Dear LPG, 

I live alone but am lucky because I have many friends and regular visitors and get out and about daily.  My friends and family tell me that I tend to prattle on a bit, and I put all my extra talking down to the need to make up for the enforced lost rest time that my voice has when I am home alone. 

They tell me that my favourite subject of conversation is often how I feel.  I tend to talk about it when I  feel under the weather or even on par with it unless someone steers the conversation in another direction.  

We oldies often think aloud by talking to the people around us regarding how we feel health-wise, but we then accept that as we get older, these things happen.   We would rather speak to the people around us than tell those who can help, and I recently found myself in that position. 

I had what I can only describe as a funny feeling come over me, although there was no actual pain involved, and I did a lot of talking about it so that I could gauge what the people around me thought.  It was my daughter who insisted on dialling the doctor for me, and they very quietly suggested that I might have had a mini-stroke and needed to get it sorted at my local Accident & Emergency. 

The thought of hours there did not appeal, but after 13 hours of waiting around, they decided to admit me.  I cannot say it was the way I wanted to spend my day, but when I think that I would have most probably spent the day at home worrying more about it all if she had not sounded the alarm, perhaps I was better off there learning precisely what was going on.

So, I just want to say that if you do live alone and prattle on like me, when the people you prattle on to suggest that you do more than just talk, please take notice of what they are saying and prattle on to the right people. 

Remember that even if you have to go there on your owen, while you are at A & E, you are not alone, and if there is a problem and it flares up again, you are nearer to help once you are there.  They are the most equipped people to work out what is going on, and they will send you home if it is a false alarm.

DM, Catford