Every year around January, I have to attend my doctor's surgery for my annual MOT!! Luckily for me, my doctor agreed that maybe I don't need the "Pee pills" anymore, as it hasn't done me much good. Oh the joy - the freedom - the more time I have without the constant dashes to the loo!!!! Pure bliss!!!

Anyway I needed to give blood for testing and they needed to check my blood pressure. Well I was given a small bottle to put my wee in, but being a female - it's not all that easy to try and get the wee in that small plastic bottle!!!! We are built differently from men, so need a larger container than a small phial !!!!! Unfortunately I just couldn't manage this, so asked if I could do it the next day at home, and then have someone to drop it in the following day? They agreed with this, thank heavens.

Well the nurse was a sweet young thing - called Poppy - and she warned me about not jumping if it hurt when she started to take my blood pressure. My reply to that was "well don't hurt me then!!" Do you know - I didn't feel a thing - she was so good at it, no sharp scratch neither.

Then she realised that she should have taken my blood pressure before she did my blood tests. I told her that I had another arm, so she could use that - and so she did.I did try to say to her that the new sized cuffs with the digital readout doesn't usually work on me, but she said that they were the only ones she was trained to use. So she carried on - the first cuff she used was huge - it touched my armpit and was just below the elbow!!!!! So off she went - she pressed the start button and the cuff got tighter - you know the drill - and it got tighter and tighter....... and tighter!!!! Suddenly it went ping and the message saying "ERROR" came up. Not to be outdone by the machine, she tried another cuff and I said that I didn't think this one would work neither ........

It got tighter..... and tighter ...... and tighter and then ping - ERROR!!!!!! I said that the only one that seems to work on me, was the old fashioned one with a pump and the nurse used a stethoscope to time my pulse!!! So off she went to find another nurse who could use the old fashioned one!!! Well Nurse Helen came in with her cuff etc and proceeded to show Poppy what to do and took my blood pressure. She was irritated that it took a long time to get tight so she pressed the cuff and "ping" the pump flew off the end and landed behind the desk!!!!! So off she went to find another cuff and pump!!! I did mention that with all this going on, maybe my blood pressure would be a tad higher than normal.

Back comes Nurse Helen, new cuff and pump in hand and proceeded to take my pressure. Okay it hurt a bit, but nothing like the others (when I got home I found I had bruises on my bend in my arm!) but there was a reading - 125/80 which is fine. Considering all that went on before, I was really surprised that it wasn't any higher!

So with that all finished with, I came home, but boy did I need a rest!! Things like that do tend to exhaust me.

I haven't heard from the surgery yet, so it seems that things will be okay until next year. I do hope so.