I was awake unreasonably early – around 04.00. A bit early.
I eventually arose and got myself out and about for a swim. Because it had rained quite heavily overnight, yet again, I thought it prudent to drive to Didcot avoiding the usual country roads where there had been considerable flooding last week. This was probably a wise decision because there was enough deep water on the route via Wallingford.
According to the voices of my familiar faces, the pool had been busy, but it was pleasantly quiet for my lengths.
Once home, I made some brekkie and contemplated a rainy walk and the day ahead. I had made an offer to Ali that I knew she could not refuse – I suggested that I prepare a meal for Wednesday night when I might be allowed out of hospital. Pen and the children would be around, but Dave is away on a business trip. Then Ali does not have to worry about feeding the masses.
It was after this, that my nightmares began. I shopped at Vicars but the vegetable shelves were stripped almost bare after the weekend. . A bit of a nuisance.
Meanwhile, H was in the back of the car.
On the way to Vicars, I had taken her for a quick walk on Lardon Chase. This was not entirely successful thanks to the group of cows straddling the path, and rain did not help.
Then matters became worse because, whilst still out, just before 16.00, a Preop nurse from RBH was on the phone wanting me to drive to Reading to pick up antibiotics as I have yet another UTI. Why am I not surprised? And why has it taken them so long to notify me after I dropped the sample off last Thursday? ( when they were closed without warning). This is exactly what happened before.
I was not happy. Just another dose of antibiotics which will not work. More uncertainty over whether the procedure will go ahead on Wednesday. And a two hour round trip to pick up the tablets, assuming I could get to the RBH pharmacy before it closed at 18.00. All through rush hour traffic, arriving at the car park, when it was likely to be very full up due to it being visiting hours.
And I needed to take H home before attempting the trip.
When Alex heard this she was ready to explode … how ridiculous! She could not understand why the hospital could not ask the GP to prescribe. I had asked the same question a month ago and she got a slightly clearer answer. Using Hospital prescribing affects GP budgets so they tend not to cooperate.
However Alex knew something that I did not- a prescription can be sent to something called the ‘Spine’ and any pharmacy or prescribing office can access it and process it. BUT … RBH say most GP’s do not subscribe to the Spine. ( Budget reasons)
But ours surgery does subscribe to the Spine. Pre op are really hopelessly inefficient and need to get their act better together. And it needs to go on my hospital notes that prescriptions are to be issued via the Spine.
The local surgery went above and beyond to issue me the antibiotics (which I know won’t work.) As Alex said to the Pre-op nurse: ‘You cannot reasonably expect a 75 year old lady to do a two hour round trip to pick up antibiotics that she can get locally.’
And at this point I should mention that it took me 33 minutes on hold, starting as number 3 in the phone queue, to get to speak to someone in Pre-op and then another 10 minutes or more to deal with my query. No hope now of getting to RBH before 18.00.
In the end, we found out from Pre-op what medication was being prescribed and the dosage, I produced a urine sample for the surgery to check for infection and a GP issued the prescription and Tamara the pharmacist processed it, ably helped by a paramedic nurse and the receptionist.
I am very grateful to them. The surgery remarked that the hospital staff often had no understanding of geographical locations of patients.And it was all ridiculous.
It was all the stuff of nightmares.
Anyway I got my tablets and returned home and took one.
i shall be more than glad when this whole business draws to a close.
I fed myself and H and fell asleep.
Thought for the Day
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