MOANS AND GROANS

Found it quite therapeutic writing the "DAY IN THE LIFE" posting. Wish I'd thought about putting in to words all the things that have happened over the last 17 months that have made me so angry and frustrated - it may have helped keep my blood pressure down! As so many of these things still rankle so much I thought I would do a "moans and groans"; posting. Please feel free to skip this; it is purely a chance for me to get things off my chest. So here goes:-

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*The doctor who fobbed hubby off with pain killers for 2 months when he complained of headaches, blurry vision and loss of memory

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*The referral from the hospital to our local practice taking 2 months (which meant we could get no aids, i.e. wheelchair, hoist, commode etc, and meant I had to physically lift my 6ft 2" 14 stone husband to move him)

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*Having to buy incontinence pads because the District Nurse said "it takes 6 weeks, so not worth it"

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*The District Nurse who said she would bring some incontinence pads from their stock cupboard and forgot

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O.T. saying that they could not put a ramp or stair lift in as "it wasnt worth it"

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*The District Nurse who said she would arrange for a ripple bed to help prevent pressure sores; and took two weeks (and countless phone calls from me) to remember to order it AND put the order into the "non urgent" category

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*The District Nurse who phoned and asked how my husbands feet were that she had looked at the previous week (TO THIS DAY NO DISTRICT NURSE HAS EVER TOUCHED MY HUSBAND LET ALONE LOOK AT HIS FEET!)

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*The District Nurse who, when I phoned and asked for help as my hubbys hand was so clenched his wedding ring had cut into his finger and was inflamed and possibly infected, said "that's not our problem"

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*The fact that; despite my continually saying how difficult it was for my husband to swallow drinks without choking and my fears about him becoming dehydrated; it took 6 months for the District Nurse to tell me there was a product called Thick and Easy which thickens liquid for people who have difficulty swallowing

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*The Doctors Receptionist that insisted I get my husband out of bed and wheel him to the surgery when I feared he had a chest infection; because one of the doctors was on holiday and so they were too busy to do a home visit

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*British Telecom who took two weeks in August to repair our phone line (any one experiencing similar probles may like to visit http://www.btsuck.org/ )

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*British Telecom who (despite my having signed up for priority service) took almost a month in September to repair our phone line

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*The drivers of the cars who park right across the slopes in the pavements so that I have to bump hubbies wheelchair down the kerb

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*The Doctor who asked if hubby scratched himself a lot when he had a mysterious rash (HUBBY CANT MOVE!)

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*The local bus company - not one of its buses we've got on has had the pull-down wheelchair ramp working (or so the drivers say!)

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*The anonymous neighbour who keeps filling my gardenwaste bin with THEIR garden waste so that there's not room for mine - I PAY THE COUNCIL FOR THIS SERVICE!

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This post in no way reflects on the N.H.S., British Telecom or the British Public as a whole.

I HOPE!