Third Chemotherapy Cycle (and a Load of Pure Waffle)

Well, how else do I entitle this post? Most of it is waffle, let's be perfectly honest. Sometimes it's inevitable, because I have to put SOMETHING in a post, even if it's just trivial stuff, to pad the thing out.

It's a calm and mild morning.  But overcast and really depressing again. It's more like early evening rather than morning. But life goes on. We'll have a second attempt at visiting the Oncology Suite this morning.

We had to be at the Oncology Suite for 12 noon. We left in good time. Really no excuse to be late as it's only a short drive from home. We drove into the hospital campus and drove round the inner ring road as we always do, towards the Oncology Suite and went into the carpark. Unfortunately we couldn't find a vacant space, and there other cars also looking. So we had no choice but to park as we had yesterday, so we drove out of the carpark, and fortunately the barrier was raised so we didn't have to use the ticket to leave. We drove around the inner ringroad and arrived at Carpark A. We drove in and took a ticket from the machine and then couldn't find a vacant space to park. We drove out (the barrier was raised. Do these things ever work? Probably just as well they don't.) There was no alternative but to park in the multi-storey. There was no way that Carol was going to walk all the way from the multi-storey carpark to the Oncology Suite, so I drove back round towards the Oncology Suite and dropped her off near the Cardiology Department, which is where we usually enter the hospital. Conveniently just across the corridor from Oncology. It must have been where I come when I had my stress test a few years ago after I had my heart attack. So, I drove around the inner ring-road back to the multi-storey car park (this is becoming a theme of this blog post, it seems, a real sense of deja vu about it, but never mind.) There was quite a queue of vehicles entering the carpark where you take your tickets. Then an even longer queue to wait to park within the carpark. I then drove around and couldn't see a space immediately and then I decided to break all the rules and went through an area which said 'no entry.' (There are definitely times when you definitely have to break the rules and go against the grain or swim against the current, to use two really useful metaphors.) It was either that or leave the carpark and go somewhere else, which I didn't intend doing. As a result, and no doubt upsetting quite a few other drivers, I did manage to find a space. I left the carpark and walked through the hospital and back to the Oncology Department and found Carol hiding round the corner of the unit. Not many other people in the unit, a lot of empty seats. She was soon set up with her usual drips and laying on the bed they had reserved for her. At least I now now the short cut from the multi-storey carpark which avoids having to walk along those seemingly endless corridors which I had to endure when Carol was in hospital for three weeks a few months ago.

The session has gone relatively stress-free. Not a lot of waiting to have Carol's chemo set up as was the case the other week. There aren't that many other people in the unit and it seems far quieter than it has been for the last two sessions. Carol is currently crocheting which is keeping her occupied. I have been reading 'Cold Comfort Farm' which has to be one of my favourite novels. I love reading out loud and apart from anything it's a way of passing the time. I think the session will be over soon, by which time I will have to walk back to the multi-storey carpark to collect the car and drive back to pick up Carol from near the Cardiology Department entrance. I just hope the weather doesn't suddenly change and we get pouring rain. Now just the alarm-sounds of the pumps going off (when they malfunction or the bags of drip run out.). Writing this blog post keeping me occupied for the rest of the session, by which time I will have run out of things to say and at which point I will press 'publish' and the whole thing goes 'live.'

Virtually all of this post has been composed whilst sitting with Carol in the Oncology Suite at Milton Keynes University Hospital, thanks to the fact that there is free wi-fi in all areas of the hospital. (Although this bit at the end was written after we got home.) How come we are now allowed to use our mobiles in N.H.S. properties? At one time you weren't allowed to use a mobile in any hospital or other N.H.S. place because for some reason they were supposed to interfere with some of the equipment. What has changed?