Recently i think its fair to say that i’ve been seeing a lot of those in the medical profession. It all started with my arm and although its still attached, recently its been causing me more and more pain. True i’ve also been doing more and more things but my assumption is that even after surgery to fix the original break i should be able to lead a normal life ( well, as normal as i get ) without pain. So, i went to visit my local GP and after a quick X-Ray have been referred to a specialist. For this they deserve a bit of credit. I expected to have to argue with them that pain wasn’t normal and that there was something wrong, but was pleasantly surprised when they referred me to a specialist. Of course the dumb / clever balance was restored when i wasted 6 weeks because they referred me to NHS rather than private! On the plus side though, my consultant is called Mr Hand!
Another quick X-Ray and a blood test later and unfortunately they still aren’t sure what the problem is. As far as they can see all the metal work is in the right place and the only thing that looked odd was a muscle hernia. Although this is unusual they couldn’t guarantee this to be the cause of the problem. After all that and i’m being referred to another specialist ( not Dr Arm unfortunately! ) who will hopefully have a few ideas. If not apparently i’m off for an MRI – now i’m not entirely sure how thats going to work with a bit of metal in my arm but you’ll no doubt read about it here.
To make things more complicated i’m also due to be doing some diving on Friday ( and yes, that means in the UK! ). As with all courses you need to complete a questionnaire which determines if you need a medical. Normally with my asthma i wouldn’t be totally honest and answer ‘No’ to a question about any problems with it. Unfortunately one of the other questions was about limb problems after surgery and i couldn’t lie twice.
So, off for a medical i went and to cut a long story short i was basically told i had half the lung function i should have for my height & age. Today was the more detailed test that would then confirm if i could dive or not. They ran a Spioretry test on me and fortunately the results were better than expected. As it turns out the area i’m poor with is the FEV1 result which is the amount of air you can expel in the first second of breathing out. For this i’m ( today ) 80% of what was expected of me although this can vary on a daily basis. In contrast the other test is of lung capacity and for this ( FVC ) i’m 113% of expected ( yeah me! ). Putting aside the fact that i’m not sure why you would want to see how fast people can get rid of air, it does at least mean that i’m able to dive. For those that are interested, the overall measurement is the FEV1 / FVC which gives you FEV1% – 59% in my case – which should be between 75 & 80% in healthy adults apparently.
Recovered? Yes its funny isn’t it. My last experience with a gym was back in about 2004 and lets just say it wasn’t exactly value for money. Made worse by the new year resolution rush it basically was a sweaty room where all you could do was exercise. Although some might find it strange to perceive what is wrong with that definition of a gym, for me its just not any fun. And thats why i’ve joined a gym which is more of a racket club than a gym. I actually laughed when they were going through the paper work and asked when i would like a gym induction!
No, for me its socialising while exercising ( ish ) and so the courts are great. We’ve already played squash, badminton and tennis a number of times and although i don’t think i’ll ever get my money back each month its been a lot of fun.
I said ‘ish’ in terms of exercising because the other big reason that i joined this gym is because of the pool. I used to be a regular swimmer but the times for pools local to me really aren’t helpful if you want to do some lengths. The pool here is 25 meters and when i go ( at 6:30 Wednesday Morning ) there are very few people in it – which is great. Although the first times my arms killed i’ve already doubled the distance that i can do in 45 minutes. My best feat was 5000m in 66 minutes back when i was a ‘lad’, and at the moment thats what i’m aiming for. I’m hoping, once a week i might just about be on track for March.
Are good people hard to come by? Not any more. Recently i stumbled accross a new site which i’ve grown fond of. Its not something that you’ll use everyday but when you need it, it will be very helpful. Its called RatedPeople.com and as the name suggests allows you to rate and recommend tradespeople.
The concept is simple. You submit a job with details, dates and desired costs. The tool the submits that job to all the tradesmen that fit the category selected in your area. If they want the job, they bid for it. Simple.
If find that service alone really useful. No more will i have to hunt around for ‘local’ people to do the work that i need. Now, only those that can take the work, and want the work will get back to me. In this particular case i was asking for some plastering to be done and 10 minutes after submitting the job i had a phone call asking to quote for the work. Interestingly, although the most expensive, the guy that phoned got the job. Why? Well the other feature of the site is that once the job is complete you rate the tradesman on Value, Reliability and Quality. When i looked at Mark, he had got 5/5 for all three categories on all of his 10 jobs through this site. Can’t be bad can it?
However its not all roses. I have submitted a job for cutting some trees down as well and at the moment i haven’t had a single quote. I guess it depends on what price you are after and when you’d like to start. The categories are fairly wide ranging so you are bound to find something that you want ( although, contract killing is not one of them aka Mr & Mrs Smith ).
