Sinistra

I have a small pea sized lump on my throat which has been there for about 4 weeks - I reckon it's an enlarged lymph node and have arranged to see my GP on Tuesday. It could just be something innocent, but it could also be something serious like lymphoma (for which I do have other symptoms such as getting very hot at night, sweating and being tired most of the time). Am I likely to be told to keep an eye on it for a bit longer and come back if it's not gone down, or would I be referred straight away on the premise of 'better safe than sorry'?

Just wondering what this is really. Yesterday I developed an ache in my back between my spine and right shoulder blade, but it extends down almost to my bottom rib in a fairly straight line - quite honestly i'm struggling to tell if it's muscular or breathing related and it might just as easily be me having slept in an awkward position. it hurts more when i breathe in than out and is worse if i slouch. I only really suffer with asthma in the autumn/winter and need to get back into the rhythm of taking the preventor daily. Any ideas anyone?

My friend is spending a year in Sweden for university and I'm hoping to visit her in March/April of next year. There are no direct flights from London to Malmo and it looks like I'll have to get to Copenhagen and then get the train (but this suits me as I really want to see the bridge between Denmark and Sweden!)

Given that I don't speak any Danish or Swedish, how easy would it be for me to navigate my way from Copenhagen Airport to a train station which would get me to Malmo (or even to Lund which is her nearest town/city). I'm pretty good with maps, just wondering whether the train and airport are in the same place, or if I need to use other trains or buses to get me to the right bit of Copenhagen.

This morning I received 2 letters referring to my application for Jobseeker's Allowance. Both look like they've been faxed (so I was immediately suspicious) and having had a meeting with the Job Centre about 2 weeks ago and presented things like payslips, bank statements etc this letter asks me to "bring or send" bank statements, NS&I savings, premium bonds etc within 7 days. Apparently I should send this stuff to Stratford BDC, 9 Elms Lane, London, SW95 9AB - thankfully I know that no such postcode exists in London, and stuck it into Google Earth which shows it to be a residential cul-de-sac in Virginia Beach, VA, USA.

The issue is that the Jobcentre have been very sloppy and someone somewhere has got hold of my name, address and national insurance number and probably more besides. Is there anything I need to do so that I don't become a victim of fraud?

I took voluntary redundancy 2 months ago and have been job hunting since. Getting an interview in the first place is the main problem!

I've got most of my CV written in the first person, eg "I was responsible for managing stock levels....".

What is the consensus on this? Is it better to write in the first person or third person?

I have ITP (idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura) and just wondering how swine flu might affect me. I was taking prednisolone for 5 months, but was tapered off it and stopped taking it 3 months ago.

If you come into contact with it or catch it, will your body just create antibodies to fight swine flu, or will it stimulate the whole immune system, meaning that it fights swine flu, but also generates more of the antibodies that munch through platelets?

I'm already following all the usual common sense advice, washing hands, using a tissue, carrying on life as normal etc - I'm not worrying about dying from swine flu, I'm more concerned about how it might affect my platelet count, given that it was at 68 six weeks ago and is dropping (I think I'm below 50 now). I really don't want to go back on the steroids if I can possibly avoid it!

Last week I ordered two pairs of shoes from Office.co.uk (both in a size 6 - I've double checked my invoice to make sure I hadn't made the mistake myself). They arrived and felt a bit snug but I wore both thinking that the stiff material would soften with a bit of wearing in. It was only having got on my way to work and finding one pair getting really uncomfortable that I looked at the size - a size 5. I've since checked the second pair and they're also a 5! Both pairs had the American sizing (7.5) on the side of the box, so I was none the wiser that this was actually a 5 as that wasn't printed.

