I had a phone call from my GP's surgery this morning. Since I haven't seen the doctor for months this came very much out of the blue and worried me sick - and that was before I got to the phone.
Anyway GP said he wanted to book me in for a bone scan in Aberdeen. At this point all sorts of horrible alarm bells started going off in my head; why? what's wrong with me? and why don't I know about it?
Well he said it was because of my age and my broken ankle. Apparently it counts as a 'fragility fracture' as opposed to breaking something when you fall from a great height onto a hard surface, and if I had broken my ankle ten years ago no-one would have cared. But now, at my much more advanced age, it could be a warning sign of the onset of osteoporosis and better safe than sorry and he's sorry it means going to Aberdeen but could he go ahead and book it?
I said yes after a few questions about what the point of it all was; I mean why trek all the way to Aberdeen if the result is that you have got early signs of osteoporosis and there's nothing that can be done. Memories of my grandmother, who was given fizzy calcium tablets to take for about 15 years by the GP; we were told later that they did her no good because she was so old when she started taking them. But that was 40 years ago [how can I even remember things that happened 40 years ago?] and no doubt medicine has moved on.
So I shall wait to hear the date. I'm not really deep down worried about it, but I have to say that pro-active medicine like this, while a good thing in itself, can give you some worrying moments..
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