A Little Good News

I am liking my GP surgery more and more all the time. I went in last week and noticed as I did that they have changed their policy so that you can ring in after 8:30 in the morning and get an appointment on the same day. Which is helpful because it means I don't, feeling as much like shit as I do, have to get out of the house by 8:00 am in order to ensure I get seen. So great; I wait until half-eight and then call the surgery, I get seen today. Huzzah, right? It gets better, though. Not only do I get to make an appointment for this morning (2 hours from now), but I also get to pick which doctor I want to see! I got to request my own GP, who I really like and who understands the necessity of taking time off work when you are ill. I hate it when your own doctor makes you feel guilty about not going in to work when you're ill.

Apart from the rampant stomach pain, I'm feeling more awake at least. The time I spent awake yesterday, I primarily spent levelling up White Mage for my Deathgnome (Lifegnome). See, I'm now far enough off level 16 to see level 17 grinning up at me (new spell - ice magic and I'm going to blow a couple of those fucking Akbaba out of the sky just on principle), and after that it's a bit of a slog, but level 18 is in my grasp. And at level 18, you get subjobs. Well, you get the ability to unlock subjobs. From the looks of things, I'm going to have to hack my way through Tahrongi Canyon, hack my further way through Buburimu Peninsula and get to Mhaura before I can do that. That means further levelling up or partying. The concept of partying scares me, I have to say. Well, never mind - I'll burn that bridge when I come to it. The point is that the most advantageous combo I can think of at the moment for main/sub is Black Mage/White Mage - doom spells and healing in one package. And I don't want to wind up with the ability to subjob with a lvl 20 BLM and a lvl 1 WHM. So I went and I levelled up White Mage to level 7. I may level that up a few more times as well as things progress, partly because the hack up to Tahrongi Canyon is a pain in the arse but partly because it's just so damn rewarding to start from scratch. The number of crystal stacks I collected in seven levels of WHM is staggering. Of course, I took a few risks to get my levels up so fast (lvl 4 WHM takes on Crawler and wins, partly because my weapons skills were still pretty impressive after being cut down by half) but I managed. Anyway, what with that and my garden doing well, FFXI is much fun for me at the minute, and a fine distraction from the being ill, when I have the energy to play. But one of these days, I am going to have to try partying. And pray that there will be no loserism.

Not much else to say, really. My life has become awfully narrow since I've been stuck in the house. I really ought to sit down and work on HIPPIE, last year's NaNo project, some more. Or something. Roll on, November. Not only is it my holiday (and pray gods the boss doesn't hit the roof when I go on annual leave after over two weeks of illness) but that's when NaNo starts. Maybe this year I won't just stop when I hit the deadline.

The Medical Profession

I *heart* my doctor.

After years of working for doctors, I have kind of learned to spot the difference between a reasonable doctor, a good doctor and a great doctor. Dr Bez is one of the great ones, in my opinion. For one thing, it's clear that not only does he like his job, but he cares about his patients. He listens, he asks every question he can think of and he puts the patient first, even if it means a buttload of extra work. He really tries, and I admire that.

Not that he's sure what's actually wrong with me. He informs me that the Lansoprazole should have kicked in days ago if it was going to, so poked and prodded and asked question after question after question, and then came up with a list of possible diagnoses - peptic ulcer seems the most possible of the lot, possibly connected with helicobacter pylori. Oh, ducky. Anyway, I'm now signed off until the 29th so that I can rest up and have some tests done - full blood test to rule out the H. pylori and an upper abdominal ultrasound. Oh, double ducky. And, of course, it being lunchtime, I can't get through to any of the relevant hospital departments I need to ring. What happened to voicemail? When I was working in radiology, I'd have been shot if someone wasn't covering my phone. Anyway, if I haven't shown improvement by the end of next week, they're going to stick me in the hospital. Oh, triple ducky.

Still, we are getting to the bottom of the horrible gut-crampy pain, for which I suppose I should be grateful. And I am, because I like the kind of doctor who insists on getting things tested and generally sorted out instead of just making some vague diagnosis, handing out pills and sending patients on their merry way. So yeah, I *heart* my doctor. I do not so much *heart* the idea of landing in the hospital, but that's by the by.

[[Edit: Despite the fact that Dr Bez faxed through the ultrasound request and marked it urgent, the people at Barnet Hospital radiology don't give an unholy fuck and still insist I call back on Tuesday to so much as schedule an appointment. And Finchley Hospital blood test appointments are still engaged. I will keep trying, and then if I hear nothing, fuck it; I'm doing a walk-in at Chase Farm or somewhere. Now I remember why I hated working in hospitals.]]

Take That and Party

I got my first party invite today. Shame it sucked so bad.

I was in Tahrongi Canyon, happily smacking down various Canyon Rarabs and Strolling Saplings (focusing on the Strolling Saplings, as I was perilously short of seeds for my rather profitable garden) when this Taru male comes up to me. He'd been around Tahrongi a bit, casting Aero on things, so he had to be at least level 9. And yet, he was wearing the default armour you get as a level 1 starting Taru. So poorly armoured level 9 Black Mage. In Tahrongi Canyon. Luckiest sonuvabitch on earth, you'd reckon, to have survived that far. I mean, shit, he could have upgraded his armour by now at least.

So then he invites me to party. Let's see - well-armoured, well-equipped level 16 Black Mage sharing her XP (and drops, I might add) with a poorly-armoured level 9-ish Black Mage. Oh, gods, no. I mean, yes, he could have been levelling his subjob. I suppose. But then there's even less excuse for him to be tromping around a level 12-plus area with level 9 magic and level 1 armour. I'd have done the majority of the work and only got half the credit for it. That, thank you, is not what I signed up for.

Well, I told him politely that I was soloing at the moment, thank you. He was polite about it, if a little disappointed (which I suppose isn't surprising; a metric fucktonne of XP for doing essentially jack shit, wandering away in all its well-equipped glory), but seriously. Fuck.

This, you see, is why I hesitate to put up a party flag. Freaks, n00bs and morons.

[[Edit: DUDE! I was reading up on one of the FFXI websites and discovered that there was not one, but two new spells that I could have since hitting level 16. One's called Shock, and it gives the enemy some Lightning damage and gradually reduces its HP. The other is called Stoneaga. This one does a massive amount of Earth damage to any beastie within range! I went out and played with those in West Sarutabaruta and damn, it was fun to nuke a Crawler and a couple of Rarabs in the same spell! Kaboom! Heeheehee!]]