Kitchen Garden Forum

I am going into hospital tomorrow for a colonoscopy under a general anaesthetic and the leaflet which came with the medicine you need to take. (I wont go into any more details) really made me laugh.

""THe day prior to your admission you may eat in the morning only, avoiding meat, fibre and red wine, You may drink normally"

Now I know I sometimes like a glass of wine (white only with a dash of soda) but come on I dont think we need to be told not to drink red wine in a leaflet particularly at breakfast. It just tickled me no end.

I didn't put tomato ketchup on my poached eggs and had white toast. Just in case it had the same effect as red wine.

Dear Catherine, that made me smile too.

And i hope all goes well for tomorrow.....

So Catherine

No eggs and bacon, no toast, no cereal - looks like you'll have to make do with half a bottle of champagne

Seriously, hope all goes well for you.

Alan

All the best, Catherine, particularly for the result!

Thank you, I am sure all will be OK. I will have to wait for the Champagne till Wednesday

Quick update everything is clear so I will be able to have my glass of champagne tomorrow (well maybe some sparkling water and pretend)

Dear Catherine, brilliant news indeed, enjoy your drink.

Thanks OH very relieved. Can start planning my planting now.

Glad everything is OK.

I spoke too soon me thinks. Just come back from three and a half hours at A&E. What is it about these places. The seats were metal, there was no heating, loads of really weird people, and the waiting time was 2+ hours to be seen.

My jaw went into a spasm this morning and I could not open nor shut is properly and it was very painful. I rang my doctor, and spoke through gritted teeth to the receptionist who told me to go to A&E. But because I had had an anaethetic yesterday I could not drive and I had to wait for my OH to come home.

We got there and I explained what had happened to the receptionist. I was triaged and told to go and wait. I am still suffering from yesterdays anaesthetic and did not feel too well and I had not been able to eat anything.

There was a elderly lady in a nighty and dressing gown sitting in a wheelchair with no blanket. I went over to ask her if I could get her a blanket and she refused. (There was a good heater in the ladies loo and I was tempted to go and sit in there)

I eventually saw the very nice African SHO who sent me for an Xray, waited there half an hour only to be told that there was a protocol they had to follow and I would have to go to my dentist!!! They would not xray me. I burst into tears, they sent for a more senior person who agreed to do the xray. (Don't know why the doctors request would not do) I then had to wait another three quarters of an hour for the results of that. The outcome they say is that my jaw has gone into a spasm due to the anaesthetic and I need to take more painkillers and go and see a Max! specialist on Tuesday.

I have always had problems with my jaw coming out of line which has got worse more recently. A general anaesthetic has made it a lot worse.

But my experience at the local Urgent Care Unit is not good.

Dear Catherine, sorry to read you have been up against it, hopefully things will soon improve for you.

We had a similar experience before Christmas with our A&E department.

My husband started to suffer nosebleeds - not normal ones - in fact on one occasion it was so bad that I had to call an ambulance. After this bleed where he was left sitting in a sideroom with a streaming nose for almost 2 hours until a scheduled appointment at the ENT clinic.

The nose was cauterised and we were told to go back if the bleeding recurred. It did so back we went to ENT where we were given and ENT appointment for the following day - a Saturday. This turned out to be a mistake as there was no clinic on the Saturday so after trawling the hospital unsuccessfully trying to get information, (no reception or information desk at the weekend as they had to cut costs), we went back to A&E where we were told that the next available clinic was in 10 days time. Bearing in mind my husband was having at least one hour long nosebleed each day. I saw red and we were booked in to see an A&E doctor who repeated that the only course of action was to wait for the ENT clinic appointment.

After I had had a heated debate with the doctor he agreed to consult the ENT people at which point my husband was admitted to the Surgical assessment unit and had another cauterisation. The ENT guy was great saying that they always took nosebleeds really seriously to which I replied that it was shame that A&E didn't.

That didn't solve the problem and we were back at A&E again a day later. This time my husband was referred straight to the ENT guys which resulted in his being admitted and having another 2 cauterisations and a nose packing.

Each of the many times at A&E we had a wait of over an hour before seeing a doctor.

It is proposed that two other A&E departments in neighbouring towns are closed and this hospital takes on their patients. It doesn't seem able to cope with the current demand. Cuts don't affect patient care though do they?

Can I tell an A&E story, I don't have much on gardening. I could talk about the weather but the A&E story whilst awful at the time always gets a smile when told in-hindsite.

Yes ?

Another hospital related issue. I recently had to attend a regular 6 monthly hospital check-up, and because they'd forgotten to recall me and I had to ring them to fix it, I tried to book in my next 6 monthly date at the Appointment Desk before leaving the hospital.

They told me they couldn't do so. Their appointment system only allows them to book appointments up to 8 weeks in advance! I can't imagine who would have commissioned & implemented a computer system that only permits appointments to be booked in for a short period ahead.

Just think of the amount of administration time & postal costs which could be saved if every outpatient booked in their regular checks in advance before leaving the hospital. It would save thousands of pounds across the NHS service yet nobody seems to have contemplated doing it.

50 years ago (oh my God is it that long ago) I was referred by my Manchester GP to a Specialist in Liverpool which resulted in my having to go back to Liverpool annually for a check-up.

On one occasion I was working in Hull but set off at dawn for my 10am appointment. I hadn't been seen by lunchtime so was told to return at 2pm.
At 4pm I was told to go into a cubicle and strip off and the Specialist would come to see me.

He came all right.

Stuck his head through the cubicle curtain and said "Hi, how are you?"
I said "Fine thanks", thinking this was just a greeting.

He quickly said "Good. Come back in 12 months" and disappeared.