Now into week 3 of the grottiest cold, the weather has turned cold and we have had a ‘cold’ holiday. You like my arty photo of some trees in the mist? Where have we been?
I need to get this cold off my chest, excuse the pun. Normally a simple cold will last a week, or maybe a day or so more. This cold now has been horrible and has dragged on and on; never had anything like this before. At least it’s not flu or Covid.
I have had a runny nose and have been achy all over of the last 3 weeks, at least. During that time I’ve been to London three times, including one bike ride there. I had a hilly ride from the village and have been plodding on with life almost normally. That’s probably the reason why it has dragged on so much as I’ve not wasted time lolling around. Until now, this week, when I had to stop.
This coincided with a little holiday in Cumbria. On Monday we drove there and I went flop, meanwhile Rachel and Hannah were full of energy and did loads of things. The most I could manage was a quad bike experience, which was fun. We drove up and over Kirkstone Pass. Quite a challenge by car but I could remember cycling up the pass a few years ago when I’m sure it was steeper in those days.
The weather has been extraordinary. I loved seeing the mist float around (see photo above), every second it seemed different and just 10 minutes later it was sunshine. Extraordinary. Another image worth grabbing was of Ullswater, by moonlight.
This was taken with my iPhone, a great little camera. I feel slightly embarrassed that the photos I took with my fancy pants Nikon just didn’t work at all. They were all underexposed, in spite of looking okay in the viewfinder.
Since we’ve been back, I have tried to take things easy. Gradually, and I say gradually, my cold seems to be subsiding. It has dragged me down in a physical sense. Mentally I am feeling frustrated as I just want to get on and get a few things done.
Health news
Regular readers might remember I found myself in hospital a few months ago. It was mentioning “chest pains” which triggered all kinds of things. You can read about it here.
When I was discharged, the plan was for me to have a CT scan of my heart to watch the blood flowing around to see if there were any blockages. While this was meant to happen “soon after discharge from hospital” it took a couple of phone calls to get some action. In early October I had the scan and they told me they’d write to the cardio consultant soon, either the same day or the day after.
So I waited a couple of weeks and heard nothing. I phoned the hospital a couple of times and got nowhere, other than being told I didn’t have a further appointment.
This was frustrating, so I devised a cunning plan. As it is my right to request my health records, I thought I would do that and then, if the CT scan report needed some explanation, I would talk to my GP. In no time at all my appointment came through.
As for the result, it’s really interesting. The hospital medics were suggesting unstable angina, which is not good news. My scan shows no blockages, no narrowing of my blood vessels at all. This is brilliant news! I am so thankful, quite an answer to prayer, although to be honest, I was almost starting to be accepting horrible news in my mind.
This means I can start exercising more vigorously again. What should I do? Well, I’ll need to mull that one over now.