My swollen leg and ankle was bugging me so I booked a telephone appointment with my doctor to try and sort it out. During the consultation I was asked, along with a lot of other questions, if I had suffered any injuries to my leg recently, to which I replied no. I was asked to send pictures of my legs from my smart phone, but I am not that clued up so I sent them via old fashioned email. I was prescribed antibiotics for five days. I asked for it to be sent to the pharmacy in Hinckley which she agreed to do. I rang the pharmacy in Hinckley and was told that they did not have it. Checked back with my surgery, yes the prescription has been issued and sent to the pharmacy in Market Bosworth as that was the last pharmacy I had used. OK, so as not to upset the apple cart I decided that we had time to get to Market Bosworth for tomorrow.
Following my vision test last year I have not yet had my new spectacles so I rang them and arranged for a delivery to the marina at Market Bosworth tomorrow lunch time. All good so set off to make sure we would be there before the delivery lady.
2nd parked.purse.helps - 1 mile - Market Bosworth
Got an emergency delivery of antibiotics to the boat from Bosworth Pharmacy. I stood at the bridge over the canal and the pharmacy representative drove past and handed me the prescription through the window, almost without stopping, so I could start the course.
The Specsavers lady arrived and fortunately I had wandered along to the main entrance for the marina only to find that it was closed and shuttered. She drove right past (obviously no way in at that gate) reached the end and parked up and rang me. I explained what and where and she came back to the main entrance and handed me my spectacles over the gate.
Another job jobbed.
Cruised along to Sutton Wharf through a layer of ice on the canal where we emptied the loos, got rid of the rubbish and filled up with water. Cruised for another mile (ish) and found a spot where D'fer can get on and off the boat. He has deteriorated to an extent that he has difficulty jumping on to the boat unless the bank is just right. He has no problem getting off as there is a great big bit of tow path for him to aim at. Getting on is more troublesome as he has to jump up and out and land just right on the rear deck even though I have glued some carpet tiles to the steel decking to make it less slippery.
4th befitting.worthy.list - 1 mile - Dadlington Picnic Area
Fuel boat came past, purchased diesel and six bags of coal. We have still got quite a lot of wood on the roof but with my leg as it is we are unlikely to be getting any more anytime soon, hence the purchase of coal.
5th
Supermarket delivery, that'll keep us going for a while.
A week later and no change, if anything slightly worse, so I booked another telephone consultation, after sending both early morning and late evening pictures of my legs. More questions and a seven day course of antibiotics prescribed, which were to be collected from a pharmacy at Hinckley. I believe that the doctor was a locum and he completely ignored my request to provide them at the Hinckley pharmacy and sent them to Bosworth Pharmacy instead. At this point I was moored close to my mooring at Burton Hastings, not too far from Hinckley but a long way from Market Bosworth.
I would have been happy to cruise for a day or so to Market Bosworth to get the antibiotics but my engine was playing up so first I phoned the pharmacy and got he prescription moved to Hinckley, then I phoned River and Canal Rescue (RCR) who provide my breakdown cover and organised a call out. One of the services offered by RCR is to collect any urgent supplies required like a loaf of bread, or a pint of milk and so on. Maybe I stretched it a little bit but the engineer was happy to collect my prescription. Bonus. He arrived and sorted out my engine starting problems.
11th
I had not checked the contents of the prescription box when I got it, well why would I? but after four days I realise that I only have enough tablets for five days. Not a lot I could do about that now. Finished what I could of the course.
15th vibrates.modern.champions - 6 miles - Dadlington Picnic Area
Moved along to Dadlington Picnic Area to get a supermarket delivery tomorrow.
Another telephone appointment with the doctor, prescribed some more antibiotics which I arranged to collect from the pharmacy in Hinckley on Monday. Supermarket delivery arrived OK. Dipped the diesel tank. As we are running the engine for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening to keep the batteries topped up I need to keep an eye on the level of diesel in the tank. The tank on Dennis is smaller than that on Iowner as it is split into two, one for propulsion and one for the central heating. The central heating tank has an anti-syphon arrangement (presumably to stop transferring diesel from one tank into the other, it is charged at two different rates) and is impossible to dip it to see how much fuel is in there, but as we are using the solid fuel stove for heating at the moment we haven't been using the central heating.
