Something Called Calprotectin

I had my consultation with a gastroenterologist yesterday. It was a phone appointment, so I didn't see her face-to-face, but I got some feedback on my test results and we made some future plans.

My blood work, from blood counts to liver enzymes, was all normal. So that's a good sign. My infrequent but beloved martinis haven't harmed my liver, apparently, and I don't have anemia or anything like that. There is also no blood where blood shouldn't be, if you get my drift.

The only abnormal test was for something called calprotectin, which is apparently a marker of gut inflammation. Mine was just below 300, and a normal range is 0 to 50. The doctor didn't seem too concerned about this, but we're going to repeat the test. Apparently high calprotectin can indicate almost anything, from transient infection to IBD to cancer.

I'm also getting an endoscopy and a CT scan of the abdomen. You may remember I had a couple of CT scans in recent years, but those were both of the lungs -- this will look lower. The scan is already scheduled for next Thursday. Still waiting on a date for the endoscopy but it should be soon.

So that's where we stand. I'm somewhat encouraged but also somewhat wary of the calprotectin thing. Dave's calprotectin can sometimes be in the thousands, given his Crohn's disease. He wasn't very impressed with my measly 300.

As for how I feel, well, I think I'm slightly better than I was last week. I'm sleeping soundly and for the time being I've laid off alcohol entirely. Still persisting with my regular coffee, though -- I need some pleasure in my life!

We're watching "Baby Reindeer" on Netflix, about a comedian and bartender who winds up being stalked by a troubled woman and sexually assaulted by an older man. Apparently it's based on a true story. It's very good, with good performances. We have trouble turning it off.

Recent fun reading has included:

-- This story about the rediscovery of the original U.S.S. Enterprise model used in the opening credits of the first "Star Trek" series

-- This story about a nautical buoy from the Florida keys that washed up on a beach in Scotland

And of course there was the alligator hiding in the airplane landing gear at MacDill Air Force Base in my hometown, Tampa. Never a dull moment in Florida! I was so happy to read that they released the alligator into the Hillsborough River. Often when trappers capture an alligator they kill it, but that's usually after it's been dubbed a nuisance or a danger to people. I guess this one was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

(Top photo: Colorful crabapple trees outside a pub in Hanwell, West London, a couple of weeks ago.)

Graffiti Philosophy

I walked home last night via the optician, because I have to get my glasses repaired. I'm not sure what I did to them. On Tuesday evening they were in my jacket pocket, where I often carry them, and when I took them out the frames were bent so badly that I couldn't straighten them myself. When I took them in, the woman behind the counter looked at them rather doubtfully but said they'd try.

I probably need new glasses anyway, to be honest. I've had these for about two years, using some frames that Dave bought about eight years ago -- and I don't think I've had a new prescription since 2016. Still, I get by with them and I hope they can be fixed.

Meanwhile, I'm using the backup pair that lives in my camera bag.

This graffiti writer, who uses the name Tramp, has been spreading his wisdom (?) all over our neighborhood lately. (I'm using the male pronoun because graffiti writers are usually male, for whatever reason -- though there are exceptions so if this is written by a woman I apologize.) I've posted photos of a few of his sentiments in the past. When they get painted over he writes new ones, and if they don't get painted over he adds to them, creating word collages like the one above.

I'm sure this building owner has had it up to HERE but he/she seems to have stopped trying to repaint the wall, leaving it to Tramp to expound on his thoughts. (I had to look up Bill Hicks. Apparently he's an American comedian who died in 1994 and was quite popular in the UK. I don't remember him at all but I probably just wasn't paying attention. I've never been a huge fan of stand-up comedy.)

Anyway, you get the idea. Tramp has a few favorite writing spots and I haven't photographed them all, not by a long shot. But I've probably photographed enough of them.

All Creatures

This inconspicuous little flower appeared on our prayer plant not too long ago -- the first time it has bloomed that I can remember. This is a plant given to me by a co-worker, and I used to keep it on my desk at work. But even though the library has a lot of windows, my desk isn't particularly well lit by natural light, and the plant never got very big (and in fact almost died over a weeklong break with inadequate water). I finally brought it home last year and put it in a new pot, and now it's twice the size and blooming.

Plants, like the rest of us, just want a little love and attention.

Speaking of which, thanks for your comments and good wishes on my post yesterday. I hate writing about medical stuff but if I didn't mention it, I'd feel inauthentic in my blogging. I don't always have a lot to say here, but I do want to reflect what's really happening in my life.

