One of the things we like to do every year or two years here in Cyprus is get one of the full medical checkups on offer at the private hospitals. They are incredibly good value for money and give either a sense of re-assurance at checking out fine, or an early warning that something is wrong. They offer the sort of testing that is hard to come by in the NHS, impossible in covid times with backups going back years. Having lost several friends in recent years to undetected cancer, we are even more keen on these checks.

In previous years, we have had the full check up at the Kyrenia Medical Centre and been entirely happy with the offering. At around £90 for a very fulsome set of blood tests, chest x ray, ecg, abdominal ultrasound, mammogram or PSE tests, cervical smear, ovarian cancer blood test, occult stool, urine tests etc, you definitely get your money’s worth. This time however, because it’s been over 2 years since we’ve had one, we thought we would get the even more fulsome checkup offered at the Near East University Hospital. https://neareasthospital.com/?lang=en

They offer around 10 different check ups depending on your circumstances, gender and age and you can add on to standard ones too. We decided to go for the comprehensive check up which is around £160 for women, slightly less for men. It includes

7 Physical Examinations: General Checkup, Gynecological, General Surgery, Cardiological, Eye, Dietitician and Oral and Dental.

Laboratory Tests: Hemogram, ESR, Fasting Blood Glucose, GGP, ALT, ALP, AST, Urea, Uric Acid, Creatinine, Anti-HIV, Anti-HCV, Anti-HBS, HBS-Ag, CRP, Total Cholesterol, HCL, LDL, Triglyceride, Calcium, Folic Acid, HBA1C, Vitamin B12, TSH, FT3, FT4, Urine Analysis, Fecal Occult Blood, Smear test.

Radiological Imaging:

ECG

Echo Doppler

Effort/Stress Test

Chest X Ray

Breast Ultrasound

Mammography

Bone Density US

Measurement

Abdominal Ultrasound

That’s the Woman’s version. The men’s doesn’t have the cervical or breast checks but does have Urology Exam, PSE test.

While we are there I am going to enquire about mole removal for Daisy. She has an annual mole check at a clinic in London on the NHS but they won’t remove any moles that are benign, even if they are large and tend to catch on things. The only choice is to pay for private treatment. I suspect that this will be much cheaper and more available here, so she could have it done during her visit.

This morning, Bob installed the first of our new pool terrace lights. It looks great and he’s got the methodology now so the other 4 should go in ok. After lunch we went down to the surveyor to have a meeting about exactly what we will do with our plots. Have another tomorrow afternoon.

We did a bit of a shop at Ileli, just a few things we lacked and we called at a couple of pool shops researching what to do about our underwater pool lights. We have 2 old style halogen closed units, meaning the bulb etc is all enclosed inside the lamp and when the bulb “goes” you replace the whole thing. The more modern solution is to have an LED unit and they come in various colours. You can even have a light changing one! We just want the LED Blue ones. They are much brighter under the water than the halogen and the blue is really nice. Plus of course, they don’t fail as easily or as quickly as the old style bulbs. We went to the SIBA store in Alsancak and also Pools R Us in Alsancak and we think we now have an understanding of what we need and it’s a matter of getting a price and the guys out to fit them.

Came back and had a couple of hours around and in the pool. It’s just solidly 30C and a breeze but low humidity here. I mean absolutely zero chance of rain. Had various conversations with Daisy as she booked her flight out. So excited that she will soon be here. Lucy rang and they are also working out their plans and flights. I think we will have about a week with just Daisy, then about 10 days with both girls and Leon, and then about 5 days just Lu and Leon.

Tonight Bob bbq’d sheftali kebabs and sweet red peppers and our workman came to totally finish off their jobs. Gosh, we’ve been pleased with all their efforts and will definitely have them back again. They are such nice men and they have done a really good job for us.

And….. it’s the end of May. June tomorrow…. wow where did that all go? I guess we have done a lot of work and made a lot of progress. We want to get all the jobs and meetings etc out of the way by June 12th so that we are free by the time the girls arrive. We’re well on track for that. The word is that Cyprus and Turkey will be Amber in the next review. Plus, Pegasus have announced that all flights from the UK to Ercan from 7th June will be without a transfer in Turkey. ie. the flight will land and people will get off but no one will get on and it will quickly continue onward to Ercan. They are currently negotiating an arrangement for the return leg which will mean that people returning from Ercan to the UK will not count as transitting in Turkey. Watch this space……