Do you know the way people in Ireland greet each other by saying something like: “Hi, how are you?” or even “Howya?” They might even treat you to the long version. “Hello. How have you been keeping?”
I rarely get anything other than “Hi” or “there you are.”
This is because people who know me, know that if they ask me how I am, there is a very good chance/risk that I will tell them.
And that could take some time.
In case you haven’t noticed me mentioning it in every second blog, not only have I been ill, I’ve been ill for more than 20 years and still am.
Now, people give out about our health system. And there are lots of reasons to give out – none of them involving front line staff.
The whole thing needs to be reorganised from the top down. In places, it’s a shambles and the unfortunate staff have to work all the harder because of it. But that’s another day’s work.
Our health service has looked after me astonishingly well in the 21 years since I was first told I had lymphoma and a rare form of it at that.
I won’t go on and on here about all the bits and pieces over the past years.
Suffice it to say, that after one thing and another, one diagnosis after another, one more condition to add to the list, I have quite the gathering of doctors:
Haemotologist (Blood specialist for my lymphoma)
Pulmonologist (Respiratory specialist for my COPD)
Dermatologist (Skin specialist because my lympomha manifested itself on my skin)
Opthamologist (Slight after affect on my eyes after my Bone Marrow Transplant)
Otolaryngologist (Throat specialist to deal with narrowing of the throat)
Gastroenterologist (Few polyps around my innards!)
Orthopedic specialist (neck) (Bone specialist for disintegrating bone in the neck due to necrosis)
Orthopedic specialist (shoulder) (Bone specialist disintegrating bone in the shoulder due to necrosis)
Endocrynologist (To check for diabetes which I hade due to drugs following Bone Marrow Transplant but which is currently at bay.)
Cardiologist (Heart specialist for Atrial Fibrillation)
GP – for everything and to keep it all together.
They always refer to it as my “Medical Team.’
Well, that’s fair. There are eleven of them.
But that’s a soccer team. And I’m no expert on soccer.
And while I don’t want to wish more illness on myself, I could really do with four more to make up a rugby XV.
Plastic surgeon? Hair transplant specialist? Audiologist (the hearing is getting dodgy)
Shrink?
I’ll let you know…
Paddy's World 