I don’t feel entirely comfortable recording my health problems here, but this one is worthy of recording.
Respiratory consultant wasn’t happy that a nodule on my lung had grown 1mm, referred me for a PET scan, done 23rd May. 6th June my phone goes, I was in the middle of Lidl, “this is the lung team, we’re having you in to remove your nodule”. Literally a consultation every day up to op on 15th.
Yesterday was the review meeting, it was malignant, no further treatment, reviews for five years.
The NHS is great!
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Collected the pinch bolts (and nuts) and fitted to my son’s car. Torqued up to the requisite 48Nm. Double checked the torque on the top bolts (55Nm). Got on with reinstalling the scuttle, the windscreen wiper motor, reconnecting the screen washers…oh crap where’s the hose gone?
Disassembled the windscreen motor, the scuttle, explored some, disassembled the whole front trim panel, the offside light cluster and was able to locate the hose, dropped inside between the inner and outer wings, and put it back where it was meant to be.
All fully re-assembled and been for a test drive. Feels weird having fully functional front dampers. Makes you think the rear ones must been getting on a bit. Guess I’ll find out on Thursday.
Willy.
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That is some very good work, I applaud your mechanical skills.
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This morning I got an email from my bank (NatWest) giving me the User ID for my new online banking access. As a user of online banking of over 20 years I was worried that someone was trying to hijack my access. I tried access via the app and the website and couldn’t get in. The mail looked correct, so I tried the number they gave if you hadn’t requested online banking. The recorded voice welcomed me to the fraud team with no bank name and asked for a card number. So I hung up and rang the number on my debit card.
The very helpful agent explained. A few years ago I set up a NatWest community group bank account for our local litter picking group. I could access that via the app I use to access my personal account. As I’m moving out of the area I’m no longer on the committee of the group, so the incoming chair took over as primary contact. It turns out that the bank’s Ts&Cs say that if you cancel access to a business account they remove your online account, even if it is primarily your personal account one. So I had to set up a new online account and have lost all the details for people I have bank transferred to. Direct Debits aren’t affected. I now have to get bank details from people again, luckily my gardener was outside so I could get his details to pay him.
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I was abroad and in similar circumstances got a message (can’t remember exact details) caught me on the hop and off guard. I called the number and all seemed in order particularly the wait before getting through - so must be OK - then the “fraud team” asked for card number - after first four numbers the penny clicked and I asked why they needed the details and did they want credit or debit card number - didn’t wait for an answer and hung up.
Like all these things we always think we’re savvy until we get something that makes sense at that precise moment in time then they have got you.
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Weirdly this was their fraud team, it was a genuine email, they just seemed to want to look like spammers.
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Ah I see where you’re coming from.
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I see no trace of blood on your knuckles, you can’t have done the job correctly. Start again!
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Lloyds these days ask you to log on to your online account, but difficult if you don’t have one!
Phil
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I’ve had my follow-up visit at RT, 75 days after finishing the sessions. My PSA is still not 0 but has gone down.
The interesting part of it was the guy himself - if you can imagine a bit actor playing the bad cop in an adjacent studio, handed a scrub and called to play the doctor in another one at a very short notice.
He seemed to be struggling to tell even the smallest things, waiting for me to betray myself with some disastrous details. I told him I am not having hormone therapy because I don’t want to end my life as a woman in menopause, and because hormone therapy is actually a chemical castration. He said miracles happen…
Some silence. He studied my files on the screen like they were my criminal record, looking for something to nail me.
It won’t be like a pancreas cancer, he said, a couple of weeks and you’re gone. If it takes the bones it will be years of terrible pain.
I said nothing.
He suddenly suggested a cruise, or buying a van and touring the world. He mentioned Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam. I asked if he was suggesting sex tourism. He bent a corner of his mouth implying he was. I didn’t say that, was the winking look on his face. Then he gave me exhaustive details about how to book a cruise in the period between seasons and hemispheres, to save money.
I suddenly realized that he was a 40 years old treating me like a 71 retired guy who’s facing death and regretting some female company… I felt very old, and the situation very odd.
When I went he seemed relieved to be able to resume the bad cop part somewhere else. I had a desolate feeling of being forced to choose between two equally undesirable perspectives, no third way.
This is not fiction. I summarized the exact experience. I have an appointment with my oncologist on Nov 26. She’s just a tad less masculine and assertive than the bad cop guy, but much more reluctant to disclose facts. Sitting in front of these guys, I always feel like they are going to say ‘I ask questions, you answer’.
Medical science is a myth. I now rely entirely on money to guarantee myself an acceptable future and some chances to decide for myself.
This is a serious post, but my intention was to inject as much irony and lightness in it as I could.
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Thanks Max, yesterday I saw my optometrist , my cataracts are getting worse (I now have two) and there have been some blood where it shouldn’t be. A hospital referral made
I too felt somewhat older , and with kneecaps that need replacing and some other bits and pieces - I have a feeling it’s all downhill after here. In the words of Douglas Adams
“I feel like a military academy”
“Why”
“Bits of me keep passing out”
I live in a remote country village and am totally dependant on my car , I have lived here for fifty three years - last night / this morning at 4.30 I woke up feeling highly despondent ,
This ageing thing is a bit of a s*d
My very best wishes
Ian
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Thanks for mentioning Douglas Adams… And my very best wishes to you!
(I’ll take The Salmon of Doubt out of the bookshelf and re-read it.) 
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Visited the in-laws yesterday. They went to their church, and I went to mine - Sister Rays in Soho (my first visit). They have very knowledgable and helpful clergy, and I left with my soul refreshed (I bought some CD’s).
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A quick update on my banking issue. When I went to add payment details my original payee list had been restored. So they removed my online access, I created a new online account and the payee details were somehow tied to my bank account and not to the online account.
The payee data was common across the “business” account I managed for the volunteer group and my personal account, I’ll message Frank who now runs the volunteer group account to see if he had all of my payee details still there on that online access.
Very surreal.
Have you had a Nuclear Medicine Scan to see whether it has spread? Best to talk with the oncologist and find a sensible way forward.
We are all thinking of you and others in a similar situation.
Phil
I do hope you can find some kind soul to help you. Driving only depends on meeting the legal eye sight requirements.
My first eye is tomorrow.
Phil
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Indeed.
I had a total body scan on Jan 30, the Traveling Cells (not a band’s name, but not a bad one) had reached an iliac artery, where four lymph nodes reacted (two intensely, two less). At RT they treated those. I’ll do another scan in the autumn. Thanks for asking.
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My mate is a Service Manager at a main dealers. This arrived at his workplace this morning, the owner was complaining of a noise and warning lights on the dash. They’d driven 18 miles like this.
Always check your tyres 
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Thanks for the sage advice. Just checked and happy to report that all four tyres are present.
Willy.
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