[Richard]

I managed to get through to the PALS office this afternoon after dealing with my wife’s chemo. The very nice lady understood how disturbing it could be and that my time and diary were not my own. Now I await developments.

My wife’s chemo nurse laughed when I answered her question about what we were hoping to do for our eldest daughter’s 30th birthday later in the year; ‘be around’.

[Richard]

I would like to say I am surprised, but sadly I am not. Pain killers in general do little to nothing apart from send the dispatch department of my guts for a long holiday and thus add a new pain dimension when things back up, currently I am alternating between Senacot and latilose, sometimes both together due to the effects of a blood pressure tablet. The only bit some pain killers come close to getting right is the ‘killer’ bit, thank you to the shower who forced Viox onto a complaining market, stand up Merck and take a bow. Some find Tramadol useful, but do beware of side effects. I found it pointless and did not even get a high.

I saw a GP on Monday, I had never seen or heard of her before and have no desire to see or hear of her ever again. She rolled in twenty minutes late to start her day and appeared to be more interested in getting home again.

[Richard]

My saga continues and can hardly be said to run on polished rails. As I received no advice about my appointment re-re-scheduled for the 23rd I have been trying to establish contact with the appointments clerk. At lunch time their voice mail box said it was full, so overflowed to through the switchboard, twice. I eventually got a reply. The appointments clerk is apparently off sick, has not made the appointments into what passes for the system, but had told a number of people they have an appointment; like me they have been calling up asking what is happening and when is the appointment time. The person now in the firing line cannot find out what is happening, as an example of first class personal management the hospital is not a prize winner.Dumping untrained staff into an important role is not a usual or wise management target for the person in question.

I accept that my operation might have removed all of the tissues that needed to go, but the specialist who saw me without the correct paperwork was not so sure. After getting 6 texts inviting me to the then cancelled first review appointment, then spending time travelling across the county and back again for a failed appointment. Then having to turn down an appointment offered for yesterday due to my wife’s treatment. What could have been simply stressful is being made a really stressful total shambles. The icing on the cake is that my wife had a scare on Sunday so we spent 7 hours at the hospital and she did not need yesterday’s blood test appointment anyway as it was all done on Sunday. I could have had a scenic journey across the county on Monday anyway…

Even the PALS office was unable to answer my call.

Maybe it is time to give up.

[Richard]

I know someone who did just that; once.

He had skills in a number of pies but getting the business ducks in a line, then giving them the required swimming lessons was an arduous task, but they were proud of doing it under budget within the project time frame and to the general business satisfaction. Anyone less motivated than Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan, or without the leadership dynamics required should really not apply. They did not say too much about the need to import specialist skills, but any short cuts there are likely to be expensive in project terms.

[Richard]

Yes that looks interesting though a shade more expensive than some but might come with advantages to offset the price, thank you.

 

[Richard]

All hyperbole aside I wish you success with today’s third try at getting relief for your problem and trust that it will not be just a sticking plaster type action.

[Richard]

Thank you to all who shipped in with ideas.

Yes I have looked at Prime and the various offers. Many of them are for the Italian or Polish versions of the machine I was considering and the UK version price is very much the same as the good down the road price, which at one point was actually lower. I do not have to make a final choice today in fact probably not until closer to the end of the month so I will keep looking. After my Moto experience I have become wary, I used the same Nokia for about 10 years with no question of updates, the ‘New World Phone Order’ is thus a little alien and I am wary of jumping into another crocodile pit. The Honor 9 looks to be another interesting option at about the same price point, perhaps I should try a bit more consultation time with the potential user. Unfortunately too many sleepless nights, the effects of her treatments and the withdrawal of some treatment for other ailments to avoid conflicts during the chemo have not made life any easier.

[Richard]

Sounds like more or less normal the skill levels being applied are not quite as high as they could be and spacial awareness of travel considerations do not always register. I do not know what trains are like with you on a Sunday, but a strong thread and a car  bumper looks to be moving up your option list.

[Richard]

blacklion1725 wrote:

I think the Moto’s still get security patches which is enough for most purposes.

Sadly my last Moto G4 Play patch was  was in February 2017… and it already feels sluggish.

[Richard]

Given the state of her health and my poor experience with Moto the budget is somewhat secondary. My concentration and perhaps health is a bit flaky, I would be happy up to about the A6 range so perhaps up to  £300, it is her birthday and her health struggles do not yet have a clear outcome.

I have do desire to fight with Apple products or its prices.

Neither my wife nor I can face down serious issues arising. What I do not want to risk is a mass of problems arising with set up and use; as daughter has the Samsung experience that is another factor in its favour.

 

[Richard]

Your wellbeing person must have something like a nuclear lance at her elbow. My daughter saw a ‘specialist’, (who sounded like a character from a 1950s B movie mad continental scientist) about 8 years ago, we are still awaiting his report… other reports have been promised ‘by return’ but clearly ‘return’ fell off their calender so never arrived yet.

