My brand new, but annual, pharmacy check-up

It’s not often, in my advancing years, when I’m invited into a lady’s private chamber, but today it happened. Well, it was at the local pharmacy (or, chemist, in layman’s terms) as I have to top myself up with a variety of tablets from time to time, all as a result of having an aortic valve replacement back in 1994, as I’ve detailed on my site previously.

It turned out that I’m meant to have one of these check-ups every 12 months, although this is the first time it’s ever happened, so either it’s a new NHS initiative or I’ve just reached that age (somewhere in my 40s) where it’s a necessity to have these annually.

But what did it comprise of? I was talked through all of the tablets I take, almsot one by one, checking that I understand why I’m taking them, and to check if they’re all still necessary. I thought that was something I do every year or so with my GP already, so is this replacing it? Who knows. I’ve been taking many of the tablets (including warfarin) for over 22 years, so I would like to think I know what I’m doing with them, and I specified how, since most of them are taken in the evening after dinner, I have a 7-day pill box which I’ll stock up weekly, so I’m never flummoxed as to what to take and when.

I know I need to make an appointment with my GP soon to see if I can increase the strength of my acid reflux tablets as that may also be causing a never-ending cough that I have. It worked for my Mum. However, apparently my general medical health may also contribute to asthmatic-type symptoms, so what I thought was the answer might not be. Only time will tell, but that’s for the GP to work out.

I was also asked if I had any other questions. I guess that’s the catch-all in case I’ve got a burning question that just won’t wait until I see my GP, or if it’s my chance to ask the question to what could be the ultimate answer to the question of life, the universe and everything…

Well, one essential to ask is… how many beans make five? Or when will the world finally grow up and accept that David Bowie’s Never Let Me Down is one of the greatest albums of all time? Or, since I’ve been single too long and it makes one rather fed up, and since I may as well shoot for the stars, I would like to know when Jennifer Aniston will finally dump Justin Theroux and run off with me, but since I figured the pharmacist wouldn’t know the answer to this, I settled for saying “No thanks.”

Same time next year, then?