Waiting, Waiting, Waiting,

What a bloody day you’d think a simple visit to the hospital would be somewhat stress free, but oh no lets make things as difficult as we can is the order of the day as per usual.

I had an appointment booked to see the Chest Consultant which I hasten to add was made some 6 weeks or so ago.  He was due to be on holidays for a few weeks leading up to this and he particularly wanted to see me in person hence having to wait so long for an appointment.  They also arranged for me to have a lung Function Test prior to seeing the Consultant.  Along with this he told me to have an x-ray before I went in to see him.  My Appointment was booked for the Consultant at 2pm so I figured that if I get to the hospital at about 12.45 there will be plenty of time for me to have my x-rays before I go for my lung function test at 1.30.  12.40 I arrived at the x-ray dept to be faced with a sign saying there may be a delay of up to an hour “Great Start” I thought. So I sat and waited along with only a few people which seemed a bit strange due to the long wait.  Any how I managed to get out of there at 1.50pm which of course made me late for the lung function test Arghhhhhhhh.  When I turned up they made me wait another half an hour before seeing to me.  This was slowly turning into a disaster.  I finally managed to get to the Consultants clinic for about 2.35 in the end only 35 mins late only to be faced with another wait. By now my bum was as flat as a pancake as they don’t believe in comfortable chairs in hospitals.  After about 15 mins or so the nurse came along and put my notes on this small table outside the Doctors room which meant that I was next in line.  I stared at them notes for half an hour until the doctor came out and picked them up and disappeared back into the room with them shutting the door behind him. 15 Mins later he called me in 15 bloody mins, and to top it all after all the fuss about wanting to see me personally The Consultant was still on holidays so I was seeing one of his Registrar’s.  By the seem of it he hadn’t read my notes at all as he knew nothing about my Leukaemia or subsequent transplant or even my Chest problems come to think of it, which I must say really annoys me about some doctors it doesn’t take 5 mins to flick through the notes just to get an overall picture of things you know?  Anyhow after asking me a couple of questions he explained that nothing had changed and I was to stay on the same medication etc as before and come back to see the consultant in about 4 weeks but before I go home could I go back to the Lung Function Dept and have a Blood Gas Test done and bring it back to him to see before I go home.  More bloody waiting!!!!!!!!!   So of I trundled back to another nice cosy waiting room to sit and contemplate the world yet again.  At least it was quick this time only about 15 mins then back to the doctor for his permission to go home, ( like being back in school).  He was with another patient by now so another wait.  I was beginning to think I would never get out of there.  Finally 20 mins later the nurse came out and told me that I could go and I was thinking to myself I don’t want to go now I’m gonna stay here and annoy you all be staging a protest or something then I woke up and got the hell out of there.

What a carry on just to be told, there, there nothings changed just carry on the coughing and wheezing and sucking on the oxygen when it gets too much.  Nice to know we’re in safe friendly hands isn’t it.