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| photo taken by Doris. |
2014 has not got off to the best of starts for me.hositalized in January with pneumonia,and asthma-breathing difficulties.......
The British NHS is the best health care in the world.(remember,America,my 3 days in hospital:my consultant:my Asthma Nurse:My X-Ray Men;etc are all Free) infact ,even free, we demand 100% 'We pay for it through taxes after all.We have high expectations......
...... 8 days ago I got a phonecall out of the blue from my consultant's secretary.Telling me the X-Rays they took in A&E on January 3rd showed "A change in the left lung"and could I "undergo a repeat chest x-ray in the second week of February to ensure there is no significant abnormality".The request form i gave to the Hospital's X-Ray Man 7 days ago said on it "LRTI?Left Hilar Prominence" .
Now i was worried.Nobody had sat me down and told me any of this.While in hospital in January two different doctors went out of their way to say my x-rays "were fine".
This Monday I rang up my Consulatant's secretary ( he's called DR.R.P. KARADI by the way).I asked if she had any news of my x-ray results yet.She sounded surprised."Oh ,he's on Annual Leave this week.He wont even look at them for at least 1 to 2 weeks"....
So I have been worried for over a week.self-diagnosing on the internet..researching the joys of Lung Cancer et al(.........while ,no doubt,Dr Karadi reads some thriller on a beach somewhere......)
Thankfully i had a routine visit to my asthma nurse yesterday.I told her the tale.She hacked into the hospital's records & read me the X-Ray Mans report.
It turns out the original x-ray in A&E showed one lung slightly larger than the other,but ,crucially, no structural abnormalities.The X-Men wondered if i had sat in slightly the wrong position when it was taken.They just wanted a second photo to check.Last week's 2nd X-Ray showed my lungs were symetrical.I was sat wrong orginally......I am ok.
Now my asthma nurse shouldnt really have given me this information.But how long will it be before the Consultant passes this on? (if at all)
When exactly did subjectivity die?
Objectively , they have looked after me wonderfully.But a 30 second informal conversation would have avoided 8 days+ of needless worry for me.We live in a world of checklists & "targets". It is unfortunate that "hypochondria-prevention"doesnt seem to be a target in this Brave New World..........
This week's Theme is "Crowds"........If you look at this photo,& the people in it,notice several souls are savvy enough to turn & notice the camera.........
Brighouse,"The Birthplace of The Selfie"?
The building in question was on Mill Royd Street.
A 5-storey high and 17-windows wide silk-spinning mill in Brighouse..
The mill burned down on 26th October 1903, and fireman Alexander Carmichael was killed on his way to the blaze.
Alexander lived at Back Bonegate, Brighouse. He was killed when he was fell from the fire engine as it sped to the fire...............
Poor old Alex.,killed not by the fire itself, but by the alarm surrounding it....such is life (& death).
24 comments:
I hate those kind of doctor's reports too. They could just say "You were sitting sideways during your X-ray and we need to do another for our records. All is fine."
Too bad about that fireman.
It's a wonder you didn't have a heart attack from worry.
You Sepia contribution is full of irony - from the early selfie to the sad death of the fireman. Clever post!
Continue healing well, enjoy socialized (?) medical care, and remember the folks who say those things to us (medical pros?) haven't the foggest that what they saw makes an impact on us. I heard my nurse say "possible fracture" as she read an Xray a few weeks ago, and off I went to specialist (paying a lot mroe) to find that it wasn't anything to do with current situation, but maybe sometime in my past.
So glad to hear you're on the mend, Tony! Thank goodness the anomaly in the x-ray is a minor thing.
This does seem to be quite common with the NHS, but, If there had been something wrong, from my experience, they are fast off the mark.
I didn't know you had been ill, all the very best for a speedy full recovery... and keep warm.
Happy Valentine's!!!
Sxxx
My Dad was born on Valentines Day! He would have been 97.....
