A Visit to George.

In keeping with todays post, a medical theme.

Click on picture to enbiggen.

I made my bi-annual visit to the Doctor yesterday, our conversation started out something like this;

me; G’day George, how are you?

Dr: Fine thanks Peter how are you?

me; I’m great George.

Dr; Well why are you here then?

me; I need my blood pressure pill prescription re-newed so I can go on feeling great. (He gives me a prescription with 5 repeats when I visit, thus the bi-annual visits.)

We sit and chat for ten minutes while he checks my blood pressure and reviews the results of my last blood tests while deciding whether to send me for new tests (usually every 2^nd visit, or annually.)

I look on George as a friend, over a ten year period we have probably not spent more than a couple of hours together but he is always cheerful and I believe he has helped keep me well so why wouldn't he be a friend? he has also led an interesting life, having spent 5 years in the outback as a doctor with our wonderful "Royal Flying Doctor Service" which keeps the remote areas of Australia safe.

We exchange farewells as I’m leaving the surgery and another chapter in my medical history is written, I don’t want to brag about it but my health is excellent…. (the hell I don’t!! I’ve never been in a hospital except to visit and I’ve never been sick in my life…. Why wouldn’t I want to brag about that!!!).

This has been a matter of good luck much more than good judgment I smoked cigarettes for forty years (a pack a day, starting with packs of ten and finishing with packs of fifty, in fact pocket size probably had a lot to do with my quitting) since my twenties I have avoided exercise diligently, I am overweight to the tune of perhaps 30/40 pounds, but bugger it… I don’t get sick.

While I can continue with the existing status-quo I don’t have any intention of changing anything in my life, now I’m no Mr. Apollo, physical exertion of only a moderate level leaves me short of breath (thanks a lot Philip Morris) but if I regulate myself I’m as good as new.

My boast of “never been sick in my life” has a few minor blips on the screen too I suppose, I have had 5 or 6 kidney stones over the years, thankfully none for about 10 years now, these are not fun… and if childbirth is worse, as I’m assured it is, then I’m eternally grateful for being born a male.

There have been a few doses of the flu etc that have been unpleasant, (one memorable case where my hair ached!!!!!) anyone who snickered when they read that… I hope your hair never aches, cos let me tell you there is a whole world of feelin’ crook that precedes that.

I had most of the childhood diseases as a child, took a few tumbles, some bordering on serious, some bloody hilarious but as I said at the start I don’t feel like I’ve ever been sick.

As a direct result of yesterdays visit with George I am now on two new medications, the first is to help with a problem I have in bed…. no nothing like that….. after I’ve been at rest for a couple of hours my feet get hot, I’m talking about a feeling that someone has set them on fire, so I hang them out the side of the bed for relief… at this time of year... Winter..... a couple of hours later I wake up with two big blocks of ice on the end of my legs, George had a name for this, pathological pain or something like that so I’ popping pills in the hope they’ll solve this issue.

The other new medication is to try and get rid of my shakes particularly when I raise an arm to eat or drink, with the price of booze these days I can’t afford to keep spilling it like I do, at rest there are no shakes so he assures me that rules out Parkinsons disease, but in the hope of becoming a less messy eater I’m also popping pills for that one.

He who hesitates is a damned fool.
Mae West