I attended a dinner tonight. It was hosted by a middle aged couple. The lady hostess is an acquaintance of my wife through her university studies.
There was an English gentleman at the party who had a blood clot in his leg. He had been injecting himself with anti-coagulants for the last few weeks in an effort to cure his condition. However, that morning he had performed his daily injection and a nasty wound had developed which had not stopped bleeding all day. He and his wife were rather unconcerned, but also attending the dinner party was a nurse who told him that he really should seek urgent medical attention. The conversation went something like this:
"I think that you really should get that seen to." - Nurse
"Oh well, I have a doctor's appointment on Monday." - Clotman
"No, I think you should get that seen to today." - Nurse
"But this is the first time it has started bleeding." - Clotman
"Yes, but that is a sign that something may be going wrong." - Nurse
"Well I will go to the doctor on Monday." - Clotman
"I think you should go now." - Nurse
The conversation went along in this circular fashion for several minutes. Eventually the nurse phoned his sister, a sister-nurse, for backup, and together they persuaded Clotman to go to the Emergency department at the hospital. He returned later prouncing that everything was Ok and that the triage nurse had told him that bleeding was a common result of anti-coagulant use after a few weeks. Still, I would have gone along earlier. I was glad that the conversation had finished, as discussion of blood makes me queasy. I cut an artery in my wrist when I was seven and have never been the same since.
Other than that, the dinner party was very good. I met some interesting people, the dinner included 4 different types of roast meat and I drank four light beers. I ate an avocado and had fruit salad and chocolate gateau for desert. My daughter greatly enjoyed the outdoor heated pool.
