Friday, October 25, 2013
Today's dealings with the NHS.
Tiring work - being looked after!
And I do feel our great national Health Service has done us proud this week; and especially today.
How my friends who live in some other countries must be in awe of all we receive - oh yes, I know that some people seem to fail to get the very best out of the NHS - but we are very grateful and full of praise for the hard working people within the NHS, who have almost always done their very best for us.
I suppose my only regret must be that we have had so many opportunities to test the system.
Firstly today it was my turn to be cared for.
I had my flu jab and my dose of Vitamin B12 injection.
I have forms to take to the hospital for a blood test and a bottle for a wee test.
The nurse ran through a few of my needs and took my blood pressure.
I was a bit anxious about that.....there has been so much on my mind.
But, good old heart - it keeps doing the business and does it well. My blood pressure was 112/71.
So then we travelled to Brighton.
Poor Bill just couldn't remember where we were going - or why.
Our destination was the research department of the University of Sussex. It is a vast conglomerate of buildings and roads.
On our map, the buildings were all numbered and on the ground the buildings were all named.
It was confusing and we never found the main car park......"Excuse me, University - some of us could do with some better signposts!"
But we did park and then climbed steps by the scores up the side of the hill between modern buildings.
We there found the main car park!
Very pleasant people welcomed us to the diagnostic centre.
I went with Bill to help answer questions about his medical history and then I returned to the waiting room.
I sat with an elderly gentleman waiting for his scan.
We should never compare ourselves with others and it was foolish of me to muse on the unfairness of this 85 years old man not being as badly afflicted as Bill.
This man told me all about the last 3 weeks, about a funeral in North London he had been too and all about the family of the deceased.
Bill couldn't do that.He doesn't know where he has been.
Indeed he has been thinking that we went to Guildford for the scan. Well, I had an MRI scan at Guildford over 20 years ago. It seems that that is the time zone Bill might be living in.
Bill found the scanning rather difficult. He got uncomfortable and disorientated in the scanner - it is very noisy.
It was decided that once the analytical necessary part of the scan had been done, not to proceed with the research project part of the scan.
I wonder what the pictures will show......we will see at some point because we get a disc with pictures of Bill's brain I believe. We will not be able to interpret much - but experts will be able to. We should get an appointment with the experts within a month.
I don't know why Bill couldn't get it into head that we had been to Brighton......once he felt strong enough (after a cup of tea) we went to eat something in The Wetherspoons at The Marina - a familiar enough place.
Now Bill can be very childlike at times.....if we are waiting he wanders and noses into things that are nothing to do with him
I have to tell him sometimes to sit down and wait quietly!
In Wetherspoons he did something else that children might do. I needed the loo and left him at the table, looking at my phone. "Oh no" I thought, "what buttons will he have pressed and what settings will have been changed?"
It was a little later when I checked my voice mail that I heard Jo's voice wondering why I had called her and then said nothing.
"I didn't really phone her" he pleaded" I just pressed something...I didn't talk to her."
Later still we were back at the GP's surgery. "Bill - we are going to the doctor's - it's in Ifield" Good grief we had only been there a few hours earlier.
Then I had to tell him why we were going.
To be honest, I am not sure why we were called in, but we were. We were called in to review methotrexate.
"No pain? Good. Keep taking the tablets"
Dr O has gone part time - maybe it is time for him to enjoy a full time retirement and reflect on the good he has done in the past.
I told him that we had been for an MRI scan and he was a bit surprised.
Well, Dr O was the one who on asking Bill just 5 simple questions had categorically stated that Bill did not have Alzheimers Disease.
"Oh come on Doctor" I was thinking "there are many causes for Bill's problems - are you not interested in pursuing them?"
Fortunately another of the doctors took up the reigns and got things moving.
And things are now moving quite quickly.
Well done Dr A! And thank you.
Tonight I feel sad. I really would like my old husband back, but it does look like he might have gone.
