Thursday 7th January, 2021

Light blue touch-paper, retire to a safe distance.

Posted by at 4:48 pm in A bit of a rant, Health, or lack thereof.
Tags:

Time and again I've told both the GP and the haematology consultants that neither can access, or be bothered to access, the records of the other when it comes to my meds, my clinical notes, my test results or my appointments. Time and again they have refuted my assertion. Time and again I've provided proof (and there's a lot of it), but they still insist that there's no comms issue.

You may well ask: "where's he going with this?"

Well, here's the latest. I'll try to break it into bite-size chunks so that it's easy to process (yes, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust Booking Office, I'm aiming this mainly at you)...

Last year, Leicester Glenfield set me up with a cardiology follow-up clinic, I was to go in to see The Professor on Wednesday 13th January 2021 @ 11:15. A few weeks back I got a letter telling me to stay at home, they would do a phone clinic instead, time and date unchanged.

Well, that's all fine and dandy for them, but seeing as I have to attend Leicester Royal for a haematology clinic at 11:30 the same day, I won't be staying at home, I'll probably still be driving to Leicester at 11:15. I've informed both Glenfield and the Royal, but so far nothing has changed.

Clearly they can't work together as a team even though they are both parts of the same NHS Trust, and allegedly share the same appointments database, but I've become used to banging my head against hard surfaces while trying to get them to wake up and smell the coffee.

But this afternoon I lost it big-time...

The postie delivered yet another NHS-branded envelope. I was hoping that it would be an invitation to get the COVID-jab, or maybe even a rearranged appointment for the cardio clinic, but no, it's an appointment for "MRI Internal auditory meatus Both".

And yes, you've guessed it, the appointment is set for Wednesday 13th. This one is at 08:00 and it's at Hinckley & Bosworth Community Hospital.

One morning, three appointments, three hospitals, one NHS Trust with no coordination. The front-line staff are heroic, but the booking admins are appalling.

Oh, and one more thing. My records state that I don't react well to the contrast agent that they'll probably want to put into me for the MRI scan, I usually end up having rigors, oxygen and a hospital bed for the night. That'll banjax the rest of the day good and proper.

On the 13th, if anyone tries to pull me over to tell me that I'm breaking the stay-at-home laws, I may not be responsible for my actions.

 

Wednesday 6th January, 2021

Each to his/her own

Posted by at 5:38 pm in COVID-19, Shielding, Thanks.

The Beeb's web article has attracted many negative comments from Heroes. I've read most of them and have been swayed to stay indoors and continue to follow the shielding rules for the CEV. Besides, it's dark and damned cold here at 8pm. 5pm might have been a better option.

We'll probably fly the flag anyway:

Saturday 2nd January, 2021

Observing Report 13th-14th December 2020* (Geminid meteors)

Posted by at 11:10 pm in Observing Reports.
Tags: ,

Confined to base but not to barracks, so spent a few nights in the obsy during the Geminid meteor shower.

Here's a composite of meteors snapped on the morning of the 14th.

Click the pic to see a bigger version.

Tuesday 29th December, 2020

Waiting for the turn of the tide

Posted by at 12:42 am in COVID-19, Shielding.

Tuesday 1st December, 2020

Tee-jus

Posted by at 12:10 am in Shielding.

It's been a while... nine months without a working blog. So much has happened during that time, but hardly any of it is worth the telling.

My shielding counter is showing 261 consecutive days. This just about sums it up:

Tuesday 25th February, 2020

Catch-up #5

Posted by at 1:35 am in Health, or lack thereof, Rambling on....

November 2019...

Watched more Rugby.

Attended the village's War Memorial on 11/11 with CJR as we always do, to pay our respects to The Fallen.

Transit of Mercury 11/11 - started at 12:35 - crap weather, so I couldn't observe it. I'll try to hang around for the next one... in 2032.

Several clinics. Skin GvHD is now Grade 2... most hard-earned body-hair lost again... steroid pills augmented with steroid cream and skin-rehydrating lotions, creams and bath oils. I'm now a fully-signed-up soap-dodger!

14/11: Went to GP to make an appointment for the flu jab and for childhood vaccinations, they denied having received a schedule/prescription from LRI. 15/11: Phoned Hambleton, was told that the vaccinations schedule/prescription had been raised and sent.

