Whale has great difficulty describing exactly how and where it hurts in English so it is far from easy to explain his problems to French doctors.

After five years I get the impression that they are running out of ideas but since his last fall the pain has certainly got worse. Our GP decided to send him to see the rheumatologist at the hospital. He's a strange man with a nervous tic. He keeps his head down and mutters and grunts to himself rarely bothering to look up and ask a question or make a statement. In a way that's fortunate because it is difficult to understand him.

He had a huge file of papers and x-rays from Whale's previous trips to hospital and spent ages poring over them, underlining parts and adding new bits. After looking at several x-rays he prodded Whale briefly to ascertain where it hurt and then decided to send him to the oncologist at the Polyclinique to see if he needed some more radiotherapy.

Of course, that upset Whale but we didn't have long to wait for an appointment.

"Is it urgent?" asked the secretary when I phoned.

"No, Dr. C didn't say it was."

"In that case next Tuesday at 3. Would that be alright?"

We duly booked an ambulance and attended the surgery of Dr J. He spoke a little English and was keen to practise it on us. After we had explained the problem he sent Whale for an x-ray and asked us to go back on Friday.

So off to hospital again and Dr J explained that the x-ray showed  that certain vertebrae had been 'squashed' - maybe when he fell, and that would account for the increase in pain. He said that radiotherapy was certainly not necessary - much to Whale's relief -and passed the ball back firmly in Dr C's court, saying that he should give him an 'infiltration' (which, I think,translates as a cortisone injection).

So, I duly made an appointment, checked whether he'd be better on a stretcher than in a wheelchair for his injection and booked an ambulance, warning them that he would need to stay on their 'brancard'.

Dr C examined the x-rays, counted the vertebrae not once but umpteen times, hmmmmed and grunted, wrote notes, put all the x-rays away carefully, took them out again, counted vertebrae again and finally gave his verdict.

No, an 'infiltration' was not the answer. If he were to give one it would only last about a week. He suspected osteo-porosis - a possibility after years of treatment with Zoladex - so he wanted Whale to have a 'densiometrie'.

The appointment was made for Tuesday (yesterday). We discussed the difficulty of getting Whale from a stretcher onto the x-ray table and Dr C asked the ambulancemen if they would stay and lift him. Fortuately they agreed it would be possible.

After all those trips to hospital costing around 120 euros each time for the ambulance alone (which we don't have to pay upfront thank goodness) the conclusion was that he does not have osteoporosis, it is not a return of cancer and all they can do is increase the medication.

So we're right back where we started. What a waste of time and money.