Canna Tropicanna

It’s a monitoring day at my local hospital - another ECG, more blood tests and picking up more meds. All very much routine - but somehow I manage to get the time wrong, arriving in the morning rather than the afternoon. In my defence, it was a change arranged over the telephone with no appointment letter, and as I’m not seeing any doctors, I’m quickly accommodated - no harm done. 

Then there’s a phone call from my surgery - one of the pharmacy team checking how I’m getting on with my antidepressants. They can induce greater anxiety in the first few weeks, but I seem to be OK - as G says, my natural anxieties make it difficult to tell! I’m feeling so much better - and of course with illness-linked ‘depression’, any physical improvement is likely to see a psychological improvement too. I wonder whether I really need to take them now - though I realise it’s very likely that my symptoms will flare up again and the whole process will be reversed. I’m already thinking about the process of coming off these tablets - see what I mean about anxiety! 

It’s also an opportunity to make sure my meds for our planned trip to Madeira are all in hand, including emergency antibiotics in case I develop another UTI. She’s very helpful, and promises to sort it all for me, pencilling in another monitoring call in four weeks time. For the second time this week, I’m impressed by our surgery. Yesterday, G finally agreed to contact them about the skin lesion on his head, something I’ve been unapologetically nagging him to do for ages.  He called into the surgery at 8.00am, had a text asking for a photo of the lesion at 10.00, and by 2.30 had been seen by the skin specialist ANP (Advanced Nurse Practitioner), had it diagnosed as a Basal Cell Carcinoma and been referred to the local hospital for removal - apparently a wait of about four weeks. Impressive. Once again, some aspects of the NHS still work. 

In terms of blipping, I decide to make use of the Memorial Gardens which I tend to neglect. I’m intending to photograph the leaves of Canna Tropicanna which form centrepieces in the garden beds - their colours ideal for today’s AT close-up challenge. In the event, however, I’m taken by this wider leaf view, backlit by the sun, the colours enhanced by giving it a black background.  

Many thanks for your kind comments, stars and hearts for yesterday’s Southern Hawker - all very much appreciated.