NHS Direct - bless !!

NHS Direct - bless!

Right then, cut our sugar eh?  

Easy peasy.  Delicious supper of vegetable chillie and rice. Loads of lentils, five different kinds of beans, basmati rice - delicious!!

I love to cook, and as we grow most of our own veg we tend to eat relatively healthily (hides the crisps & chocolate behind the fresh fruit!).

It must be noted at this point that at no time did the GP show any interest in my description of the "loose stools" that I had been suffering from for the last four weeks.  No questioning about the debilitating and constant headache, no perked interest in my description of blurry vision coming on over the last six weeks or so, and no surprise at the sudden loss of weight. They must be all meaningless then, eh?

Dinner was delicious.  I forgot to test before dinner, but did take a metformin tablet as the GP had told me I would need to take them twice a day for the rest of my life.  Settled back on the sofa, watching telly, feeling really crap.  Mrs B says, why don't you do one of those tests?  Great - why didn't I think of that?

Test kit out, check strips, stab self with lancet (ouch!), too bloody right I don't want to do that often, it hurts! Drop of blood on strip, *BEEP* - "HI".

Wow, thats nice, it's saying Hi....very cool and a good sense of humour these meter companies.

Wait, wait, wait....hang on....must have done something wrong.  New strip, another stab (dammit!), another drop of blood and.....

"HI"

???

Where's the sodding manual, did I chuck it with the box?

Ooops, manual says that HI means over 33.3 mmol/l - crap!!

What to do - is it serious?  What does Professor Google say?  Holy Candy Floss Batman, this isn't looking good!  Now the GP had said to call them if it went above 20, its 10:30 at night, should I call?  Yes!

Ring, ring, - out of office hours message tells me to ring NHS Direct, so I guess I'll do that then.

Ring, ring, NHS Direct, how can I help you?

Utterly charming, very calming.  No explanation of what a BG of over 33.3 was, no advice on what to do, no idea other than "speak to you GP in the morning"

Back to trusty old #doc & Professor Google

Some of the best advice and most reassuring help I have ever had.  The #doc helped a very scared, worried and frightened person cope with a 10 hour wait for the GPs office to open.

Before bed test was still HI.

Next morning it was 19.6

Ring, ring...ring, ring,  "Hello, can I speak to the doctor please"

I described the test results, said I was very worried, was told that they now thought they could get me an appointment with a specialist within a week!  Why I asked, what's changed?  Why the sudden rush?  No real answer to that other than that it was me, the patient, who wanted to see a specialist and they were only trying to facilitate that.

What about the bg test results?  "Well they are coming down, so just keep an eye on them."

That afternoon I had my second call from the GP.  They had managed to get me an cancellation appointment with a specialist for the following day. Could I come into the surgery and pick up the referral letter to take with me to the specialist?

Have I mentioned the darkness of my mood and my mega sense of humour failure?  Imagine a very grouchy, very tetchy, very moody, irascible and above all tired, physically and mentally knackered, man.  Got it?  

Well that doesn't even begin to describe how bad I felt.

Tomorrow's appointment with the specialist couldn't come quickly enough.

Next instalment: Someone cares!