Appointments

Hopefully today will be my last session of chemo. It will be a relief.

Over the weekend I got yet another letter from the hospital. This time it was the Breast Clinic with an appointment half an hour after my next appointment with the oncologist. I thought I’d best ring to see if I could have the appointments changed a little so I had a better chance of getting from one to the other on time, or at least pre-warn the second department that I might be late.

These days at the RLI (Royal Lancaster Infirmary) most appointments are made via the Appointments Service based at Kendal. The number on top of the letter from the Breast Clinic turned out to be this number.

I explained the situation. The lady who answered could see the difficulty. However, when she took a look the first thing she found was that the Breast Clinic appointment was marked as urgent. If she cancelled the appointment that had already be made she would not be able to make another for several weeks. Her suggestion was that I kept to the appointments already made but advise the first appointment that I had the second one so that department could either expedite my seeing the specialist or at least let the other department know I was nearby but temporarily held up. Certainly I think the second appointment is the more urgent in that I’m expecting to be told details of the proposed op. But maybe it isn’t. Maybe they’ve come to the conclusion I need more chemo of a different combination of drugs before the op. I don’t know. They’re certainly both for the cancer.

As I was on the phone to the central appointments service, I thought I might as well see what was happening with the Fox’s appointment for Dermatology. He’s in a right state. Blisters are appearing all over. Some are bursting, leaking pus, even blood. He was supposed to get an appointment next week but we haven’t heard a thing yet so we suspect this might be another case of waiting for months before we hear anything.

My lady duly had a look. Sure enough he wasn’t on the immediate list for an appointment. However, when I explained the situation, she discovered an appointment had been cancelled for today if he could make it. I assured her he could, especially as the appointment was while I was having my chemo. It not only gets him seen & hopefully more comfortable sooner, it also gives him something to do while I sit there waiting for the drugs to slowly drip into me.

So it seems it’s a busy day ahead. But everything seems to be turning out well today. Long may it continue. I couldn’t help thanking her as usually I find this telephone service extremely frustrating & I end up feeling like tearing my hair out – not that there’s much of that to tear out right now. Instead, for once, I feel satisfied, a job well done.