The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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3:31pm on Wednesday, 6th January, 2021:
Anecdote
I was put on simvastatin, the cholesterol-reduction medication, over a decade ago. This was because my brother had recently died of a heart attack and my doctor decided that I should endeavour to avoid the same fate.
I stayed on them until about this time last year when my supply ran out. The pharmacist was rather vague about why my prescription had stopped, but I gathered that I was supposed to go to have a blood test. As I was approaching my 60th birthday, I figured I'd be called in for a blood test anyway so I waited in order to kill two birds with one stone.
Unfortunately, Covid-19 came along and I never did get the call for a new blood test. I therefore took no statins for about a year.
It occurred to me back in November that it might be an idea to try to get my prescription back on track, given that I wasn't going to get any kind of general check-up, so I arranged a blood test (which I passed: it was indeed blood). Christmas got in the way, but I had a phone consultancy with a doctor earlier this week and my statin prescription was renewed. I'm on 20mg of Atorvastatin now, rather than the 40mg of Simvastatin I was on before; apparently, this is A Good Thing.
Our local pharmacy is not exactly quick. They allow four customers inside the shop at once, and there were four in line outside the shop when I arrived. It took me 15 minutes to get inside and another 15 minutes to be served. According to the government's coronavirus stats, there are 54 people with Covid-19 in my postcode area and the rolling rate of infections is 814 per 100,000 people. We were all wearing masks and standing at least two metres from each other, but given how catching this new variant is I didn't feel exactly safe.
On the plus side, I didn't have to pay for my prescription because prescriptions are free for people aged 60 and over. That was a pleasant surprise.
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Copyright © 2021 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).