Er, no. I’ve not had a holiday. Or really, much of anything.

Where I last left you I had been to see my doctor. Technically speaking not ‘my’, since my GP (whom I’ve been seeing all my life in fact) had up and retired the same week as I decided to revisit after taking two courses of antibiotics and still being sick. I was sure he said he was retiring at the end of the year… but anyway, I made an appointment with whoever I could get at the same clinic (more out of convenience: they not only have my records, but are a ten minute or so walk from my house.

The nearest doctor after that is about 30 min. away on foot). The doctor promptly sent me for some blood tests and a chest x-ray, both of which came back negative for anything; but apparently the blood tests showed some ‘confusing’ results and I was referred to the emergency dept. of a local hospital for more specialised attention. (It should be noted ’specialised’ in this case simply meant my GP couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and a hospital doctor might have more info at hand)

My dad, sister and I sat for 6 hours in the hospital, of which I think about 30 minutes in total was face time with an actual doctor. Who promptly took more blood, sent forms out for a respitory test, and sent me home. Unfortunately for me, the GP had also put me on inhalers (assuming I had asthma) which I was having a particularly odd reaction to: it felt like I had my face stuffed into a pillow of cat fur. I’m not even allergic to cats, and it felt like my entire face was puffing up. Suffice to say 6 hours sitting in emergency was not what was needed. (Thankfully I haven’t continued on the inhalers, and I’m much better for it)

By the end of this little trip, it was clear I shouldn’t be going on holiday. So I cancelled my trip. Which I severely regret. Because at this point, I couldn’t get a respitory test until Friday last week (a day after I would have returned), and all of last week this new GP had also been away.

What’s happened since then? Absolutely  all. I have no results returned from the second blood test, nor the breath test. Because the hospital referred me for those secondary tests, and because apparently the doctor there who saw me (or indeed, the admin who checked me in) seemed to have missed the salient detail of ‘more specialised info’, I’m left hanging. The GP, who I’ve yet to talk to but left a phone message earlier this evening, seems confused as to why I’m asking about more results. I’m left wondering why I’ve been asked to give two blood tests when from what I can remember (and I should make this clear, the entire time I was at the hospital, I was fairly out of it) the tests aren’t checking for anything new. In fact, it seems as though the hospital has ignored any paperwork I handed over from the GP/initial tests, and so I’m back to where I’ve started.

Thankfully. I mean, I’m still coughing, but not so much - more when I move around. And it’s certainly not as lung-wrenching as it was a few weeks ago. But between all this waiting and running around and not knowing what’s going on, I’ve not had any holiday at all. Far from it: school holidays turned up and the neighbours appeared on their brand new (deck? balcony?) something to continue building it, right outside my window. I’ve continued work on the SOP site, for which I can sufficiently have confidence in beginning the migration in August, or at the latest, September. Oh, and I’ve had the pleasurable experience of, well, sleeping worse than usual due to the coughing.

Frankly, I’m more stressed out now than I was before. I could have gone on my trip, given the arrangements detailed above. What’s worse is that I lost a non-refundable flight, a really good deal on a hotel, had a little sightseeing event planned that I was looking forward to, and a good book to read and relax with. Instead, I got more code, a tiresome and sore pair of lungs, and the stress of doctors not being able to tell you what’s wrong with you.

… Honestly, I think I’m going to see if I can rebook that trip sometime soon. The description above hardly even comes close to the annoyance that all this has created. (And in fact, it gets worse: my great uncle has just been diagnosed with cancer - he’s had several heart attacks and strokes over the past few years - and I haven’t seen him yet just in case I’m infectious. It would be nice to know if I am, at the very least, that, so I can visit him. My parents too have been fretting about, and we’re all left wondering what’s going on)

Anyway, the main reason I’ve stayed away from blogging is just to a) have a bit more of a break, and b) ready SOP for the transfer. There are really only a few major issues left to solve (a tiny bit of the commenting, even though I’ve got lightbox/popup commenting working; the search page for which I need some google admin help; the RSS feed; and the archives/sitemap functionality), with the rest being mostly tiny aesthetics and reworking some articles for a pre-migration basis. I’ve been back in touch with the designer (Beatriz Vega, who designed the logos you recall) who’s sent me a few images and suggestions, and I’ve even actually got a proper system of styles happening. Ie. numbered lists have their own style which fits the design and colour scheme of the site. It’s still a little all-over-the-place, since I kind of make up the styles as I go, but it should work. I’ve even managed to figure out a nicer presentation of images, with captioning and borders; all of it simplified and large, so that the eye is drawn to important areas of the content, without being distracted by other things. Huge lists of categories for example.

Because I’m so close to finishing the site, I’m not going to add anything to the Learn Online page here on PIM for the forseeable future. There’s simply no point in adding something that I’m going to have to redirect later anyway, so why bother? I am happy to say that I do have some new content drafted - although I’m wavering on whether or not it’s as strong as it should be just yet - and will be making the effort to edit each and every post as it’s migrated over. With these edits should come more imagery, blockquotes to highlight important paragraphs, and so on. I’ll also be reworking the patterns currently on offer so that they are a little more customer-friendly.

But you know, first… I may have to make a trip or two back to the doctor’s office.