortunately I have to breath and hold it when they tell me so the nap is out the window. The scan is quick adn I am sent to a room to wait for them to check the scan. It turns out okay and I am led back to the clinical room ad my catheter is taken out and told to sit for five minutes to make sure I did not bleed through the dressing on my arm. I wait for 5 minutes and then leave.
Catheter in 
Catheter out
Mechanically this CT scan lark is pretty straight forward, its the head stuff that sneaks up on me. There are moments were its strikes home that I am on my own with this and there are moments when I feel suddenly very tired of all this being jabbed, scanned and processed. It passes, it always does but I think it is a response to the sense of powerlessness that the medical profession, hospitals and the industrialisation of illness induces in me. It is in distinct opposition to how I try to live my normal life and to take control of the things I can control. I drive home and find my Lateral Flow Tests that my partner has collected from the chemist for me today. I read the instructions and realise I will have to wait half an hour due to the half a bag of wine gums I consumed on the way home. Time comes around and I undertake my very first LFT.
Ready 
Steady 
Go
I am relieved and send my results to the people I am meeting tomorrow. One of them replies with their results. What a strange world we live in, reassuring each other that we are not the leper in the social milieu. While I waited for the LFT to do its magic over the required half an hour I took to the garden and looked for all the things that had blossomed while we were away last week. Here are a few of the gems that I found in the garden.
My LFT is of course clear so I can pack my overnight bag and replace the extension lead that feeds my sofa end office. Its time to eat tea. A friend rings and we talk families, holidays, birthdays, swimming and CQC. It reminds me that I need to check my CQC status and registration. Returning to the lounge I start to write the blog until our Tesco delivery arrives. I plug on with the blog against the background of the TV news. Tomorrow I travel and meet a group of peers to think and share our views, a rare opportunity in these days of COVID.