But I will go on loving my naughty little boy who is lost in a world of fog and doesn't worry about it.
And I do feel our great national Health Service has done us proud this week; and especially today.
How my friends who live in some other countries must be in awe of all we receive - oh yes, I know that some people seem to fail to get the very best out of the NHS - but we are very grateful and full of praise for the hard working people within the NHS, who have almost always done their very best for us.
I suppose my only regret must be that we have had so many opportunities to test the system.
Firstly today it was my turn to be cared for.
I had my flu jab and my dose of Vitamin B12 injection.
I have forms to take to the hospital for a blood test and a bottle for a wee test.
The nurse ran through a few of my needs and took my blood pressure.
I was a bit anxious about that.....there has been so much on my mind.
But, good old heart - it keeps doing the business and does it well. My blood pressure was 112/71.
So then we travelled to Brighton.
Poor Bill just couldn't remember where we were going - or why.
Our destination was the research department of the University of Sussex. It is a vast conglomerate of buildings and roads.
On our map, the buildings were all numbered and on the ground the buildings were all named.
It was confusing and we never found the main car park......"Excuse me, University - some of us could do with some better signposts!"
But we did park and then climbed steps by the scores up the side of the hill between modern buildings.
We there found the main car park!
Very pleasant people welcomed us to the diagnostic centre.
I went with Bill to help answer questions about his medical history and then I returned to the waiting room.
I sat with an elderly gentleman waiting for his scan.
We should never compare ourselves with others and it was foolish of me to muse on the unfairness of this 85 years old man not being as badly afflicted as Bill.
This man told me all about the last 3 weeks, about a funeral in North London he had been too and all about the family of the deceased.
Bill couldn't do that.He doesn't know where he has been.
Indeed he has been thinking that we went to Guildford for the scan. Well, I had an MRI scan at Guildford over 20 years ago. It seems that that is the time zone Bill might be living in.
Bill found the scanning rather difficult. He got uncomfortable and disorientated in the scanner - it is very noisy.
It was decided that once the analytical necessary part of the scan had been done, not to proceed with the research project part of the scan.
I wonder what the pictures will show......we will see at some point because we get a disc with pictures of Bill's brain I believe. We will not be able to interpret much - but experts will be able to. We should get an appointment with the experts within a month.
I don't know why Bill couldn't get it into head that we had been to Brighton......once he felt strong enough (after a cup of tea) we went to eat something in The Wetherspoons at The Marina - a familiar enough place.
Now Bill can be very childlike at times.....if we are waiting he wanders and noses into things that are nothing to do with him
I have to tell him sometimes to sit down and wait quietly!
In Wetherspoons he did something else that children might do. I needed the loo and left him at the table, looking at my phone. "Oh no" I thought, "what buttons will he have pressed and what settings will have been changed?"
It was a little later when I checked my voice mail that I heard Jo's voice wondering why I had called her and then said nothing.
"I didn't really phone her" he pleaded" I just pressed something...I didn't talk to her."
Later still we were back at the GP's surgery. "Bill - we are going to the doctor's - it's in Ifield" Good grief we had only been there a few hours earlier.
Then I had to tell him why we were going.
To be honest, I am not sure why we were called in, but we were. We were called in to review methotrexate.
"No pain? Good. Keep taking the tablets"
Dr O has gone part time - maybe it is time for him to enjoy a full time retirement and reflect on the good he has done in the past.
I told him that we had been for an MRI scan and he was a bit surprised.
Well, Dr O was the one who on asking Bill just 5 simple questions had categorically stated that Bill did not have Alzheimers Disease.
"Oh come on Doctor" I was thinking "there are many causes for Bill's problems - are you not interested in pursuing them?"
Fortunately another of the doctors took up the reigns and got things moving.
And things are now moving quite quickly.
Well done Dr A! And thank you.
Tonight I feel sad. I really would like my old husband back, but it does look like he might have gone.
But I will go on loving my naughty little boy who is lost in a world of fog and doesn't worry about it.