YIKES! It seems to be a common problem with techs and doctors of not communicating not only with each other, but with patients!! Glad you're OK, sugar! xoxoxox
Thanks Savvy XXXXXX
Glad all is well.
Same problems in Canada getting wrong diagnoses scaring you half to death!
Communication is a wonderful thing, and would have spared you that spiritual No Mans Land, god bless the asthma nurse who realised the STRESS would do you more harm than anything else. Try not to give her away when you finally get the news from Dr Refreshed From Holiday.
The radiographer however, should have been operating from a script which included "please sit up straight". chains and weakest links etc.
Poor Alex had not been to training sessions where "Hang On Tight and relax when screaming round corners" was explained. he may have been a brutal parent or a drunk. He'd be dead by now anyway.
Is the silk mill a boutique hotel now?
On first glance I thought you had chosen another of your concert photos, Tony. Glad to hear you are symmetrical and in focus again. We Sepians always seem to turn a blurry photo into a good story.
A very dramatic photo. Isn't it amazing how we want to be there when something bad like a fire is happening. I like the idea of hypochondria-preventing techniques !
A doctor once removed something from my skin and sent it for testing, saying "10% of these turn out to be cancerous." Like you, I worried for a week until the report came back. I think she should have shielded me from that statistic.
Good to hear all is well. The novelty of the camera almost outweighed the spectacle of the fire.
I’m putting in another request for you to remove the word verification please. It’s actually numbers now, and the first one is very bluyry and playing havoc with my eyesight! There appears to be a consensus on the SS FB page that comment moderation on any post over seven days has done away with spam. Won’t you consider giving it a try?
D's doc actually told him he "might" have small-cell lung cancer and directed him to have an x-ray. Thankfully he didn't, nor does he have that doc anymore.
Nell.i've now altered my comments so it's only posts older than 14 days that are wv-ed.I was plagued by daft smammers ,which was why i put up wv in the first.I will give this compromise a go and see what happens.....
I can only say my experiences with the NHS have been good except for 16 weeks wait to have a skin cancer removed. Pleased you are still symmetrical and I'm sure your heart is in the right place as well as your lungs.
I thought I was looking at a light show until you told us about the fire and the unfortunate fireman.
Yes it is those unanswered questions that can exacerbate illness and certainly drive one over the brink, or to drink. Glad you got positive interpretation. I cannot imagine waiting that long or the doc going on vacation...but very spoiled by our Mayo health system her, no long waits. What a crowd shot for sure and clever use of selfie. Be well, you are deserving some healthy doses now.
to Be Fair to Our U.K.National Health Service, for Important Issues like Cancer etc we get very speedy/Good service.Much better than Private /Insurance-led medicine.
However,less urgent illness gets less urgent service sometimes.Which was the case with me in this instance,I guess I should have taken the Consultant's lack of understanding as a Good Sign!I should have had more faith in our brilliant Socalist health System.Ah! Yea Of Little Faith!:)
How awful, as worry I think hurts us far more than the real stuff! I sure miss seeing your run-around-town posts, and this and that you post and keep us laughing! Your nurse here looks quite the good medicine for you though!
Cute initial photo! :)) So sorry you were caused such unnecessary worry. Here, the hospital reports directly to our Primary Care Physician & we're called right away & asked to come into the office if there's a problem and usually with a simple explanation for the reason over the phone. Anyway, best of luck with your continued recovery!
Glad you're OK now, Tony. Doctors are very much by the book when it suits them. Nice you got talking to a decent nurse...
Yes, not so much a show of callous neglect, more of an encouragement really.... Glad you're well!
Over here, where Doctors live in more fear of litigation it goes the other way of course, far too much ruddy attention at times. My husband's been on the books of a cancer hospital in NY for 7 years because of a suspicious finding on an x ray once, although no annual test ever comes back positive. We figure no-one wants to take the responsibility to say no more ctscans are necessary.
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