How Was Your Day? VII

[Splashy]

Currently in a hotel called The Savoy in Bournemouth it's 12 degrees outside yet the heating is on full hair it's like a sauna I have the window fully open and are still baking... on the plus side I have full wifi and are catching up on my TV.... had a great day wandering down the prom... the room is very pokey but they wanted to charge £90 for it I got them down to 50 still not worth the money. But it is amazing how would you explain to someone your visually impaired they then suddenly expect you to be able to fill in a form with a pen and don't get me started on how they can't understand you can't read the menu at breakfast all know where the hell to go to get the food I'm thinking of the last hotel I was in the other side of the Bay I literally fell down the stairs nobody gave her a fig they just presumed I was drunk I was holding my white stick at the time but they didn't seem to understand what that meant they ain't going to get a good review on TripAdvisor

[swmc66]

Weather much better than here. Thank goodness Haloween is over. the Eastern European community had their kids out daily trick or treating 10 days in advance. I keep telling them its 31st October each year not 20th October then i get eggs thrown at my door.

[Splashy]

Home now.. the phone is ok to post with via voice to text software, but I cant fully annoy the internet without my lappy.

[Splashy]

Tried to book an appointment with my lovely Doc, seems she is too brilliant and the waiting list is 8 weeks

She is the best but I know the Doc I could get will be just as good.

Still shocked at the drop of 90 off percent of euro nurses applying to come and work here and all the gov can say is that they are boosting home training for nurses while still paying rubbish money.. if they do get trained here the first thing they will do is move abroad for better money.

Im lucky I have no loans but today was a bad day for those in debt.

[Kim]

My surgery have gone insane. You can't book an appointment, you have to book for the doctor to phone you and decide if you need an appointment. If a doctor isn't free to phone that day you have to go there/call again the next day, they don't just add you to tomorrow's list. Time to change I think.

Congrats on your colour change, Splashy.

[swmc66]

They are convinced a lot of people are wasting GPs time so another new scheme by the looks of things. The thing i mind is when receptionist try and get your illness details and act as the gateway to the Dr. At one time we had to see a pharmacist and they had to decide whether we needed to see a GP. It was awful being asked what was wrong with you in a queue at the chemist. I refused to be part of this scheme and so did others so it did not last long. Tell them you will go to A and E when they refuse to see you. Their funders dont like that.

[Siobhan]

I hate going to the doctor as I always feel bad that I am wasting time even though I am really sick. I never go for a cold. Had to go today and found I have some stomach bug and I am on a liquid diet (soup or broth only) for the next 2 weeks.

[Perdita]

I hate going to the doctor as I always feel bad that I am wasting time even though I am really sick. I never go for a cold. Had to go today and found I have some stomach bug and I am on a liquid diet (soup or broth only) for the next 2 weeks.

Wrong attitude, any doctor will tell you that you are never wasting their time and some illnesses are better found out sooner rather than later... I hope you get better real soon xx

[Splashy]

I always write down a list of my symptoms so I dont waste their time rambling on or leave haven forgotten to ask a question etc

But then I ended up in a farce last time where I couldnt find the right door and even when she came out and was calling for me in the corridor I could hear her but couldnt see where she was due to me poor peepers. Very embarrassing.

Hope you get well soon S.

[Pantherboy]

Wrong attitude, any doctor will tell you that you are never wasting their time and some illnesses are better found out sooner rather than later... I hope you get better real soon xx

You are so right, Perdita! (& I hope you are feeling better soon, Siobhan!).

Us guys are notorious for not wanting to go to the doctor when we should. Earlier this year my wife reckoned that a skin tag thing on my back had gotten bigger & that I should get it checked out. It took some convincing, but eventually I relented & went to the doctor about it. While it turned out benign (they did a needle biopsy), the doctor suggested I have a full checkup & blood tests etc, as it had been quite a while (ie many years!) since I had anything done. These tests showed up some "anomalies", & so it is now 6-8 months later & over that time I have had an ECG, heart stress tests, CT Scans, Renal Ultrasounds & a battery of blood tests (even a gene mutation test!!).

The results? While my ticker appears to be OK, it seems I only have 50% kidney capacity left now (they reckon I would have been born with less than 100% to begin with). I have to have my blood pressure taken every 3 months from now on plus a kidney function blood test every 6 mths - any deterioration & it's back to the specialist. Needless to say my family weren't thrilled to hear that I may have to come looking for a kidney one day! Haha!

I also had to see a haematologist for more tests. So it also turns out my blood is too thick - producing too many red blood cells - & is at a level which leaves me at somewhat of a high risk of blood clots or a stroke! I have had to take aspirin daily for the past couple of months to try & thin my blood out, & have to go back in early December to see if that is working. If not, a bone marrow biopsy is the next step (which the doc reckons can be a bit painful!!). Hopefully it won't come to that! (In the meantime, he said to come back straight away if I ever have chest pains or slurred speech etc!).

Considering this all started with the little skin thing on my back, each of the doctors has said to me "I suppose this has all come as a bit of a shock to you?". You can imagine my response! When they asked if I am feeling ok, I said that I was before, but I am not so sure now!!!

I suppose the moral to all this, as Perdita has importantly pointed out, is that you should always go to the doctor no matter how small your condition/illness is, or how much a waste of time you think it might be. Again, as Perdita said, it is better to find some things out sooner rather than later. After her own health scare late last year, my wife insisted I go to the doc this time. If I hadn't found all this out now, & hopefully can take steps to control/monitor it all, then it may have been a much bigger problem further down the track.......

(Sorry to inflict this little rant on you guys, but I am feeling a bit anxious leading up to my return visit to the haematologist in December - I am a bit 'doctored out' at the moment!)