Medical issues

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Last night I was back to Albyn Hospital to see the doctor who did the endoscopy. He was quite happy - no ulcers, no cancer, but he showed me the photographs he took of the lumps at the foot of my stomach, caused by my daily aspirin - they're the ones that are causing the discomfort and bad taste. He described the stomach as a kind of food blender - once it had done all its work and mushed everything up, it would all drop down to the bowel below:

He initially suggested I should carry on taking Omeprazole, which lines the stomach and prevents the aspirin from doing further damage. However, when I enquired whether there was any alternative to taking yet another drug for the rest of my life, he said yes - I could change from dispersible aspirin to enteric coated aspirin, which doesn't dissolve properly until it's past the stomach and in the bowel. I said I would like to try this and he agreed. However, if I ever have to take any other pain-killers/Ibuprofen etc - as I will when I get my right knee replaced - then I will have to go back on Omeprazole - probably starting a couple of weeks beforehand.

This morning it was my annual visit to the Cardio Clinic in Banchory. The nurse always has problems finding a vein to draw blood from, but this morning it was even more difficult. She gave up on my left arm and eventually found blood on the right. Perhaps the chest infection/man flu I've been suffering from made things worse? My blood pressure was really low - 100/60 - she wondered whether I felt faint? It was no surprise that my weight was worse than last year - up 3 kgs at 87 kgs. I blamed Australia!

I decided I would try a few holes of golf this afternoon - it was nice to get out in the fresh air again, but I couldn't manage a full round. I've also cancelled tomorrow morning's medal.

At tea time tonight, more medical - or specifically, dental - problems. My implant came out when I was clearing the gap between my teeth after our steaks. It looks like it just glues on to the rod:

Enough about my failing body - I'm off to the pub.

Another blog starts up!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Greetings from sunny but windy Fraserburgh. We got back from Dan Cattigan's funeral yesterday in good time, despite a fairly Senior Moment. If you recall, I had met Jo at Stracathro on Tuesday afternoon, where she had left her car overnight. Of course, on the way back, it was the top of Cairn o' Mount before Jo suddenly exclaimed "my car!". Whoops - back we go.

We stayed with Mary and Brian and had dinner at theirs. We saw Julie at the church in the morning - and also Margaret, who also came back to the reception at the Water Wheel. Jo made a point of going over to talk to her and congratulate her on recently becoming a Grannie - Lyndsay had a baby. It would be nice to think that this could lead to a thawing in relationships, but we'll just have to wait and see.

As the blog headline says, I've started another one. I was "inspired" on the drive down and I thought why not? Check out http://curmudgeonlyramblings.blogspot.co.uk/

That's really all for now.

Not a well boy

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The snow early last week lay on the golf course for a couple of days, which meant we couldn't get our usual Wednesday night match - nor the attempted replay on Thursday. At the 3rd time of asking, we finally managed to play on Friday - in fairly good conditions too - but, by then, I wasn't feeling too good. I've been coughing away, keeping myself - and, no doubt, Jo - awake through the night.

I was absolutely shattered after golf and went straight home to bed, and spent the rest of the weekend at home with my feet up. I think I'm on the mend now - I was back in the Aberdeen office yesterday, and today I'm in Fraserburgh. This afternoon, I'm meeting Jo at Stracathro and we're driving down to spend the night at Mary and Brian's before heading off to "Uncle" Dan's funeral in the morning.

We've also got a quick trip to Nairn this weekend. It's somewhere Jo, in particular, has always wanted to go back to. We had a fantastic weekend there back in 1987, when the sun shone gloriously - it was the middle of summer then, but this weekend isn't going to be as good as that one was - but there is always the Bandstand Beer Festival at our hotel! - 68 ales, plus 6 premium lagers and 6 ciders - if there's any left (it's the last day of the festival on Saturday) - check out http://www.braevalhotel.co.uk/bandstandbeerfestival.asp

I'm also starting to get organised for my first golf trip of the year - Turkey again next Thursday - perhaps! Jo's concerned about the troubles in neighbouring Syria, so I decided to check the latest advice from the FCO website, and their official position is Orange - the first level of warning - "Avoid all but essential travel to parts of the country":

We are flying to Antalya, at the other end of the country on the Mediterranean coast, so hopefully it'll be OK.

Finally, for my Australasian readers, particularly those residing in Adelaide who should know better, this is where the "real" Grampians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grampian_Mountains) are:

They're not anywhere near Melbourne, Victoria, where I understand some phoney alternatives are!