Time for a general purpose update:

First me: the repair continues, the ribs are the big nuisance because i keep recracking them, like the three or four that went last night when I tried to lie down on the carpet in front of the fireplace. There was a nasty cracking sensation from my left side, and today has been spent with muscles getting achey and occasional clicking from rib-ends rubbing together.

The knee aches but works, I can walk somewhat but the muscles are weak; so I walk like a toddler, watching to make sure my feet are moving in the right direction, occasionally polling the real world to make sure I am not about to walk into a tree. I’ve used it to walk up a single step into my house, but it’s not fit for stairs without crutches yet.

Extended use gets quite sore, quite quickly, with a pinching sensation which I suspect is the meniscus getting pinched. I hope I am wrong, because I need that thing to last a few more years.

Second, the cats: Buster started looking a bit bloated last week, and on saturday Dave kindly stopped in and walked him down to the local vet; the diagnosis was “fluid in the abdomen”, and the suspected cause “hyperthyroidism”, indicated by enlarged glands.

A blood test confirmed elevated levels of thyroxene (“at the top end of normal”) and so he’s been put on twice-daily pills of Felimazole for a fortnight, after which he’ll be reassessed. It’s possible that he’ll be on pills for life, although stuff on the Web suggests this may have bad long term side-effects it would probably be better than surgical reduction of the glands; 13-year-old cats tend not to do well with surgery.

The fluid will not go down of its own accord, he will need diuretics for that but we want to see how the Felimazole goes, first.

Otherwise, life continues, I am trying to do 2 days per week at work, will try 3 next week, fitness permitting.