Of doctors, massages and theatre

Slept like the proverbial last night - at last - and was indeed barely awake whilst waving Lord H goodbye on the school run (as it were). Mind you, I deserved the lie-in as I have at last reached the magic number of 40,000 words of Hallsfoot's Battle so, hell, a day off is mine, all mine, mwa-aha-ha (that's evil laughter, by the way ...).

But what fun I've had with the doctor this morning. I ordered more of the Metformin and the HRT patches last week online and put all the information down on the description box as per the hospital notes. Today, I've collected my prescription and nipped next door to the very lovely pharmacist to get it made up. Which she duly did. At home, I did what I always do (BIG NB: ALWAYS DO THIS YOURSELVES, AND IF YOU IGNORE EVERYTHING ELSE ON THIS BLOG, FOR GOODNESS SAKE DON'T IGNORE THIS), which is to check the new packets with the packets I had before, ie the ones from the hospital. My dears, they were all wrong. I looked at the prescription the doctor had typed out and she'd put down (a) the wrong type of Metformin tablets; and (b) (which was rather worse) she'd quadrupled the dosage of my HRT patches. So instead of Slow Release Metformin, I'd been given the non Slow Release version, and instead of 25 mcg HRT patches, I'd been given 100 mcg. Ye gods indeed. None of this of course was the pharmacist's fault as she'd obeyed exactly what the doctor had typed. So I've rung the pharmacy and talked to the lovely lady there - who was totally shocked, I have to say - and the upshot is that the pharmacist is going to talk to the doctor, get the right information sorted out for me and then I have to go in again tomorrow morning to get the right medicines. Phew! Thank goodness I always restock in advance and I don't need the new packets for tonight, eh? But I'm making damn sure I triple check them tomorrow, I can tell you.

Interestingly, of course, the doctor who wrote out the prescription is the nasty doctor I never go to, and also the one from a while back (if you remember) who said there was nothing wrong with my hormones and I should stop being silly, and from whose appointment I drove home in tears, swearing I would never see her again. To paraphrase a great man the buckles of whose sandals etc etc: to mess up with a patient once is unfortunate, but twice looks rather like carelessness ... Unless of course Nasty Doctor really is in cahoots with Scary Consultant and they're out to get me, by George. Hmm, time for my anti-paranoia pill, I feel - which I would take, but can I be sure it's the right dose??

Anyway, this afternoon, I'm buggering off into town and looking at things for me. Ye gods, yes, I'm going to bloody well do some shopping. I might even get some shoes. I feel the urge, strangely. Must be my hormones, Carruthers ... And I also have my glorious Clarins facial and massage booked with Thirza, so am hugely looking forward to that. As my massage won't finish till 5pm, I've arranged to meet Lord H in Guildford rather than go home and rush back out again, so we're eating at the Riverview Restaurant at the theatre and then we're off to see the award-winning The Drawer Boy at the Mill Studio. Fabulous. I can't wait.

Time since The Gifting submission: 4 months and 5 days
Amount of royalties I've received for the award-winning A Dangerous Man since 2007: £0 (I have to get more than £100 in royalties before the publisher pays me and I haven't done that yet. It's unlikely now I ever will. Really, sometimes I'm amazed I have the chutzpah to carry on writing at all, you know)

Today's nice things:

1. The pharmacist's reaction to my news
2. Shopping
3. Massage
4. Dinner out with Lord H
5. Theatre.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website