Day 709

Day 709...

Today marks the beginning of the end of restrictions in England and a chance that things may begin to look more normal again. But at the same time we have reports of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine...we seem to be going from one round of fear to another and I really don't like the way the world is turning at the moment.

But it was still Thursday and there were still things to be done.

Back in 2019 I was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a lumpectomy to remove the 'bad stuff'. Following a successful surgery I am now about half way through five years of annual mammograms to make sure all is well. My next mammogram should be sometime in April as that is the anniversary of my surgery but a couple of days ago I'd received a letter inviting me to book an appointment as part of the breast screening program here in the UK.

I dutifully made the phone call today to book myself in, but when I explained that I had been diagnosed in 2019 I was told to ignore the letter and wait for my annual check. I wasn't sure whether the letter would apply to me or not but wanted to make sure. Just seems a bit of a waste of time and effort to issue an existing cancer patient with a letter that does not apply to them. In times when we are being told about the financial pressures placed on our NHS you would think that efficient systems would be one way to ensure that costs were held in check by only contacting those that actually needed to be contacted.

Around midday I headed out to meet the girls from work in the hail and rain and snow! The weather was a very mixed bag today, there was sunshine and blue skies, gusty winds, hail, rain and snow; not pleasant at all!

We met up at a local cafe for afternoon tea. Now as I follow a low carb/keto way of eating an afternoon tea is not something that appeals to me anymore and one that I know my body wouldn't handle very well. I will admit that the food that the rest of my team had looked lovely and was beautifully presented and everyone seemed to enjoy it all. I did decide to allow myself a treat and had a very nice cream tea...although I had coffee and not tea!!! And I didn't really touch the jam!

After a lovely couple of hours chatting and catching up I came home via my local Lidl as it was that time of the week when I needed to pick up a few odds and sods. And with prices seemingly all over the place at the moment I am finding that I am choosing what I buy from where much more carefully. I also stopped by a friend of pre-school's who had very kindly offered to donate some supplies to help with our topic over the next few weeks.

I arrived home to a freshly brewed pot of coffee and took advantage of the remaining daylight to make a little more progress with my current Disney jigsaw. And as Simon finished work for the day it was time for our gym workout. Simon even had me doing some bench presses...I managed 10kg and a set of 10 reps with Simon spotting for me which I didn't think was too shabby for a first attempt!

Thursday is done, roll on tomorrow.
xx