Keeping The NHS Busy- Part 2

Saturday. 8.20. Continuing my adventures from yesterday. I was at home in the flat and about to have a snack as I usually do for lunch and probably watch television. My mobile rang and it was a paramedic at the doctor's surgery. He said there was something showing up on the ECG which had been done earlier at the surgery and I should go immediately to A and E at Milton Keynes Hospital. At first, I thought he said there was no need to go to A and E. I think it was just me misinterpreting the message and really hoping I wouldn't have to go. There really is nothing worse than a visit to A and E and the endless, totally soul-destroying wait, which can be anything up to four hours from your arrival. Also, the fact that you have to pay when you park and then the possibility of not being able to find a parking space for the car.

So, reluctantly, I drove towards the hospital, leaving Alfie alone in the flat and I'm thinking, 'I just hope I'm not going to have to spend the night in the hospital if they've found something serious in the ECG.' I got to the car park near the A and E entrance and walked a relatively short distance into the A and E reception. I had to give details to a nurse who stood near the entrance doing what I imagine is called 'triage.' A lot of the details from the E.C.G. had presumably been sent from the doctor's surgery and then I had to report to the receptionist and was given a printed-out wristband with my name and N.H.S. number on it together with a bar code. Things are becoming more like a supermarket when you get a bar code and scanned like a  packet of breakfast cereal or pint of milk, but I suppose it makes life easier and more efficient in the end, or, at least, one would like to hope so. Then I was taken through to the waiting area and my worst fears were realized. Just sitting and waiting, having to watch some weird animation on the television that was on the wall. Why couldn't the televisions at least be tuned to daytime programmes? I know 'Homes Under The Hammer' and 'Escape To The Country' aren't exactly entrancing entertainment, but the stuff which was on was dreadful. At least not as bad as the awful television system that they had in the hospital whenever Carol was a patient. I think it was called Hospicom. 

I had to have a further E.C.G. and a blood sample is taken, but this time the nurse was successful thank goodness. I trust it would mean I wouldn't have to give any further blood, as booked at the surgery the previous day. I was assured that I wouldn't have to wait much longer for the results and, hopefully, not the more than six hours I had the last time I had to come to A and E, which is mentioned in an earlier blog post.

A long wait. Until a doctor came to speak to me. He told me that they had done tests on the blood sample and the new E.C.G. There was nothing serious that showed up, so I could go home! So I had spent around three hours stuck in A and E, and I was relieved that I wouldn't have to spend any more time there and best of all, I wouldn't need to stay in overnight. I walked to the car park and then realized I needed to find a ticket machine which would release me at the barrier. The machine I found was difficult to access. No instructions, and the digital screens are difficult to read in bright sunlight. But, at last, I managed to put my card into the slot which then kept hold of it, my fear was that it wouldn't come back out and cause further problems. But it didn't and, surprisingly, I didn't have to pay! So I was able to drive out of the carpark, then found it quite difficult to draw up at the machine so I could lean out of the car window and insert the card into the slot. But all worked as expected and I was able to drive out. What a relief to be able to drive away without any further problems!

Clearing Bookshelves and Two Hospital Appointments

As I've mentioned in an earlier blog post, we've decided to replace the bookshelves in the lounge. They have been leaning precariously at a rather dangerous angle for quite a long time and there was a serious possibility of one or other, or both, collapsing. We have a new shelving unit on order from IKEA which was ordered on-line on Wednesday afternoon and will be delivered next Thursday, so we have to have the old shelving units cleared and dismantled before then. So lots of boxes and bags all over the floor as we take off all the clutter which has accumulated. It seems that we have used the bookshelves as a sort of dumping ground for goodness knows what sort of stuff. Daniel's mail is still coming here and really it's about time he had it re-directed. We seem to get his bank statements and a lot of other stuff. Then there's a lot of our important mail, insurance stuff and other bits and pieces which come through the mail which needs to be 'on hand' for immediate use so it's stuck in between one of the books and the side panels. It's surprising (although, thinking about it, perhaps it's not) how clearing something like bookshelves reveals items which you lost and haven't laid eyes on for ages, suddenly appear. We ought to do this sort of thing more often. Anyway, we managed to clear of the clutter from one half of the 'leaning tower of books,' and will continue slowly in the days leading up until Thursday, We will sort out those books we want to keep and those we will take to a charity shop, most likely paperbacks which we're not likely to read again.

