Appointment chaos

Late last night I had a text message from Martin's phone, saying 'In recovery, doing well'. It was good news to take with me to prayer this morning. What a delight to be well enough to celebrate the midweek Eucharist at St Catherine's this morning, with the regular group of eight people. The husband of one member went for surgery this week, and was bumped off the day's operating list for the third time. "No available beds" was the excuse given. How can this happen? We were all hoping for a double successful op celebration.

I received a letter from the hospital appointments unit advising me of my expected next outpatient appointment to check progress on the wound healing, but not in four weeks, as told by the surgeon and put down in writing on my discharge sheet, but rather ten weeks - on my birthday, in fact!

It immediately struck me that my date of birth (used to confirm patient identity against given name and database number) had inadvertently been transposed into this letter, so I immediately wrote to the surgeon reminding her of what had been stated before and after the operation, verbally and in writing, to ask if this was a transcription error. I copied the letter to our GP surgery practice manager as well, so it's on record, in case I need them to fight my corner (again) and try to get some sense out of a system which yet again teeters on the edge of chaos.

The need to get this letter written and sent off rather preoccupied me, and I had an afternoon wound clinic appointment, which took me out for an extra hour and a half because of a delay there, so I didn't get much time with Kath and Rhiannon before they set off for home at tea time. After clinic the wound became very painful as I was walking home, due to a small change in the application of the dressing, which I had to wait to adjust until I got home. That was pretty draining, and I regretted not having an acupuncture treatment today, as clinic time clashed with the only appointment time available for this. But, I recovered, and was able to walk out to Chapter to collect our organic veggie bag order, and help Clare prepare a beautifully tasting salmon and vegetable stew for supper. I think I shall sleep well tonight.