Ireland day 1080. Thursday 12 September 2024- St Josephs

Today’s summary	An early start then drove to St Joseph’s hospital in Raheny to have a minor lesion removed from my chin. The operation went straightforwardly and I returned to Malahide by DART afterwards. Was back in the flat by 10:30. Spent the rest of the day taking things easy, trying to get over the double assault of shingles and surgery.
Today’s weather	Bright breezy and dry. Strong northerly wind. Appx 13c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The grey line shows where I walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): St Josephs to Raheny

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

After yesterday’s enjoyable walk down to Howth, I was actually feeling quite good, and beginning to believe that there might be an end in sight for the discomfort of shingles. But today I seem to be back at square one again, though hopefully only temporarily.

The day started with a 6am alarm – which is never a good thing as far as I am concerned- then 45 minutes later we were in the car and driving down to Raheny, where I had a morning appointment at St Joseph’s hospital. I had a minor lesion on my chin – probably a result of solar damage incurred when I did a high altitude hike across a snowfield on Mt Rainier around 45 years ago. So now I had to have it removed.

I will spare readers all the details but the surgeon did the operation impressively quickly and efficiently. The procedure itself was not intimidating- in fact most of my visits to the dentist are far worse. It was all done by 10am and after a brief lecture from the nurse I was discharged. I was feeling OK so I walked to Raheny station, which is less than ten minutes away, and caught a DART back to Malahide. I was in the flat by 10:30.

So most of the rest of today I’ve been taking things easy and, once again, Val has stepped up brilliantly with oodles of TLC and tasty things to eat. I was also pleased that when the anaesthetic wore off, the surgeon’s handiwork wasn’t too painful.

I’m going to sign off now, to focus on getting better, and read a bit more of the book I collected from the library yesterday (I’m enjoying it). Then later, maybe as a special treat I will watch a couple of YouTube videos on hiking in Norway. Illness doesn’t have much to commend it but at least it is a brilliant opportunity to indulge the inner armchair traveler!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Looking a bit battered in the immediate aftermath	I just thought this tree on an estate in Raheny on the way to the station was bright and cheery – a great tonic to see!





Train arrived to whisk me to Malahide just moments after I got onto the platform