Carol off work

Carol had complained of being in some pain last weekend and on Monday she went to work as usual, but then I got a call from the Academy to pick her up. She was almost doubled up with pain so I insisted we go to the doctor's surgery to make an appointment. It was just 8 a.m. and the surgery would be opened, so immediately we left the Academy we went to the surgery and got an appointment for 8.45. None of the 'what's the matter with you?' at the new surgery that we used to get at the Grove Surgery. The doctor gave her a prescription for pain-relief and did an examination and gave her a two-week sick note.  He said to return to the surgery for a further appointment after the two weeks and she may need physiotherapy. We went to the pharmacy to get the prescription made up (at Asda) and did some shopping whilst we were there. We think the pain might be caused by having to push heavy trolleys of books all over the Academy building. It would appear that she has lessons in different rooms, hence hauling the trolley around, which might have caused a pulled muscle or something.

On Wednesday Daniel was due to go to an Open Day at Loughborough University. Carol was going to drive him there, but after her injury she decided that it wasn't going to be possible to drive any distance so he decided to go by train. It would have been easier, one would have thought, to have gone from Milton Keynes Central Station, but in fact it would be quicker and easier to go via Bedford, so early on Wednesday morning we drove over to Bedford, and dropped him off at Midland Road Station in Ashburnham Road (a relatively short walk from my old flat in Grayfriars, and even closer to Rutland Road Church.) Fortunately we went earlier enough to avoid some really heavy traffic going into Bedford, particularly along Bromham Road. There was a tail-back going over the railway bridge from Bromham and Biddenham, and we managed to reach the station in good time for Daniel to get his train, but on the way out, only around five minutes later, there was a much longer tail-back, going as far as the roundabout onto the Bedford By-Pass. If we'd been in that queue we'd have been too late for Daniel's train. We went home and then, mid-afternoon, Daniel rang to say he wanted picking up from Bletchley station. We went to Tesco in Bletchley as the train wasn't due until around 5.15. We did some shopping and bought a D.V.D. of the Guy Ritchie version of "Sherlock Holmes." We then drove towards the station. Carol wasn't too sure where to park at the station. At Bedford there is a carpark where you can wait for around 10 minutes or so, particularly if you are waiting to collect someone (there is a similar area at Milton Keynes Central Station. We drove on past, hoping to find somewhere to turn the car round. We drove on and into Whalley Drive and made a left turn into what at first appeared like any other opening into a housing estate or side-road. But once we had turned in, it turned out to be the local cemetry! Carol was somewhat horrified, particularly as it was dark and there was a full moon. Rather like a scene from some sort of Hammor horror film, with the moon appearing and disappearing behind a cloud. All it needed was a howling wind, creaking door hinges, wolves howling at the moon, clanking chains etc etc. You get my meaning? And Christopher Lee or someone similar wandering around in a long cloak! No sooner had we driven in, than a vehicle came in following behind. We went on through the rows of gravestones and managed to turn the car around, but we couldn't get out as the van that had followed us in was blocking the exit. What, we wondered, was the van doing there, in the pitch-black? Grave robbers? It was funny, or so we thought, that when we were in Tesco's, filling in time before we had to collect Daniel from the station, we were looking through DVD's, and we had considered buying the film "Burke and Hare"  instead of "Sherlock Holmes"(about body snatching.) and there we were in a grave-yard! Just as we were talking to the gentleman with the white van, the mobile rang and we talked to Daniel, trying not to laugh too much when we told him why we were late, and in the middle of a grave-yard! You couldn't invent the situation. More like something out of a sit-com such as "My Family." The sort of show where the husband is late home from work and has to tell his wife: 'Darling- I'm late. I'm stuck in the grave-yard. A rather dead-end situation!' Anyway, we managed to get out, although there wasn't a great deal of space to get past the van, and Carol was very concerned that she'd drive over someone's grave!
 The medication the doctor gave Carol is Naproxen. Like all the medication you are given it is always advisable to read the enclosed leaflet. Having myself worked as a carer I have some knowledge of medication and have done several courses. You have to be aware of any interactions a new medication might have with anything a patient is already taking (such is the case with my heart meds.) If you read the possible side-effects of some drugs it would put you off taking them (such as my statins, which cause muscle pain, amongst other things.) I does make me laugh, though, when you are given something like a sleeping tablet and it says on the packet 'may cause drowsiness." So, what else is a sleeping tablet going to do but make you fall asleep, and so, make you feel drowsy?? Why do things have to be so literal and obvious?