Monday 14 May 2012

Neither here nor there

The weather for the Lilac Lark was glorious, as perfect a spring day as can be found only in England.  It was such a pity that I was unable to enjoy it.  I had very strict instructions to find somebody else to unload the car and then come straight home.  Which I did.  The problem has been that my breathing has been getting steadily worse for the past week and really just about hit rock bottom yesterday.  The slightest exertion would cause me to cough uncontrollably  (is one able to cough controllably?)  - sometimes for as long as five or even ten minutes.  It had come so that I could be sitting eat ease in the armchair without moving a muscle when I would suddenly burst out coughing.  And sometimes those coughing fits would leave me feeling about to black out.  I had intended trying to get an appointment with my GP today but as soon as the Old Bat came downstairs this morning, she picked up the phone and called for an ambulance.  She was still talking to the operator when the first paramedic arrive and the ambulance was along less than ten minutes later.  A truly excellent service.  I was subsequently taken off to hospital where I was given an x-ray and an ECG.  As luck would have it, the consultant who I was about this time last year, and whose outpatient clinic I still attending, came into A&E this morning so she came and saw me.  My next appointment in her clinic is not until September but she has said she wants to see me in a fortnight.  Having been given a dose of steroids and a prescription for more steroids and also anti-fungal tablets, I was released into the care of a fellow Lion the Old Bat had called on to help, she having felt unable to give me the physical support I would need.  Anyway, that's enough about me - except to say that I was touched to hear how many Lions had rung this morning to find out how I am.

~~~~~

As we continue the walk round the Roman Camp, I would have posted a recent picture of the footpath on the southern rampart, but that is still on the camera in the car.  So here is one I took last year.  Of course, over the course of the 3,500 years or so since the rampart was thrown up, it has no doubt been worn down a bit.  And the ditch (to the left in the picture) has probably filled up a bit.



3 comments:

Buck said...

Get well soonest, Brian.

stephen Hayes said...

Still, just to think that Romans once stood on that spot! Nothing like that here in Beaverton, Oregon. Heck, we don't even have any beavers.

Brighton Pensioner said...

Thanks, Buck. We'll do our damndest.
And Stephen, I don't think Romans ever walked here. This was built i the Bronze Age, 1500 years before the Romans arrived in England.