Sympathies Rich, much of what you say rings a bell or two
I suppose this really belongs in the Whose Doing What Maintenance Today thread, but I toddled of to the emergency room this afternoon, just to get my diagnosis confirmed.
They Checked my oil pressure which was allegedly low at 112/60 (whatever that means) and spent a long time listening to my history and then offered me a blood test, x-Ray and an infusion.
Soon I had this breather extension attachment fitted...
Then they proceeded to to extract copious quantities of red coolant
Next they rigged up the breather extension to some sort of expansion bottle dangling from a flimsy looking frame, through these little tubes...
The whole set-up didn't look very robust, and I guess they realized this, because after an hour or so, they dismantled everything and threw it all in the garbage.
Then I was told to follow a quite attractive nurse down to x-Ray. I was positioned on a vertical solid white screen type thingy, and after dropping my kecks, I got buzzed by x-Rays full frontal and then side-on.
Now the nurse and I were on first-name terms

and I followed Mihaela back to the ER where the real doctor proceeded to divulge the results of the tests they'd done on the coolant extraction.
Bottom line,
Rheumatoid arthritis.
I'm now scheduled for an MRI scan, which should explain why I appear to have enlarged separations between 2 or 3 vertebrae, showing up on the X-Ray.
Hey ho, it's been with me for a long time, so at least I now have something to call it, instead of just a bad back.
Twice in in one day, I've got to be on first-name terms with folks I've never met.
MRI sometime next week all going well.
Still, that flimsy expansion bottle rig thingy did some good, it's 11:15 and I've had no pain whatsoever since 7:00
