Biology

Well that wasn’t the most uneventful blood donation I’ve ever made, however it was jolly nice to have all the nurses making a fuss over me, along with the offer of a post-exsanguination upgrade from orange squash and a biscuit, to a cup of tea and a cream cake.

I also got my National Blood Service Bronze award for ten donations, which comes with a certificate and a spiffy lapel pin. I need twenty five pints for my Silver pin, which suddenly seems like a rather daunting target. The blood service only has around 8-10 days of stock for most blood groups, thus if you’ve got some spare it’s worth finding a donation session near you. Best to book an early session, as the chocolate bourbons go quickly.

On a techy note, the Blood Service appears to have opted out of the Government Gateway “joined up” single-sign-on platform, which was supposed to be a service where one would authenticate for all UK government services. I suspect the constraints of belonging to the Government Gateway scheme dramatically outweighed the benefits. The new Blood Service website is a nimbler creation, with lots of Google Maps integration and JQuery, instead of a big centralised user-authentication service. And it seems to work rather well.

From Blog Fodder

From Blog Fodder

Funny thing. One day you feel slightly more knackered than usual. You shake it off, but the next day you still feel knackered. Then over the next few weeks you start forgetting things; you can’t seem to maintain concentration; finally a few months later you’re standing in front of a projector talking to a group of prospective customers when your brain just fills with fog and you end up slumped in a chair with all the productivity of a necktie wrapped round a sack of spuds.

Now a quick scan down the long list of potential diseases this could indicate – courtesy of Google Health – suggests all sorts of fascinatingly named and really unpleasant diseases that this could be. Early-onset Alzheimers sounds like the nastiest. Fortunately, after a bit of prodding by the GP, it was established that I’ve got one of the less problematic ones.

It would appear that my immune system has staged a modest industrial action and knackered my Thyroid. The down side of an underactive thyroid – Hypothyroidism - is having to take a daily dose of levothyroxine for the rest of my life, and the occasional bouts of tiredness, muscle aches and sensitivity to the cold. But, there are some pretty good points as far as illnesses goes.

1. Having filled in my Form FP92A, I no longer have to pay for prescriptions. So they are “free” in the modern sense of the word, in that I don’t pay for them directly.
2. If I’m ever asked to do any work around the house, I can regretfully decline on the grounds that “my hypo is playing up”. So far, the wife has bought it.
3. I’m now getting an in-depth, up-close and personal look at the mechanics of the Department of Work and Pensions. Which is something to blog about.

So, having purchased my Pill Box with Day of the week compartments about forty years ahead of schedule, I’m now suitably medicated and vaguely inclined to start blogging again.

I’m also skint, hence you will note the large quantity of Google Advertisements displaying all manner of items for your delectation and amusement, from which I have just earned about fifty pence (which is better than a poke in the eye). I heartily endorse these events or products.