HAWTHORN BERRIES

Early start for me today as I had an appointment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for a Coronary Angiogram.  Caught a bus to Gatehead around 9am and then another one to the hospital,  Got there in good time for my 10.30am appointment.  Previous to the appointment I had taken two tablets to lower my heartbeat as well as not having anything with caffeine in for 12 hrs beforehand.  Nothing to eat after 6.30am either. 

I had my heart rate checked before the angiogram and it was OK.   BP was OK too.  Had to lie flat on my back for the procedure which was quite uncomfortable for me but it only lasted around 10 mins.  The angiogram scan  checked for any narrowing or blockages in the blood vessels around my heart. Towards the end they injected a dye into a cannula in a vein in my arm - this was to highlight the coronary arteries more clearly on the images. Now I just wait for the results.

Afterwards I had to stay in the waiting room for around 15 mins to make sure I had no adverse reaction to the dye.  I was given a cup of coffee and some biscuits.  I left the hospital around 11.30am and got a bus back to Gateshead.

Did some shopping in the big Tesco and then got another bus back home.  Felt a bit weary so I didn't do much in the afternoon. 

When I got home there was a letter on the mat giving me a follow up appointment at the Osteoporosis clinic.  (I had my bone density scan on 14th August and still have no idea of the results )  The appointment is in January 2024.   I'm assuming its non urgent .... but who knows.

At 5.30pm it was time to head off to Slimming Group.  Got a lift from M.  Our consultant Lisa is on holiday this week and she was unable to get another consultant to cover the group so the " social team " were in charge.... 4 ladies who are group member but who help out every week with taking the money, selling the chocolate bars , doing the raffle and weighing the members.  They seemed to cope very well.  Obviously there was no group meeting after " weigh in " but most members hung around and had a catch up.  M and I stayed for around 30 mins,  I had a 2 pound gain this week - I was  quite surprised it wasn't more as I wasn't following " the plan " on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

The Abstract Thursday challenge has no theme this week so I took a shot of some hawthorn berries in the back lane and did some swirly processing and boosted the colours.  Thanks to Ingeborg for hosting.

Steps today - 8,533