Medical records

Welcome back dear reader, I hope that you had a good / fun / quiet / interesting / outrageous (delete as appropriate) seasonal break and are suitably refreshed / revived / tired out / relieved.........................

I had not meant to write another entry until after I had been back to UCLH next Wednesday, but could not resist after receiving this morning's post. You may recall that, a few weeks ago, I applied to Medway Hospital for copies of my medical records. Wonder upon wonders, they arrived today.

My reasons for wanting copies of the records were several:

• Curiosity
• A weird desire to see the images generated by the various scans
• A need to have copies of the pathology reports for the appointment next week

Curiosity is one of the most wonderful attributes that seems to be possessed by all sentient forms of life (and maybe some of the life forms that we do not deem to be sentient!). It is probably essential for survival and I would contend that it is the single quality which enables learning. As Stephen Hawking said "Look up to the stars, not down at your feet. Be curious". My dogs are curious (in both senses of the word); the wildlife in the garden is curious, at least until it meets a pair of curious dogs; even the lichen on the roof may be curious. If I know that there is a record somewhere which relates to me, and only me, I am naturally curious to see what it says.

The weird desire stems partly from curiosity and partly from when I was a student. I studied human physiology, so saw a lot of illustrations in textbooks of the inside of the human body, so it seems natural (to me) to want to have some illustrations that are of real life: mine.

The need for the pathology results is a little more serious. When I saw the consultant at UCLH, he told me that Medway had not sent him the pathology results. Given that he will need them before formulating a treatment plan, and not being mad keen on another prostate biopsy, I figured that it would be useful to have copies that I can give him. It might speed things up a bit as well.

I can now report that I have enjoyed a couple of fun hours playing with the MRI, CT and Bone Scan images of me. Absolutely fascinating to be able to take a virtual trip through a body...........lungs, heart, liver, kidneys..........almost sounds like a recipe for haggis! If you are curious and are not too squaemish, I would thoroughly recommend it. I am tempted to print a few of the pics to have framed and hang in various suitable places throughout the house, but I suspect that this might be frowned upon!

Back next Wednesday. Until then, one of Handsworth's finest..........well worth listening to anything you can find from this singer, she is amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aySxGwP56kU