Shining through

I had a cardiac stress test at 9:00 am, was up at 7:30 getting ready for it, and got to the hospital early by ten minutes as the letter of appointment advised. This was supposed to allow for registration and so on, but I could just as well have been twenty minutes late and still would have been in time for when the test actually started.

I've had two stress tests before, one before and one after cardiac rehab. I woosed out quite early on the first one, but did considerably better on the second. This morning, though, was in a different league altogether. I'd told the nurses about my concerns about breathlessness and palpitations after even mild exertion, and they said afterwards that they fully expected me to do badly. As it happened, I lasted the complete duration and could have gone on longer. All of this means that there's lots of information in the readout for the cardiologist to digest at my next appointment on the 21st. I left the hospital feeling really chuffed with myself. The sunlight streaming through the grill of the multi-storey car park was doing such nice things that I just had to stop the car and blip it.

From then until 3:30 pm or so I was in town, shopping. Carl and I are going to a Civil Partnership celebration tomorrow, which was as good an excuse as any to get some new clobber. On the way I left in a pair of trousers for shortening and got my hair cut. On the way back I was laden down with bags – jacket, shirt, jumper, shoes (and now I realise I should have gone the whole hog and got new socks and jocks as well.). Even though all the traipsing around from shop to shop was a bit tiring, it was also quite satisfying, and I came home still on a bit of a high.

Time for a little nap now, methinks. A restful evening to follow. Some nice food. Music.