FLOWER FRIDAY

I had an appointment with my GP this morning to find out the results of the blood test from last week and also to ask if there was anything that could be done about my trigger fingers - the middle fingers on both hands, but my dominant right hand is the worst.

I have been doing exercises and massaging my palm, but the finger still “triggers”  and doesn’t appear to be getting any better.  I thought I might be referred to a hand specialist at our local hospital, but my options were either to take anti-inflammatory tablets or to have a steroid injection.  As I am not really a “pill popper” I decided on the injection.  

The lady doctor I saw was reasonably new and I suppose since I had steroid injections in my thumbs many years ago, things have changed.  She therefore had to go through the consent form with me, which included all the possible side effects from the injection, many of which she said she had never known people to suffer from, so the date is set for 6th December, as it was the first “double”  appointment, which she told me to ask for.  I did ask if Rachel could do it, as she was the best “injector” but she said it had to be a doctor.  She asked who had given me the injections for my thumbs and I said it was also a lady doctor at the hospital, so she laughed and said “No pressure then!”  However, she seemed to be very knowledgeable about my condition, which gave me confidence in her so watch this space.

Most of my blood results were good, but interestingly, although I have lost a lot of weight, my cholesterol is quite high, but on the plus side, the ratio of “good” cholesterol to “bad” is fine, which is something to be thankful for and I can have another blood test in six months.

We then went to Jack’s Coffee Shop to meet Julia, a long-standing friend of over forty years, and have a “coffee catch-up”, which was very enjoyable.  Although we are all retired, we don’t see each other that often, because we are so busy, so we have arranged to have a meal together next week at Jack’s with Julia’s son and his wife, which means we can chat for longer and enjoy a meal at the same time! 

After we had done some shopping, we came home and Mr. HCB even said it was too cold to work in the garden - the actual temperature wasn’t that low, but there has been a very cold wind, coming from the north-east so Mr. HCB says.  I had taken a photograph at Jack’s but prefer to have one of our own flowers, if possible, so having seen these earlier in the week, popped out there to take this shot of our Salvia “Mystic Spires”;  you can just see a Salvia “Hot Lips” in the background and both plants are still blooming profusely as well as the Salvia “Amethyst Lips”, for which we are very grateful on these grey and dull days.

“A good friend is a connection to life - 
     a tie to the past, 
          a road to the future, 
the key to sanity 
     in a totally insane world.”
Lois Wyse