Booking nightmare

Monday 7^th March 2011

In the post that morning were two letters from the hospital asking me to make appointments to see the Pain Man and the Hand Man.

Normally when hospital appointments come through a time, date and hospital, is chosen for me. Not this time.

I was given a choice of making the appointments: online; giving them a ring or by contacting my GP surgery. I chose online.

It should have been straight forward, pick the hospital, the time etc. However at the very end when it came to confirm the appointment for the Pain Man, the site crashed.

As I hadn’t been given a ‘print this’ appointment letter paper, like I had to for the Hand Man, I thought I’d just needed to go through the booking process again as nothing had been confirmed.

It would seem that although the computer hadn’t instructed me to ‘print this’, it had reserved the 9.am appointment for me. However as I didn’t have the ‘print this’ appointment letter, I rang the Appointments Help Line to see if they could issue me with the letter.

“I’m sorry but that 9am appointment has been taken”, said the little Help Line woman.

“Yes by me”, I said, “so can you send me an appointment letter”.

“No”, she replied, “your name isn’t down for that appointment”.

“So who has got the 9am appointment”, I asked.

“No-one”, replied the operator.

“Can you not give it to me, seeing as I had already booked it”.

“We can’t because it has already been booked”.

“Yes, by me !!!!”, I exclaimed.

When John came home from work that night I explained what had happened.

“This happens all the time”, he said, “give it a couple of days and by then the system will have realised that the booking is phantom and release it”.

Sure enough the phantom booking was released and eventually got my 9am appointment back….

Yet another cancelled appointment

Friday 25^th February 2011

Received a letter from the hospital. My appointment to see the Back Man on 25^th March has been cancelled. Another one has been made for 15^th June.

This is getting ridiculous. One appointment after another has been cancelled – November, January, March.

When I do eventually get to see the Back Man it’ll be nearly a year since I had my MRI scan. He requested an up-to-date MRI scan as the previous one, taken when I was in hospital, was too old.

Come my appointment in June, if he doesn’t want the wrath of the Patient from Hell, he better not request another scan….

Trade off

Tuesday 22^nd February 2011

Since going back on the Gabapentin my back has settled down a little. Instead of oww, oww, oww, oww, oww, getting out of bed in a morning, it’s now only oww, oww, oww, oww !!!!

However there’s always a trade off. Less pain in my back means pain in my wrist. Numbness and pins and needles all night in my hand meant I only had about four hours sleep.

I think an afternoon on the sofa this afternoon may be called for…..

Which to choose

Sunday 6^th February 2011

The pain in my back is excruciating. It’s been like that ever since I reduced the Gabapentin.

Decision time. Pins and needles in my hand or bursting into tears because I can’t stand the pain in my back.

The Gabapentin wins….

A new face

Wednesday 19^th January 2011

In October, having seen one of my GP’s Dr Blake, I started taking a new painkiller called Gabapentin. A week into taking it I noticed my left wrist was going numb and going into pins and needles, especially when I’m in bed. The blurb literature that came with the Gabapentin stated that some of the side effects included numbness and pins and needles. Could it be the same thing….

When I saw Dr Blake in December I mentioned the problem I’d been having with my wrist, and that it had began shortly after I’d started taking the Gabapentin.

She wasn’t convinced that it was the side effects causing the problem so asked if I could continue taking it, monitor my wrist and go back to see her in January.

I have a very limited time slot when I can arrange an appointment to see my GP due to having to rely on John to take me there. I can go early mornings from 8am – 8.30am and from 6.15pm – 7.pm Monday and Wednesday when they have their evening appointments.

All Dr Blake’s early morning appointments in our time slot had been taken and she wasn’t doing evening surgery for the next month. The receptionist asked if I would like to see a Dr Chapman, one of the new doctors.

“She’s very nice”, assured the receptionist.

With the exception of two GP’s, the head man Dr Rutherford and Dr Wallace (who wasn’t there very long), all the doctors are lovely. Dr Rutherford is of the old school – a good doctor but no bedside manner. Dr Wallace, well he was just horrible. I always made a point of refusing to see him if Dr Blake wasn’t available. Given the short period of time that he was there, could other patients have thought the same…..

When my name came up on the display board to see Dr Chapman, John pushed Wizzy along the corridor towards her office. I knocked on the door then slowly pushed it open with my feet.

Dr Chapman who had been sitting at her desk, sprang off her chair and opened the door.

“Hello”, she said, in a lovely Yorkshire accent, “come in, come in”.

“So how can I help”, she asked, getting herself comfortable in her chair again.

I gave her a very brief background history as to what had happened, then explained about the Gabapentin and my wrist.

“Can I have a look at your wrist”, she asked.

“I think you may have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome”, she said, after poking and prodding my wrist, “this is where the median nerve, which relays sensation from the palm of the hand and fingers, becomes pinched, often by swelling of the tendons. This leads to numbness and pins and needles. I’ll refer you to see a specialist to confirm this”.

“I think it might be a good idea to reduce your Gabapentin”, she continued, “just in case it’s making things worse. I think it also might be a good idea if I referred you to see a pain consultant. They are specialists in pain management”.

Yet more consultants to add to the list…..

Starting tomorrow

Apologies for the long delay but starting tomorrow will be further adventures from the ‘Joint Journals’.

Don’t miss it…..