A very short health update

I spent most of yesterday at two separate hospitals and was not able to do much at all in the way of wargaming or writing.

I started my day at The Dimbleby Macmillan Support Cancer, Guy's Cancer at Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, having a series of ultrasound tests on my bladder as well as a blood test. This forms part of the assessment of my suitability for treatment with radiotherapy. This lasted from 9.30am until 11.30am, and just as I was leaving, the nurse who had been administering the ultrasound test mentioned in passing that I would have to hurry if I was going to reach the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich for my afternoon appointment.

As this was the first I had heard about this appointment, I asked for more information. It appeared that I was supposed to be at the Oncology Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at 12.30pm so I rushed home, dropped Sue off (She has come with me to Sidcup), and took the 244 bus to the hospital.

I arrived at the door of the Oncology Department at exactly 12.30pm, booked myself in with the receptionist, and was told to wait in the waiting room and my medication would be brought to me. (I had expected that it would be delivered to my home as it had been the last time, but apparently, I had to collect this next batch in person.)

I waited for over an hour before going back to ask the receptionist what was happening ... and it turned out that the pharmacy had not yet delivered my medication to the department. I asked if I could collect it myself from the pharmacy, but I was told that this was not possible. I was to discover why later.

Another hour went past, and I became aware that I was not the only patient waiting for their medication to arrive. In fact, the waiting area was beginning to fill up with more and more impatient outpatients! At 2.45pm a prisoner from the nearby Belmarsh prison arrived in the department, escorted by two prison officers, one of whom he was handcuffed to. There was a bit of shuffling around of patients so that the three of them could sit together, and it was whilst this was happening that the first batch of medication arrived from the pharmacy ... and was given to a patient who had been waiting since 11.00am!

My medication arrived soon afterwards and I asked the nurse who gave it to me what the problem was. It turned out that the pharmacy had been waiting for the medication to be delivered and was sending it up as soon as the pharmacist had checked each patient's prescription and printed off the relevant labels!

What a shambles!

I caught the bus home and unfortunately it was the first one to reach the bus stop used by the pupils from the local secondary school. I managed to get a seat, but I had to share my journey home with over sixty youngsters, none of whom had any idea about how to be quiet. It took a great deal of control not to switch into teacher mode and tell them to quieten down, but by the time I got home at 3.30pm I was feeling rather frazzled. This was not helped by the fact that I had eaten nothing since 8.00am, and I fell upon the lunch Sue had prepared like a ravening wolf.

By the time I had calmed down and begun to relax, I was in no mood to do much except sit in my chair and vegetate ... hence my day was rather unproductive.