a view through my own eyes

Yes I know that this is belatedly posted as the eagle eyed amongst you would notice, but its the thought that counts.

Anyway this more just to say thanks to SWMBO for the loverly presents that she bought me which included: home theatre system, audio books, books, puzzles, calendar and other bits and bobs.

The day was good, with lunch round at the B’s which was grand and much appreciated if only because this is the first year in eight that we haven’t had to get in extra food to cater for others over the christmas period and that I have been able to have a few drinkies as they are in walking distance and I haven’t needed to drive anyway. Actually it was really great to be out somewhere and to just be able to relax and enjoy ourselves.

Highlight of the day: Doctor Who and the terminator Christmas Trees

Heh

I just enabled Google Adsense, since minimal effort from me could bring in a couple of shekels.

Anyway I notice that the first lots of ads are all NHS related, which is somewhat ironic considering the amount of grumbling and head scratching I have been doing about the NHS over the last few posts.

So as an experiment:

LEGO, I like LEGO quite a lot, particularly MINDSTORMS LEGO and TECHNIC LEGO.

I am finally on the list! Backdated to November.

Since cornea supplies are low apparently the operation is likely to happen in March/April*.

At last things are happening. I feel so relieved.

* Dependant on urgent cases jumping the list.

Being a bit impatient and paranoid about what is going on with the paperwork for my eye (well technically it is still someone elses but that is not really the point) I got on the phone.

It turns out that the eye consultant has two secretaries, one private and one NHS (I expect at this point you can see where this is going)…

Anyway because I saw the consultant privately the NHS secretary has kept out of the way, the private secretary tried to book things for the op privately (see earlier post) until I corrected her. At which point there was a communication breakdown – where is irrelevant at this point.

The NHS secretary told me today that she now has the paperwork and needs the consultant to fill in a form so she can then punt the paperwork off to the hospital.

So at least things are now moving in the right direction.

I am still a bit browned off that it took me phoning up and being nosey for someone to realise that some of the paperwork has left the consultant and not arrived at the opthamic suite in the hospital. Why should I have needed to do the work of NHS staff and follow things through? Should I have been told I would need to do this? Or is everyone complacent enough to just expect things to work and have no systems in place to spot the foulups? Would the foulup have been spotted?

I doubt I will ever know the answers to these questions. However a close friend is a senior manager in the East Kent NHS Trust so I may raise these points with him over a beer or two and see what he reckons.

OK that has wasted two months which in the grand scheme isn’t huge, but if I hadn’t called it could have been considerably longer and I also have to bear in mind that whilst I am waiting for the cornea transplant in one eye, the condition of the other eye is slowly deteriorating and the consultants plan is to get eye done and sorted before the other needs doing. Otherwise life becomes a visual challenge.

So next Friday I have been advised by the consultants secretary to phone the K&C waiting list dept again and see if the paperwork has arrived and try and find out where I am on the list. Notice the way that I have to check up on the paperwork being sorted, and should I really have to do that?

Have you tried using the phone system at the K&C? Its hysterical and automated:
it -”clearly state the name of the department/ward/person you are after”
me – “opthalmology”
it – “I didnt understand that did you say X-ray? Say operator for the operator or try again”
me- “operator”
it -”putting you through to obstretics”
person -”hello maternity”
me -”ah the phone system seems a tad confused couldnt put me through to an operator could you please?”
person -”after opthalmolgy by any chance? Any yes I will put you through”
You get the idea… much fun to be had.

Once I got through to the right bit…

They did tell me that the people longest on the list have been on it since September, so by reasoning it out it is around a four month wait in this area – as Augusts lot have been/are being done (according to the waiting list wallah at the K&C). So this is a good thing.

However dependant on the urgency assigned by the consultant (and whether I am bumped up the list due to the paperwork foulup) it is difficult to say until the paperwork shows up where I will be assigned – so at worst a four month wait, hopefully only two – possibly less if deemed urgent.

Of course it will never be quite that simple – but not to worry eh.

So now I have calmed down and finished trying to kick the office door off its hinges (I was a tad annoyed yesterday I admit and I think I only kicked the door once) I am relatively happy now I have thought things through.

Thanks for the reassurance guys.

Paul

Out of curiosity I phoned the K&C Opthalmology Suite this morning to ask for a vague idea of where I was on the waiting list for the transplant.

“Ooh I can see you are to go on the list but we haven’t been sent the paperwork from the consultant and without that we can’t put you on the list”.

So I phone the consultants secretary to find out what is going on.

“We sent the paperwork through months ago”.

So the last couple of months have been a complete waste of time.

To be honest I am fucking livid (and no I am not going to censor this entry for anyone who complains to me about my use of harsh language).

Just noticed this on the BBC News website.

It seems that its 100 years today that Dr Eduard Zirm performed the transplant.

At least these days they don’t sew the eyelids together afterwards whilst its healing.

Phew

Paul

Well SWMBOs plan for upping my posh points continued yesterday as we went to Lodnod to see the The Woman in Black at the Fortune theatre.

We ended up in the middle of a school party as the tickets came via a teacher friend who over ordered to get the big discount (£12 instead of £32 bargain ), anyway they were screaming all of the way through it.

Excellent play though – do go an see it if you get chance.

The best part though was the dash back to Charing Cross for the last train, no taxis at the rank so we jumped in a rickshaw. It was the poor guys second day of working and his legs must have been aching by the time he lugged us up The Strand to the station in and out of the traffic. It was fantastic fun.

Met a few people today who also have KC (Keratoconus) today, had a few beers and a natter.

It was much fun and nice to know that I am not alone. Seems that everyone except for me had had a corneal graft, so felt like the odd one out.

They all seemed somewhat shocked that I had slipped entirely through the opticians net (despite have been around once a year to get my eyes tested) and only been diagnosed at the final stages when I need a graft. It seems that the others there had known for years and had had plenty of time to prepare themselves for a graft.

The other odd thing is that mostly they have only had to wait a few weeks (2 in one case) where so far I am up to 2 months and still don’t know how much longer I will have to wait.

Oh well.