Carol had two appointments at the hospital during the day. Unfortunately they were several hours apart. The first was at 11.20 a.m. at the Out Patients' Department near the main entrance of Milton Keynes Hospital. We got there well in time for the appointment and parked in the multi-storey carpark. This meant we couldn't get the ticket stamped to we would get free parking, but the walk to the Macmillan Unit was too far so I didn't make the effort. We were seen by one of the doctors from the colorectal department, one of the team we saw regularly when the doctors did their rounds when Carol was on Ward 22 before Christmas. He seemed very pleased with Carol's progress and as a result has signed her off. One more box to 'tick.' A very positive reaction and we left to go home and bought sandwiches in the Friends' shop at the hospital entrance. When we ate them at home later I was not over-impressed with the quality, but never mind. They seem, like every other food outlet these days, so obsessed with not putting too much salt or sugar in things, that they forget that the flavour and texture is taken away. Just bland sliced bread and the filling is mush.

So, we went home to have a break and recuperate before we returned to go back to the Macmillan Unit for an appointment with the doctor in the pain clinic. The doctor seems very pleased to see how Carol is getting on and commented on how much better she is looking. Still an issue with pain but not as intense as it has been. Carol able to sit for longer and we're more than ever convinced that the chemotherapy is doing it's job. So, at the end of the day, we're both feeling a good deal more positive about things, thank goodness.

We left the hospital, having first booked an appointment for several weeks hence.

The carpark barrier was raised when we drove out, so all the effort to get the wretched ticket stamped was somewhat a waste of time. The machinery which lifts the barrier was making a noise, no doubt an alarm for it to be attended to by a mechanic. We drove out and then saw someone putting cash in the nearby ticket machine. It makes me annoyed to see someone putting money in the machine when they could so easily drive out of the carpark without needing to pay. Never mind. The fact that you have to pay to park at a hospital is still a hot potato with myself and quite a few other people.

A Few More of Life's Irritations

Come on, you say, how on earth can there be any MORE irritations? What's wrong with you man? Get a grip. But it's true, I can find a few more annoyances and irritations, and more that drive me stark-staring nuts.

What is it with the layout of carparks? Why do the idiots who decide how you drive around them have to make it so illogical. I'll give you an instance. I am driving to Milton Keynes Hospital every day to visit Carol on Ward 20. I park in the multi-storey carpark I could use the ground level one, but it's a long walk around the hospital site to the new entrance. (I'll come back to the irritation of having to walk around to where the new entrance is when it used to be dead opposite the carpark, but I'll skip it for now.) Driving in to the carpark they have got two barriers, where you have to stop to take a ticket out of the machine. So, if there are two cars side by side at the barrier and one driver gets their ticket from their machine first, it's like the start of a Grand Prix as you put your foot down on the accelerator so you can get a parking place before the other cars gets there first. But it's really the layout of the carpark which causes the annoyances with me. You have to drive round and then find some areas, for no good reason known to man, that are out of bounds. You have to make a complete circuit of the carpark in order to drive out when you leave, and at the exit have to be extremely dextrous with your driving in order to avoid hitting any of the barriers and low bits of concrete edging, a really crazy way to design an exit. No doubt some bureaucrat in an office in Whitehall, doodling on the back of an envelope, with absolutely no idea of the frustration and havoc caused by his ignorant carpark design. 

I had to park in the carpark again at the weekend. I can get free parking as Carol is a cancer patient, by going into Macmillan's unit, which is on the floor below Ward 20, and get my parking ticket stamped which allows me to exit the carpark without further payment. But on Sunday, when I left (unfortunately you have to pay, even as the relation of a cancer patient, because Macmillan isn't open over the weekend.) But on leaving, even though I'd payed at the machine, where you have to put your ticket in the machine and it shows on the digital screen how much you have to pay, which was £4.50, by the time I got in the car and drove out of the multi-storey carpark, for whatever reason, the barrier was raised, which meant I could leave without putting the ticket into the slot in the machine which raises the barrier (if after all this you are still with me, as it's far to complicated to describe. Sorry if I lost you throughout all that.) So, you can imagine how annoyed I was about the fact that I had spent £4.50 on parking and then being able to be released from the carpark with the barrier raised (I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps the system was out of order. Which was all very well and good, but if that was the case, why was there no notice on the ticket machine to say you didn't have to pay? I bet there were a lot of other people using the carpark who were as annoyed as I was regarding this matter. 

Anyway, the following day I decided, once I'd parked in the multi storey carpark, to take my ticket to the little office which is within the carpark and demand a refund of my £4.50. When I asked the man who was in the office, he politely refused to refund me. WHY I wanted to know, curtly, but I must add, politely (as I try to be polite, even when I'm annoyed, which can be very difficult at times, particularly when faced with such bare-faced jobsworthishness (now THERE'S a new word!) But he was. He could easily have said 'I'm so sorry, sir. Here's your refund. I'm sorry you've been inconvenienced!' But no! Perhaps he'd got out of the wrong side of his bed, or some such disagreeable matter to make him so uncharitable to me. But in all this, you will agree that it was yet another of life's irritations. I think, if Victor Meldrew had been involved in this incident, that grumpy git character played by Richard Wilson in the BBC sitcom 'One Foot In The Grave,' he would be bound to utter his famous catchphrase 'I don't believe it!!!'

