DEFINITELY NOT MONO MONDAY!

I couldn’t sleep and was up for about an hour in the night, so was a bit later getting up this morning, but in time to see our lovely bin people - have to call them that because there were three men and one lady!  In fact, the very large refuse collection lorry was driven by the lady, second from the left in the top right shot in my collage.

I then did some DG work in the kitchen whilst Mr. HCB was working on his jigsaw puzzle in the conservatory.  His appointment at the hospital was at 11.20 and although we only live 5 minutes away, we decided to go early, and it was a good job we did, as the parking was horrendous.  It was a case of “one car out and one car in” so a very slow process.  We decided to go to the back of the hospital and then walk through to the main part, which proved to be a good idea.

We collected a coffee on our way into the hospital - and two female ambulance drivers were behind me in the queue - I did ask if they were in a hurry, and would have given them my place, but they were fine to wait, they said.  The were chatting and I overheard them say that today was “Blue Monday”.  I told them that I would prefer to call it “Be Blessed Monday”, so gave them both a wooden heart, and one of them, whose had “Hope” written on it said it had made her day!  As I often say, it doesn’t take much.  

I Googled “Blue Monday” when I got home and apparently, “Today is associated with feelings of sadness, low motivation, and a lack of energy. While the concept of Blue Monday has been criticised for its lack of scientific validity, it has become a day for promoting mental health awareness and self-care,” which is a good thing, but I would still prefer to call it “Be Blessed Monday”, rather than be negative about this day. 

The bottom left shot shows the mural painted on the large wall behind the three lifts just inside the main entrance to the hospital and shows various parts of Swindon, which at least is something interesting to look at whilst waiting for the lift.  There was a delay when we got to the OutPatients Department, which was clearly marked on a board and we noticed that names were called several times but people weren’t there, so I whispered to Mr. HCB that the people were probably still looking for a parking space and he agreed with me.

We were only delayed by about 20 minutes and the Consultant Dermatologist was very pleasant.  He explained about “sun spots” and the likely causes of the lumps on Mr. HCB’s forehead and as we said, many years ago, we didn’t know about sun creams and the dangers of being out in the sun.  Mr. HCB told him, all he remembers from years ago was being “slathered with calamine lotion” after playing out in the sun all day.

The Consultant then said that he would like to try freezing the other small lesion on Mr. HCB’s forehead, which he did using Cryotherapy.  This is a treatment using low temperature, with liquid nitrogen, which is extremely cold, and he zapped it about 15 times in total.  Mr. HCB says it now stings a bit;  otherwise, he is OK but sadly unlike the dentist, he didn’t get a badge that said he had been “Big, Brave Boy”!

The doctor also looked at his back, where he has some enlarged “freckles" as he called them and then looked at his legs as well. Nothing untoward was found - so we now just have to wait for an appointment, which should be in about 4 weeks or so.

So all in all a good visit and we are now back home, and you won’t need any guesses as to where Mr. HCB is now - perhaps the shape of the collage will give you a clue!

Have a good Monday and a great week - we did see the sun for a short time, but it’s now looking rather grey again - but we are not going to be negative about this day - because the news for Mr. HCB was good!  M xx