Hi everyone 
I have been a bit busy with appointments and today a Rheumatologist appointment was booked for Feb 9th.... This will be the first for me as when I last when the consultant was leaving and Covid struck.
So I was diagnosed with PMR and GCA and been on Pred since 2019. I'm now down to 9mg. I was on 5mg but had an unbelievably awful flare last month so popped up to 10mg. It was the worst ever.
My GP thinks I could have Fibromyalgia and maybe not PMR. My GP is fantastic.
What will the consultant ask? Should I have notes and questions? If so what notes should I type up? Thank you! Any other tips gratefully received x
AND.......... On Monday I saw a Doctor whose specialism is Orthopaedic problems so she looked at my foot and ankle and then got me an X Ray - all inside 15 minutes! Anyway my X Ray showed some serious damage to my foot and ankle with arthritis and osteophytes. So she has put me in for a guided injection (nice!) and is booking me in for an appointment with a surgeon for an ankle fusion.
I have had an ankle fusion on my right foot/ankle and it was superb. I can now walk really well on that foot.
The downside is the recovery and not being able to get around as much as I like.
Any tips on exercise welcome... although I did well last time
It's our 30th anniversary this year and we've booked week long breaks in Bath (where we met in my pub) and Cardiff for a week (PULP live in concert with disability seating) Plus we'd love to go on a cruise for about 10 days from Southampton so I'm hoping the surgeon can fit me in so I can enjoy all this.
Advice on Rheumy gratefully received xx
AND yesterday I saw a Podiatrist to tidy up my toenails which was really cool!
Hope you are all well
Anxiety about rheumy appointment. 
Rheumy appointment
Another cancelled Rheumy appointment
My First Rheumy Visit
Rheumy appointment
I wish you well in what's happening.....keep us posted.Love the picture, same age as you and remember boys living nearby making and enjoying those!
I’m a female and as a child I saw how much fun the boys had with those carts (can’t remember what they were called) and I always wanted one.
Oh yes they used to fly down the hill I lived on…….. no brakes!!
I remember that, very dangerous. I think that was what made them exciting. I haven’t seen one for many years, not surprisingly really.
Health and safety wouldn’t approve!
Exactly. 🤕
No wonder David has dodgy ankles!
Well there’s a point….. feet for brakes!!
My heels were my brakes
Oh dear!
Say no more!
We called them go-karts ... Pram wheels were handy, and orange boxes.
Yes, it’s all coming back to me now. Did you have one ? If so I’m envious.
Don't think I had one of my own - but I was a girl amongst a lot of boys!!!!!
👍
I was always a boy among girls. I preferred girls company!
I didn't really have a lot of choice!
Everything on this one was bought. All the wood was paid for pre cut to my specifications.
Ooooh - posh!
It was a trolley here in Devon
It was a trolley to us in Bristol as well.
I remember some enterprising kids managed to make a two seat six wheeler that was hinged between the front and back seats. Back in those days there were virtually no cars on the roads on our estate, but we did have some roads that where on hills. So one thing led to another and one day a group of us watched as two boys climbed into this monster at the top of a cul de sac, to roll down to the T junction at the bottom and turn left out onto a larger road at the bottom.
To make it 'safe' there was a look out posted at the bottom of the road at the T junction to make sure it was all clear before the trolley set off. However, once rolling it had no brakes other than feet, so there was still some risk involved.
To cut a long story short, just as the trolley reached the bottom of the cul de sac and turned left onto the larger road, a bloke on a motorcycle and sidecar combination roared into view. The look on the bloke's face when he suddenly found he had to move out into the middle of the road because of the trolley now inhabiting the carriageway alongside him, was priceless. Needless to say he roared off into the distance shaking his head and his fist, but for a few seconds the two vehicles were side by side, and both travelling at about 25mph.
We all had a good laugh about that one, and it became quite legendary among our group.
The other thing we used on the same side road, but this time on the pavement, was a book and skate combination. You sat on an old boys annual or somesuch and put it across a roller skate, then rolled down the hill to the T junction, and tried to turn left without leaving the pavement and falling off the kerb into the road. The number of times I ended up with skinned knuckles and a sore backside is numberless, as the skate hit a bit of grit and stopped dead, so that I slid off the skate and continued on, on either the book or my backside.
Ah, memories! I'd forgotten all about those things till I saw the photo. Good times, now sadly departed.
Thank you for a very entertaining read MiniSpec.
I love this site!!
What growing up was all about…..if you haven’t scraped skin off knees etc you haven’t lived! Girls and boys….🤣😂
Superb! I can relate to that 😜
Box carts. I made a few and one or two were actually quite good.
