I have just received a summons to a CT scan of my chest. This is to take place at 6:15 pm at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on Monday 23rd May. So there is a chance that the results will be available in time for my appointment with the GI specialist on Monday 30 May. I’m not sure that my conditions are connected but I often feel a bruised sensation under my lower left ribs. I can’t tell whether this is intestinal or muscular. In any case, I want one medical specialist to have all the facts, make diagnoses etc. If he or she also so needs to call in other expertise, that’s fine. But even if my symptoms re from unrelated causes, they are all occurring in one body, and their treatments may impinge on each other.

Fortunately there is no need to follow a clearing-out diet. I might need an injection of dye. I hate all puncturings: when I gave blood for tests last week, my face was in a panicked rictus despite there being no pain, and I was ready to yank the needle out and run away screaming.

Meanwhile I’ve done almost nothing. We did go to a very nearby cafe for lunch on Thursday but I’ve not left the flat since then. Elly has been very active, continuing the great clear-out among other things, The flat’s phone-wiring checked, junction boxes, micro-filters and the master socket were replaced. So if the nightly internet drop-outs continue, we’ll be pretty sure it’s due to external causes. I’m still amazed that a flat in the centre of a European capital city can’t get cable or fibre Internet, just poxy slow ADSL.

a?Having said that, this is a first-world problem, as are most of my complaints. Were I In many other parts of the world, I’d be a lot worse off, unable to afford treatment. So I do feel very lucky in some ways.