Day seventy eight

I thought I would ramble a bit this morning. This is what is called "Blue Monday" and we are all supposed to be miserable today, so something a little lighter. The sun is shining and I am not in pain just now. I was woken with a severe kick around 5am. It wasn't a kick in the stomach, but it felt like one. But at this precise moment I am not in pain.

Did you hear/read about Jess's Rule? I'm thinking about the other week when I asked for an appointment with a GP and they wrote back and said I couldn't have one until my CT scan results are in. I'm tempted to ask for an appointment again and remind them that my Gastroscopy was on the 28th July and they have had the results for 6 months almost. The results show that the lining of my duodenal tract is flattened and they have done nothing about it. Can I quote/cite Jess's Rule?

I think I'll wait. I haven't died yet!

But it is something when I'm now looking to diagnose myself when I'm not a qualified medical doctor. I was going to write about faith and revisit one of the sermon ideas we used to use. Preachers used to talk about how we have faith that the chair we are about to sit on will bear our weight, and how we have faith that the doctor will prescribe medicine that will be good for us.

That's a good place to stop. The memory came to me yesterday as I turned on the tap and drank the liquid that came out (turned out to be water fortunately). I don't think it's faith. I think we just live without thinking. Psychologists believe that in an average day 90% of the things we do are done on autopilot. We just don't think about the chair when we sit down. And as for doctors....

I have had my faith in their "educated guesswork" shattered. I'll go back to that in a minute because I have just had post. It's a letter from the hospital about my consultation with the consultant. He says in the letter that he advised me about bladder training. He didn't! But it's a thought isn't it! "How to train your bladder" - sounds like the name of a film (or is that "dragon"?) Maybe I can get it to sit up and beg?

Anyway, this letter was written before the ultrasound, so more to come, but he says there doesn't appear to be cancer.

So back to "educated guesses". I love it when contestants on quiz programmes say they'll take an educated guess about something they've never even read a book on. Maybe the question was about quantum mechanics (I'm obviously thinking of "Tipping Point" here). And they say: "Educated guess", and they are wrong.

Thinking of "Tipping Point"; last time we watched it the question was:

Which of these battles took place first? And the options were: The Battle of the Boyne; The Battle of Waterloo; The Battle of Britain. The Irish celebrity got the answer wrong and then Ben told us The Battle of Britain took place in 1914. It didn't!

Even quiz shows can't be trusted!

But we trust people with qualifications without checking. It would be a chaotic world if we didn't. This is where hypochondria comes from: I know there's something wrong with me, but the doctors can't find anything.

I refuse to become a hypochondriac.

Again, I will just wait, on this Blue Monday, for the next set of results. That letter was also sent to the medical centre, so there is hope. It was written on the 13th and today is the 19th. They still have my address.

I have hope that they will find whatever it is, but I'd like them to do it soon.

Ramble finished!