I'm thinking of giving this stuff a try:
I bet it'll taste awful. Bitter, I'd imagine.
Shouldn't "Nit Picking" be hyphenated?
Archive for the 'Health, or lack thereof' Category
My legs are grey, my ears are gnarled, my eyes are old and bent.
Apologies for the lack of regular posts. I fear that I'm becoming a virtual hiker...
Outdoorsy stuff
For me it's all on hold after the latest consultation. The expert reckons that I might have to wait another six months for my insides to heal fully, only then will they consider a further procedure to remove the tags and piles that were caused by the original op. Any exertion aggravates said tags, leading to inflammation, infection and blockage, this means that I only get limited exercise which in turn has led to significant muscle-loss and a reduction of core body strength. I'm now so unfit that wielding the vacuum-cleaner for only 10 minutes on Wednesday resulted in me straining my back and now I'm confined to quarters and popping the Ibuprofens. Looks like our week in Skye later this month will be a sightseeing tour rather than an opportunity to assault some classic ridges and peaks.
Olympics
Well, I have plenty of time to watch the events on the box as I'm pretty much a captive audience. Anna's down The Smoke right now on a school-trip, she was in the basketball arena this evening watching Team GB v France and Team USA v The Czech Republic, where the Beeb's camera caught her and her friends doing their bit of a magnificent Mexican Wave. After overnighting at Eton College she'll be spending the morning in Greenwich Park watching the equestrian events.
Astronomy
I have plenty of time for this too, but the weather's been naff at night. On the odd occasions when it's been cloudless the jetstream has been playing havoc with the seeing - the last time I imaged the Moon it looked like someone was pouring water over it:
Hailstorm damage
The Loss Adjuster's been around and we have agreed terms. We've already been paid out for damage to the outbuildings, primarily because I'd done the pricing-up myself, but we're still waiting for builders to provide quotes for the repairs to the house roof and the windows. There's so much property damage around here that we're on a long waiting-list for repair-work, we're looking at mid- to late-September at the earliest.
Ah well, never mind, things could be worse.
Striking out on a new bearing
It was way back on May 18th that the consultant's secretary at that Leicester hospital told me that she'd contact me within a week concerning the follow-up appointment needed three months after my April 23rd consultation. Needless to say, since that conversation in May I've heard nothing from her, her boss, the Admin Managers or the appointments personnel. No letter, no email, no phone-call. It's an appalling, deceitful and shameful way to run a public service.
Here in the real world we've not been so idle. On June 16th I saw my GP again and at my request he was happy to refer me cross-border to a Coventry hospital for a second opinion. A mere four days later I received a letter detailing the consultation arranged for me and advising me that if surgery is required then it would be "within the NHS 18 week pathway".
I attended that consultation today and after examining me the new consultant decided that he would need to perform another flexible sigmoidoscopy, looking specifically at the areas that are painful and/or dysfunctional. Fearing that I'd be on the waiting-list for a long time due to the 18 week pathway, I asked for some estimate of when the procedure could be done. I was gobsmacked when the consultant checked his diary and offered to do the procedure on July 19th! He didn't involve an Admin Manager, a secretary or an appointments clerk, it was all agreed and arranged between us then and there, even before I'd risen from my seat!
I might email that Leicester hospital to let them know just how simple and easy such things can be, but I suspect that they couldn't care less.
Tonight I'm genuinely happy for the first time in many months. I'm beginning to believe that the light at the end of the tunnel is more than just the illuminating tip of a butt-probe...
Helen A. Handcart
So, where were we? Ah yes, the three-month Mebeverine/Colofac trial (for which I was told to acquire drugs for only two months). As previously stated my flexible sigmoidoscopy took place on 23rd April and I am supposed to attend a follow-up clinic three months after that, so we're looking at sometime during the "backend" of July by my crude reckoning. Basic maths and all that. You'll recall my parting shot: "Now, dear readers, it's time to place your bets... the three-month follow-up appointment should be for sometime around Monday 23rd July... how close do you think they can get?"
Well, this morning I'd still not received a letter about the follow-up appointment so I phoned the hospital appointments people. The woman I spoke to was somewhat edgy and told me that there were no clinics arranged for the summer, she wouldn't tell me why although she said that she did know. I asked her if the place was closing down, she went quiet, then she got flustered, then she advised me to speak with one of the General Surgery Admin Managers.
I phoned an Admin Manager and she was a bit more forthcoming with information. She said that they have four consultants and in theory they work a six-week rotation. Of those four one is in long-term recovery after an op, one is awaiting an op and will be in recovery over the summer and one appears to be available for duty. And what about my consultant? They're letting him go on holiday again, regardless of them being short-staffed. And when he's not on holiday he will be dividing his time/loyalty between slaving for the NHS and making a fortune at the BUPA hospital. I think we can guess where his priorities will lie. They're trying to draft in more consultants but there are "funding issues" and "staffing issues".