What are my rights with regards to exchanging them for the correct size now that I've worn them? I think it's understandable that you'd order shoes and expect them to deliver the size you've ordered. if i'd ordered the wrong size online I could accept that i bear responsibility for the mistake.

i have terrible trouble buying jeans (and trousers and sometimes skirts for that matter) because of the proportions of my hips and thighs. my hips are in proportion with the rest of me (36"), but i've got very angular sticky-out thigh bones which aren't (42"). so for me to accomodate them, i'm having to buy most trousers in a 14, but then they're very baggy at the waist - short of getting things taken in and having to wear a belt with everything (which just leaves ripples round the waist), are there any shops or brands of jeans/trousers in the UK which are a bit more in tune with this kind of body shape?

I'm directing a thriller/murder mystery for my local theatre and have a page in the programme 'director's notes' where i have to give a little bit of background about the playwright, the play, the genre etc etc. So I've researched the playwright, so now i'm researching the genre.

What is it about thrillers/murder mysteries (Film, TV, theatre, books etc etc) that makes them enjoyable to watch/read?

Before xmas I was put on corticorsteroids for an auto-immune disorder and have gained over a stone in weight - i've got stretch marks on the sides of my hips (left is worse than right) and have started using cocoa butter to help get rid of them, but understand it can be 6-12 months before they fade to white.

Is there anything i should or shouldn't be eating to help this along? ie stuff that will improve the healing process, or stuff i may need to cut down on which is counteractive to them going away.

I'm still a healthy weight for my height, but would like to get my body back to how it was last year, which means losing the weight and the marks.

I'm vegetarian (no fish) as well if that helps.

I've been living with my flatmate since May 2008, but of recent I've really lost patience with him. He does very little in the way of cleaning, leaves his washing up to accumulate for days and days, and constantly leaves the TV on standby overnight (is it so much to ask for him to switch it off at the button?!) and countless other things.

So is 30 days notice a reasonable time frame? He's got 2 weeks of holiday booked off work, so it will probably be easier for him to get hunting for a new place during that time.

The flat is jointly owned by me and my brother (my brother still lives with our parents), but as the elder sibling and the person living there, I deal with all the admin side of things and don't exactly need to ask my brother permission to move my flatmate out. But it will be in my brother's interest to help me find a new tenant ASAP.

I was diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder (ITP) before Christmas and have been on prednisolone since then, with my doses slowly tapering down - I started on 60mg but am now on 15mg and probably going down to 10mg next week. In the 10 weeks I've been on them I've put on a stone and a half, although it mostly seems to be water retention (started at about 9st 6lb, I'm now almost 11st - I'm about 5'7" so still a healthy weight for my height) - I'm told I'll lose all the weight when I come off the steroids, but that could still be several months away! I've tried healthy eating and gentle exercise in the form of salsa 1-2 times a week (high impact exercise not recommended apparently), and while I'm not getting any bigger, I'm not getting any smaller either!

I'm going on holiday to Cyprus for 4 days at the end of March and the bikini beckons, but the jelly tummy doesn't look too great, and I don't think endless sit ups and crunches are going to shift the water retention. So is a more strict diet and more exercise just going to be futile and I've just got to sit tight and wait to get off the medication, or is there actually anything I can do to shift the excess weight, or even just a bit of it?

I realise I'm not fat by average standards, and I understand why I've put on the weight - but I've gone 25 years of being naturally quite slim (but with a few curves in the right places), and suddenly that's been encased in a layer of unsightly flab, and I don't like it! i want my body back the way it was!

I'm currently taking prednisolone for my ITP (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura), and slowly being weaned off it about 5mg at a time every 2-4 weeks. Just gone down to 15mg. But I keep reading everywhere that it's really dangerous if you stop taking them suddenly. My local hospital are useless, and I'm struggling to get follow up appointments with the haemotologist within the 4 weeks for which I have enough supply of drugs (this time I did have the forethought to ask for 6 weeks worth after all the trouble last time) and desperately trying to get through to the receptionist that if I run out of pills, something unpleasant is going to happen to me, but I have no idea what!

Can anyone enlighten me with all the gory details of the withdrawl symptoms? Apparently missing two doses can be enough to land you in hospital - but that's all I know!

