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I had a scary moment yesterday afternoon. I decided to shift some spent apple pomace and some sacks of spent hops that one of the local breweries leaves out for free and add them all to the compost heap. I got up from the sofa and went up the stairs to get some socks to wear with my boots. As I stepped away from the top of the stairs my head suddenly started spinning and I became unable to focus on anything.

I grabbed a door frame and managed a controlled fall to lie on the floor because I felt as though I was going to faint and I don’t need to be causing expensive damage to the decor right now.
From there it fortunately didn’t take too long to recover so I could get up and carry on. It’s not the first time it has happened since I’ve been taking the blood pressure meds, but I’d say it was probably the worst one.

Still, it all adds to the thrill. Probably just as well that they’re letting me see a cardiologist 😀

The NHS is a wonderful thing and I will defend it to my last breath, but it does sometimes move in mysterious ways.

I was supposed to have a telephone appointment with one of the practice nurses at 8:50 last Friday. No idea why. She didn’t call, but re-arranged it for 10:38. And didn’t call again. I had to take the sack truck down to the surgery to collect my drugs anyhow, so whilst I was there I asked about it. They weren’t able to tell me what was going on either, but “it might be something to do with pre-diabetes”. A result of a slightly raised Haemoglobin A1C level from my last blood test, possibly.

I’ve just found that I now have a new telephone appointment booked, at the same time next Friday as I am already attending the surgery in person to see a different member of staff 😀

Then in the NHS app I discovered lots of documents that have been added over the last couple of days, including the request for a referral to Cardiology. It says that I had “malignant hypertension”, which sounds rather anthropomorphic, and that whilst treatment had reduced my blood pressure I was now suffering from a number of problems, including dizziness, tremulousness, which I assume refers to me shaking more than poorly-supported jelly on a paint-mixing station, and myalgia, which I had to look up. Apparently it’s muscle pain. And yes, I do have that too. Positively, the concern that I may also have an under-active thyroid has now been dismissed as a random testing wobble.

There’s also a response to that request, accepting the referral with a probable diagnosis of “suboptimally-controlled hypertension”. I think I could have got that myself without the need for spending five years doing a degree in medicine 😀

So, hopefully all I have to do now is for the people with the diary to offer me an appointment, which does feel like good progress.

My cardiologist referral has started!

It’s not all sorted yet though. Apparently the referral is now being reviewed and they’ll get back to me by 2nd December. Whatever “getting back to me” means. Offering me an appointment, perhaps?

The “typical” waiting time for an appointment is claimed to be ten and a half weeks, but I’m guessing Christmas will mess with that. Apparently eight out of ten people are seen within four and a half months though, so it’s all good.

My blood pressure readings from about 2:30pm on Tuesday. The GP seems to be ok with it for the time being, but even if he wasn’t apparently he can’t prescribe me any more drugs. Probably just as well under the circumstances. If I took any more I’d probably be comatose the entire time.
My concern is the heart rate. Prior to starting on the meds I had a resting heart rate in the 50s. Ok, so this was after I’d walked about fifty metres across the garden back to the house, but that’s hardly strenuous. I didn’t even have to walk the other way, because I’d just moved the digger into a barn.

I do have a telephone appointment with one of the practice nurses on Friday. No idea why — it just appeared in the NHS app (the use of which now seems to be the primary reason for having a phone). I guess I’ll find out when it happens. Perhaps it’s something to do with the referral to a cardiologist that I’m expecting.

Anyhow, I’m off to re-acquaint myself with Bunny McGarry and the Sisters of the Saint whilst hoping that tomorrow the wind isn’t quite as cold as it was today. BorrowBox is getting a serious workout on my Kindle Fire these days. The UI sucks rocks through a straw, but free books are always welcome.