GK's Little Outing

Yesterday Grumpy Knee went to hospital, like a doggy to the vet.

At a private Preston hospital used by the NHS, at 8:30 am precisely, GK had an x-ray, and at 9:00am precisely, a blood test was taken. Here we were treated with the deference accorded to those who can pay. GK was impressed. Our surgeon had specified the right knee. GK is on the left. The staff were worried. I thought GK was going to speak up, but his scar and absence of such on the right finally allayed fear of litigation for the radiologist.

At Preston NHS hospital appointments for the scan were at 10:00 am and 12:00 am, the location being the alarmingly named Nuclear Medicine Department.

The hospital is massive. The Nuclear Medicine Department involved a nerve-wracking journey along corridors too long to see the end of, descent to the lowest level in a lift, right and left turns, and a feeling of increasing isolation. GK thought he was off potholing.

Thoughts questioned the reason for Nuclear Medicine’s location in such a remote part of that labyrinthal building. Concern notched up more on learning I was to be injected with radioactive juice - so that’s how they get rid of all that nuclear waste, eh?

Scan number one took about five minutes, and we were on our way instructed to return at 12:00, “when the radio-active juice has adhered itself to your bones!” GK said nothing.

We returned at 12:00 for scan number two, then we were sent off with instructions to drink plenty of water to wash away the nuclear stuff, not to get close to young children, and not to sleep with pregnant women - I think GK was a bit disappointed about that last instruction.

Grumbly Knee gets a shakeup

Thursday 22nd August 2013

Thursday walks with Pete have resumed. Yesterday we wandered in the fringes of The Lake District, often more rewarding than fighting to park, ascending constructed staircases or badly
eroded paths, and jostling past ever larger parties of senior citizen ramblers.

Witherslack, and the Winster valley lie within the national park and provide distant views of the Kentmere and Fairfield hills with constant reminders of the park's geology and flora.

The River Winster is modest in size relative to the expansive, flat bottomed valley it inhabits which must have housed an impressive glacier in the Ice Age. Further walks north and south of this middle section will hopefully follow.

My other half, Grumpy Knee, has never been silent since his operation. I have tried to refrain from reporting about him recently for fear of GK getting delusions of grandeur,  so I tried to "walk through" his grumblings with my recent exploits, but I am afraid to say he is still an unwelcome companion. This year GK has been kowtowed to with flat river and canal trips, and yesterday's walk  was deliberately mainly on Tarmac and decent paths. We only saw seven cars throughout, and nobody else walking.

Anyway, GK was recently summoned for his "annual" check-up (from a year last May), and visited a new consultant surgeon last Friday, who turned out to be a very practical, broad speaking guy who I imagined would have pragmatic, lateral thinking solutions to any physical problems - the sort of chap you would be thankful to be stranded with on a desert island. A bone scan, x-ray, and blood test have been ordered and GK now has another appointment on 6th September. I think GK is a bit frightened of this potential taskmaster.

The wide, broad bottomed Winster valley

River Winster - sparkling clear water

Tributary tumbling down from the steeper western valley side

Distant views of Kentmere and Fairfield hills

We popped in for a look at Witherslack church - plain and simple

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A good idea spotted on another walk a few weeks ago