Tuesday 19 February 2008 – 3 monthly check-up
Firstly let me just say I have been examined and cleared fro another 3 months from the outpatients Oncology department.
I was extremely relieved to get the clear from the consultant, whose bedside manner was extremely good, he was however somewhat surprised by my chest Xray as he wondered what was missing from it, he then read my notes and discovered it was the removed lobe.
Today’s visit was at times like a scene from an old British Carry-On comedy.
I was entertained in the waiting/changing room of the Radiography department by some of the comments made by some of my fellow sufferers, they never meant to be funny but they kept me amused.
Such as, the little old man who bought his own set of clothes from home to change into instead of using the wrap around robe supplied. Once he had changed into his clothes he continued to sit in the changing cubicle he had been shown to even after getting changed because he thought it was his room. He ventured out after a while but was somewhat surprised that someone else should want to get changed in his cubicle where he had left his clothes hanging up.
A second gentle man, also of an elderly persuasion, popped his head out of another cubicle to inquire as to the correct way to where his robe, a lady sat two chairs up from me told him it did not matter as she always struggled with them and put the opening to the front. As way of making conversation I then commented to her how I thought the NHS would’ve come up with something better than the all too puzzling item of clothing for covering ones modesty. [I myself never use one, explaining upon arrival that it is just as easy for me to remove my shirt as it is to don one of the robes]. She then lowered her voice to a whisper and informed me that they had introduced a different type of robe specifically for ‘Muslims, to hide the modesty of their women….our modesty can go out the window….they are scarred of upsetting them….’ were her virtual comments. I explained that they probably introduced them because the NHS were scared of not doing the right thing as way of an excuse, but she continued to whisper in hushed tones expounding ‘…you would think it was their country not ours they way they [Muslims] are looked after’. Imagine how funny it was then when it came to her turn to be called in for Xray to find her Radiologist was a Muslim woman. She was as nice as pie to her as she entered the room and I doubt she ever mentioned the robe to her.
The second gentleman, now wearing his robe at the front, sat down next to me and immediately began giving me his recent medical history. He told me how he had been told to take an asprin by his doctor to combat his pains, and if he had not insisted on being seen by another doctor they may never have found his cancer. He then told me all about his cancer as if he were the only one to be diagnosed with it, I guess he was expecting me to react how others would have to his news as he had not long been told that was why he found himself at the hospital. He asked if others at the Oncology department were likely to be suffering from cancer and asked if I had been at the hospital long, I told him about sixteen years. He was horrified to discover that they may want to see him again after his Xrays that day, he has a long, and as yet un-experienced road to travel. He fell silent after I told him I was there after getting the all clear three years ago.
Finally another lady was being shown to a changing cubicle and was about to try to enter one already occupied, as she did so the orderly told her not to use that one as a gentleman was already in there, the lady did not realize she meant the one she had her hand on the door handle to and proceed to try to open the door. As she did so the door was opened by the man vacating it, and as he came out, the lady exclaimed ‘Oh, there is a man in this one too, they are everywhere’.
I know I have made similar mistakes whilst in hospital over the years, I can only hope I managed to amuse others as much as they did me today.
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As an aside to the hospital visit I also went to see my GP to see if it was alright to continue with the Gabapentin as I was experiencing side effects. He told me this was quite likely to begin with and I was to continue taking them. When I asked him for another repeat prescription he refused to give me them there and then and insisted I left the repeat at the desk on my out, this despite my telling him I had ran out this morning. His comment was why? I still had to leave the prescription and I am now without tablets for 48 hours. Ordinarily I would’ve taken exception to this, not only because I was partially at fault for letting them run out but also because I realised he was probably annoyed at the changes the government want to introduce resulting in longer hours for GPs. How much grumpier would he be then? I did overhear him and a colleague last week moaning about the proposed changes and how whey would oppose them, I had not realised he was going to take it out on me though. I feel my relationship I thought I had with my GP is not the same as the one he believes he has with me.
posted by old enough to moan @ 12:47 am
