A day in the life of .....

I may not be a typical (semi) retired person, but, as I've commented on a few a times before, it seems that most of my time off from work nowadays is spent on medical matters. Take the last 24 hours:

• Dashed down from Fraserburgh to Albyn Hospital yesterday afternoon for the MRI scan on my "good" (left) knee

• Fasted overnight for my OGTT at Banchory Medical Practice this morning

• Jo drove me in to my dentist in Aberdeen this afternoon for my tooth extraction

That seems to be a recurring pattern recently.

My knee surgeon will get the results of the MRI scan in a week or so and I'll be called back in then. It was my first ever personal experience of MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). Note how the acronym has changed in recent years. When I was working at Nuclear Enterprises back in the late 70's/early 80's it used to be called NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance). I guess Nuclear is a bad word nowadays.

Anyway, I had to lay down on a bed and the lower part of my body was inside the tube you commonly see for whole body/CT (Computed Tomography) scanning, whilst a metal sleeve was put round my knee. There are loud bangs and other noises - mostly like a pneumatic drill - and you are given a set of protective headphones to wear. The whole process takes about 20 minutes.

My Oral Glucose Tolerance Test involved taking blood, then drinking a syrupy sweet drink, waiting for 2 hours and then taking blood again. The results will be back on Monday and I'll find out then whether I'm diabetic/pre-diabetic or not. I'm praying for good news.

The 4 injections I had at the dentist this afternoon are now starting to wear off and the pain of the extraction is coming on. She had a bit of a job getting the tooth out. The big lump of amalgam in the middle was easy enough and came out first, but then the prising started before the forceps came in. It seemed to take some time - although I found out later that it was only 20 minutes or so - and the dentist told me she was just about to give up when the tooth finally came out, complete with a bit of bone that the root had fused to - probably caused by root canal treatment.

So no rinsing or spitting for me and only soft food and lukewarm drinks whilst the clot in the cavity forms. No alcohol, aspirins or other blood thinners either.

Moving off medical matters, Gary's and Luca's flights to America next year have now been booked. Would you believe he's flying out on his 40th birthday!

Oh - and we've got new bed linen: