Those who are forum regulars may have noticed I've been somewhat conspicuous by my absence on here over the past month or so.

Thing is, I'd been offered a couple of long~awaited medical appointments postponed from last year due to the pandemic. One was to undergo a Eurodynamics Test for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, early-afternoon on Tuesday April 20th, while the second - to investigate an ongoing sore shoulder complaint - had been scheduled to take place the very next morning at the NHS Golden Jubilee Hospital's specialist orthopaedics department in Clydebank, some 70 miles from Perth and my brother had arranged to drive me there.

However, during the night before the first appointment I began feeling very unwell with alternating bouts of constipation & diarrhoea ... compounded by copious amounts of vomit in addition to twinges of mild to moderate chest pain, ending up in Perth Royal Infirmary, where I received three separate ECGs for an unsteady heartbeat before doctors were finally satisfied I hadn't suffered a coronary.

Luckily the nursing staff took care of cancelling the next day's appointment at Ninewells; my son dealt with the other ... and, following a scan of my pelvic area, I was allowed home two days later.

Unfortunately, the story didn't end at that point because, not long after sitting on our couch, I got up rather too quickly, staggered and landed on my back, injuring the bone (coccyx) at the base of the spine ... from which I've since been slowly recovering.