Some colour among the drear

We got away lightly compared with the UK and other parts of Ireland today, but still it's been a miserable day. I woke to flurries of sleet, which meant that once again I had to abandon any idea of walking to the hospital. Observant readers will be aware that this isn't a cardiac rehab day, but nonetheless I was up at Beaumont Hospital again anyway. Breda, the physiotherapist in charge of our rehab group, had told me a couple of weeks ago that she could arrange an appointment for me at the Cardiac Rehab Clinic if the apparent side-effects of my medication continued. I'd mentioned to her that I'd become increasingly aware over the last couple of months of muscular aches, in my legs especially. This has made by exercise walks and my on-foot journeys to and from the hospital quite uncomfortable, and hasn't made the idea of frequent walks any the more enticing.

Breda had given us a handout last week of a brochure which explained about our medication and listed known side-effects. Lipitor, which I'm on to control my cholesterol, can cause some people to experience the kind of muscular aches I've been suffering from, so I asked Breda last week to fix an appointment for me to see if the medical team would switch me to something else. That appointment was this morning. Breda had advised me to bring along something to read, and warned me that I might have to wait a while to be seen by a doctor, since the cardiac team first had to do their ward rounds, and there was no telling from day to day what time that would finish. The wait could have been a lot worse, really, and proved well worth while. The baby-faced doctor agreed that the Lipitor was most probably responsible for the muscular aches and switched me to Omacor instead. I'm due to see my referring cardiologist in mid June, I'm to get a blood test done a few days before that appointment, and the situation will be reviewed then. Fingers crossed that the switch will solve the problem.

Back outside afterwards the weather was still miserable. No actual sleet, but a bitingly cold wind and a depressing blanket of dull greyness all around. This planted bed near the hospital entrance was all the more a welcoming sight because of that. The poor plants, though. They only popped open last week and now I'm sure they're dazed and confused because of what they've had to put up with yesterday and today.