Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening Appointment

I had a letter come out of the blue from the N.H.S. a few weeks ago to go for a screening for something called an abdominal aortic aneurysm, something I had never heard of before. Apparently men of my age (65) are supposed to be prone to this problem, which can, apparently, according to the leaflet which came with the letter, be very dangerous.  The aorta is the main blood vessel that supplies blood to your body. It runs from your heart down through your chest and abdomen. In some people, as they get older, the wall of the aorta can become weak. It can then start to expand and form an abdominal aortic aneurysm. The condition is most common in men aged 65 and over. Unfortunately the day the appointment was arranged I was feeling particularly unwell and didn't go. I got another letter about a week later asking me to arrange a new appointment by telephone so I rang and got the fresh appointment. I wasn't aware that Milton Keynes area was covered by Bedford Hospital N.H.S. Trust, in fact the hospital I was taken to when I had my heart attack in 2006. This is where I rang to make the appointment. I presume they had my name and address and details on their system from then and that would be why I got the letter. Anyway, the appointment is this morning at 10.40, at the Grove Surgery, which used to be our doctor's surgery before we moved to Ashfield Medical Centre.

I'm not entirely sure what this procedure entails, but I imagine it will be similar to the tests I had shortly after my heart attack. One was an angiogram which was done at Bedford Hospital and I had several others done at Papworth Hospital near Cambridge and then a few years later I had what was called a Stress Test done at Milton Keynes Hospital, so I imagine this screening will be similar.

Later.

I got to the Grove Surgery in good time. With about 20 minutes to spare. I always think it's best to be too early, because of parking the car. I was glad I did, because the surgery car park was chocker-block full, and so was the road leading to it and the carpark immediately behind the adjacent parade of shops. So I decided to try the carpark which is in front of the shops in Netherfield. I managed to find a convenient space, and, instead of sitting and waiting for a few minutes in the car before going to the surgery, I decided to walk straight there. The waiting room was very busy and I went to reception to say I was there, as you are supposed to do. Ashfield Medical Centre has a computerised system which you have to sign in to with your name, date of birth etc (although for the past several occasions it has been out of order.) I sat and waited for my name to be called. I was somewhat amused by the automatic door they had. A man went to leave and couldn't get the door to open. For whatever reason, the door wouldn't respond when he walked up to it. It must have got confused because you no doubt have to be in range of some sort of movement sensor that would pick up that you are there and then allow the door to open. You have to go through two doors, with a sort of porch in between. I expect this is to keep the heat in during cold weather. He managed to leave, and then several people walked past the door and it kept opening and closing even though people weren't going in or out.

My name was then called out by a young man, whom I could tell was going to do the screening as he was dressed in an N.H.S. uniform along with a lanyard with an identity card on it. I had to have such a card when I worked as a support worker for the N.H.S. I was led into a room and was surprised to find several other people were also there. It turned out the young man who had come to fetch me from the waiting room was a trainee and the other people in the room were observing how he worked. He informed me what the other people were there for, which didn't bother me. I am always pleased to be able to help anyone, particularly if they are training and it furthers their career as well as making sure that a particular procedure is done correctly. I had to lay on a couch and raised my shirt so he could put some gel on my stomach and lower abdomen and he then put the scanner senor on my abdomen. He moved the sensor up and down my stomach and lower abdomen and the lady who was observing kept telling him in which direction to move it and they were looking at a screen which showed my internal organs (I didn't look. I had a similar thing done as I have mentioned above, when they put something in my blood to make my heart beat faster and they could see how it was behaving on a similar screen. Similar to an ultrasound scan that is used to see a baby developing within the womb when a woman is pregnant.) He then said that my blood vessels were 'fine and healthy' and as far as he could see there was no reason for me to have an aneurysm and  I wouldn't need any further scans. At which point the procedure was finished. I sat up, although a little bit dizzy and lightheaded and the lady who was observing said that she would have to look at the scans to check for 'quality control' and if they weren't up to the correct standard I would have to return for another session. I just hope not. It wasn't an unpleasant experience for all that. Everything was extremely professional and well managed. Except, when I fot home, I found that I had the gel left on my stomach and some of it was on my shirt. I don't know exactly what it was, but no doubt something like KY Jelly! 

Eye Trouble

Last weekend, and, infact, for several days leading up to last weekend, Carol had been complaining about some problem with one of her eyes. I wasn't sure what it was, whether it was itchy, bloodshot, or whatever, but it got so bad over-night Sunday/Monday, that she phoned in sick to the Academy. I said I'd ring the doctors' surgery and get her an appointment. As mentioned in previous posts, the system for making doctors appointments with the Grove Surgery is a mystery. You can go directly to the surgery (which is open around 8.00 a.m., so you can queue up outside if you so wish.) and then sit and wait until the receptionists open up the appointment bookings for that day. Will some one PLEASE explain to me in words of only a few syllables, why they can't open the bookings at 8.00 a.m.? Why do you have to sit and wait for 15 minutes? What ancient and strange mythological law is it that the N.H.S. has says you have to sit and wait 15 minutes? Does this allow the receptionists time to have coffee, file their nails and generally behave in a non-receptionist kind of way? It seems wasteful in the extreme. Anyway, that is what happens if you turn up in person. If, on the other hand, you decide to telephone, then you are in for a long haul. You get a very snooty recorded voice, which says, usually, that 'the surgery is experiencing heavy volumes of call, and you should ring back at another time.' The system then very unceremoniously cuts you off, without any sort of apology for this somewhat curt behaviour. You can try at regular intervals (all this kicks off at 8.15 a.m. Why? If it's any automated system, why can't you leave a message and they ring you back? There again, why doesn't this surgery have a 'Ring Back' system? This means you can press a special key on your phone's touch-pad (usually 5) and you hang up. When the queue reaches you in the system, it automatically rings you and you can speak to the receptionist and then make an appointment. The doctor's surgery at Hilltops ( our surgery when we live the other side of Milton Keynes, at Crownhill.) had this system. They also had more flexible surgery opening times, opening at 7.30 a.m. and closing at around 7 p.m. as well as opening on Saturday mornings. In fact, times to suit the patients on it's books and not to suit their staff.

