I had another jaunt to St Vincent’s Hospital yesterday.

This time they decided to spare me that crack-of-dawn trick which they usually pull. This time they dumped me into the Friday evening traffic chaos. There is a strange phenomenon here that from midday Friday onwards all the roads out of Dublin grind to a complete standstill. Are they all heading off somewhere for the weekend? Does anyone work on a Friday afternoon?

Anyhows I arrived for my appointment. I had the obligatory hour wait and then I was called in.

Basically it was just a catch up session which gave me the opportunity to demand a load more medication for the pains. They gave me a new script which was okay but I’m dubious it will do anything.

One thing the Prof mentioned was my latest scan results. This apparently resulted in a mixed bag. He raved about my progress as apparently everything post operation is a roaring success. they are delighted with me. And then he mentioned as a little by-the-way that the scan had showed something in my lung. They weren’t sure what it is but it’s half a centimeter in diameter, whatever it is. Leastwise sometime in the new year they are going to call me in and they’ll ram a camera and scalpel down my gullet. Not to worry, says they, they’ll give me a bit of an antithetic. i am not reassured.

Needless to say a portion of the session was spent admiring my headband. This is the multicoloured strap that Daughter made that rings my head and holds up the glasses. Prof never fails to admire it. Artistic and ingenious, he says. Who am I to argue?

I took the new meds earlier. i have just had the worst blast of pain yet. it had me curled on the floor begging for mercy and lasted for about three very long minutes.

i knew that prescription was useless.