Health Service

All seemed to be in the hands of doctors today.

First Angie took off with Luna for an appointment made yesterday, to the vets to have some bumps/swelling checked out. She has been limping for a while when cold & there is a joint which seems to be causing the problem. We wanted to have her x-rayed but they took some tissue samples & depending on the results will then follow through with x-ray next week. Pretty sure it is a skeleton/muscle problem rather than cancer but fingers crossed.

While they were out, I popped over to our GP, as always without an appointment, leaving it till the last hour of the surgery hoping the wait wouldn't be long. GP was closed Monday (bank holiday), open 4 hours Tuesday, closed Wednesday (as always). As I got to the entrance there were about 10 people queuing simply to get to one of the three receptionists. I nearly turned around & left but at that moment a friend from our village came out and said: "don't worry, inside there is nothing going on".

And so it was - once the girls had managed to deal with the queue and all the phone calls, was in the waiting room with one person & within 10 minutes I left with a prescription for some eye appointment, had my ears checked and had a Vitamin B jab.

Checked out some supermarkets as I heard this week that Unilever has finally started selling Hellmann's Mayonaisse in Germany - some will know of my 30-year-long campaign. In the two up-market, full selection, brand names supermarkets there was no sign of any but to my great surprise in the discount Penny Market there was a little tray of 210ml glass jars - cost €8.00/litre. Compares to €1.90/litre for the reasonable own brand stuff. Not even I with serious Hellmann's withdrawal problems is going to buy the stuff at that price.

Soon after I got home, the van from the vet's practice turned up with the x-ray equipment after yesterdays abandoned visit& Rosie's leg was photographed. Extraordinary how technology has advanced. Doesn't seem that long ago that such an event was accompanied by lots of long complicated setup procedures & lots of hoping the pictures would eventually be developed & not have any shakes.

Both girls dressed up in protective gowns, the vet held the camera, Angie the backplate and within a few seconds of pushing the button, the picture was on a massive (21"?) screen sitting on a straw bale. All battery powered without cables.

I only heard a few snippets of the discussion but seems one isn't looking at Rosie being a Grand National winner. She is 24 now. The pics will undergo further analysis with the full team back at the surgery but it looks like a case of judging any treatment against any benefits. We would be quite happy if she is at least pain-free and can go into retirement on the fields, although would be nice if perhaps a chance for me to take her out on some slow, unspectacular rides.