She then advised me to contact my consultant's secretary so I made yet another call. Said secretary Helen told me a similar tale of woe - my consultant would hold no clinics before the end of August as he wouldn't have time for them.
Now I'm no expert but I'd have thought that if patients were treated effectively from the start, so as to reduce the chances of complications and the need for follow-ups, then the demands on consultants wouldn't be so high and funding/staffing issues would be less of a burden. Back when I was in Quality Assurance we called it getting it "Right First Time", and when it wasn't right first time we worked hard and fast to make it right ASAP. Mind you, industry was customer-driven - no customer-satisfaction meant no cash. The NHS isn't customer-driven, indeed it's difficult to tell if there's anybody driving at all. Maybe it's on Otto Pilot?
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that there are no clinics scheduled until September at the earliest, by which time I'll have been off my drugs for longer than I was taking them. What sort of three-month trial is that?
My consultant's secretary says that she''ll "get back to me" sometime next week.
Yeah, like that'll happen. I'll not be holding my breath.
The one good thing about this postponement is that we can now finalise our holiday plans. Skye in August. And when my arse falls off while I'm high in the Cuillin and they complain about having to treat me again because they reckon that I've overdone it, I'll take great delight in reminding them that my consultant has declared me to be OK for that sort of thing.
Oh, and the Mebeverine isn't making any positive difference anyway, but it does make the call of nature harder to answer and gives me so much wind that I could drive all of Wee Eck's windmills 24/7.
Irritable Bastard Syndrome
Well, I went for that follow-up consultation on Friday 2nd March. After the obligatory greasy-finger insertion I was told that must have a "flexible sigmoidoscopy" within two weeks and the consultant marked the ensuing paperwork to reflect that requirement. Needless to say, it didn't happen - after two weeks without said appointment I phoned the hospital's Endoscopy Department and they had no idea what I was on about. Eventually someone found the paperwork sitting in the in-tray, nobody had dealt with it. By then, the next available slot with my consultant was... April 23rd. There was much conflab twixt me (supported by my GP) and the hospital but they weren't prepared to bring forward the date for the sigmoidoscopy.
So on Monday April 23rd (eight weeks later, six weeks late) I went in for the procedure. The consultant couldn't see anything wrong with my innards but did note that I have skin tags... and haemorrhoids! His diagnosis was that the original haemorrhoidectomy and the difficulties encountered during the recovery period have left me with unexplainable symptoms of urgency and pain. He put me on Mebeverine/Colofac (135mg thrice daily for two months) and said that I should attend a follow-up appointment after three months. He said that Mebeverine/Colofac (a drug used to treat Irritable Bowel Syndrome) would be cheap to buy "over-the-counter" and so a prescription would not be necessary. Amazingly, he also declared me "fit for duty", saying that I was OK to do all sorts of stuff including fellwalking, DIY and garden groundwork.
Well, later that day we went to the pharmacy to get the Mebeverine/Colofac and were told that the bill would be huge (over £50), they couldn't understand why I'd not been given a prescription.
A day later and I was back on the phone having words with the consultant's secretary. She said that she'd contact the consultant, get things sorted and phone me back later in that week. She said that she thought that >£50 was a lot and that in her opinion a prescription would have been preferable.
As usual there was no forthcoming communication so this morning I called her again. She'd sent a letter that I was yet to receive (it was delivered a few minutes ago) which stated that "Mebeverine is an over the counter drug, which unfortunately cannot be prescribed".
Hmm... "cannot". That's not the same as "would not be necessary". Something awry there. Time for some more sabre-rattling!
Back at the pharmacy I asked the nice people there to do me a costing for my needs so that I could take it to my GP. The bill turned out to be a whopping £65.88! If my consultant really thinks that's cheap then he needs his head looking at!
Then it was back to the nice people at my GP surgery, armed with the costing, the sigmoidoscopy report and the consultant's handwritten note about what treatment I needed. About an hour ago I got an over-the-phone appointment with my GP, I explained all and after his incredulity had subsided he told me that he would write a suitable prescription for me and that I could collect it later today.
Result!
I have it in mind to visit my consultant, wave a copy of said prescription in his face and then rattle my sabre up his arse to see how he likes it!
Anyway, here are a few tips for any budding colo-rectal consultants out there:
- Two weeks does not equal eight weeks. If you can't deliver (or can't depend on others to deliver) on your promises, don't make them;
- Mebeverine/Colofac can be prescribed - my GP has proved this;
- "Phoning someone back the same week" is not the same as ignoring him/her until he/she phones you the week after;
- £65.88 is not less than £7.65, the current UK prescription charge. This is simple maths but needs a basic grasp of reality;
- If you say that a course of drugs is required then YOU should prescribe it rather than leave the patient to acquire such a prescription from his/her GP.
Now, dear readers, it's time to place your bets... the three-month follow-up appointment should be for sometime around Monday 23rd July... how close do you think they can get? Last time they were out by a factor of 4, if they do that again then we'd be looking at April 2013!