I digress. I attempted around half-a-dozen times to try and get through, and then, at around 8.40, I managed to get through and make an appointment.

The appointment was for 10.40. We arrived at the surgery in good time. There weren't that many other people in the waiting room. We didn't actually get into the doctor's surgery until gone 11.00. I know it must be very hard to keep the appointments running to exactly the times you are given, but to have to sit and waste around 20 minutes seems a waste of time. Can the surgery have better reading material whilst you are waiting, perhaps a coffee machine, something to watch on the television screens, instead of the endless information about bowel cancer, not eating salt in your food, and all the material that doesn't concern about 95% of the known universe?

The doctor looked at Carol's eye, and said she'd need to do some sort of test. She produced a sort of  long cotton wool bud thing from out of a drawer and proceeded to stab Carol's eye with this. She didn't say to Carol:' Excuse me while I do this. It may hurt a bit.' She just shoved the thing into poor Carol's eye. I remember when I worked as a home-carer, we were trained to warn our clients fairly well in advance if you were going to do something such as this, although we never did this sort of procedure. It was basically because in some cases you are open to abuse and it's a sort of contract between carer and client. The doctor never did this.  The doctor left things that the surgery would telephone to give the results of the tests from this procedure. She gave Carol a prescription for some drops, and we left the surgery. When we got home, Carol said that her eye hurt. Not from the initial problem, but as a result of the doctor poking the eye with the cotton-wool bud thing. I have to say that I'm not exactly over-joyed by the service given at the surgery, and we've decided that we may try and find another surgery in the area.

Blood test and hot weather

I had yet another blood test at Grove Surgery. I had the results for the last one (it showed I had a low cholesterol level of 4.8.) No explanation as to WHY I needed a second one. A mystery, certainly. If I was going through that stress again I was going to ask to get the same doctor to do it, as it was not as stressful as it could have been before now, due to the fact he used a special thin needle. I went to book the appointment and found that the doctor who took my blood the last time was on leave, so it would be a good two, three weeks in advance, which I was prepared to wait for. So, yesterday, I went to the surgery. I decided to walk there (it's only about a 20-minute walk along the Redway, along the side of Saxon Street and then down beneath Standing Way, using the underpass and into the estate where the surgery is. I took my iPod, and plugged myself in using the earphones. I have plenty to listen to, having downloaded quite a few podcasts from iTunes. In fact, the weather being especially hot and pleasant, the walk there was quite enjoyable. 

You have to sign in at my surgery using the computerised system (I think most surgeries use this system, and if enough use them, will make the rather 'up-themselves' receptionists redundant.) The blood test was scheduled for 9.40, but I didn't actually get called into the surgery until at least 10.00, a wait of at least 20 minutes. I beg the question: why bother to have this system if it can't run to time and you waste 20 minutes just sitting at staring at a load of sick and injured people who inhabit the waiting room? Can they get a better selection of reading material to read, or even have a coffee machine or video on the audio-visual screens, which show such boring a repetative material anyway?

I enter the doctor's surgery. He doesn't seem exactly prepared for the process of blood-letting. He disappears off to find the required surgery, leaving me laying on the couch. He comes back and attempts to take blood. Success! He is able to find a vein, not in the usual place, inside the bed of my elbow, but much further down, almost on my wrist. I feel nothing, but the needle remains in my arm for quite some time. He removes the needle from the vein, places a bit of cotton wool on the place where the needle went in, and tells me to press the cotton wool with my finger, to help stop any bleeding. Meanwhile, he says he's managed to get blood down his shirt, while he tips one half of the blood he's taken into a second vial. I sit up, with my finger still pressed on the cotton wool. He is still fussing about trying to get the blood (mine!) off his shirt front. This has never happened before, not to me, not whilst a nurse or doctor is extracting blood from my arm. One expects a professional to be able to attempt this procedure without blood being spilt. Fortunately he manages to put caps on the vials to prevent any leakage.

He then has to print out labels for the vials, and this seems to cause some sort of problem, as he's not sure which way round the paper goes in the computer printer. I imagine it would need a certain amount of skill, as the label required has a tear-off strip, which must go into the printer drawer the correct way round, otherwise the label will not have the printed area in the right place (which is exactly what happens.) He screws up the mis-printed label and puts a second blank sheet in the printer drawer, but this time it comes out printed correctly. He hands me both blood vials with the labels attached, which I take to the reception desk.

I still don't understand the need to have this second blood test. I have been told nothing as to the reason, although, over the last couple of weeks I have been feeling light-headed, and think it may be something to do with blood pressure. The doctor took my blood pressure after I had the blood taken, and it shows a relatively normal result. It may be something to do with how my body is coping with the medication I am on that the second blood test was done. I won't get a result for a couple of days.

It is exceptionally hot today, very unseasonal for the final day of September.