And Breathe

There just seems like there is so much going on at the moment it can be hard to take a breath and just relax. I can cope when the "stuff" is mine but when it is happening to my nearest and dearest it can be hard for me to cope sending my PoTs / Dysautonomia symptoms into free fall. So this will just be a short post!

My impending hospital stay has been cancelled. I only found this out when I rang my consultants secretary. For some reason hospitals don't think life actually exists outside their tiny bubble. The fact people have to work, put carefully orchestrated plans in place for you to be able to go into hospital seems to not register with them at all. I know as well that I will have to ring the secretary again (none of this is her fault or my consultants) because no one will have thought to put me back on the clinic list again. If I don't contact them I will fall off their radar as I did last year.

The reason for my non admittance is that there are no beds available unless it is a life or death situation. This has been the case in many UK hospitals for months. Why is it happening? The answer is complex, local councils who sort out care in people's homes when they are released from hospital are being starved of funds, so many people who could be released are left in hospital "blocking beds" obviously not the patients fault. General practitioners are leaving the profession in their droves meaning patients can't get appointments and are instead presenting at their local accident and emergency departments. Conditions that could have been managed in the community by general practitioners aren't, meaning people with chronic conditions have no where else to go but their local hospital. It is a mess of catastrophic proportions that has set the NHS back 20 years. The NHS is something this country should be proud of instead its being carved up into pieces by politicians who want to privatise it, mainly because they have shares in the companies tendering for contracts.

The bed shortage hasn't only hit me but my mum as well. Those of you who are regular readers may recall in July last year I posted about my mum waiting for a major spinal operation. We were told countless lies by the hospital regarding the waiting times, 15 weeks, 20 weeks, its been closer to ten months. Last Thursday (2nd April) my mum received a telephone call to say her operation would be taking place on Thursday 9th April. It was a bit of a surprise for all of us as we had been lead to believe the surgical rotas were completed 6 weeks in advance. It has been a little stressful as my parents try to get everything ready for my mum's very long recovery period.

Now as my mum was getting her head around the fact that she was having her operation so soon, the goal posts moved again. The operation has been cancelled and moved to next Tuesday. Fingers crossed that it takes place then and we aren't continually in the holding pattern of a date set only for it to be cancelled again. I know it isn't a life saving operation, those will always take precedence over a surgery like my mum's but hers will be a life altering one. As whilst waiting mum's condition has worsened to the point that she is struggling to walk, having regular falls and is in so much more pain. Hopefully when I post next week she will have finally had it.

As for me a few hours after starting this post I had a telephone call from my own hospital. They were offering to take me in next Tuesday, with mum's surgery due to take place that day I declined. I hate hospitals at the best of times but to be in there when mum was having her operation, I just couldn't do. My own admittance date has been changed to 21st April if there is a bed available, fingers crossed. 

Now for some lovely news I am happy to announce that I am going to be an Auntie again. It's a very exciting time for all of us and helps us all focus on the future.