Pumpkin

Can you guess how I've passed a soggy, murky afternoon?

This morning was spent solving a mystery of sorts.  On Friday I received a message to remind me of a hospital appointment.  There was no mention of the reason or even the department or hospital.  Always sceptical I wasn't going to click on the link but I did ring the health centre to see if it was a referral from them as I have recently had several tests.  No, they had no record of a referral but the good news all the test results were okay.  So I googled the telephone number on the message to discover it was BRI and rang them.  After waiting a while in the queue I was put through to appointment booking.  At first I could not be found on the system but then the operator said, 'Oh you are down for respiratory research so you need to come to the clinical research building.'  Okay I had signed up a while back to say I would like to be involved in trials, but no information had come through to me.

So this morning I set out in the rain to catch the bus to the hospital, early in case I needed to find the centre.  I visited two research buildings with no luck so walked through to reception where the very helpful chap found me on the system and directed me to Field House.  Once there, I was met with blank looks and told it was an education centre not a trials centre.  Meanwhile I had missed a call from someone.  I was given the number of the Respiratory Department (no one knew where it was!) so I rang and reached an answer phone.  At this point I was tired and wet and getting cold so I left an explanatory message and said I was going to the café and then catching the bus home!  Just then the phone rang again and Joan said if I walked out of the door of Field House she would wave at me from the Research Centre, which she did.  It turned out the centre I needed was a hidden away doorway between the two rather grander places I'd already visited!

The staff in clinical research obviously thought I knew exactly why I was there so I had to explain for the fifth time the series of events which resulted in me standing dripping on their floor.  They were taken aback but sat me in the comfiest chair and brought me a very nice cup of tea and then explained the nature of the flu vaccine trial.  Long story short I read the seventeen page explanatory document whilst I enjoyed my cup of tea in the warmth, signed up and had blood taken, height and weight measured, blood pressure done and an ECG which told me my heart was perfect, which is always good to know.