21/11: Went to GP to make an appointment for the flu jab and for childhood vaccinations, they denied having received a schedule/prescription from LRI. 22/11: Phoned Hambleton, was told that the vaccinations schedule/prescription had been raised and sent.

28/11: Went to GP to make an appointment for the flu jab and for childhood vaccinations, again they denied having received a schedule/prescription from LRI. 29/11: Phoned Hambleton 3 times, turned out that the vaccinations schedule/prescription had NOT been raised and sent even though the jabs were due to start around November 1st and I'd been reminding them about it since September so that I could get the appointments booked before the jabs were due. Turns out that my lack of confidence in the process hadn't been misplaced after all. Fruity invective was applied - I suspect that it didn't make me any less vulnerable to Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Polio, Hib, Hep b, Pneumococcal, Men A, Men B, Men C, Men W, Men Y and seasonal flu, but it made me feel better and no needles were involved.

Black Friday Deals... I'll cover that subject in the December 2019 catch-up post. Stay tuned.

And finally, I managed to get a suitable pic of my friend Bob Harris. He'd been a regular inmate/outlaw at the LRI for years before I started my stint in 2015, I can't remember many days when I was there and didn't meet him. Always talking, always happy, always funny and always loud, everybody knew him and everybody liked him. He passed away in September.

Until we meet again, Bob.

Tuesday 18th February, 2020

Catch-up #4

Posted by at 7:45 pm in Health, or lack thereof, Rambling on....

Here we go... October 2019...

To be fair, there's not much else to add to what's already been posted.

Attended Glenfield Cardio clinic for an ECG test to check for damage caused by the SCT treatment, everything was OK, nothing to worry about.

The car passed its MOT Test yet again. Two days later it blew a headlight bulb. A week later it blew the other one. Go figure.

Ella got Shingles, she found out about it after she'd visited us, so I had to go back to LRI for tests and to be given industrial-grade antivirals in case I'd been infected. My test results came back negative, but the pills-change made me feel crappy for a few days. After some R&R and some standard antivirals, Ella had recovered.

The Virgin Media SuperHub emitted a muffled bang, smoke, and a smell of burning electronics, all web access was lost. Tested the Hub with a replacement power supply... nothing. Tested the original power-supply with a multi-meter... it was fine. Reunited the Hub with the original power-supply... nothing. Phoned VM, explained, they did diagnostics from their end and declared that the Hub's internal power board had blown so they raised an order for a new Hub to be sent out and told me to disconnect and remove the duff kit just to be safe. As I was removing the Hub from the shelf to disconnect it I dropped it on the bookcase, and it started working. So much for remote diagnostic testing, eh? I called VM again to cancel the replacement, they confirmed cancellation but a day later the allegedly-cancelled replacement arrived anyway. Conclusion? VM's internal communications systems and diagnostic testing systems are shite. Oh, and the old Hub continues to work better than it ever did before the incident.

Passed the six-months post-SCT milestone. Clinic staff took the usual clinic blood samples for the usual clinic tests, patched the needle-hole and sent me to the waiting room to wait for the doc. After seeing the doc I was about to leave when I was called back in... they'd forgotten to take the extra blood samples for the extended tests that they do at six-months post-SCT. Another hole-in-the-arm later, I managed to escape.

Watched a lot of Rugby.

We had been planning another epic bonfire/firework party but had to abort due to me being infection-prone and not being able to do much due to ongoing issues with GvHD.

 

Saturday 15th February, 2020

Sent to the naughty step

I consider myself to have been justifiably chastised, and I've been "encouraged" to start making amends. I'll probably go for the month-per-post approach, with post titles taking up where the titles following the previous long hiatus of late 2015 left off. The next post should cover the previously-uncovered bits of October 2019. I'll try to keep the medical side short and sweet, but to be fair there's not much else with which to pad it out...

but I bet I could find some shite like this if I was to trawl through my photos:

This Wednesday's crop. Harsh invective was dispensed.

Thursday 30th January, 2020

Gap filler

This one has no idea how big his arse is, and no idea that it's hanging out:

"You shall not pass!"

Tuesday 21st January, 2020

Mind the gap

Ford Focus fitted with Rear Parking Senseless:

Not the smartest of ideas on refuse-collection day, I know how cavalier the bin-lorry drivers can be.