Easter weekend 2926 seemed to have started on the Wednesday before Good Friday while I walked with Matt in Chesham.
I’ve had this persistent issue with itchy skin since January. Just before our recent trip to La Colle I had had another blood test. On the Tuesday Dr Kelshiker called from Pinn Medical rang to say that the results were abnormal and he would arrange a face to face meeting with the Haematology department at Northwick Park.
While walking Maggi called to say that Northwick Park had called and could I turn up for a blood test asap and that they had booed me in for Thursday 9th. This meant that instead of having a drink and sandwich with Matt at the end our walk I headed straight home.
A quick bite to eat and then off to take my blood test. As I waited for my number to be called I received a call from the Haematology department asking if I could come in on Thursday at 12:25 ad they had a cancellation. Of course I wanted to get things moving as quickly as possible so I accepted the invitation.
Did I have some kind of blood cancer? How bad could this abnormality be? I would find out tomorrow. For some reason I didn’t feel nervous just ready to accept the worst or best of the situation. I was surprised by my nonchalance.
Thursday 2nd April
Northwick Park
Maggi and I packed our things for the Easter weekend and then drove to Northwick Park Hospital. Maggi, very familiar with the Haematology department, felt a little perturbed about returning to the scene of her chemotherapy.
We entered the consulting room of Dr Vana Katsomitrou and sat awaiting to hear her diagnosis, but first she asked me a string of questions about my health record and the drugs I take. When she had finished she told me that the results of the test monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). MGUS is generally benign and many people live with it with no health problems but it can be a precursor to myeloma, which is bad news. They will monitor the situation and I will have further blood tests and possibly a bone marrow biopsy, which could be painful.
Allin all, having been told I had an abnormal blood test I thought the result was the best that could be expected and the time to worry about my imminent death has been postponed for awhile.
Stafford
I drove straight from Northwick Park up to our hotel, The Swan, in Stafford. Stafford epitomises a town that has experienced better days. The majority of the population look worse dressed than you see in London or the South-East and you pass many a boarded up shop in the town centre.
It looked as if The Swan made the majority of its income from the large bar that took up the whole downstairs central area of the building. We arrived about 4ish on the eve of Easter customers had already started drinking.
A very adequate room with a good sized bed greeted us. I lay down and had a fairly long sleep while Maggi had a look around the town. The next thing I knew was when Maggi called me from the bar to tell me she had booked the dinner table for 6 pm and it was now ten too. In her roaming of Stafford Maggi had looked at several of the TripAdvisor’s best restaurants in the town and had concluded she preferred to eat at The Swan. We had a very average meal.