Light, of a sort, at the end of the tunnel.

So the shoulder thing got the better of me the other night and Stephen and I were whisked off to the hospital in Buraydah just after lunch.

I had asked to be put down but this was the next best option. Nila the ambulance driver took us in a car very speedily, he makes three or four trips there daily !
So in under the hour we were being presented to two lovely Fillipino nurses at the desk with Nila giving them my history.

The Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib hospital looked new, clean and empty. Good so far.

The lovely nurses produced a wheelchair and whisked me off to a cubicle where they immediately hooked me up to an ecg machine, blood pressure and bloods taken. All this with my abaya still on!

The cubicle curtains were kept tightly drawn at all times and shouts of, 'Male or Female?', 'Female doc'. were parried back and forth between the nurses working on me and the doctor waiting to see me. I was then asked if I was happy for the doctor to come in, still modestly covered in my abaya!

The doctor came and had a chat with me and was happy to discover that I wasn't about to have a heart attack. An incredulity attack but no heart attack.

He then ordered for me to be taken for an x-ray! I was given an injection for the pain to be going on with. Lovely nurse number one said, as she was administering it, you habe a lubbely bum ! All white ! Maybe this was her relaxation technique! It certainly made me laugh.

Then a tiny slip of a thing had to push me to x-ray and back poor thing. Stephen was allowed in to the cubicle again with me while they waited for results. I was hooked up to a wonder of modern technology or a job stealer, depending which side of the union line you stood. It automatically took my blood pressure every five minutes without the aid of any human !

Doctor Stephen was trying to relax me with his fountain of medical knowledge. 'These machines are notoriously inaccurate!' Which cracked me up but I was feeling rather shamefaced with all this attention just for a trapped nerve ! Especially when we could hear sounds in the next cubicle of acute pain and vomiting.

Unbelievably, I had had all this treatment, a diagnosis and medication bought within an hour of entering the hospital ! I'm still wondering, wide-eyed at this as I type it ! Was it a dream? The pain tells me, no!

So back home again, the diagnosis was cervical spondylosis and I was prescribed yet more tabs to replace the previous lots and a neck brace to prevent my head from stressing my spine.

I'd love to be able to say they're working and I had a good nights sleep but as you can see . . . !

I tell you what does work though ! Two lovely skypes! The first with Nathan and Aidan were Caroline just left the laptop on the floor of the playroom and I 'sat' with the boys as they built Lego crafts and discussed them with me.

Then the second unexpected one, as they were due to be away at the cottage, with Matthew and Jenn and birthday boy Thomas, two today ! We were there as he opened his pressies and cards ! All done without leaving go of his birthday digger balloon ! He luuurves his balloons !

Thank you Caroline and thank you Maff and Jenn, it was just what the doctor ordered!

Anyroadup, I have a physio appointment booked for the afternoon of our arriving home and I have every faith they will work wonders. Just like a Double Diamond !

p.s. Jennifer's Aunt Sandra, her Stepmum Linda's sister, was rushed into hospital with terrible complications to do with gall stones! She is in intensive care in hospital in London, which I think is not far from their home and is in an induced coma. Hence the birthday/Thanksgiving Day cottage weekend being cancelled.

Please keep her in your prayers!