After calling the doctors to find my test results, it seems no news is good news, or in this case, we won't call you if it is good news.... anyway a nice low score resulted Thanks for setting up this reminder
Well , since my earlier post, MRI scan happened quickly, 7 days later I’m off for a biopsy on Monday ….Can’t fault the efficiency of the NHS. Got a phone call to arrange the appt as they still worry that their letters go 2nd class. Can’t fault the service ( so far ) , as rapid as Charlie’s but I don’t expect the same choice of lunch
Mine was a home test kit, you pour your blood in what looks like a Covid test strip thing. Cost £49. The people that run the front desk at our local GP are complete see you next Tuesdays. Highlights in the last 4 years include Refusing to book my partner and I on a medical despite our offering to pay for them, for weeks and weeks, leading to us having to drive 260 miles to get it done privately. Claiming I don’t have the right to my own medical records. Eventually, having quoted their own website back to them, they made a copy 4 MONTHS later, which resulted in the 6 months medical window running out and another 260 mile round trip to renew them. Phoning me to come pick up said medical records, which meant having to take time off work, for me to arrive to be told the woman that had them was off for the rest of the day. This happened twice. Just last week Lucy had a physio appointment at 4pm, having waited 3 months. She arrives, tells the woman on the desk why she’s there. She waits until 5pm whilst they start locking up, asks the SAME woman on the desk if the physio is running late to be told there is no physio in that day and she has to leave as they are closing up. It’s not the doctors, it’s the toss pots that work for them.
I’ve reported it to the practice manager, and have started the complaint procedure through NHS Wales. My suspicion is it’s local people being local with us being perceived strangers.
It's a bit hit and miss isn't it? My worst ever nhs experience was in Wales, it was third world compared with what I was used to. Here my local GP surgery is top notch, respond to everything positively in a timely fashion. But it's shut at the weekend, so on a Saturday I have to use the GP walk in place at the local hospital. The overall atmosphere there is patients are parasites and from receptionist upwards they treat you like something smelly they trod in. It's deliberately understaffed so the waiting room is packed out all day. I went there once and waited the entire opening hours to not be seen at all.
The farmer next door can’t praise them enough, so it’s quite probably the Welsh version of ‘Baint loik strangers down this way’ I’m just hacked off that what really is first line triage is manned by someone who thinks they are a doctor but whose most important task is shuffling people around an outlook calendar all day.
I have a good Welsh friend who lives up on the Lleyn Peninsula at the end section , they really are proper Welsh there . They speak Welsh all the time i really felt like i was in a different country ...it was nice to hear . He took me to a pub one night way out the way in the sticks (as if we weren't already ) and said to me ..you will be alright in here with your name being Ewan . Entering the pub resembled an atmosphere as crazy as that bar in Star wars ...i didn't tell them that my name is a Scottish version . I think an Englishman entering that place would be like dropping a caterpillar into an ants nest . That said i had a great wild night with them all .
Good luck with it all. Since my earlier post I've been in hospital for a few days as I started peeing blood, turns out I had a kidney infection. As part of the diagnosis I had a scan and my prostate has grown a bit more and my PSA is 18.3 which apparantly is very high. I've now got to go back next week for a further test so keeping my fingers crossed.
I was distracted by Four nurses who were LFC fans and one Everton one…thank goodness she wasn’t firing the shots As an aside…. My local hospital Clatterbridge Wirral, which is a renowned oncology centre. I was shocked at how many people were in the “ day surgery unit” waiting area .At one point a nurse had to ask for relatives to leave so as to allow space for patients ! Later, thoroughly impressed with all of the newly built “ examination rooms” 16 in total, I spoke to a senior nurse ( 30 years experience) . She was so frustrated, she said the department had asked for 12 new beds, and 4 exam rooms. They were given no new beds , but 16 new exam rooms…most unused. I really felt her and her colleagues frustration. It is , of course, simple to say , …but why are these senior “ hands on “ members not listened to. Any body, seeing the waiting room , the empty “ exam rooms “ no post op beds….could see she was clearly correct. Rant over. Treatment excellent but I felt for the frustration of the terrific staff team.
Well. Was very reluctant to post this but having had a meeting today with Oncologist, Urologist and MacMillan specialist nurse today who all made me promise to get the message out I will…. My biopsy revealed the dreaded C , all happened quickly and I have today embarked on the non surgical route, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. I was very , very lucky as I was diagnosed “ early”. Chatting with the consultants they really pushed me to spread the news . So I am. Their advice ….if you are over 45 certainly over 50 , insist on PSA test, it may/ may not be accurate but it certainly is better than nothing and gives a datum level for future tests.. SO DO IT.
This has been a strange old day for that news….never know if a like is a good thing or not. I wish you well, as you say, get the test done, catch the bugger early.
