Medical Stuff and Abandoned Signage

I'm bringing the blog back to London today, where as you can see things are looking very autumnal. It's a good thing I could write a couple of posts looking back at significant trips and memories, because not much has been happening here. Just work and home, work and home. And home hasn't been very interesting because Dave had to work several nights this week -- so it's basically been me on the couch with Olga, watching "The Lincoln Lawyer" and eating a can of baked beans and a fried egg sandwich.

I did go to the hospital on Thursday morning for my blood tests, and they've all come back normal. So whatever is causing my raised calprotectin levels (389 on the last test) isn't affecting my blood counts, kidney or liver function or anything else. Which I suppose is a good thing, but it deepens the mystery. Also, I'm feeling not so great, which may partly be due to anxiety about the calprotectin -- which measures intestinal inflammation -- but could be other things too. My obvious concern, as I've written before, is colon cancer, but it would be very odd (but not impossible) to have cancer only four months after a clear colonoscopy, and a total of three clear colonoscopies in the last eight years.

Now I'm waiting for a consultation with the NHS gastroenterologists, which is supposed to happen after they review my case on Nov. 1. I'm going to call my health insurance company and see if I can speed things up by going private.

Fun, right?!

Anyway, my blood draw on Thursday morning made me slightly late for work, which always throws my boss into a tizzy because since my co-worker's departure at the beginning of the month we're down a person. I took a bus back to work, but the bus pulled over in Belsize Park with instructions for the driver to wait a bit to space out the service. We sat for a while and I was dying for a coffee, so I got off and went to Costa for a take-away cup, and figured I'd catch the next bus.

The next bus was mighty slow in coming, though, so I did what I never do and caught a cab. The driver was so intent on telling me about his upcoming fishing trip to France, where he camps with friends and catches carp out of a stocked pond in Normandy, that he missed the turn to school and we had to turn around. Aside from that little mishap, I can see why people take taxis. It felt positively luxurious and it got me to school much faster than the bus.

When I came home Thursday night I mowed the lawn, which may be the last haircut it gets for the rest of the year.

Now, I'm looking forward to a restful weekend and more "Bleak House," which I have ignored most of this week.

Oh, and remember that water project on our street? Well, the project is done, the workers have gone and they've collected and removed most of their signs -- but look what they left at the bottom of the hill! Honestly! I am not taking responsibility for these. They're far enough away from our house that they can stay there forever, as far as I'm concerned. (And they might.)