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| Image by Alfred Derks from Pixabay |
I rang the hospital, spoke to a lovely woman in the Pain Clinic, and told her my new blood sugar count.
She offered me the choice of going on a waiting list for the doctor I had seen previously or an early morning appointment at the start of next month with a different doctor.
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| What the phrase Pain Clinic always conjures up in my twisted mind |
So, quite heroically I thought, I opted for the Pain Clinic appointment in June.
Hopefully, these shots into my lumbar facet joints will ease the extreme pain in my back so I can do more vigorous exercises to help keep the discomfort at bay for the long-term.
I should also point out that I made the call to the hospital using my mobile phone - like a real 21st Century person.
The night before I'd woken at about 3am in a panic about not having a landline for the foreseeable future and used my phone to log into my mobile account (which I'd never actually looked at before)... and found I had "free minutes" every month.
Yes, I knew about these mythical things, but always thought there was a catch. There isn't. A minute is a minute.
That's put me at ease about both my appointment at the hospital and using my phone in lieu of the landline.
However, that state of contentment didn't last too long as I was getting texts from the NHS eye clinic about my test the other week - but I couldn't open them, either directly on my phone or through the NHS app.
Then I got a severe-sounding message that said I needed to go for a new test at a different hospital... and I overreacted. To put it mildly.
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| Picture from Pixabay |
I called Rachel and she managed to talk me back down, then went off to get in touch with the hospital I was being directed to.
[The extra embarrassing aspect of this was that I talking to Rachel via a video link and so her entire office could see - and hear - my rather lengthy emotional breakdown.]
It turns out the pictures of the interior of my eye that had been taken the other day weren't good enough and therefore I was being sent to a hospital unit with better equipment.
Rachel was also told that the "portal" the eye service used to communicate with patients wasn't the same as the general NHS one that I was used to using, and could be a bit "temperamental".
As Rachel calmly explained all this to me, I could feel my mental dials turning down to a normal level again.
I, honestly, don't know what I would do without my wonderful wife.
Annoyingly, my INR was up again (even higher than last week) which means the weekly check-ups will continue for a while.
And I'm concerned that, if it doesn't sink back down into my target range (through subtle changes in the amount of daily medication I take for it), that might also screw up my spinal injections!
I was specifically asked about INR when I rescheduled my jabs - and told I might need to be tested before the procedure could go ahead.
The fun never ends.
Progress is progress and I am happy to read you're making some.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the phone, my friend Yuri would say, "It's the future now. We can do that." lol
Funny, I haven't had a landline since...honestly I can't remember exactly. My ex-wife and I had one when we first moved in together (I think) but moved to cell only before we were even married. That was easily over 20+ years ago, before my nephew was born and he's in college now.
Thank you for the kind words and support. It's much appreciated .
DeleteI can't imagine what's it's like NOT to have a landline... although that's exactly the situation we are in at the moment. And it looks like this situation is going to last for a good while as I can't face talking to our provider again.
Perhaps I'll claw my way to modernity and never go back to having a landline. It's just they've been such a massive part of my life (my late dad was a telephone engineer, so they were always there).