Unexpected phone call

We’d just finished eating our meal & were on our glass of wine when the phone rang. The Fox got up to answer it. No doubt the usual nuisance call we thought. The phone had gone at a not dissimilar time the night before, only then we’d just started to eat & no message had been left on the answerphone.

The Fox came back & ushered me to the phone. It was for me. It was my GP. We were both bemused.

No, there was nothing wrong. He was just ringing to check I was okay. He’d expected me to visit in a state of trauma over all the treatment I’d been having for the cancer. I assured him I was fine. Since the hospital was arranging everything I hadn’t seen any point in bothering my GP. I had only one query which he has hastily sorted.

I suspected the level of calcium I take needed to be upped. With the bisphosphonates I’m now having every 6 months I had gathered I should be having calcium. Although I have been having calcium tablets (as I need them to avoid regaining osteoporosis) it is only at half the normal level given as I have quite a bit of calcium in my diet. However, even if I hadn’t previously been having calcium I should be having them now so I suspected that now I should be having extra. My GP is now upping the dosage for the next couple of years. By then I will be due another DEXA scan to check how my bone density is doing & my treatment will be tweaked accordingly. So this morning I had my first morning calcium chew. I will have my second as usual at dinnertime.

I was utterly bemused to have had this phone call. With GPs being so busy – and certainly it can be difficult to arrange an appointment to see him – I was surprised, & touched. He seemed particularly put out that, having come through my last bout of cancer, operated on in 2001, I should have to go through the whole stress of cancer a second time. Still that’s life sometimes!

Oh, & it had been the doctor on the phone the night before.