Good News

So off to MRI first thing yesterday with Madam and her ears. Looking better there and I'm no longer having to shout...

Thence to Wythenshawe in the afternoon to see Dr Yvonne. She agrees I'm overweight but she's not worried about that (although I am - she's not seen me sunbathing in a swimming costume!). News from the X ray is that my lung tumour hasn't grown since the end of my treatment which is very good news. The MRI scan has shown cancer on my spine but this too seems to have responded to the chemotherapy. I do need to be very careful about this though. Spines are tricky things and there's all sorts of nerves involved. So I need to keep an eye out for random nerve pain or numbness and report it immediately. Otherwise she'll see me in 6 weeks. I'm happy with all that.

Asked about travel insurance. The problem is "repatriation". One can get treated in Europe for emergency medical events under the EHIC card. However, if one falls ill and needs longer term treatment then one needs to be repatriated and that costs (air ambulances etc don't come cheap). However Dr Yvonne told me about Swiss Assist. This is a card you can buy for €60 and you are covered for air ambulance travel home for a year and it covers the whole of Europe. Doesn't matter if you're already ill when you buy the card just so long as you're not in an "acute" phase of your illness. Sorted. Just now need to get the £30 insurance to cover my luggage etc. obviously it means I can't travel outside Europe but then I wasn't planning to anyway.

Cinema last night to see Cloud Atlas which is a very strange film. It has a stellar cast though all playing multiple roles. It didn't help that the heating system in the cinema wasn't working properly either. After about half an hour I thought I wasn't going to enjoy it but as the film went on the more you got drawn in. There are some lovely humorous bits in there (especially in the high security rest home) and seeing the lovely Ben Whishaw snogging a man is worth anyone's money. The various stories gradually have points of intersection and its quite fun spotting where they overlap. It's a long film though - going on for 3 hours - so you do need to persevere. I'd probably recommend waiting until its shown on telly and seeing it then.

Lunch with Nurse Jackie today at Alchemist. Looking forward to seeing her. That's all for now. J x