Busy week

It’s been a busy week, so much so I haven’t had the time to get onto the computer.

As usual Tuesday saw the arrival of our home help. Wednesday the man came to replace the window. Yesterday was a mixture of ironing & our gardener coming. All go as I say. This morning, however, is all mine to do whatever I fancy.

I had the last of my bisphosphonates on Monday. What a performance! It took them 40 minutes to successfully get the cannula in. However, it is done & I will not have to visit oncology again, at least not for this bout of breast cancer.

I asked about the calcium & was told I would have to see my GP to sort that out. On the way home we stopped at the surgery to make an appointment. I was quite happy to have a telephone appointment as I didn’t really need to be seen. I was told I couldn’t have one. However, the practice pharmacist would ring next day.

So on Tuesday the phone went. What a waste of time that was! He kept saying I could get enough calcium from my diet. I kept telling him I was on a high calcium diet otherwise I was likely to have osteoporosis again.  The only way I could get to the dosage of calcium naturally was by eating a lot of cheese, cream & chocolate, all of which I was happy to do but I was supposed to avoid eating because of blood pressure & high cholesterol problems. He suggested I try the calcium calculator on line. Since I haven’t changed my diet particularly I can’t see why the amount of calcium I eat should have gone up but I will give it a go. I’m to ring if I only manage half the amount of calcium intake for a normal person, then, & only then, he can prescribe some calcium tablets. Grr.

The receptionist at the surgery had said the pharmacist could arrange a GP appointment in order for me to arrange a Dexascan (bone density scan) to check how my bones were doing. I’m overdue one but when I’d seen a GP about it last year he’d thought I ought to wait until I’d finished the chemo. That has now finished. Oh no, the pharmacist couldn't do that! So I had another long wait on the phone to make the GP appointment that I’d tried to arrange on Monday at the surgery. I’ve got an appointment though it’s not until mid-April. It’s just as well is nothing too urgent. In the meanwhile I’ll make a log of my calcium intake from my diet.

On Wednesday I was amazed by how much water had got between the panes of glass in the faulty window. When the man took the old one out you could see there was about an inch of water sloshing about inside. The replacement at least didn’t cost us anything. And we were assured any problems don’t hesitate to ring.

After our gardener’s visit the front garden is once more full of plants. We were given a £25 voucher, valid until the end of the month, by the garden centre we bought the plants from last week. So yesterday we went to spend that. Our gardener instructed us we could do with two more heathers, more ericaceous compost & some fish blood & bone fertiliser. We found those but were still under the £25. We looked around for something else. The Fox’s eyes landed on a fabulous flowering cherry tree. The flowers are a deeper pink than usual with an almost red centre to the flower. It wasn’t until we got to the till we noticed the price, rather higher than we’d anticipated, still it should look fabulous next spring.