Later.

Continuing on from what I've written regarding the parking at Milton Keynes hospital, and my experiences with the ticket I paid for on Sunday and the fact that once I'd payed the £4.50 to be able to get the barrier to raise to let me out and then finding it raised, the same thing happened today. I walked past a queue of people as I went into the carpark, as they were paying their money to also become released. As I walked into the carpark I saw that the barriers were raised. I did attempt to tell people they were wasting there hard-earned cash by putting it into the wretched machine, regardless of the fact that the barriers were raised. Will someone tell me why nobody had the sense to put a notice on this machine to the effect that this was unnecessary? This whole thing is a scandal and a good way to make money.

999 Paramedics Call

Carol was  violently sick all Sunday afternoon. It calmed down for a couple of hours, but by 11.30 it was necessary to call 999. An ambulance arrived within 10 minutes and the paramedics did an assessment and it was decided that she should go to the emergency department at Milton Keynes hospital. I followed in our car and met up with Carol within the hospital. Fortunately it was relatively quiet and we spent around four hours as the nurses and doctors got things under control. It was decided that she should have to be observed and would need to remain in hospital and that the doctors and surgeons would meet up during today (Monday) to decide a pathway for her treatment. She was taken to Ward 20 where the nurse on Emergency handed over to the staff on Ward 20. I will be returning later this morning to be in attendance when the meeting is held to decide how Carol's treatment will be set up. I will post on here as things evolve.

Later

I've been in to see Carol this morning. She wasn't in a happy frame of mind, unfortunately. She's in a side-ward, so it's a good deal quieter than being in the main ward. Extremely busy. The nurses are very good at what they do as well as friendly, which makes things better. I've been to the Macmillan unit, which is on the floor below ward 20. I have had a brief chat with one of the counsellors there and have made an appointment for 8th November.

I had to come home as I needed to have something to eat. I went to Sainsbury's for a sandwich and had to buy a new mop as things need cleaning around the house. Fortunately it's sunny and mild, but last night, when I returned to the car to come home, there was some ice on the car's windscreen. It took a while to defrost. It's a good thing the new car as efficient heating and the windscreen has a heat strip to melt any ice. This morning I went to the hospital after 9 a.m. and parked as usual. On leaving later, I had to go to the ticket machine to pay, as you take a ticket from the machine when you enter the carpark and then put this ticket in the machine to pay on the way out and then use the ticket to get the barrier to lift when you leave. The machine would not accept my debit card, for whatever reason, and I couldn't read the digital display as the sun was too bright to make it clear to read. I asked a lady passer-by where the nearest pay machine might be as the one I'd tried wasn't cooperating and she said if I drove to the barrier and pressed a certain button I might be able to leave without having to pay if I said the machine was faulty. In driving to the barrier I found the barrier raised and I could leave with having to pay. This happened a few weeks ago when we were at the hospital so no doubt there was a technical problem with the ticket machine. Thankfully, because I saved at least £4.50.

Carol Discharged From Hospital

Carol has been in hospital since Tuesday. As I have mentioned on these blog posts. I have been visiting her each day and walking to the hospital from home, which isn't actually far, around a 10-minute walk along the Redway and then into the hospital campus. I've mentioned the difficulty of navigating the site, with the long and complex system of corridors and signs within the site.

On Thursday we had hoped that one or other of the doctors who had been looking after her on the ward she eventually transferred to would be able to give us some idea of what their investigations had found, having done some scans and from observations since she arrived on Ward 19, having been mored from the Accute Ward which she had been on after her time in Accident and Emergency which we had gone to early on Tuesday morning.

I'm not going to explain here what the problem has been causing Carol so much pain as it would not be right to do so on here. Just let me say that it has been very difficult to see her in so much discomfort, regardless of the medication she has had. A lot of paracetamol, co-codemol and ibuprofen which doesn't seem to have helped in the long-run.

On Friday morning I was eating my lunch. Cheese and Rivita crackers. I got a text come in from Carol. I had taken her mobile so she could at least text me if I wasn't at the hospital. She told me in the text that the doctors were about to do their rounds. I couldn't eat fast enough, and it would take me at least 10 minutes to walk to the hospital. The weather had done what it always does, it changed dramatically. I had done a load of washing very early in the morning and it was out on the line by around 6.30. Nothing like being early when it takes me. But by the time I was due to begin the walk to the hospital, it began to cloud over. Those black clouds brewing up to deliver a downpour. I was in two minds to bring in the two lines of washing but having gone out to check how dry it was I decided against it. I also wore my big blue jacket which has a hood and plenty of pockets in it to carry my mobile and wallet as I believed that Carol was likely to need cash or perhaps we would be coming home together and would need cash for something or other at the hospital. Something out of a vending machine perhaps.

