The fluid on my lungs is finally diagnosed and I've been told to "takeit easy."

As some of you may know I’ve been unwell throughout 2014 so far but yesterday I had some, well mostly, good news. After a series of x-rays and a CT scan, the fluid on both my lungs has been partially diagnosed and is being treated. My lung condition has left me breathless, hill-challenged and feeling feeble and miserable for months now. Yesterday all the tests were analysed and I had a nerve-wracking appointment at the hospital where, as the documentation stressed, they wanted to “rule out Cancer.” Well, ruled it out they have – phew.

The scans have revealed that I have two small blood clots in my lungs which if not exactly good news are at least, apparently, treatable and, in all probability, will dissolve and leave me well again. So I gave up another armful of blood for analysis and await a heart echo scan and an appointment in a couple of months time with a new consultant physician. I caused quite a lot of interest when the doctors found out about the brain haemorrhage I suffered in 2008 – luckily there is no indication that the blot clots have anything to do with that condition and my drug treatment doesn’t have to be curtailed because of any danger there.

In the meanwhile I’ve been told to “take it easy” in a laid-back Southern States of America kind of way (a prescribed couch-potato lifestyle) and to let a new course of drugs with blood-thinners and water tablets do their bit. For the next couple of days I have to rest at home and inject myself with a drug called tinzaparin sodium until I’m given a longer term drug regime, probably Warfarin, on Friday.

I’m surprised how easily I settled into jabbing myself with a syringe – I shouldn’t let this become a habit, I know, but it’s great to get over the last vestiges of squeamishness.

My thanks to all those dedicated, charming and straight-talking NHS staff who made yesterday as low in stress as it was possible to be.

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STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.