Moved down to Burton Hastings opposite my mooring, collecting Iowner as we went past. We need to use Iowner every other week or so just to do all the washing as we don't have a washing machine on Dennis yet, got to wait for lock down to be over before we can make that purchase.
Took Iowner back to Hydes Lane to get water so that we can do the washing but the engine was overheating all the way there and back. I know that it has been loosing a little water, so topped it up at Hydes Lane, low on water by the time I was back at the mooring
It has been getting more and more difficult to start Iowner and what with the overheating as well I decided to call in the experts - RCR as I have cover with them. Part of their call out regime is to ask if we need anything urgently, like a loaf of bread or tea bags or milk, which I think is quite a good idea. In my case what I needed urgently was my prescription. I checked with the pharmacy and they had it ready for my collection, so I got RCR to collect it for me on their way.
The engineer checked the engine and passed it as A OK, but arranged to get a new starter switch as that was giving problems.
Started my course of antibiotics.
22nd
Getting all sorts of little jobs done like making frames to put the perspex in for the side hatches so that we can have some daylight, making a wooden handle for the utensil drawer in the cooker (really difficult to open it otherwise), doing some more work on the wooden clamps I am making.
The engineer from RCR called and replaced the starter switch, now I can stop worrying if it will start or not.
Still no change to leg. More photos and another consultation. By this time I had remembered that sometime last October early November I had fallen over in my boat whilst carrying a big heavy saw table. I threw that out of my way but landed heavily on my right knee, which swelled up and was inordinately tender for three or four days but then subsided and went away. (No damage to the saw table.) Anyway, I mentioned this to the consulting doctor who immediately said 'Ring 999'.
Shimmied back across the canal, packed an overnight bag and walked along the tow path to meet the ambulance at the nearest bridge. The ambulance people met me half way along the tow path and agreed that it might have been better to use the other bridge that was a little further away but the tow path was not six inches of mud to wade through. It was so bad the D'fer could not negotiate it and was taken back to the boats.
Into the ambulance and I and the guy who met me spent the next 20 minutes scraping the mud off our shoes and trousers before it was deemed sufficiently clean to proceed to the hospital.
Off we went, arrived at the emergency department and I was seen within about ten minutes, blood taken, a wait of about half an hour with the result that I had a blood clot in my leg. I was given the shot to dissolve it and told to return the following day to have an ultrasound scan to see what the clot was blocking.
Caught a taxi to get back to the boats (£20) and then a half mile trek along the tow path through more mountains of mud and muck to a welcome supper and off to bed.
27th tester.bits.bench - 3 miles - Hydes Lane
Lots of discussion about tow path mud, trekking half a mile or more to meet a taxi that may or may not know where to pick me up and decided to move along to Hydes Lane where I could book a taxi and be sure that it would know where I was.
Off to the hospital to have the ultrasound scan, which showed no sign of a clot. I was told to book a follow up scan for a weeks time which kind of set the agenda for the next week. Just enough time to get to Rugby for my Covid jab and then rush back to Nuneaton for the follow up scan. It seemed to make more sense to take the boat to Nuneaton than to spend out another £40 on taxis.
28th hiding.master.noses - 8½ miles - Sutton Stop
Took Dennis down to Sutton Stop today to fill up with water, empty the loos and get rid of rubbish (again).
Got a text from my doctor saying I should book an appointment for my Covid jab this coming Sunday at Rugby, so went online and booked it. Good job that we are halfway there already so it shouldn't take too long.
29th yards.cuts.clip - 13 miles - Rugby near Tesco
Waiting in a hurry. Took the opportunity to do a click and collect with Tesco in Rugby as it is within easy walking distance.
31st
Caught the fuel boat on his way past, topped up with diesel, 16 litres for the central heating and 84 litres for generating electricity Walked to the vaccination place, just over two miles, got my jab and walked back. Just think in twelve weeks I can have another and then three weeks after that I can go out in the big wide world as long as I take care not to bring anything back for my travelling companion.