On arrival on the ward the nurses were making her bed.   No doctors in sight, unfortunately.

They bought round the lunches to the patients. Not exactly over-whelming. Fish and chips, but not exactly likely to achieve a few stars from Egon Ronay or any other restaurant reviewer.

By 2 o'clock Carol had a doctor's visit and it was decided that she could at last be discharged, thank goodness. She would have to return for further investigations and we'd have to wait for a letter to give her a date and time for an appointment. She already had a consultant's appointment for this week, 23rd August. We just had to wait for the paperwork to be done and the pharmacy to make up her medications for us to take with us.

By now it was threatening rain. A few drips seen outside. I had to walk home to get the car. I got home in time to avoid the rain, which started and it was torrential. I drove back to the hospital and parked in the ground-level carpark which we'd used when we'd come in to A and E on Tuesday morning. There was a flat roof just outside the window near Carol's bed on the ward. As it had been raining there was quite a large amount of water in a large pool on this flat room. The rain fell and filled this pool considerably. A couple of rather stupid looking pigeons came and paddled in it. It needed a few water lilies, ducks and perhaps some carp and it would have been complete.

As time was ticking by and it was taking longer to get the paperwork sorted so Carol could be discharged, I walked home to fetch the car and some clothes for Carol.

It took a good forty-five minutes to walk back to the house, collect some clothes for Carol in a carrier bag and drive back to the hospital. By now the rain was starting to fall heavily and I was beginning to feel a certain deja vu, having walked the same bit of path several times during the last couple of hours.

We eventually left to walk to the car, with all the things Carol had come in to the ward with. We went to pay for the carpark by putting the ticket I had collected when I'd parked earlier but for some reason the coins we put in wouldn't work. Neither did my debit card which we inserted. It just got rejected. Without paying by inserting your card into the machine and paying the required amount there was no way we would be able to leave through the exit barrier, but when we got to the exit barrier a little bit later we found it was up, so we assumed that there was some technical problem with the ticket machine or the barrier so we were able to leave without having to pay, which was actually a relief.

Pouring Rain and Hospital Parking

I woke up last night to hear absolutely torrential rain outside. It seemed to go on for ever. I imagine there'll be flash-flooding. No doubt the road coming round the Four Bridges roundabout near Eaglestone will be flooded. Well, with Carol still in hospital, there's absolutely no chance of us getting out and about as we had planned. I think they are getting to the reason for her health-problems at last. I'm going to see her at 10 o'clock this morning and I'm hoping the doctors will be able to tell us what's going on and how they can sort things out.

I'm appalled by the cost of hospital parking. When we first went the other morning, early, we went in the car and at Milton Keynes Hospital you have to go into the carpark and take a ticket from the machine. When you leave, you have to use the ticket machine across the road. You put your ticket in and you're told how much the charge is. You can use coins or notes (but the machine won't take 5p pieces) and can use your credit or debit card to pay. Trouble is, you can barely read the digital display. It's very faint and rather like some older A.T.M. machines which have displays that are unclear, particularly when the sun shines on them. Also, the screen is very low and not at a height that makes it easy for someone as tall as myself. I was shocked that I was charged £4.50 that first day, even though I'd been at the hospital since well before 6 a.m. Yesterday it was £3.50, and I was only there barely two hours. Considering you don't really want to be at the hospital, it seems a bit of a liberty to charge for parking. It just seems to be just another way to make money. I realise that the carpark needs maintaining, but why does it have to be paid for from car parking? There's even a branch of Costa coffee in the new reception area of the hospital. I suppose it's a good idea and great to have such a facility at a hospital, but I begin to wonder whether it's just another money-making scheme. I presume that Costa pays rent for the site and the hospital takes  some of the profits. Having been to Addenbrook's Hospital in Cambridge, I've seen the mini shopping centre in their reception, with a W.H.Smith and other high street shops.

I don't know whether people who don't know about the parking arrangements at Milton Keynes Hospital that you need change to use the machine or whether you can use your card to pay, but it's a good idea to have enough change to allow you to pay, otherwise if you don't, you'll be stuck in the carpark as you need to put the ticket you got when you entered to get out as there is a barrier at the exit which will only rise once you put the ticket in the machine. You won't be able to get change from anywhere in the hospital and even if you go to reception you won't be able to get change.

Another annoying factor is that they're currently upgrading the hospital. The former reception has moved around to be opposite the multi-storey carpark and it's quite a long walk there from the ground-level carpark. Also, if you're new to the hospital, it's not entirely clear where you have to go as signage is a bit vague or if there is any, it's not exactly prominent.