I went for my ultrasound scan this afternoon. I elected to go privately: University Hospital Coventry were supposed to have been sending me an appointment through, but such is the massive backlog of work that Covid has caused, nothing had materialized despite my GP having marked the referral as 'urgent' and I really wasn't prepared to wait any longer. The NHS are very good at some things, but appallingly bad at others, and I was glad I could afford to pay for it myself. I was, as befitted my status, treated like a valued paying customer, and my arrival at the BMI Meriden hospital was just like checking in to a posh hotel.
An extremely nice doctor talked me through what was going to happen (I was expecting to radiologist to do it) and it was pretty much like the Abdominal Aorta Aneurism scan I'd had done five or six years ago. I was instructed to take deep breaths and hold them, and there were a couple of times when it was a little bit painful as he pressed down quite hard with the little transponder (is that the right word for it?). About twenty minutes I think (I wasn't really keeping tabs on the time), and it was all done.
The result? It turns out I have gallstones which have been causing my gall bladder to become inflamed. I said we'd suspected I had liver trouble, but he said no - there's nothing wrong with my liver. So all that worrying for nothing! Well, not quite nothing, I've still got to decide what to do about the gall bladder, but that's going to pale into insignificance compared to the prospect of something a liver transplant. I can't easily express how relieved I feel: it's a tremendous weight off my shoulders, and worth every penny of the £320 I'm shelling out to have it done.
I mentioned that my mother had had gallstones: they're apparently quite common and while they're not hereditary as such, they do run in families. She had hers removed: I can't remember whether she had the gall bladder itself removed as well or not, but I daresay I knew at the time.
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