[sigh] Over a week this time. I really must make time to update more often - I keep forgetting what's happened!
Let's see...
Can't say I'm enjoying the physio: I'm sure it is working, but it's leaving my leg and hip aching. At my appt on Mon the dr said the swollen elbow and pain is bursitis, as I'd thought ('tennis elbow' as it's commonly called). I'm booked in to see a consultant again, when they have an appt, but to be honest I think I think it'll be OK. It's not a load-bearing limb, I've stopped carrying anything with my left arm, and adjusted the level of my keyboard, and it's a little better already. Although the swelling is quite bad (dr said it was a severe case), the literature does say with care and a little physio it will usually go away by itself. It's going to make gardening difficult though. With Ken at work all week and so tired when he gets home I don't like asking him for help at weekends when all he wants to do is get out of Bristol for some peace and fresh air... At least it's now nearly winter and everything is tailing off in the garden.
On the less good front, dr also insisted on taking my BP, which is high again, and has put me back on the meds. Oh joy. Fingers crossed I can get it down a bit before I see her again in 5 weeks. Half the problem is white coat syndrome and the horrible new BP machine, which hurts like hell and makes my arm go completely numb.
Not sure if I said, but my old book Perfume Power is now out, slightly revised, in e-book and PoD format as The Power of Perfume. I was always very happy with this little work, and am pleased they went with the cover I chose. Anyway, it's now much more easily available to anyone that would like it!
Made the Bristol Astronomy Society lecture on the History of Astroparticle Physics (the first one is free to non-members to give them a taste). I was rather surprised to find I actually knew everything that was covered (apart from the timeline, history not being my forté!) and everyone was very friendly. However, as of next month they're moving the venue from Bristol Grammar School (very easy to get to as it's on the no 1 bus route) to the Photographic Society's home at Montpelier which is far more difficult for me to get to (two buses and a walk over James Barton roundabout then under the buildings at the bottom of Gloucester Rd. That's anxiety-making in daylight - in the dark I really don't want to do it). I'll check out the possibility of a train from Temple Meads - there's a local station at Montpelier - but I'd be far more restricted for times. All very annoying. Ken said he'd be happy to come with me for one meeting, just to see how difficult it is, so we may go to the lecture on Globular Clusters next month...
So far things are going quite well for Kai. So far. He's tired all the time, and feeling meeply (the bugs are having the time of their nasty little lives), but he's finding all the walking easier and the aches are slowly going, so his stamina is increasing and looks like the vit D tablets are helping. His first two lots of grades are first class degree level, which is fantastic, but we're not sure if that's because he's ahead of his peers (he's had two years to read the coursebooks and teach himself C) or if it's natural brilliance. He still thinks he may have a touch of chemo brain. No doubt time will tell...
Lugging his 8 kilo + Lenovo laptop around with him was getting to be a real chore, so last week we went over to Staples and he treated himself to a Micro$oft Surface (just over 1 kilo in weight, I believe). They didn't have the Pro version he really wanted, which has double the memory for only another £80 more, but we were assured that if he took it back within two weeks he could change it for the more powerful machine. In the meantime he's absolutely fallen in love with it, but really does need the extra memory, so I rang to make sure they would have one for us, arranged to meet him after his lecture yesterday, treat him to lunch, and go over and exchange them.
Of course, we went to The Crazy Fox...
We had wraps with chicken, roasted peppers, aioli, tomatoes and something else I forget and wasn't familiar with but which tasted wonderful! Kai loved his latte with the heart in it (I was boring and just had diet Coke). It was all extremely civilised, the food great (I was sooo tempted by the little lemon loaf cakes but the wrap was filling and I couldn't manage anything else) and upstairs was very quiet and pleasant. We are definitely going back!
That's the window where our table was.
The café is at the end of the old Arcade in Broadmead.
The walk over to Staples took us through Cabot Circus, the now not-so-new mall. I really like the design: for all that it's not that big, you can still get lost in it!
Surface successfully swapped (and they didn't charge us anything extra as the Pro had been taken out of its box and the assistant had started setting it up when the customer who bought it suddenly realised it wasn't the Ipad they wanted and changed their mind. Heh. 'Surreal Я Us' indeed...) He spent yesterday evening getting it all set up as he wanted it while we played Back to the Future 2.
This morning he had a maths test - self-assessed, I gather so they can all see how they're doing and their strengths and weaknesses so they know what to focus on. Tomorrow am he has his first MMR inoculation: nurse Lindsay assured us that he will then be protected, which will be a significant worry off our minds. He can have the second one in six weeks, so they'll all be done before Yule!
Hoping to finally go and see The Martian at the weekend - it's nearly at the end of its run and we want to see the 3D version. Kai is wholly immersed in the exploration of space at the moment.
Alas, I don't have time to go for a swim this week - plus dr said it wouldn't be helping the bursitis - but still determined to keep going. Will adjust the strokes I use to put less stress on my arms when I go next week.
Right! I think that's all the major news. I'll try to update more regularly but at the moment everything is still manically busy. It should ease off at the beginning of November - but I've said that before!
And post has just arrived with my hospital appt - first week of Nov with the same consultant I saw before, so that's OK.
Labels: astronomy, foxes, fun stuff, medical matters, university
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Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 1:50 pm
1 Comments:
I've a Kindle app on my phone and I like some back-up books on there in case I'm ever caught short so I've just bought Perfume Power. I read the introduction last night and felt myself being drawn in, as always.
Hope you get to see The Martian!