I’ve been to Harefield Hospital ( yes that’s right , the famous one) to have a bone scan. The hospital is a “proper hospital” in me and my husband’s opinion , I suppose that means it is not frightfully modern looking and it is near countryside. Going in through the main reception you somehow feel welcome. I’m very at home at hospitals anyway because of my time working in them I suppose.
The scanning takes part in a new looking centre , nicely laid and out and very clean. I had some pictures taken and then the radioactive stuff was injected into my vein. Then I had to go away for three hours and drink plenty. We started off with a coffee in the Friends of the hospital Pavillion then we drove home and I drank loads of water. I went to the loo before we headed back but felt the urge to go again almost as soon as we set off. When we got back to the hospital I went straight to the bog!
I was taken straight back in to be scanned as soon as we got to the department. I was advised to go to the loo but explained I’d just been. I think I may have drunk too much water because half way through the procedure I was told to go to the loo again.
I had to lie still on a bed , flat on my back. My feet were tied together and my arms were put in a sort of tube . Needless to say at this point my nose began to itch. Why do noses do that? Further on in the process I had to put my hands above my head which was not very comfortable. I was told to move my hip straight which made it feel crooked. I suppose it took three quarters of an hour. Everyone was very nice and efficient.
It did strike me when walking back through the centre which included the heart transplant clinic and attendant investigation rooms, that it was all very quiet. by this time it was about 4pm , on a Friday afternoon and nothing was going on.
The results will be with the consultant in two weeks. I hope they find something to explain the pain, obviously I know I have arthritis and of course I don’t want to be ill but I’d like to know what’s wrong.
A friend suggested to me , before I had my Birmingham hip done, that the reason it had conked out was because I had worn it out lifting patients when I was a hospital nurse and I think she was right although it hadn’t occurred to me before. (Don’t worry NHS. I won’t sue you)!
On the way back the first time we had a conversation which is unusual when we’re driving. We decided that litter looks worse in the summer and we talked about how we would change things if we ran the country.
Nigel would bring back steam trains and abandon all targets.He’s get rid of SATs and reintroduce Grammar, Secondary Modern and Technical Schools. I would put lots of money in to primary education, get rid of the national curriculum or make it more flexible. I’d make sure that all primary school children got to go in to the countryside to play in the mud and get REALLY DIRTY (without any health and safety input). I’d like them to learn about the importance of trees and of looking after the countryside.
I’d like to see places where younger people could have fun, not youth clubs as such but places where they could learn new skills if they wanted to , climb on things like smaller children do and just meet and hang so they could meet their friends somewhere other than the street or pubs. Obviously the people in charge would have to be quite special to be able to get the balance right between freedom and control.
We would put an end to building on green land. We’d be stricter on immigration.
Quite a conversation for us really! I sometimes think I’ve got to get to know my husband again now we’re retired, sounds a bit daft after being married for nearly twenty-seven years.
We didn’t talk on the way back the second time, he didn’t ask what the scan was like. He was listening to loud classical music. He has a habit of turning it up loud on the quiet bits which means you get a sudden surge of noise when there’s another loud bit. I do like some classical music but when it is very loud it becomes more noise than music if you’re not a concert or controlling the volume yourself. I did check my ‘phone so that I could tell him the (lousy) cricket score.