I'm currently oral steroids for ITP (low platelets) and have been told by the blood people that I have to be off them for 5 years before I can donate again. Anyone know why this is? I'm intrigued!

I'm taking prednisolone and it suppresses the immune system (as my immune system thinks that my platelets are a virus, and keeps destroying them).

The rail for the shower curtain in my bathroom has been getting really rusty (was put up in May last year). What's the best way to clean it?

I'm directing a murder mystery play for my theatre, and we of course have the obligatory dead body that falls out of a cupboard. Assuming that said man has been dead for about 6-8 hours, would he still be fairly floppy and loose, or would rigor mortis have started to set in? This is more so that I know what to do with the actor who'll be playing him, and it's also going to affect how he's carried offstage (whether he'll have to be very straight or if he'd still be able to bend anywhere).

Fear not, I've already paid it - all £1002.02 of it.

As far as I understand it (my Dad understands it better), 2 years ago, the Inland Revenue had me in the wrong tax bracket and didn't charge me enough. This year they noticed and I've had to pay income tax for this year and 2 years ago. Credit crunch, Christmas, the company I work for have said that they're 99% sure we're not going to get a bonus this year...... yeah, big tax bill couldn't really have come at a worse time.

But I'm intrigued - what would have happened if I didn't pay my tax? Summons to court? A hefty fine? Prison?

I am desperately trying to grow my hair longer without much luck. I've checked the diary in my phone and looks like i haven't had my hair cut since the start of July! Normally i get it cut every 6-8 weeks. It's layered and the longest bits are about level with my armpits, but i really want to get it down to about the level of where my bra fastens at the back (about another 4" to grow) - now i expect to have it cut before then, but how much longer can i get away with not cutting it before it ends up in really bad conditon and i have to have several inches lopped off?

i've stopped dyeing my hair so frequently (my roots are about an inch long, but blend in fairly well) and if i get desperate, i can use a retouch kit. i often leave my hair to dry naturally, or leave it until it's just damp before using a hair dryer. i can't remember the last time i straightened it - 6 months ago? i don't have any split ends that i can see. i'm using a good quality shampoo and plenty of conditioner.

so can i stretch to waiting until 2009 or is my hair going to be crying out for a cut before then?

Just something I've always wondered!

As a child i had a condition called enuresis - i was still wetting the bed until i was 15. aside from wrecking my self-confidence (living in a body over which you have no control really isn't fun) for all of my childhood, this is something i've begun to wonder. i'm now 25 and have grown out of it, but i'm aware that after childbirth, it's quite common to lose some control over your bladder muscles and there's excercises you can do to restrengthen them. but if you've had enuresis as a child, is this more difficult to regain, or are you stuck with a lifetime of incontinence? can this be avoided by caesarean?

i do not care how rewarding natural motherhood might be, if it means condemning myself to incontinence for the rest of my life, i will adopt.

I've booked a job lot of holiday over christmas and I've worked out that I can probably squeeze in a holiday for 5-7 days. I haven't yet decided if I want to stay abroad for New Year's Eve or come home for it.

I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, so I'm hoping a good dose of heat and sunshine will boost my mood.

Things to bear in mind:

I'm in London UK and want to go to somewhere within a 4-6 hour flight.

Preferably not stray too far out of GMT time zone - don't want to waste time getting over the jet lag!

Really, I just want to laze round a pool all day in the sun with a book, and maybe see a bit of culture on one or two days.

I'm more interested in going out for a few drinks than going out clubbing until the early hours.

I'm vegetarian - need a place where I'm not going to discover that there's nothing that doesn't have fish or meat in it.

Been to Gran Canaria (but happy to try a different island in the Canaries)

I love Italy - been twice but told it's not that warm in the winter. Maybe Sicily?

My parents went to Marrakech in Morocco last year and they said it's probably not my thing.

Been to Turkey - not too fussed on going again.

My budget is about £400 max for hotel and flights.

Suggest away!