I went in for my blood tests yesterday morning -- yes, I climbed the hill -- and that all went smoothly. Then I walked from the hospital through Belsize Park to work, and on the way I passed:

Isn't this a remarkable construction? It says around the oblong globe at the top, "What a wonderful world," and around the green edge, "Home not just for us but for all creatures." The little card attached attributes it to the Belsize Creates Craft Club at Belsize Community Library. (No doubt also responsible for the yarn library sign I saw a few weeks ago.)

Apparently they've installed several "toppers" on this post box, which have been repeatedly stolen or vandalized. But the crafters persist! I'm glad I got to see this one.

Tests and Repairs

This is not our house. It's just a cool doorway that I saw on my way to work yesterday. It seems to be in the middle of some kind of renovation. It's a shame whoever installed the now-removed entrance canopy had to cut through that terra cotta panel (from 1892!) to do it.

Speaking of renovations, our property managers were supposed to send someone yesterday to look at the roof of our garden shed and estimate the repair costs. But if anyone was here they left no trace, and left my note attached to the shed door (explaining what I thought needed to be done) apparently untouched. So who knows what's going on there.

Today I have to hustle myself over to the hospital for some blood tests. I am not looking forward to it, mostly because the hospital isn't incredibly easy to get to from where we live. It's not far distance-wise, but it's up a hill toward the Heath and there are no direct buses (probably because people who live in rarified Hampstead don't want buses on their residential streets). The only bus I could take goes all the way down to Swiss Cottage, over to Belsize Park and back up to Hampstead -- essentially a big U-shape that involves a lot of extra travel. I could take the overground, but by the time I walk to and from the stations at both ends I may as well just climb the darn hill.

So, yeah. Medicine. I'm enduring some medical drama here, and I don't want to say much about it, because I don't really know what to say yet. I'm still having tests. I have a telephone consultation with a specialist on Thursday. This is all related to my long-standing stomach issues, and the acid reflux that has in the past also affected my breathing. As I said the other day, I've made some diet modifications but I have not been feeling great and I am worried something could be seriously amiss.

Remember when I was going to have that endoscopy in early 2021, and I didn't go through with it because my symptoms got better and the doctors didn't seem concerned, and then we had a massive Covid surge and I didn't want to go to a medical facility, blah blah blah? Well, now I wish I'd had it. Shoulda coulda woulda.

Anyway, at the moment there is nothing to report -- only the phantoms in my own mind, which I am trying hard not to allow to run rampant. Last week I was barely sleeping, but this week my panic has subsided enough that I'm feeling better. If and when I know more, we'll go from there. I will be seriously bummed if some medical issue gets in the way of our South America trip at the end of June (not to mention the rest of my life).

Remember the library tiger? It disappeared for a while, but now it's back. Perhaps it was living behind some books, hiding out -- or hibernating, maybe. Yesterday someone positioned it on the shelf as if to read the spines of our big cat books. I thought that was pretty clever.

Oh, I finished the library inventory. We have lost track of 40 books over the past year. That sounds like a lot, but I suspect some of them aren't truly lost -- they were probably spirited away in the short-term by absent-minded kids who simply forgot to check them out. I imagine they'll be back within the next few weeks. Others, however, seem well and truly gone. If it hasn't been seen by the computer in the past year, that's a pretty good sign it may be lost and/or stolen. If it's not back by June, it's probably gone for good.

A New Pot

Our pink azalea -- which we got for free when our local garden center gave away all its plants at the start of our first pandemic lockdown in 2020 -- is bursting into bloom. As you can see, there are lots of buds still coming.

And this little bluebell is growing in a precarious place, out in the lawn. We have a few that have re-seeded over the years into the grass, and I always try to mow around them but I'm sure I sometimes fail and run them over. So far I've managed to preserve this one.

A quiet day yesterday. I had vague plans of perhaps doing the second leg of the Dollis Valley Greenwalk, but that didn't happen. I'm always reluctant to go away and leave Olga when I could be walking her, and also, I just wasn't feeling up to it. As it turns out, Olga wasn't either -- I tried to take her to the cemetery in the afternoon and we got as far as the corner before she decided it was time to come home.

Instead she spent most of the day being annoying, begging to be let in or out depending on whether the sun was shining. In this maritime climate, the sun goes behind a cloud and comes out again about 3,000 times a day, so that's a lot of back and forth to the patio door.

We did get our somewhat bedraggled avocado tree into its new pot, so that was an achievement. That's a 90-liter pot, about 50 centimeters across. Next to it on the left is the pot the avocado has been living in for the last ten years or so. It was root-bound, to say the least.

The new pot arrived Saturday, and it came with no drainage holes. Why this is true, I have no idea. I borrowed a drill from the Russians (God knows they have plenty of tools) and drilled 24 drainage holes in the bottom before moving the tree. Handyman Steve!

I hope it's happier in its new home. It's too big to bring inside now, so we're committed to keeping it under cover outdoors in winter. Fingers crossed!

