Still feeling OK, but a little frustrated about the length of time it is taking to begin treatment. Given that what I was told I had by one doctor at Newcastle was a "fast growing" tumour, you might think that there would be a bit of urgency about treating it before it grows back to what it was originally.
Last night I expressed this thought to Olga, which was a bad idea as she then spent a sleepless night worrying about it. This morning she telephoned the radiology department at Carlisle to find out what was going on. She was told that the consultant hadn't looked at my scan yet so he had not been able to start to plan my treatment. And there we were believing that the reason it was taking so long was because planning the treatment was complicated!
It seems to me that being a patient means you have to be patient! I assume that the doctors know what they are doing and the reason for the delay is not simply complacency or lack or resources. But nobody tells you anything. Perhaps this is what we get for living in the back of beyond. If we had lived in Newcastle, where I had the brain surgery, or another major city, would I have been receiving treatment by now, nearly 7 weeks after the operation?
Still, we are where we are and we don't have any other options. It would be impractical and even more stressful to try to speed things up by selling all our assets in order to have such expensive treatment privately. It might not make a difference anyway. And it would be a foolish thing to do, since Olga has to be able to survive this financially even if I don't and she is left without a breadwinner.
So we continue to sit and wait for the good old National Health Service to crank into action.
Good morning Julian, I sure can understand the frustration and it seems the system here in Canada is close to that in Britain. My wife of 22 years pasted away from cancer (that was 10yrs ago) I like Olga spent many sleepless nights and on the phone with doctors and hospitals. Got the feeling after sometime that Cindy was just a number. Sorry to hear of your frustration..regarding the future you do have to plan for it but as you have said and it is so true don't forget to live each day. I do remember very clearly the hardest thing I ever had to do was tell my 6 year girl and 7 year old boy that mommy was gone....To date I have never had to do anything harder than that. Thanks for sharing your struggles Julian and be strong....
ReplyDeleteBe on that phone Julian and don't take no for an answer. You are not a number but someone who needs respect, dignity and treatment. Don't let the NHS burocrats mess you around. My daughter-in-law has been on this sort of run-around and they respond to polite but firm pressure and letters to MPs and senior officials.
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