Down at our health centre, young doctors come and go. It is a training centre for The University of Sheffield Medical School. They stay for three months and then they are off to their next position - perhaps in orthopaedics or coronary care or geriatrics. When you are a young doctor you never stop learning.
Since it was discovered that I have high blood pressure, I have seen four of these doctors - all women. I heard today on BBC Radio 4 that the number of women doctors working in the NHS now matches the number of male doctors. It represents quite a turnaround and an achievement that our country should recognise with pride.
They still haven't been able to get my blood pressure fully under control. I have taken different pills with different strengths and now I am adding doxasozin to my cocktail. I believe it is some sort of alpha blocker. Anyway, I hope it will have the desired result without too many side effects.
All of this pill taking has come as a bit of a shock to my self-esteem. Previously, I never took any medication. I was wild and free but now I am corralled. They have got me.
At the end of this week's doctor's appointment, I asked the young doctor if she would have a look at the corner of my mouth where there has been a swelling like an ulcer for months now. My dentist referred me to the local dental hospital last September but it had remained a waiting game.
The young doctor, Rachel, photographed the problem area and sent that picture straight to the dental hospital whereupon I received a quick referral. This very evening I had an appointment with a dentistry professor and he will be booking me in for day surgery in the next ten days. The lump will be excised and then my mouth will be sewn back up. Hopefully, the excised material will not prove to be cancerous though it could be - only laboratory analysis can determine that.
The professor was a very nice man and we enjoyed some banter. He joked that I would need to keep a stiff upper lip after the surgery and he also made me laugh when he said that I still had the look of a schoolboy about me with my floppy fringe and my mischievous smile. Why wasn't I still teaching? I suggested to him that he should have been a stand-up comedian rather than a professor of dentistry. I would guess that I am twenty years older than him.
I think I will give Dr Rachel a "Thank You" card as she departs from our health centre. Getting me into the dental hospital is not the only extra service she has provided. She also hurried my urology appointment along but I would rather not discuss that matter here and please don't ask about it. It was just between Dr Rachel and I.
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