and a trip to Centre Parcs
12 stone 5 pounds, 22.5% body fat and counting! Not bad. I have practically lost a stone and 4% fat in one month of non-drinking, boring eating dullness. In fact, I think I would have broken the 1 stone barrier if we hadn’t had an impromptu trip to Centre Parcs for the week. Indeed, I promised Jen a week’s holiday after Christmas as I took very little time off for baby Harry’s birth as it was so close to Christmas. I checked the dates to make sure it wasn’t half term. I did this using the extremely scientific method of checking for the cheap holiday dates online thus ensuring that I miss the crowds and grab a bargain. Alas, after purchasing our week’s holiday in the wondrous Centre Parcs I started to see much activity on facebook and patients in the clinic saying that everybody was going the same week with their kids for half term? It seems that in the confounding way of the Council, the whole of Emersons Green and half of Bristol were on half term, contra to the rest of the UK. Great for all those looking for a bargain half-term holiday for a change and perfect for me who managed to enjoy bumping into (what seemed like) all of my patients in Center Parcs. It was quite nice actually, I even bumped into an old school friend that I hadn’t seen in 20 years on the rapids…until a little boy did a poo in the pool and we all had to get out…I kid you not.
I even managed to play a game of squash with my Dad. He’s 70 years old and I still haven’t managed to win a single game from him in my life. It’s quite a testament that he is still playing competitively for Colston’s squash club and he even still wins from time to time…or so he tells me.
Baby Harry has just had his first jabs which he took like a pro. His Mum was more upset than he was. The GP was lovely at the Christchurch Medical Centre and told us how healthy he is looking and said what most people say when they meet him, that ‘he’s a healthy weight for 10 weeks old’. In other words, we have a chunky baby on our hands. Jen is obviously producing the good old ‘gold top’ milk to keep Harry warm in these long cold nights. Actually as I write this I have a very happy Jenny with me as Harry (and mummy) managed to sleep from 11pm to 7am on his gold top milk. It has to be said that I sleep through every night as I am a very modern man and sleep in the spare room…with ear plugs in…just in case. Molly also slept through from a similar age which is testament to Jen’s hard work with routines. Routines are not for everyone and indeed they don’t suit everyone but I am certain that they have got our two little ones sleeping well.
At work I received my wedding invitation from Hannah and Iain, the two wonderful chiropractors that work for me at Cleve Chiropractic. I am so happy for them and we are now on count down for their wedding in Cornwall in June. Hannah is from Cornwall and Iain from Devon. I guess Hannah won on venue location…wise choice Iain, you have learned quickly. It took me longer to realise to choose my battles more wisely but learn we must.
I apologise but I must mention work as this was the distant but original point of this blog. We have many interesting cases at the clinic but this month we had a rugby player turn up with a swollen elbow that had lasted a couple of months that hadn’t been responding to his regular treatment. We sent him for an MRI and he came back with an infection within the joint. This is unusual for sure but not unheard of. We have picked up a few infected joints in the clinic. They can be quite serious and often require operations. They can happen anywhere in the body including the spine so it’s good to check if we are unsure. Infections can be picked up sometimes with blood tests from your GP. There can be evidence of infections on X-ray that we can do at our clinic but they are best visualised on MRI. We have excellent links with the local MRI centres. MRI prices are not as high as you may think. When I first started they could be found for around £900 but now we can get them for only £228. We can get these scans within days and as chiropractors we are qualified to read them for you and then within the week a report will be sent to us anyway from the radiologists at the MRI centre that you can give your GP. Please understand that these conditions are very rare and as we break through our 8000 patient barrier I can say that as a team we have seen less than 10 in 13 years.
