Archive for January 2017

Take yer pick

Posted by on January 26th 2017 in @ the movies, Just for fun, Video (YouTube, Vimeo etc.)

Not much happening in the real world, so here's some semi-sci-fi and a classic ad:

Tree fellers at work

Posted by on January 19th 2017 in In the garden
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Actually there were five of them.

You can't beat a time-worn old-fashioned Irish joke.

 

More to follow.

lalala

Posted by on January 18th 2017 in LMAO!

 

Allegedly it should also say "I won't be listening but I'll pretend to write it down anyway", but they couldn't fit all that text in the available space.

For the lodger

Posted by on January 17th 2017 in Just for fun
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 Trash

Adapted from http://www.xkcd.com/1786/

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory – Part 2

Posted by on January 13th 2017 in A bit of a rant, Health, or lack thereof

The call came, the results are in, and they're not brilliant. They make a mockery of yesterday's result-less consultation, which I am sure would have had a significantly-different outcome if the results had been available for analysis at the right time.

So, let's see what's what...

Ferritin vs Hb: Well, the ferret-reduction process continues to work while the Hb manages to stay within acceptable limits, but the rate of reduction has decreased significantly:

 

 

Neutrophils vs WCC: These are both trending downwards which isn't good. The newts are heading towards their bottom-limit, and the whites are now below their bottom-limit. I suppose it's possible that the lower-than-usual results could be explained by the testing being done by a different lab, but I suspect that the drops are real. If the latter, it could be that my remission has stalled, or it could be that my levels have dropped due to me fighting an infection (which is unlikely considering that I have a low CRP score of 5). Either way, it needs the beady eye of a diligent consultant, and probably further testing, to figure it out:

 

 

Of course, it could have been dealt with yesterday, but it was so easy for the consultant to smile it off, blame it on the system and assume that all was still OK. Well, here's the news, Professor... IT'S NOT OK. And that means an unplanned visit to LRI early next week, and another unnecessary cost added to the NHS overdraft.

It's not all bad news... platelets are higher than usual (213), so at least I won't bleed to death any time soon.

You can tell that it's Friday 13th.

P.S. I suppose it's possible that I've been given someone else's results again, they do seem rather prone to doing that for me.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

Posted by on January 12th 2017 in A bit of a rant, Health, or lack thereof, LMAO!

So, with venesections every third Thursday and out-patient consultations every fourth Thursday, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that every 12 weeks the two sessions will fall on the same day. Today was such a day.

A month ago some bright spark at LRI decided that on such days it would be best to perform just the one set of blood tests, at LGH, on samples taken just before the venesection. Said tests were to cover everything needed for the venesection session at LGH and everything needed for the out-patient consultation at LRI about three hours later. LRI gave me an appropriately-completed bloods specimen form with attached samples bag to give to LGH on the day. It was, allegedly, a fool-proof idea...

I turned up at LGH early this afternoon, they took the blood sample and I handed them the form/bag from LRI. They said that they didn't need the form/bag as they would use their own, so they took away the LRI form/bag for disposal. They also said that they were now using a super-duper digital system on PDAs which would make data collection, storage and transfer much better. I was insistent that the tests would have to cover the requirements of both appointments and that the results would have to be available at LRI by 16:15. They were equally insistent that it would all work flawlessly. I was then bled and given saline as per usual. All good so far.

Of course, in accordance with my expectations and contrary to theirs, it didn't work at all. Nearly four hours later over at LRI the consultant couldn't find the test results in the database, so the consultation was a complete waste of time.

 

 

My Friday is now trashed. I have to wait in for a phone call - someone from LRI will be calling the land-line (but not the mobile) IF the results can be found. Oddly, even though they are going all hi-tech with PDAs and the like, and the results (and my records) should be on a database, they are not allowed to send me the results via text or email. For reasons of security the information has to be given verbally. How quaint!

But hey, they DO like to send me appointment-reminders via text - one seven days before each appointment, and another five days later - telling me that every missed appointment costs the NHS an average of £126.

We sure as Hell won't be doing it their way again. To quote Tolkien's Pippin: "Short cuts make long delays."

Maybe I should be charging "an average of £126" for this afternoon's fiasco?

Welcome to 2017.