Through the looking glass. (II)*

I dunno, what with all these Bank Holidays we have nowadays it seems we get paradoxically busier. I suppose it might also have to do with having two docs off for half term, and despairing parents looking for things to occupy the kids during the same…

Anyhow, it seems we have survived and so normaller service might soon be possible. Maybe. And after my more recent flights of fancy the weather has gone back to doing what it does best (being horrid) and it’s back down to earth with a bump for poor old Dr J.

Still, it gives me pause to consider another similarity I share with Mr. H. Dumpty, in that, when I use a word it “means just what I want it to mean”. Two instances today serve to highlight this fact.

The first relates to a blood test on a lady who feared she had rheumatism. In the event her blood tests have all returned “negative” meaning of course that they show now evidence of rheumatic disease, so in this sense a “negative” result is a “positive” message to be able to impart.

(Did that last bit sound a bit like that time honoured definition of cricket so beloved of northern tea-towel manufacturers at all? You know, the one that begins “You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in…”)

The second instance came in Asthma clinic. Sebastian is a runner. He also happens to have late onset asthma, and since a flu like illness in November he has had increasing trouble with his wheeze. Annoyingly this has been worse when he runs. We’ve tried a few different changes in meds along the way and the last one has restored his lung function to is previous excellent form. In effect he has lung function readings at 120% predicted, i.e. 20% better than normal. “That’s brilliant” say I, in all sincerity. “No it’s not” he retorts, “ my 100m time is still three tenths off what it was last season.”

Apparently it’s all about perspective.

* See I'm being green and recycling titles now.