Where is the muse?

Faced with a blank sheet of paper and a box of crayons as a child, my usual cry was, "What shall I draw?" to which my father, if he was at home, would reply, "Draw a bucket of water".  It was many years before I realised that this was a double entendre, albeit not one that would be used by a stand-up comedian or music hall artist.  Anyway, today I am faced with the electronic equivalent of that blank sheet of paper - a nearly-blank monitor, the blank bit being where I am supposed to type today's pearls of wisdom to be cast before the swine of Cyberworld (that's you).

I see that Skip and GS are off to see a specialist in Sacramento and obviously our thoughts go with them.  I'm not sure if it's today or yesterday they go - the different time zones confuse me terribly.  I do know that I saw my specialist yesterday and I didn't have to drive a couple of hundred miles to get to him, merely five or six.  I had half expected him to reduce the quantity of steroids I have been taking over the past two weeks but he told me to continue for another fortnight.  At that point the dose will be reduced from 15mg a day to 10, then after a while it will be reduced to 9 and 8 on alternate days, then 8 daily etc until after about three months or so I will be off them.  Meanwhile, I will be given a small weekly dose of methotrexate to start with.  I will need a blood test after a month and if my liver and kidney are still there and functioning, the dose will be stepped up for another month before a second blood test.  After about three months I should have noticed the effect this has on the arthritis.  Frankly I'm not at all sure I will notice anything as the steroids have practically cleared everything up already.  The consultant, however, assures me that is just short term.  The methotrexate is intended as a long-term solution.

We will wait and see.  In the meantime, I'm looking forward to getting back to our French hideaway next month.  We were last there in July and had planned a return at the beginning of this month but deferred the trip as I really could not face the journey.

~~~~~

And yet another picture of the the château in Châteaubriant - with more arches.