A slight difficulty in Beccles this morning, when I turned into the lane leading to the car park, and found that at some time in the last year or two, since I last used it, they'd blocked it off. Impossible to turn with my long car, and I had to back out into the road, unable to see if anything was coming from my right until I was already well out. There wasn't, luckily, or I'd have felt a bigger twit than I did. It was more trouble to get to the other entrance to the car park than to go to a different one, so that's what I did. Later, I managed to leave my purse behind at the café and didn't realise until I was trying to pay in the butcher's back here. I phoned and they've got it. There was no panic, it didn't have my cards or anything in, just a ten pound note and a few coins.
My friend was feeling slightly low. He and his wife moved to Scotland some years ago because of his job, but he has to come back several times a year and, every time, he is sorry he has to leave again and is reminded of how much he liked living in Lowestoft. Partly for practical reasons, he now has to commute quite a long way each day, and the winters are long and hard, and also because they're a long way from old friends and family and he likes this part of the country. I don't know his wife's take on the matter, but I think he'd move back if he can.
The Sage received a thank-you card today, from people who bought some china in the sale. People also treat the catalogues as invitations and phone to say if they can come, or with apologies if they cannot. It's quite remarkable, how he has managed to give the impression that folks are fortunate to be able to come and spend their money with him.
Our family doctor retired yesterday. He told us, each separately, several months ago , which was thoughtful. Mind you, he's been our doctor since we came to live here 25 years ago and we knew him before then, because his children went to the same school as Weeza and Al, though are slightly older. He's the head of the practice here and it's always been run very well and efficiently. The receptionists are helpful and one can usually see one's own doctor within a day. When I first went to see him about my hip, he advised me not to have an x-ray at that time, he said that they don't necessarily give the best indication of when you need a new one and that pain is a clearer indicator, but promised that as soon as I asked to see a consultant, he'd refer me straight away, and so he did, a couple of years later.
Some thirty years ago, the mother of a schoolfriend of Weeza took her son to see him, because he'd got some pain in his leg. She was enormously impressed and grateful that he immediately suspected osteomyelitis, which is a bone infection, referred him for tests and it cleared up quickly with antibiotics. She said, the boy wasn't in great pain and it isn't particularly easy to diagnose at the start, but if it isn't caught quickly it can cause a good deal of damage, possibly requiring surgery, even bone grafts. That was the reason I asked for him to be our doctor - not that we have ever needed his services very much. Apart from a few plaintive visits about my hip over the course of two years, there have normally been five years between appointments. I have been lucky enough to be rarely ill, and so have all my family members.
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8 comments:
Glad you got the car safely backed out. I was having a vision of that recent horrific pile-up in Southwest England. Take care.
You had a good doctor and good for you that you and your family had rarely illness. My husband had a fairly serious desease several years ago, though he is now more sound than I, luckily.
It sounds like you had *that* kind of day, fortunately, mildly inconvenient, rather than dramatic. No car crashes missy.
I always swore I'd never leave my practice area, so I wouldn't have to change doctors. When I was in Trinidad las year, my doctor just upped and left. Humpf.
It's terrible, von LX. I have been avoiding the television. I can't bear to see footage of it. I wasn't backing into a main road, the worst that would have happened would be someone having to stop and either glare or laugh at me.
We are lucky, Haricot, and I'm glad your husband is cured. I'm sorry if that implies you are not so well, though.
My doc and I were saying, it's getting rare for someone to stay 30+ years in the same practice. The local vet is the same, one of the owners has been there 25 or more years, and the other over 20. Continuity and a deep knowledge of a place is good, and it doesn't have to mean not keeping up with the times.
One of the more dificult things about moving is finding a new doctor. I've been in our last house for 21 years and won't register with a new GP until I find one with a reputation I find aceptable. My wife and son have changed but I'm diabetic and get on with my current surgery so I want to feel happy with a new practice. My wife and I are keeping the same dentist and optician though as we don't mind an hour each way for the continuity.
Of course we have to find somewhere to buy first which is proving a major challenge with conflicting constraints of travelling, facilities, avoiding wind farms and of course price...
We're renting for now and I rather not pay any longer than necessary.
My elder son drove along that stretch of the M5 about 7 hours earlier. My niece drove along there TEN MINUTES before it happened. She was on her way home from Musgrove Park Hospital. When I spoke to her, she said her ward was being cleared to take the casualties. A bit too close to home, that.
I've been with my doctors since 1983, and the main reason for staying with them is that they prescribe homeopathic remedies where possible, which has worked really well, especially when the children were growing up.
My much loved doctor told us all when she moved on - to become GP adviser to the Ombudsman. I couldn't exactly complain but we missed her dreadfully.
These days I usually see a succession of registrars. It's always interesting meeting yet another new youngster.
How lovely that people treat your catalogues as invitations.
Finding the perfect house is so hard. Our last house, I walked in the front door and wanted it, we hadn't even planned to move. And we'd never have left it except to come to the Sage's family home.
Our surgery offers homeopathy too, AQ, not that I've ever used it.
Our doctor used to lecture at the hospital school, it's a university hospital, so for some years he was in the surgery part-time.
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