Peter's Hospital Diary

In this case being a dinner in the mess at Corsham to celebrate the 70th anniversary of The Battle of Britain and to remember the sacrifice made by “The Few”.

I had travelled up to Corsham the day before to finish emptying my flat and then clean it out in preparation for handing back to the letting agency, and also taking the opportunity to go out for a curry. Cleaning and clearing continued on Thursday until it was time to go up to the mess for the dinner.
This picture shows the entrance to the dining marquee decorated to give the impression of a wartime air raid shelter.

It was an excellent evening, with a guest speaker who had been one of “The Few” and whose memory and vivid recollections brought those days back to life. Prior to the dinner we had a fly past by a Spitfire from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, with two views shown here. The noise of the Rolls Royce Merlin engines was incredible as what was once a familiar sight was re-created for us. A truly memorable night, and one in which I met up with my colleagues from when I was a contractor, and also meet up with old friends, one of whom I hadn’t seen for some time.
I completed the cleaning on the Friday morning (it was an effort getting up early!) but all was completed on time and the keys returned after the inventorty check. I am sorry to be leaving the area – it has been an enjoyable period and I hope the opportunity to work with the team again may turn up in the near future.

But before all this excitement I had been up to London for a check-up at Guy’s. All OK apart from a strange result from thne ECP blood test that showed an enzyme to be significantly higher that normal. This enzyme is associated with either bone or liver damage. As (as far as I know!) I haven’t suffered any fractures, it points to the liver. While I was in Corsham, the results of a second test showed that the level had dropped but is still abnormally high. The likely cause (given that everything else is normal) is a gall stone, so I will be going for an ultrsound scan just to find out. I will also be going for a lung function test – again routine, but quite welcome for reassurance if I am going to go diving again.

So generally… onwards and upwards.

(And Happy Birthday Lisa)

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It seems ages since I was last at the clinic – probably because it is! All went well, with nothing abnormal found apart from a single liver enzyme taken from my ECP blood test that is 20 times normal value! No explanation especially as everything else was fine. So it is either a false reading forom the lab or someting unexplained. I had blood taken today, so if the same result is observed I may have an ultrasound scan to see if I have a gall stone.

We discussed immunoglobulin again, without any conclusion, and we also talked about a lung function test, which will be useful if I am going to start diving again next year.

So all in all, progress continues and as I left I wished the staff a Happy Christmas as my next appointment isn’t until January!

So O&U!

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A busy bank holiday weekend! I was at a BBQ organised by someone from the Dive Club on Sunday (thank you Dave) an excellent afternoon, finished with a round of croquet).

On Monday I went up to Corsham to start clearing out my flat. I have moved most of the things, but I’ll be going up next week to finish moving out, clean it and hand over the keys. However on the way back I stopped at one of my old work colleagues just in time for a BBQ – thank you Gareth!

Yesterday it was up to St Thomas’s for another ECP session which was successfully completed today. This may possibly be one of the last as I was reviewed by a dermatologist and it has been decided that I will have two more sessions at the six weekly intervals, and then stop for three months with a review next March (3 months on) to see how I am getting on. Another small step in “getting my life back!”, Next week I have a haematolgy review and then I shall be going up to Corsham to finish clearing out the flat.

And on that note, I sent my details off to a diving medicine specialist and had medical approval to go SCUBA diving again – another small step! So this winter I think I shall be doing some refresher training in the pool and I hope get back into the water next year!

Onwards and upwards (although not in a diving sense! )

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