...

[kaberett]

... Please do not eat or drink anything two hours before your appointment.

It is essential that after the procedure you arrange for an adult friend or relative to collect you by car or taxi. You will not be able to use the bus or train to travel home.

Hospital transport may be available if there is medical need. If you think you may be eligible please contact the Pain Clinic.

On arrival you will see the doctor to discuss and sign the consent form, however your appointment time may not the time of your treatment and a wait will be involved (between 10 minutes and 4 hours before your treatment) so please bring something to read or do to keep yourself occupied.

Comments

[evilsusan]

When is this? Do you need a lift?

[kaberett]

Friday the 21st; Ely; and my mum has agreed to drive but would (understandably) quite like to not spend her entire morning sitting around in a hospital in Ely! I, ah, will be calling them on Monday and attempting to clarify a few points.

[kaberett]

(But thank you LOTS for the offer.)

[worlds_of_smoke]

...... What the fuck? They do know that a lot of people with pain issues are disabled, right? And not everyone has friends or relatives with cars? -facedesks-

[kaberett]

So I think the best bit is where they tell me to take my medications as normal.

My medications that require eating on a four-hour schedule if I'm to take them properly.

[alexseanchai]

Heh, yeah, that's definitely the best bit. Ouch.

still at level AARGH but now thinking through coping possibilities

[jjhunter]

Do they offer food / drink if you have to wait more than 2 hours? or could you bring 'em with you? ...I mean, it may be a lot to expect from the kind of people who wrote ~these~ guidelines, but presumably they would be able to give you a rough estimate of the wait when you showed up (within half an hour versus not for at least two hours), so if you timed meds / eating such that both were consumed ~3.75 hours before, then if they say the wait will be at least two hours, you could duck out & eat/medicate immediately and not have to worry about it.

Anyway, I hope there's an accessibility coordinator type at this place or whatever umbrella institution it belongs to who can apply powers of commonsense & institutional authority to make this more feasible for you. Because still: whiskey tango foxtrot all the way.

Re: still at level AARGH but now thinking through coping possibilities

[kaberett]

I imagine they don't, on account of the restriction is presumably in case they fuck up and emergency surgery becomes necessary.

It will actually be okay (not least because night-time meds are the only ones it's *actually* a problem if I skip), but I thought this deserved recording in the annals of "... what are these people even DOING." Thank you lots. xx

[worlds_of_smoke]

-rubs my forehead- You'd think they don't know how to treat people with complicated medical histories or something.

[damerell]

I have now been both the person who lies about driving the patient home before we get on the bus and the patient ditto.

[worlds_of_smoke]

-laughs- hey, you do what you have to.

[untonuggan]

I like the casual, "oh by the way the wait is 10 minutes to four hours go fuck yourself" bit. Not.

*sympathies*

[catyak]

If it's anything like it was when I had hospital appointments, they'd book a load of people in for 10am (or some other time), so they'd end up with a waiting room full of people who'd done the initial paperwork, which might also include a visit to the X-Ray or other department. If you were lucky then your name was near the top of the list and you'd get called for the actual consultation fairly quickly, otherwise they'd work down the list of those who'd turned up and get to you eventually. Then the next group would start arriving, hopefully by which time most of the 10am group would have been seen, and it would repeat. All it takes is a few difficult cases that need a lot of time and the delays increase really quickly.

I used to console myself that waiting three hours for a five minute check-up was better than waiting five minutes and needing three hours of treatment. Plus I wasn't on food restrictions.

Given the tales of the wasted appointments when people don't turn up, I can see the attraction of it from the NHS perspective, if someone doesn't show then there's chance to either chase them up about it or call in someone from the waiting list to take a slot.

D

[kaberett]

So they're not actually doing straightforward morning & afternoon clinics - they're definitely having people in at both 8am and 11am.

My gynae consultant does give out specific times. He is always running 90 minutes late. But at least I know this, and he still makes up time if someone doesn't show...

i need an icon for RAGE

[jjhunter]

...what. but but - on top of all the potentially problematic 'just have someone pick you up' (during work hours? with what assumed resources, again?) stuff - the way they're phrasing this you could be *required* not to have eaten or drunk anything for SIX BLEEPING HOURS *prior* to your appointment (which would be how long?) and what. even. human bodies are not meant to endure stressful situations for multiple hours without some kind of sustenance. Are they deliberately trying to put people's bodies / minds out of whack before they even enter the appointment room? JESUS.

