Author Archive.

AMOEBA ALERT!

Posted by on April 13th 2022 in A bit of a rant, Lost in translation, Name and Shame
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The Amoeba Squad has been out in force over the last few days.

 

On Sunday morning I ordered some timber from Wickes, it was a Click & Collect job, and checkout was via PayPal. I don't have an account with Wickes, so I assume that my contact details were gleaned from PayPal.

Wickes started sending emails regarding the order status, that's fine, but they also started sending texts... to my mobile AND to our land-line. Thanks to the amoeba that set up their digital communication algorithm, whenever I get a mobile text the land-line chimes in and we get an auto-woman reading out the text. It/she is hilarious - my order number 680432227 was "order - number - six - hundred - and - eighty - million - four - hundred - and - thirty - two - thousand - two - hundred - and - twenty - seven". Twats.

 

Next, and somewhat predictably, it was the turn of the Aldi Click & Corrupt service. As usual there were some subs for items not in stock.

We'd ordered Easter eggs, all allegedly in stock on Saturday night when the last chance to amend the order had passed, i.e. the point at which the card payment is authorised and the order becomes "firm". But when we arrived at noon on Sunday they'd run out of all the eggs that we'd ordered and for which we'd authorised payment. The reason given was that "they'd been flying off the shelves all morning". So, we can order and authorise payment the day before, but, the day after, someone else can buy them in-store and wipe out the stock, including our items which Aldi couldn't be arsed to reserve? That stinks.

In short, NONE of the eggs that we'd ordered were in stock, so their amoeba-powered algorithm had subbed the lot, and all of the subs were unsuitable:

 

 

The middle item/sub is a belter... I ordered the box of "Specially Selected Exquisite Belgian Chocolate British Birds Eggs" specifically for my Dad, as he's interested in such things, but Aldi thought it would be a good idea to sub it with A SLAB. WTF? In what way is that OK?

Fuck 'em. I rejected the lot.

 

You'd think that would have been enough, but no, there was more to come... the Amoeba Factor was still in effect...

Amazon's Subscribe & Save thing had decided that it couldn't get us any BarleyCup...

 

 

so it offered us this bizarre substitute:

 

 

We're bemused... in which universe is a dry snack bar a suitable replacement for a hot-drink powder?

I mean, I'm partial to a stiff drink now and again, but that's a tad too rigid for me!

Happy Easter!

CHURNed

Posted by on April 9th 2022 in A bit of a rant, In the News, Lost in translation, Name and Shame
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Yet again we see the Beeb playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order...

 

Let's look at the details...

The United Nations Human Right Council (on line 2) is a fiction, it should be the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The correct initialism for the United Nations Human Rights Council is UNHRC, not UNHCR.

The UNHCR is a different UN organisation, it's the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

CHURN is what the Beeb does to initialisms.

Wading through treacle

Posted by on April 8th 2022 in Pics, Site update

There have been complaints about the broken images on this blog. The breakages were caused when a major WordPress update months ago stopped one of the image-processing plug-ins working properly.

Chill out, people. I'm doing my best, but there's no quick solution to this problem - each fix has to be a manual edit.

When I started fixing, the Broken Link Checker had found over 2400, so I'm over halfway there.

The Magic Word works again… sort of

Posted by on March 31st 2022 in A bit of a rant, Health, or lack thereof, Name and Shame
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Now lets move on to the painful/tender left breast issue...

It became troublesome early last year, and on 5th February 2021 I reported it to the LRI haematology team because I have to report all new or changed lumps, bumps, rashes etc. in case they're either secondary cancers or manifestations of GvHD. They thought that it was probably benign gynaecomastia but to be on the safe side they set me up for a CT scan with contrast.

That scan was done on 4th March 2021 but the scanner-jockey wouldn't use contrast despite me saying that I'd been told that it was necessary to have it.

At haemo clinic on 10th March 2021 the scan results were discussed... "nothing found, but specific area not specifically looked at", which seemed a waste of time to me and to the Haematology Consultant. She said that it was likely that the scan will have to be done again at a time when a haemo doc could be in attendance to ensure that contrast is given. She also said that I may also get an ultrasound scan.

At haemo clinic on 24th March 2021 the matter was discussed again... further scans had not been arranged, but they would "get the Breast Specialist involved".

At haemo clinic on 9th April 2021 the matter was discussed yet again... further scans still not arranged, and Breast Specialist not yet involved. The haemo consultant said that he'd chase it up.

And that was pretty much the end of it for the rest of 2021. No scans, no specialist, no suggested treatment but plenty of tender/painful swelling.

By the start of 2022 I'd had enough of having to put up and shut up. It was time to rattle a few cages.

The Magic Word, used at the haemo clinic of 9th March 2022 to get the shoulder issue kick-started, also worked for this issue - within days I was holding an appointment letter telling me to attend the Department of Breast Surgery at Glenfield Hospital on 21st March!

Sadly, the Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon there was another "wants to talk but not listen" doctor. He confirmed benign gynaecomastia and told me to apply Ibuprofen, I replied that I had been on the maximum dose of oral Ibuprofen for other issues for over a year and had been told to not increase my Ibuprofen use in any way, but he ignored that. Sounds familiar, eh? I specifically told him that the report from the consultation must go to the haemo consultants at LRI, as it was them that raised the referral.