If I’d known you then I would have asked you to make me one. Life was so much fun when we were children wasn’t it. We were always out and about, never bored.
Yes, and it was always sunny.
🤔
Course it was 😊
Long summer hols were always sunny!!
No H&S bods to spoil the fun! ..and most of us survived to tell the tale ….
You’re right, I can remember a group of us aged about ten crossing a busy arterial road. My mum would have had kittens if she had found out.
Ah yes, well mum's didn't know lots of things....probably just as well.
My brothers who were 11 & 14 years older than me - 2WW came in between - and they were making something like a zipwire [probably not called that in those days] - using rope/wire and a horse's collar - and youngest one of the two nearly strangled himself... oldest one got a right telling off by mother!
Well before my time, or I'd probably be the one getting strangled.
Love it. The perils of creative thinking.
They obviously got it from Dad, he was always tinkering with something, as did both of they. My son seems to have inherited gene...
I wonder if young people are less inclined to be as practical now, as they are channeled towards academic pursuits.
Could well be, but they also don't have to "invent games etc" as we did... and maybe the enquiring mind isn't given chance to develop.
My son, even from a young age had to take things apart to see how they work...there's a tale now in family folklore about me saying when we moved into a new married quarter [hubby was in Army] - 'this kitchen isn't big enough to swing a cat in'...
unfortunately we had 2 kittens at the time.... I leave you to imagine what happened 😲... and apparently it was big enough....
I agree.
I hate to think ……….🫣🙀
Well it did survive and lived a long life ….😊 mind you the Labradors he has now do look at him a bit askance sometimes….. but I think they are probably safe.
That’s a relief. 😅
Too much instant entertainment at the end of their thumbs ...
We had a friend with the DL son gene - take it apart to find out how it works. Which would have been fine if he'd always managed to get it back together again - and had studied engineering, He didn't, he chose medicine ...
Exactly.
Not a surgeon I hope.
No, wanted to do anaesthetics but struggled with the final exams so turned into a GP. He did have a very enquiring mind though which helped and the anaesthetics training made him an ideal partner for pain relief.
I think it’s unfortunate that many doctors don’t have open and enquiring minds, seeming to be content to diagnose and prescribe according to textbooks.
Yes - a friend on LupusUK calls the good ones "True Detectives". We all need one ...
Those of us who have or have had the others are left to carry out our own detective work. That’s why this forum is so important to us, where else would we find such a wealth of information in one place. It’s the difference between floundering and finding a potential way of getting to the shore. 🙏
True on this forum. 😍
🏊♀️🤞🙂
While we're on the subject of the 'way we were' and GPs, I'll never forget the Dr in our village, telling my brother 'Next time you come to see me, you get a haircut young man'! Can you imagine that happening nowadays?🤔
Love it!
In the early 60s my Dad was a regional manager for a well known cigarette company ... He actually ended up as a Director (and had given up smoking!)
When the only Doctor of ours had a packed waiting room and I was having problems with asthma my Dad used to slide a carton of cigarettes (about 200 ciggies) to her and I was magically first in line to see the Doctor.
This happened a lot!
Nowadays I just use our GP Surgery online tool and it is so much better! I felt like a nuisance back in the day.
Oh and once I was taken to hospital with bad asthma in about 1964/65 and everyone on the ward was sat around smoking!
I later went to Marlborough Convalescent Home and School for children and it was great.
There was even a separate ward for girls and I ended up getting sent home for climbing up the awning of the girls ward and having a cuddle with my favourite girl.
I hid under the bed when I saw her coming but she saw me and a week later I was on a train (with a nurse) and back to Plymouth. That was my first time on a train!
mine is an electronic engineer - not that he ever followed that path into his working life as such…. but very handy in all sorts of things….just as well as he seems to choose old houses that require a lot TLC….
I have always been absolutely useless at DIY stuff and this was made using my specifications which a local carpenters shop were happy to make for me. Even the plank part was made with washers and a flexible bolt. I loved it and the colours were lilac and blue which I did. I swiped the tiger tail from somewhere or other!
Customisation at its best! I like the skull and crossbones ☠️ , pity the photo isn’t in colour.
I loved it and built this one with help from my Dad.
Besides being good with go karts, you have such a positive attitude about getting parts of your body repaired and the travel plans coming up. You are a good example to us.
Thank you for that lovely comment! I have a terrible habit of being so positive
I can't abide people on buses randomly moaning about everything.
I find being fun, positive and polite works wonders in medical situations too.