More medical news

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Being stuck in the house on a beautiful morning, when I would otherwise have been golfing, what else can I do but blog some more and bore you with my medical progress?

A couple of photos first of all - me with my bandages on last night, on my new chair, with laptop table attachment, sitting in what Jo calls my "pod", surrounded by all my accoutrements and controls:

and this morning, with the big bandages having slipped down my legs overnight, leaving just the 3 waterproof plasters exposed:

Did you know the stitches are real ones that have to be removed in 10 days or so? No more dissolvable ones apparently.

So, it looks like a weekend of Ryder Cup vegetation for me!

Home again

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I'm home again and all seemed to go well - now it's rest and physiotherapy.

The surgeon briefed me before the ops and etched his "this way up" signs on my legs:

Jo thought my ankle bracelet looked rather fetching too:

Fergus responds

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Following up yesterday's comment about my tax rebate, it's now on the BBC web site - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11437602. It's framed as a question and answer, but, in actual fact, realising I was a C.A., Fergus asked my advice on the matter!

Here's the narrative on the web site in full:

Q. I was watching your spot on television after the lunchtime news yesterday and I thought I would let you know about another error HMRC made in my favour. I was sent my Self Assessment - Tax Calculation letter last week, showing that I was due a substantial refund. I knew this was incorrect, but hadn't had a chance to check it out properly before the refund actually appeared in my bank account this week. I have two employers, and pay and tax details for both were submitted in my tax return, but they have completely ignored one of them (the larger) and I have therefore benefited by having the whole of my personal allowance applied against the lower of my salaries, plus the benefit of a lower rate of tax being applied. Ian Stewart

A. This letter raises an interesting point - what do you do if the Revenue makes a mistake, that you know is a mistake? It's one thing if they send you some money that you know you are entitled to, another if they send you money that you think you might be entitled to but how should you behave when the Revenue sends you a cheque that you know that you have absolutely no right to have in the first place?

Well the simple answer is that you should behave in the way you would expect someone to behave towards you - and in this case that means giving the money back. It's probably also true to say that there is no doubt that the Revenue would have noticed their mistake - even if it took a few years - and Ian would have had to give the money back then anyway, so better to be upfront and tell the revenue about their mistake - no matter how much it hurts!

Financial fame and pain

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Did anyone listen to Fergus@bbc.co.uk on his weekly financial spot on the Scottish news at lunchtime today? I missed it but I think I got a mention. He was talking last week about the Revenue's recent cock-ups, so I e-mailed and told him about my recent experience of getting a substantial sum back that I wasn't due - and he phoned me back yesterday to ask for permission to mention my experience and my name.

That was the fame - later on was the pain when I had my appointment with the Oral Surgeon. He definitely thinks I should have the implant - but he would too, wouldn't he? £1,800 for the implant and a further £200 for a CT scan. He told me this was cheap - London was twice this price!

I had a full head X-ray, plus a whole portfolio of digital photos taken, then impressions of gums were taken, so it was a fairly long session. I've now got 4 choices:

1. Do nothing - there's no pain just now, but I was told the infection now has space in my gums and it's likely to return as the little buggers multiply.
2. Have the tooth removed and leave myself with a toothless smile.
3. Have him slit the gums and go in and try to clean it out.
4. Go ahead with the implant - apparently the whole process takes 6 months before the implant is properly settled - and it lasts 15 years or so.

He's going to write it all up so I can consider what to do - and consult with my insurers to see if they'll pay for any of it. He then told me he's doing a Masters in "implantology" and did I mind if I became a cause célèbre for him?

Yours disgruntledly

Men at Work

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Do you come from a land Down Under? No, but we're going there. After months of hesitation and uncertainty, I've finally made the plunge and booked our trip - and, yes, we're going Business Class - and yes, it's costing an arm and a leg - but what the heck. We're flying BA/Qantas from Aberdeen on 14th January, stopping 3 nights in Hong Kong, then on to Sydney.

We leave Oz on 4th February and stop off for a couple of nights in Singapore on the way home. We've booked hotels en route as part of the package - check them out:

http://www.harbourgrand.com/hongkong/luxury-hotel-,default-en.html

http://www.parkhotelgroup.com/Default.aspx?alias=www.parkhotelgroup.com/phcq

Now all we have to do is get some accommodation and internal flights in Australia - Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, then back to Sydney I think. Haven't had any time share offers yet - looks like it's going to have to be hotels all the way.

What else has been going on? - check my other blogs to see - the golf one has details of a lovely day out on Sunday at our annual Scotland v Rest of the World match. We also made it (just) to the house-warming we were invited to on Friday night round at Burnett Park. Harry and Moira Salter have just moved in next door to Ken and Irene Page, but we had visitors on Friday - Mary, Julie and little Leo came up for the day. We had Luca overnight on Thursday and he and Leo seemed to get on very well at first, although when I got there mid-afternoon, Luca was in the huff - they'd had a little spat - but they were soon speaking again.

Jo then dashed back to Inverurie with Luca, came home, changed, and off we went to Burnett Park. We were just in time for grub - it was curry from the Derbar, who had even supplied the large tagine style vessels to hold it in. I enjoyed it, but Jo never ate - perhaps all the rushing around, or perhaps her diet?

So tomorrow starts with a visit to the Nurse to get my bloods done prior to seeing my GP again on Monday. I then have to dash up to Fraserburgh to attend a funeral - one of my staff died on Friday night - she'd been off work with cancer for over a year - then back down to Aberdeen to see the Oral Surgeon about my displaced eye tooth. This is happening at the same time as Luca goes back to hospital, hopefully to get his arm out of the sling at long last.

Thursday is Fraserburgh again and then, on Friday, it's my knee ops - fingers crossed. A weekend vegetating in front of the Ryder Cup on TV seems to be on the agenda.

I've got my cardiologist to see again on Monday as well, prior to the GP - it's not easy being old and sickly (with apologies to Luca who has copyrighted the phrase "it's not easy with one hand" over the last month).

Meanwhile, we still await the return of the plumber's joiner to tidy up the external pipework he put in -and to do the work we want done in the untility room. This is how the plumber left it:

The above one is just outside the front door, on our porch. The one below is the other side of the wall, inside Ross' WC:

Not very tidy, is it?