After a week off last week, we spent a good chunk of today in Derby. The main reason for going was for me to have an ultrasound scan of the inside of the back of my abdomen. Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm is a silent condition; that is, it has no particular symptoms. It occurs mainly in older men and usually self heals, but just occasionally can cause a rupture of the main blood vessel supplying the lower part of your body.
In which case, you die – quite quickly unless you just happen to be on an operating table at the time. So there's a new screening programme for men in their 65th year. It only takes ten minutes or so and in my case found that my descending aorta was no more than 1.9 cm wide, well within normal limits.
Since my father had just such an aneurysm which fortunately was detected by an alert GP and repaired before it burst, I was very glad to get the all clear.
We celebrated by doing a lot of shopping, both before and after my appointment in the Walk-in Centre attached to the London Road Community Hospital. Lakeland, Wilko, Boots and Sainsbury's were all raided to some good effect.
This was followed by lunch quite early on in the Intu Eat Central area. Greek kefte meat balls with pitta, salad and fries were very tasty and filling for a very reasonable price. That food court really is a testament to multi-cultural Britain; you can get street food from cuisines from all over the world, both Western and Asian. As we left, there was a woman in full Muslim dress tucking into pizza and chips.
Back at the boat, Sheila's been doing the laundry and I've stocked up on kindling, but otherwise we've been pretty quiet.
Oh, and I had a phone call from Des about the new Braidbar Owners site which he's continuing to do great work on. Looks like we'll be able to launch it quite soon thanks to his hard work.
Tonight, Elanor and Sally are coming over to play frisbee. Tomorrow, I think we'll be quiet, in preparation for my milestone birthday on Thursday.
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