Thursday and I wake to an empty house and my first thought is “Scan.” No breakfast allowed only water so I wander about sipping water, taking my meds and finally filling in my scan forms. There are some basics to do of course beyond clearing the kitchen, which includes feeding the hedgehog, but majorly is the need to get myself hospital clean and presentable. An odd ritual but deeply ingrained. So its a long shower, hair wash and general brushing up, all the time sipping water and wondering if I have time to do my washing and get out to dry. I have several kind messages wishing me luck for the scan, which is very kind of people and appreciated. Finally I am ready and fill the waiting time with drafting the days blog and reading more of the Anansi Boys.

I drive to the PET-CT centre at the hospital. Before I book in I go to the main hospital shop and buy a sandwich and a couple of chocolate bars for recovery after the scan, I am already hungry. I book in at reception and get handed a medical history form. Its full of questions I cannot answer accurately but consult my blog for some exact dates. I hand it in and wait to be called. A short while later I am called forward and introduced to my scan technician. He takes me to isolation room 3. He checks some in formation and then tells me the routine. Its all straight forward except I have to sit for two hours not one to let the irradiated glucose get into my system. There is a slight hitch in that the injection that left Nottingham an hour ago had not arrived yet but my chap puts the catheter in my arm anyway and then leaves me to wait in my isolation room with the instruction to use the “hot toilet” if I needed to. I settle down and read Anansi Boys. The injection arrives and my chap pops it into my arms and scurries off. I lay on the clinical couch an read for the next two hours. A nurse appears and sends me to the “hot toilet” and then to follow her into the scan room. She settles me on the scan bed and tells me what happens, that it will take 25 minutes and then left me. I do what I always do I close my eyes, try to relax and let myself drift. I drift so far that I think I wake myself snoring. Soon the whirring and clicking stops and I get played the “your done” jingle. The nurse releases back into the world and I immediately eat the sandwich from my back pack as I walk to the car park. I drive home nibbling a bounty bar and craving a coffee.

Once home my first action is to make a fresh coffee and let myself flop on the sofa for a few minutes. I retrieve my washing from the machine and hang it up and then eat tea. Its Thursday so my partner goes to her singing lesson and I settle down to watch the England women’s football team beat South Korea. The game ends and as I return to the blog a friend messages me with the advert for the Ballet Rambert’s Peaky Blinders ballet. I get onto the website and find that its going to be at the Birmingham Hippodrome in May so I book tickets there and then. It will make a good spring day in May. So now I finish the blog for the day and tomorrow I get back to trying to reclaim my body, it tiring.