Five days later my copy of the clinic letter arrived. It's riddled with errors. It states that I've been reporting "painful lumpiness... for the last few weeks", rather than for over a year. It completely omits the instruction to apply Ibuprofen, and also omits any other suggestions for managing the condition. And just for good measure, he sent the letter to my GP (who was blissfully unaware of this issue) but didn't send it to the LRI haemo consultants despite my telling him to do so. Finally, the letter ends with "The patient was reassured and discharged"... that's cop-out bull-shit, I was not reassured then, and I'm sure as hell not reassured now.

Based on all available evidence, I have diagnosed his condition as "HITS" (Holier-than-thou Ignorant Twat Syndrome).

As you'd expect, I've been on the phone yesterday and today giving them appropriate doses of corrective grief. In fact, I've spent more time sorting their fuck-ups than I spent being fondled and scanned by the breast surgeon.

It looks like there are limits to how much good can be achieved by using the Magic Word.

My expert trumps your pair of quacks

Posted by on March 30th 2022 in A bit of a rant, Health, or lack thereof, Name and Shame
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Back on 3rd March I was rudely awakened by one of the GP's docs flying a desk at my local surgery. I'd had a face-to-face appointment booked for 12:30 to try to get some treatment regarding the "rotator-cuff injury" that first became an issue in February 2021, but Dr. K. S. fucked up - for some bizarre reason the £millions spent on his professional training/salary counted for nothing when he woke me up at stupid o'clock in the morning, claiming that I'd arranged a telephone consultation. After I'd torn him a new one he said to attend at 12:30, but he called again at stupid o'clock + 15 minutes, asking for me to attend at 11:00.

Some people just don't know when to back off, and this doc was one of those people. He'd set himself up for what happened later...

Well, I attended at 11:00, he told me again that scans performed on 16th September 2021 had shown a small tendon tear, and that physiotherapy was the way to go. I was given a different set of "physio exercises" that I clearly couldn't do due to the restricted range of movement of my right shoulder, and was told again that I wouldn't get any more steroid injections. He told me to take more Ibuprofen, I replied that I had been on the maximum dose of it for over a year but he ignored that... he wanted to talk but not listen, and so set himself up for some grief...

I asked for the manager.

The deputy manager kindly made time for me, so I politely gave her a full salvo - inaction regarding the shoulder, no chance of any more steroid injections for it, paracetamol (for treating GvHD) taken off repeat, ibuprofen (for shoulder pain) repeat declined, other repeats changed unilaterally without consulting those who had initiated them, the world shortage of xyloproct, Dr. V.B.'s mangling of my SystmOnline records and repeats, and the 5th-Covid-jab debacle.

She tried her best, but hardly anything got changed or corrected, so six days later I had a word with the haemo team at LRI, as the original referral was raised by them last year. The word that I had with them was "comorbidity".

Well, I reckon that must have been the Magic Word*** - within days I received a phone call from the orthopaedic department, swiftly followed by a letter detailing an appointment with an expert - an orthopaedic consultant.

I went to see her on Monday this week, and it was a revelation...

She told me that x-rays taken way back on 8th June 2021 had revealed bony growth restricting the tendon, which may well have been the cause of the tear. Nobody had discussed that with me before. She said that physiotherapy was a complete waste of time and effort, the only fix would be surgery to remove the bony growth. Until that happens, I should continue with fitness exercises to preserve some arm-muscle/mobility. I'm to get an appointment with the surgeon within a few weeks, allegedly.

Turns out that I was right to question whether "ALJABI, Yasser (Mr), Post-CCT Foot and Ankle Fellow" was the right person for shoulder jobs, that was back in December 2021:

*** That Magic Word worked wonders - it also jump-started a different "stalled" issue that I'll cover in a separate post.

You wait… and you wait… and then you go ape-shit

Posted by on March 28th 2022 in A bit of a rant, Health, or lack thereof, Name and Shame
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More on that MaxFax saga...

I called the UHL Fooking Office today, regarding that pair of appointments:

 

 

 

The phone-jockey said that the appointment for 29th March had been cancelled on the 24th... the same day that the 31st March appointment was generated.

Clearly they must think that I'm psychic, as the second letter doesn't say anything about any cancellation or postponement.

Then the phone-jockey claimed that on 24th March they sent out a separate letter regarding the cancellation. Now, I'd have thought that it would have been in the same postal run as the new appointment, and would have arrived here on Saturday 26th. Indeed, any sane person would have detailed the cancellation in the second appointment letter... or would have put both letters in the one envelope. But no, common-sense did not prevail.

So far I've seen neither hide nor hair of said cancellation letter, so I reckon I've been fed yet another helping of admin cop-out bullshit.

As I said, there really is no foreseeable end to the sorry tale of UHL Booking Office's ineptitude.

And yes, I understand that their "no tolerance anti-abuse policy" covers telephone conversations...

but I've got news for them...

I have a similar policy, mine covers abuse of my patience, and includes an anti-bullshit clause.
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