Doctor's appointment and some great news in The View from the Terrace

Last week I went home again for another GP appointment. I don’t like the present system. You have to speak to them first on the telephone and then go in if they need to see you. How I long for the way it used to be when seeing the doctor meant just that, you made an appointment and went in. I don’t like speaking on the telephone, never have, which sounds strange as I am a telephone volunteer, but I’m fine with that, perhaps because the focus of those calls isn’t me. I also don’t like doctor’s appointments as I’ve had bad experiences in the past, so I’m doubly stressed with these telephone appointments. You don’t know exactly when they will ring either. They give you an estimated time but I have had one ring a quarter of an hour early, I hate it when things happen early, and another over an hour late. We have come a long way from popping into the surgery and just waiting your turn like you did when I was a child.

The situation in Afghanistan is heartbreaking. Have the last 20 years all been in vain? I can’t imagine what those people are going through, especially the women. And there are all of those families of soldiers who died and the ones who are coping with life changing injuries who now feel it all happened for no purpose. I have decided that now might be the time to reread A Thousand Splendid Suns, a wonderful novel set in Afghanistan by Khaled Hosseini, one of my favourite authors. He also wrote The Kite Runner.

I had the doctor’s appointment because I’ve been suffering from nausea for several weeks. I’ve had a blood test and they found nothing wrong. The doctor thinks it is stress. He’s given me something to help with the sickness and told me I need another holiday or at least a long weekend. He is probably right but I can’t arrange anything for a few weeks. I have 2 more appointments coming up and yesterday received the news that Justeen and Dakota have been discharged from hospital so I need to go back home again as soon as possible to meet my granddaughter!