(That being said, if we lived within driving distance of each other, I would totally take time off from work to give you a ride. Alas that Bug 4231 is still set to 'RESOLVED LATER', ne?)

Re: i need an icon for RAGE

[kaberett]

Who the fuck EVEN KNOWS. Luckily my mum is great and will be sorting me out, but it would be kind of helpful to know if e.g. the reason people are told not to take the bus or train is because they won't be able to walk normally - which, you know, NOT SO MUCH A PROBLEM FOR ME.

Re: i need an icon for RAGE

[catyak]

If there's any sort of general anaesthetic involved, or possibly involved, then they want you to have another adult responsible for taking you home safely. It also helps to have someone else there if the doctor wants to brief you about what happened while you were under, because most people aren't all there when recovering from anaesthetic and the third party can remember all the bits you forget.

D

Re: i need an icon for RAGE

[kaberett]

Local, not general. I know what recovering from general is like. ;)

Re: i need an icon for RAGE

[naath]

I don't know what kaberett's appointment is for but there are (alas) tests that need to be done fasting, and if there's a risk of needing anaesthesia then it's really a very bad idea to do that if you've been eating. Of course those are risks that need to be balanced off against the risk-to-health of disturbing one's normal eating patterns.

Not being able to tell you what time the appointment is actually going to happen at is... WTF PEOPLE WTF.

Even without any difficult access requirements (and people needing hospital appointments might be likely to have difficult access requirements! Possibly incompatible with cars) I would find it very difficult to arrange to have someone drive me to, and then from, an appointment that was going to take some unspecified (and possibly large) number of hours. And besides I'm practically allergic to cars. I'd take the fucking train against medical advice though; because I'm an ornery shit. I suppose I might get someone to come and accompany me.

[angelofthenorth]

Boggles.

I mean the lack of thought-through-ness that this implies is really quite special.

[kaberett]

People who, let us note, probably experience pain on sitting for long periods in anything other than Their Particular Chair.

[403]

Were it me needing to wait that long, I'd have my ride bring My Particular Chair just in case of extended waiting. Not an option for everyone (a beanbag chair and a couple of pillows isn't Serious Furniture for moving purposes), but the utter ridiculousness of their policy deserves pointing out in the most vivid way available.

[kaberett]

I am intending to be Pointed about Where To Put My Wheelchair, yes ;)

[pretty_panther]

10 mins....to 4 HOURS. What the fuck. And yeah, plenty of people need to eat on a regular time table. Wtf.

[kaberett]

THE BOLDFACE?

YEP THAT IS ALL IN THE PHYSICAL LETTER. EMPHASIS? NOT. MINE.

[403]

Ahahahaha - whut? Seriously? Wow. o_@

[kaberett]

THE REPRESENTATION HERE INCLUDING BOLDFACE IS EXACTLY AS PER THE PHYSICAL LETTER

[laceblade]

A lot of these = fail, but I just wanted to mention that in the research program I work in, we typically ask that people fast from food/non-water beverages, but if someone's say, diabetic & calls us & tells us, we can try to work something out (usually just reading lab results as non-fasting, etc).
I don't know if there's anyone for you to call & talk to, though, :(

/hugs/

[kaberett]

Thank you for this input!

I do need to call anyway (and I have a number to do so with, FINALLY) in order to sort out how much notice I'll be able to give my mum of needing pick-up, so I will ask about this. Thank you for pointing out that it's a sensible thing to do. :-)

[subluxate]

That sounds just. I'm so annoyed on your behalf that this is policy. It sounds pretty ridiculous.

[jamfish]

Wtaf ten minutes to four hours?! This is the failiest policy. Did they not think things through at all??

[beckyc]

Yeah, it's not great, is it? Looks remarkably similar to the destructions I got sent for various procedures at the Addenbrookes treatment centre. Sometimes it makes sense (e.g. if you're going to have a general or a gastroscopy), sometimes I don't even begin to pretend I understand.

Hope it all goes well for you.

[kaberett]

It's local anaesthetic + steroids as an epidural. In ELY. ELYYYY. WHY IS IT ELY. ;_;

[beckyc]

Beats me! Thought that kind of stuff got done at the treatment centre at Addies! All I know about Ely hospital is that it is the nearest (to Cambridge) walk in centre for urgent minor things, which is useful to know *in general* but not useful for answering why you would get epidural done there.