Yesterday I rang the pain management clinic to change the time of my appointment. They told me that the appointment had already been cancelled, which of course surprised me. I asked why to be told that it was ‘because you do not need it any longer’.

My first reaction was to argue, but that would have got me nowhere and so I asked if the lady possibly had the number for the pain clinic secretary. She gave me the number and I rang only to get an answer phone. I do not like them and did not leave a number. I tried about 2 or 3 times over the course of the morning and then gave in and left an answer phone message.

I had to go the anti-coagulation clinic at 1:30 but as this one was near home we did not need to leave home until about 1:15 so I was able to put some time into getting my course work done. I also tried to get some help with the housework, but our daughter decided to vacuum the stairs which was what I told one of our sons to do. He then ended up tidying up, but as most of the mess was hers I ended up having to tell him what to do with almost each thing. I often wonder if they do it to stop us asking for help, but I know that his not true, because they can be so helpful.

When we got to the hospital I was surprised to see so many parking places. There is a new community hospital that has opened recently and so they have moved stuff over there, making the parking at the other hospital so much easier. I assume that eventually they will move everything there and that Highwood will close. There is a lot of prime building land there.

I went in and was taken straight through for the INR test, thumb prick to test the blood to see if the clotting is at the right level. I was the youngest person there by about 30 years. The nurse looked at the result and asked if I was taking all my meds, and my injections. Of course I am, was the reply, so a result of 0.9 was a surprise. They are aiming for 2-3! That means that I need to keep injecting for another week and the warfarin has been increased by 1mg a day. Another appointment was booked for next Monday, looks like this is a regular thing for me now. I made the appointment for 2:30 so that I can meet Elizabeth in town after school, and she can have a lift home.

I had to go back into town again at 4 to pick up our second son from his part time job. I cannot wait for next week when Rob can drive again, after his appendix, so that he can take over the family taxi position.

When we got home I was shattered but had the idea of ringing the gp surgery to see if they knew why the pain clinic appointment had been cancelled. The answer was that they did not.

By this time I was shattered, so I got help to make a shepherd’s pie. I spent the evening on the computer and watching TV, too tired to do anything else.

Today I was impatient and rang the pain clinic to see if I could find out what was going on. The phone was answered, much to my surprise and the lady I spoke to knew who I was as she was trying to find out what had happened to my appointment. It appears that someone else wanted to cancel a clinic and somehow mine was cancelled instead. She was very pleasant and apologetic about it, but sadly the next available clinic appointment is not until 24th November, so I will have to wait until then.

I then went to the hairdressers for a cut and blow dry. I have been going for about 10 months now as a model; it is great because the salon I go to do not charge for models and you get a really good cut. But as of January they are going to start charging. I have agreed to have my hair coloured in a couple of weeks, but have now found out that they charge about £15 for that, so I am not sure if I will get it done. The only reason I agreed was that they asked if I would.

After that Michael and I did a bit of food shopping, and paid some bills and came home.

That was enough to leave me so tired I fell asleep whilst I was studying.

My legs were aching a bit this afternoon so I took off my socks which were leaving a mark. This evening I noticed that my legs were still swollen and now the slippers and loose socks have left big dent marks where the oedema is.

It has made me upset because it seems as if there is always something wrong. I am so tired, and will now have to make an appointment to see the gp as I am already on diuretics. It just makes me wonder what will go wrong next.