Problems With Isoborbide Mononitrate

For the past few months there has been a problem with one of my repeat prescription medications, Isoborbide Mononitrate. Not with me taking it, but it would appear that the factory that produces most of this drug has closed down. I had my repeat prescription made up at Asda's pharmacy in Bletchley at the beginning of this month and at the same time a review of my medications was done with the pharmacist. I imagine they have to do this regularly if you are on repeated medications and have a long-term health issue such as I have with my heart. I was told that this particular drug was to only be produced in 10 mg doses and that the 20 mg strength was to be discontinued, so I would need to get a new prescription for the lower dosage tablets, but then taking two tablets of 10 mg twice a day, at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. I was put on this medication after my last hospital stay when I went into Milton Keynes Hospital after a particularly severe attack of angina. I had been using a Nitrolingual Spray for such attacks, sprayed under my tongue and allowing it to work by making the heart arteries widen to increase blood flow (I was put on this when I had the first signs of a heart attack by my doctor in Bedford back in 2006, and I eventually had a heart attack over the night of 17th and 18th May 2006. See earlier post for details of this.)

I have  sufficient  Isoborbide Mononitrate for around two weeks, so there was no urgency to get further quantities, but this morning I decided to get a doctor's appointment and get the doctor to give me a new prescription for either an alternative medication or re-prescribed for the 10 mg dosage tablets (ie 2 twice a day as I have already been doing with the 20 mg tablets for the past couple of years. I don't want to run out of this medication so it was important that I got the prescription so that if there were further problems obtaining the medication I had time to get to however many local pharmacies to get them to make up the order.

Anyway, to cut a long story short (this seems a very long story, so to cut it short would be a huge relief as it is or has caused a certain amount of stress, to say the least.) I dropped off Carol at the Milton Keynes Academy and then drove to the Ashfield Medical Centre in Beanhill to be in the queue so that I could get an appointment as soon as possible. Fortunately I was able to see a doctor at 8.30 and I was soon  out clutching my prescription for the new 10 mg medication and at 9 decided to go to Sainsbury's at The Hub to get some bread and to also get the prescription made up by their pharmacy. I was told that they would need to ring their supplier and have now been informed that they can get me the Isoborbide Mononitrate and will make sure it is in stock for me. I have further been told that prescriptions are to soon to become paperless, and that I will have to nominate a pharmacy so that the doctor's surgery can send the repeat prescription to wherever I decide so that the repeat prescription can be made up. This is all very well, but I am not so keen on the idea as what happens if the system crashes? Also, what happens if I order my repeat prescription on-line as I do now (it certainly cuts out paper and means I don't have to fill in the form and go to the surgery to hand it in.) and it doesn't go through for whatever technical reason (ie, crashes, computer goes down, or powercut, God forbid?) Anyway, I am reliably informed by the pharmacist at Sainsbury's that they can get the medication for me and that it will be delivered by around 3 this afternoon.

16,000 Page Views

Today this blog has reached 16,000 page views. It seems quite remarkable to me that this blog has been visited by that many people. I'd really love to know how many of these visitors return, and how many get to my blog out of curiosity or because of something I've written. It would be great to find out. More comments would be interesting.

Sunny May Bank Holiday Outing To Waterperry Gardens

What's this? A Bank Holiday Monday and the sun's out? Goodness! It generally rains, so there's no point going out. But this time it was sunny and bright and we just HAD to get out. Last summer was the wettest on record, we had the really coldest and miserablest winter  on record with endless snow, ice, frost and cold and then, to cap it all, spring was also cold, damp, miserable and over all really horrible.  Being stuck indoors doesn't suit us. Signs of spring are showing all over the place. We're told that it's around 4-5 weeks later than usual. Daffodils are making their final show and bulbs such as crocuses are more or less over. So, we decided that we would go out somewhere for the day so chose Waterperry Gardens. Somewhere we haven't been to before and not too far to drive. It's between Aylesbury and Bicester, so it wouldn't take much more than an hour to drive there. We drove out out Milton Keynes on Standing Way, first of all stopping for petrol at the BP filling station on the way, and out through Buckingham, the route we take when we visit Stowe Landscape Gardens, which is just outside Buckingham.  We went through Bicester and past the outlet village, Bicester Village and also Bicester Avenue, which we visited a few weeks ago. It wasn't difficult to find Waterperry Gardens.

On arrival the place seemed totally deserted, which was strange for a Bank Holiday. There's lots to see there, a museums, gallery and quite pleasant gardens to wander around, and an extensive garden centre selling the usual range of gardening paraphenalia, plants and so on, and all set in the grounds of a large mansion, which, incidentally, wasn't open. Also, a rather pleasant tearoom where we had something to eat and drink. It seems most places we visit have a cafe or tearoom where you end up, which suits us. Overall, very peaceful, pleasant and calming. By the time we eventually got back to the car the place was really busy, the carpark virtually full. I imagine that most people don't go out until a good deal later on a Bank Holiday, whereas we always want to make the most of the day and get wherever we decide to go as soon as places open.

Stating The Obvious

We got a certain amount of amusement out of reading the manual for our lovely new, shiny Biko electric oven. They are really taking the 'health and safety' regulations too far. Read the following examples:
 First off: Hot surfaces may cause burns. Oh dear. It's an OVEN. It will get HOT. So, you could get BURNT. What a surprise.
Wire shelf. Used for roasting and placing the food to be baked, roasted or cooked in casserole dishes to the desired rack. Are their customers/users so SIMPLE they don't know what a shelf in an oven is for?
 Product may be hot when in use. Never touch the hot burners, inner sections or the oven, heaters etc. Again, dear me, am I REALLY that unintelligent that I don't realise that surfaces, burners etc will get hot and likely to BURN ME?? Please, am I so dumb I don't already know this?
I could find many more of these. When I do, I'm going to post them on here. One I could mention is printed on paper cups that have tea or coffee served in them, usually from such take-away outlets such as Starbucks or MacDonald's, making such boneheaded statements such 'hot contents may scould.' Or on obviously breakeble items such as china plates 'will break if dropped on hard surfaces.'

New Cooker is Delivered!

Our brand spanking new cooker was delivered at around 12.25 today, a good deal earlier than expected. I'm just waiting for the agency to telephone so that their electrician can come and wire it in. It looks really great, and it was certainly worth paying the extra to have a ceramic hob and the finish is better than the old one.

Ordered New Cooker from Amazon

We have now ordered a brand new cooker from Amazon. It's amazing what you can buy from them. I always associate Amazon with books and as such have purchased a lot of books from them. This cooker should be a good deal better than the old one it replaces and has a ceramic hob so, in theory at least, there should be no problems as regards keeping the hob clean. I owned one many years ago and that model had a ceramic hob with halogen rings and it heated up quickly and was very easy to keep clean. Hopefully this new oven should be delivered within the next few days.