England 19.05 NHS Test 2

My forecast of the correct day when my ongoing infection would reoccur was correctly forecast by me, Thursday the 18th. Friday the 19th was a very slow start at Sister 1's. Just before lunch time I was driven back to the NHS walk in centre. I was triaged by a different nurse and I was quickly queued to see someone and given a plastic container to provide a sample.

I waited in the waiting room for around two hours, filling time with my phone and observing the order of people who were seen quite quickly and those like me who weren't so urgent. I noted a couple of people were really quite unwell and in pain. There was a young lad with a terrible gash on his leg. There was a pregnant woman holding her stomach. Yep, they were higher priority than me. 

I don't know what their titles were but I saw a very senior nurse and another nurse on a rung or so lower that her. A thorough history was taken, the sample analysed on the premises (that wouldn't happen at home) and I was offered a choice between what the clinic would normally subscribe for a UTI and the antibiotic I had been taking prescribed at home. I chose the antibiotic I had been taking and it came with the proviso that it would be a private prescription from a doctor and so would cost me cost me £10. The consultation took about half an hour. The medication was dispensed at the the pharmacy next door to the clinic and from there on I was fine until returned to Australia. No direct cost and there would have been nothing to pay if I chose the clinic prescribed antibiotic. I did not enjoy the two hour wait, but still, I was prescribed what I needed. The same can happen here if you go to a private bulk billing clinic, where there isn't the add on to what our Medicare system pays for you to see a doctor, but at such clinics, you can not have your own doctor.

Meanwhile Sister 1, her partner and R had been to Tescos and had a nice lunch. I had missed lunch, so once home Sister 1 made me a sandwich.  We may have had a Chinese meal ordered to be delivered that night. It was far too much food and R's sisters don't seem fond of keeping leftovers. I would mention the left overs could be kept for tomorrow, but it was never put in the 'fridge and I wouldn't eat it the next day for that reason. It was thrown out. Terrible food wastage to us who so rarely throw any food out.

I may as well put a wrap up to medical matters. Tuesday just past I went to a posh private hospital and had the stent from my kidney removed. What a relief. The stent had done the job but was causing bleeding. The morning after, suddenly everything seemed normal. Operation success, eventually six weeks later. I don't complain much and only R had an idea of what I had been through for six weeks and I can tell you it wasn't pleasant.

The day went like this. A bowl of cereal and coffee at 7am and then fast. Water allowed until 10am. 11.30 leave home. Check into hospital at noon, as I was told. So much paperwork to be done by nurses, even though I had filled in the online pre admission form. Change into one of the gowns with a back opening with a dressing gown over top. Lie on a bed for an hour or so and I fell asleep. More form filling in by nurses and a brief chat with the surgeon and anaesthetist. 

At 3.15 I was wheeled into the operating theatre, a canula inserted and I was out to it. I woke at 3.30 with the procedure done. The actual time I was out to it was ten minutes. Then recovery for ages, a sandwich, cup of tea and a sweet biscuit and R was allowed to pick me up at 4.50. 

Apparently I am 'young and fit' (little do they know in spite of their questions) so I was dumped down the procedure list but I ask you, for a ten minute procedure, is it really appropriate to be in hospital for five hours? At least here was no further charge...unless a bill arrives by post.