Ian's Ailments - the continuing story

It's supposed to be a working day today but with a morning appointment at my GP and an afternoon one at the Optician, I had no option but to stay in Banchory. The upside of this is that I was able to join the Thursday morning cycle group for the first time since late June. That almost created a potentially fairly serious additional ailment for me - but I got off lightly - check http://bvetscycling.blogspot.co.uk/ for the details, but here I was at the start, waiting for the others:

From there, it was off to see my GP - primarily to discuss my cardiologist's recent report. We discussed the various pros and cons and the risk factors of the likelihood of stroke versus the effect of bleeding from the various anti-coagulants - aspirin, Warfarin, or one of the new generation of drugs, like Riveroxaban. The Medics have tables they work to, showing the various risk factors. I'm currently in the 1% risk category for strokes, solely because of my age. When it gets to 2%, it becomes much more significant and action needs to be taken.

I'm also in the 1% risk category for bleeding from the medication, so it's currently 50:50 as to whether I should change from just taking aspirin daily to something stronger. What might change the risk is other things, such as renal issues, so we've agreed that I should have my bloods taken again and then I should have the discussion with my GP, armed with this information. I go to see the Nurse on Monday.

Changing tack, I asked my GP to be referred to my knee surgeon again, to have a look at my left knee prior to my BUPA private medical expiring early in 2015, so he's doing that and I'll await the call.

Next up was the Optician. She was pleased with my progress but has asked me to continue with the antibiotics until at least Monday - 3 days later than planned. I've to see her again then. At least she didn't have to refer me to the Eye Clinic.

Next up is the Flu clinic on Saturday. I'm getting my money's worth from the NHS just now.

Oh - and we passed another milestone with this blog - more than 250,000 viewings now.