Finally, here's my second compilation of footage from our Garden Cam. We see that same black cat, some nest-building magpies, a flock of pigeons, a squirrel digging something up and eating it, another cat (which hightails it away at top speed, for some reason), a fox trotting past, and some pigeons and starlings grazing among the teasels. I'm experimenting with the best place to put the camera, so it moves around a bit -- it got knocked askew by a squirrel before that last shot.

I promise I won't routinely subject you to every pigeon and squirrel. The camera is still a new "toy" for me, but as it ages I'll probably get more selective about what I blog!

Friends and Strangers

Another busy day yesterday, spent almost entirely off the computer. Obviously I blogged in the morning and answered some comments, but after that I didn't subject myself to the digital realm. Life like it used to be! We all need it now and then.

I got some laundry going and took Dave's concert tux to the cleaners. On the way back, I passed the abandoned street sign, still standing forlornly on a nearby corner where it's been for the last six months or so. You may remember I tried bringing this sign to the attention of the authorities in several ways, reporting it both to the local roads authority and to the rubbish collectors. It disappeared into bureaucratic limbo with the former and the latter said they couldn't do anything about it.

So I thought, "I am going to do something about this *#$@% sign." I picked the whole thing up -- easel, sandbag and all -- and carried it up the hill, around the corner and down the hill again to a traffic island near West End Green where the council has installed large bins for recycling.

And I left it there.

Because this is a much busier area, frequented by public works employees, my hope is it will be noticed and disposed of properly. (Yes, I cheekily left it in front of a "No Dumping" sign, but I don't see how this could be called dumping since it's government property in the first place.)

Anyway, then I came home and mowed the lawn.

Here's Olga gamely (and stiffly) chasing her Kong toy through the newly mowed grass. She definitely doesn't move with the ease and energy of her youthful self. I used to be able to wing that Kong long distances and she would take off after it like a shot. I think she still wants to, on some level, but her body is telling her, "Why?!"

Don't you love our little patch of unmowed meadow with all the teasel plants? I can't wait to see how it looks this summer.

Finally I went into town to meet some friends for a theater outing. We went to see a musical called "Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)." It's a terrific show with two charming and energetic performers, and I enjoyed it a lot -- especially with all the New York references, having lived there for ten years. The set was amazing -- two piles of suitcases that stayed on stage the entire time, but rotated and became a hotel room, a restaurant, a nightclub and other venues. Brilliant! I hope the show goes far.

Afterwards I went to dinner with my former boss, who's running in the London marathon today. She's been substituting for several months at school for another librarian who was out on maternity leave, but now that gig is up and she's returning to the states on Tuesday. Who knows whether I'll ever see her in person again. She invited us to come and see her in Minnesota but Dave and I are never in that part of the country so I don't see it as very likely. A strange thought.

(Photos, both taken yesterday: A Soho doorway, top, and crowds on Regent Street, bottom.)

Wisteria and More Scanning

It's time for wisteria again, and these two houses (above and below) always put on a good show. I've photographed both of them before, but I like to check in every year and see how they're doing. Pretty good, I'd say!

I took both of these photos with my phone. They're probably not quite as good as shots taken with my big camera, but as I've said before, it sure is nice not to have to lug that thing around.

More library inventory yesterday! The good news is, I got through most of the rest of the library in a single day. While my co-workers covered the desk, I did the Spanish, French, biography, professional development and fiction sections -- a total of 11,537 books. Whew! About 45 books are missing, and I have a feeling many of those aren't really missing but either didn't register on the scanner, have fallen to the back of the shelf or are elsewhere in the library. When I go back on Monday I'll do a second pass and mop up any loose ends. I'll also do smaller sections like games and textbooks.

ISN'T THIS EXCITING?!?!

Blogger Rachel asked yesterday what I meant by "scanning," so I took a helpful photo to show you the process. I use the hand-held scanner to scan the bar code on each book, which accounts for it in the library computer. The scanner emits that red light, which sees the bar code. (Allow me to add, because I know I'll get this question, that the red dots on the book spines mean the books are suitable for younger readers.)

I told Dave yesterday evening that I wish my phone tracked physical activity like squats and deep-knee bends (are those the same thing?) because my thighs got a workout, kneeling down and getting up again.

As someone who hates to see plants abused, here's one of my pet peeves. I photographed this shopping center's newly painted entranceway back in September 2022, and at that time it had new plants in all its planters. Well, apparently no one is tasked with maintaining these plants, which are under a roof and thus get very little (if any) rainwater. Most of them have died and the rest look like this. It's all I can do to pass by without digging them up and bringing them home. WHY would someone spend all that money on landscaping and then allow it to die with no care? Why have the planters at all?