The All-Clear

This morning I'm with my wife at the breast screening clinic. It's purely routine stuff but one can't help feeling a little worried. My view is that it's simply not possible for us to suffer any further bad luck and I try to reassure my wife that nothing out of the ordinary will be discovered. I don't know what effect my reassurance has, but probably very little. As I sit waiting while my wife is prodded and poked I am struck by how basic the waiting area is.

My wife appears soon after and tells me the doctor who examined her didn't find anything suspicious. That in itself was reassuring. He wanted a mammogram doing just to be sure and it wasn't long before we were ushered to another waiting room in the breast scanning dept. 

I am drawn to the radiation warning signs and find myself worrying more about the number of roentgens my wife will receive and what percentage of her normal yearly dose she will receive. We didn't wait long before my wife was taken into a room containing some space-age looking equipment. Sat in the waiting room I could just make out some sounds of motors and beeps. I'd watched a This Morning special on breast awareness the other day with my wife so we both knew what to expect. I do hope we get the results today. The chap who has to look at the scans hadn't arrived yet so we had to wait. I think it's the waiting that's the worst part. It would be so much better if they told you there and then. After another short wait while a report was prepared, we were sent back to the waiting room we had come from to wait for the results. The waiting room was quite busy, some of the people being those who were with us at the start. It's all about waiting. One doctor to fifty patients. The maths is easy.

A radio plays out the local station KLFM. It's strangely out of place here. The tunes are jolly and I find it quite irritating and in a way disrespectful. The only other sounds are from the staff discussing their shifts and lunch breaks. Old worn magazines are flicked from page to page. They are out of date and their news known and digested countless times. But they will still be there next year, and probably the year after if they remain intact.

The waiting room is now quite full. They are playing Queen on the radio. So out of place for a breast clinic waiting room.

There is an air conditioning unit in the corner of the room. It looks like a poor attempt at a Dalek or cheap space alien. It has pipe sticking out of it at all angles with a large pipe forced through a window to the outside. It looks as if it's been added by someone in haste who can no longer endure the oppressive hospital heat and has been forced through desperation to construct this monstrosity. I imagine it is as loud as it looks though I wouldn't want to be around when it is switched on.

It's finally my wife's turn and her name is called. She disappears into a side room and I begin to think how I will react if she is given bad news. How will we manage and can I give her the support she needs? In less than a minute, my wife reappears. It’s good news, all clear. Nothing suspicious was detected. What a relief… Instead of the anguish if we’d had bad news, we joked about how the mammogram required her breasts to be squashed almost flat for the machine to get a good enough image. It was good that we could relax and joke. We are lucky and I feel for anyone who cannot, for there are sadly too many…

A waiting game, growing update & school

It's been a while again since my last post but in the last few days, I'm pleased to see that a new interface has been created for Blogger users. I'm using it now and I must say it's quite good, so thanks Blogger people.

I'm still waiting for word from my prospective new employer. I've heard nothing since my medical and being prone to constant bad luck, I did begin to fear the worst. I did call on Friday to get an update but I was told the chap in HR was on holiday and would be back on Monday (tomorrow). I was actually quite relieved in a way as this explained why no one had been in touch. So my optimism has been restored once again. I've resigned myself to finding out this coming week whether I have a future driving buses in Peterborough, or not.

I've been busy in the garden department. Having pretty much given up growing anything in the ground due to everything getting eaten, I purchased a very nice mini-greenhouse from Wilko. At £9 I thought it was a bargain not to be sniffed at, and expecting something flimsy and unstable, I was pleased to find a very sturdy and solid vertical greenhouse. So I've started filling it with new herbs that I'm growing from seed and some new tomato varieties. I'm also having a go at growing onions.

A bargain at just £9!

My peppers really haven't done anything at all so I will probably wait until next year before trying them again. There are many varieties I would like to have a go at growing but it's too late in the year to begin sowing.

Growing fast!

My honeydew watermelon plant has grown about 6 inches in the last couple of weeks. I'm quite amazed at how clever the thing is. It sprouts 'arms' that seek out things to cling on to and they wrap themselves around whatever they find to provide much needed support. It is growing at such a rate that I'm wondering if the conservatory roof is sufficiently high enough to accommodate it! There is no indication of fruit yet though I expect to see something develop soon.

My sugar snap pea plant is also going well. I already have a couple of pods and it too is training itself to cling to the bamboo supports I've provided for it.

Coriander

Basil

My herbs are growing very well, especially rocket, basil and coriander. I now have a surplus I am able to dry and freeze. The aroma from these plants is quite extraordinary, very pungent and sweet. I have recently bought some sweet cicely seeds which I hope to plant this coming week. They are said to produce leaves that have a slight aniseed scent and a sweet flavour. I have also read that they can be used as a natural sweetner. I'll certainly be giving this a try.

Onto other things and my son starts school proper tomorrow. We've bought his new school uniform, shoes and PE kit. He also has a new Scooby Doo rucksack and new lunch box. I'm probably more nervous than him to be honest. He's actually looking forward to it, which is a good thing given the fact he'll be spending most of his waking hours there for the next ten plus years. I'll take some photos tomorrow morning and try to record the event. My little boy is growing up too fast!

I'm also taking my parents to King's Lynn tomorrow morning to help them to buy a new TV and digital recorder. I know I am making a rod for myself but I simply cannot bare the thought of them being fooled into buying something they don't need or spending more than they really need to. Despite my many faults, I do still try to keep my finger on the pulse of everything consumer electronics-related and I like to think I'm able to dispense good advice. I am also thinking of myself as I am the one that'll be installing it all and on-call in case anything goes wrong. I'll report back on the experience in my next post.

The weather is appalling at the moment. It has been raining heavily for the last five hours. Apparently it's what is left of the arse end of a hurricane that hit the US recently. At least I won't need to water anything outside for a couple of days.

Waiting...

The observant amongst you will have noticed that I have given no mention yet to the call I was supposed to have received the beginning of this week. Indeed, I am still waiting for it and becoming a little worried that either I have been forgotten or that my hopes have once again been dashed. I am for now putting it down to the fact that it's fast approaching the Easter Bank Holiday weekend so things are perhaps a little hectic with people off on their hols and looking after their children. We'll see what tomorrow brings...