I should not keep on saying ‘all being well’ but – h’m.  I’ll explain, with apologies to the Sage for being personal.

The thing is, his appetite has diminished and the result is that he’s lost a fair bit of weight.  Taking my advice (once I discovered his clandestine cream cake and jam tart habit) he pretty well cut them out and that seemed to account for  a fair bit, but now he eats less than me at some meals and that seems a bit extreme.  We’ve been to the doctor, he’s had blood tests and so on and nothing has shown up and it may  just be a blip or long-term stabilisation.  All the same, he was referred for more tests.

And this is going to be the main point of this post – that the NHS is much maligned but i reckon it’s still fantastic.

Asked for an appointment yesterday – was given with our own GP today.  Follow-up next Friday.  He had blood tests last week, another yesterday, also ECG and other basic tests.  At the GP surgery, we were given a form to take to the drop-in x-ray clinic at the N&N hospital in Norwich.  We were in and out of there in ten minutes.  Fantastic efficiency.  We’d taken the newspaper, expecting a lengthy wait.

He’s also having an ultrasound scan, to check there isn’t anything nasty – we may well be notified of the appointment tomorrow, which should be in 7 – 10 days.

I know it isn’t like that in every town or city, and our local surgery has always been wonderful in the 28 years we’ve lived here.  All the same, the NHS may struggle sometimes, but it isn’t broken.  The worst isn’t the norm.  Either we’ve been very lucky on every occasion or it’s pretty damn good, in spite of all.  I cannot tell you how proud and respectful I am of our NHS.  Heart right out there on sleeve, darlings.

Mind you, an unexpected visit to Norwich (following an unexpected doctor’s appointment) has completely buggered my day.  I’ve done pretty well nothing that I meant to do.