Diatribetes

It was a bizarre end to the week of steroids and hamsters. First off a letter arrived from the trial centre apologising that I had been unsuccessful in joining the trial and applications had now closed...this was news to Everyone's Favourite Nurse who was just sticking an IV into my right arm. In fact it was news to everyone but no surprise to me. Admin errors have dogged me throughout this year. If the NHS was the sum total of it's parts it would be the best organisation in the world. Every Prof, Dr, Consultant, Nurse, Manager, trial thingy person I've ever met has been first rate, caring, honest, professional and helpful. The caliber of our NHS staff is phenomenal. However, every attempt at administering between two or more hospitals has been a total and hopeless phenomenal disaster. Barnet did the wrong tests on my blood then lost my Neurologist referral, Enfield made a follow up appointment before I'd had the first appointment, lost a referral to the Royal Free then forgot to pass on my results to the trial centre at Royal London. This was made even more annoying by the permanently full mailbox on the end of the Neurology department phone. So the suggestion that I hadn't got on the trial three days after I'd started seemed about par for the course.

But after a week of drips and tests it didn't really seem to matter any more...no more needles for a month. I'm free. I'll just get my coat on. Oh, before you do could we just do a quick blood-glucose test...only your sugar levels are a bit high and we'll need to send a sample through to the lab for testing...has anyone in your family had diabetes?..I'll take my coat off then.