Good luck with co-codamol, I did not find any of them much help, gabapentine – gave it a few weeks but no benefit, tramadol likewise, co-proximol ditto; if any of them did anything it was to ‘stop me up’ if you get my drift. Most have slowly gone back to the pharmacy having fallen out of date; – though in carefully filtered volumes one or two have found a use with my wife while she undergoes her cancer treatment. The cancer unit take the attitude if it works and is not contra indicated, e.g. like alcohol then go ahead, (one of the infusions contains enough alcohol to put you over the driving limit anyway) so drink plenty of water with and after the treatment.

One of the issues with me might be my abreactions to some treatments, sedatives in particular can have the reverse effect and pain killers that should have either a sedative or even a slight psychoactive narcotic like effect don’t appear to affect me in any way I could discern. I could not see why anyone would consider becoming hooked on something with so little effect though others have reported a floating on clouds effect.

Do take care over driving as some pain killers can have direct and serious impacts on speed of judgement and perception; no two people react the same way.

There is nothing worse than 24 hours per day, 7 days per week pain (or pains that play body tag with you popping up in different places) that cannot be shifted, good luck; I wish you success.

[Richard]

Phew, an update. I was out walking the dogs, well the second dog walk of the day as walking the two together is a bit beyond my stability model when the phone rang. As it was only 08:57 it was a bit of a surprise to end up talking to the hospital from the middle of a field track with early morning traffic going by. They wanted me to have an appointment next Monday but that is already fully booked with SWIMBO at another hospital so we agree on the following Monday. I discussed the missing note problem, they agreed to chase up the notes to ensure a success this time.

[Richard]

Thank you to all who commented. For the moment I have not put off any proposed treatments. The loss of the main body of the file means that the only proposal is to give them time to find the darned thing. However, a bit of research by self and SWIMBO has upped the pressure to move things forward, so I will have to see about restarting the paper chase. The cross country run is not great and far better out of the rush hour at nearly half the time. As long as there is no sedation or other impediment to driving I would be OK. SWIMBO is currently barely able to walk some days, let alone drive. I plan to see the GP in the coming days and try to discuss a few things with them to plot a way forward.

Returning to the world of bats, I was wrong, they have not yet left the building, or more accurately the space alongside the house. Sitting in the conservatory last night it was like seeing something from Star Wars as they flew back and forth passing of the side of the house and across the garden towards the trees. They really were so fast it was hard to appreciate their speed and agility.

[Richard]

I agree Steve, though I suspect that the marketing department said get me something to do the job I want. This does not look like a hopeful product, more a triumph of hope and wishful thinking over reality. What will be next, chariot wheels and suits of Roman armour?

[Richard]

Steve, I tend to agree, I have been trying to have a chill and be calm week, I knew I needed it as it has not been the most easy of times. My wife is finding the mid point of the chemo trying which added to the problems of the heat and a shortage of sleep as she has been getting up at silly-o-clock, the snag is I have been getting up at least as often, though I do tend to return to bed. I wondered if I did the right thing by finding out more than I was told, but I now have a better idea of what to think and ask for the future. At least SWMBO’s scan was good but round five of chemo trundles in next Wednesday with Monday absorbed by the usual round of pre-run activities, so brooding time is limited.

There is no point in getting wound up, the return home last night was with light traffic, a cool evening and I achieved the best fuel consumption to date, oh and one of the fastest times. The route was well known as my eldest daughter spent a year training at the hospital in question when doing her degree. Muggins was the taxi driver for most of her time there. At least I knew the way past the worse parts of town, bonus.

[Richard]

Thank you Bob I must now regroup and work on my strategy going forward.

On a related subject to insects and harvesting them, we have just had our one week annual visit from the bat colony that lives down by the canal and river about 500 yards distant. Normally we just find the mess in the morning, the first time I thought that it was acrobatic mice or rats, but then I found out what it really was as they left someone behind for me to bury. Two nights ago I looked out from the conservatory and learned just how fast they fly as a couple of them zoomed by and over the roof. I think that is it for this year as today there is no sign that they were here last night. I guess like many people I thought of them as lumbering things that sort of blundered about in the darkness, not as very fast very acrobatic pilots of nimble flying machines.

Thank you for the hover fly links, the ones we had were quite thin, with bodies more like pencil leads than even pencils, very dainty.

[Richard]

Result!

[Richard]

I should share a thought for the mechanic and his health. I hope he has not sacrificed his health for his business. I wish him well.

[Richard]

I trust that by now something more positive has developed?

[Richard]

A visit to my local Tesco today found several jars of Miso and I bought a reasonably priced 100g item without a problem. It was in the oriental foods area. The web suggests it is currently £1.12 a time. A spoon of it was slightly Marmite like, not to strong, not objectionable in fact quite inoffensive. I could see how it would go in many situations.

[Author]

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