geoff and I make an old mans radiotherapy club

quite a coincidence but on Friday my next door neighbour and I are booked in at the exact same time for radio therapy scans in Leeds. So Maria is driving both of us together at 9:00 am. What a party eh!

‘Twas a good day today. My numbers from the NAC are going in the right direction. That will be down to double dose chemo hurrah! and somewhat to our surprise everything at Leeds was well organised and not unpleasant. It’s a nice big hospital I actually like it better than York and the drive is not bad. Walking about hurt quite a bit as did lying flat for the scan but I only have to do that for 20 minutes, so I prepared by syringing down a good dose of morphine in the lavs before the scan. Felt very naughty and a bit ‘breaking bad.’ Nothing chaotic to report. We hung out in Costa with an older couple who were also waiting for something and talked musicals. She couldn’t see much and he couldn’t hear much but that were massive fans and very impressed by Maria but because of the background noise Maria and I couldn’t hear either, so it was quite challenging to share our Andrew Lloyd Webber reflections without doing a very loud performance to to all the Costa customers. Still the time flew by.

So tomorrow for some reason I get a further telephone consultation then on Friday one big dose of Radiotherapy that will hopefully deal with the pain. Just one dose I am glad to say. We worked out that every day bar one this week Maria will have been driving somewhere to get medication or to take me to a hospital now she has added another responsibility just to keep her that bit busier.

Had a McDonald’s as a treat on the way home from Leeds. Slightly regret that although the caramel frappe was nice. Exhausted this afternoon with all the excitement and somewhat concerned that we have weather warnings for Friday. As you know one breath of wind or drop of rain means power cuts for the whole village so both our neighbours are setting up their extension leads to our petrol generator in readiness. We then WhatsApp each other to say if we are boiling a kettle because we can’t have more than one kettle at a time unless we want the generator to go into lift off. It’s actually quite good fun. Feel like survivalists. Won’t it be funny if it’s a lovely sunny day without a cloud in the sky and we are set up or the apocalypse.

I am still chasing down the correct prescription for my painkillers. So one of the haematology nurses and I have a daily chat about where they might be in the system today. Seems they are delaying trying to get the GP to issue them and now the order could be sitting on my consultants desk waiting to be actioned (hate that expression) if those get delayed I must admit I will be in trouble by the weekend.

I do feel sorry for the NHS. I believe we do pretty well but only really by taking tons of responsibility ourselves and being reasonably capable. They are just miles too busy and don’t have enough people working for them. I have had only one bad experience in 11 years so I think we have been very fortunate. Everybody is trying but it’s impossible with so much demand and a system that is just not joined up either digitally of physically. So often one person has no idea what another person has done or should be doing. The administrative cockups are annoying but perfectly bearable if you don’t get into a state and take the time to talk them through. My retirement is undoubtedly well timed. If I were still working I would have long since gone completely crazy.

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