How we moan about our creaking, slow, inefficient, mega-costly health service.
Not me.
Easter Monday: discover something alarming.
Tuesday: ring from London to make urgent next-day appointment with GP.
Wednesday: GP reassuring, but makes referral to specialist services.
Friday: specialist unit calls me to make appointment.
The following Tuesday, in the sensitive, calm specialist unit in a hospital some distance away, I am X-rayed, ultrasound-scanned, examined by a consultant, prodded, poked, and soundly reassured that the something, while real, isn't alarming at all, and that I do not have breast cancer.
Not complaining; not at all. And thankful.
37 comments:
Wow, I am thankful for you, too.
Such good news I'm glad your mind is at rest.
So pleased you are OK. No wonder you've been seeking the solace of quiet country churches lately!
My experience of the NHS is mixed, but I agree that in emergencies, it can be superb.
Good news you're ok. I have nothing but praise for the health service. My daughter is a midwife working within the NHS. Long, long hours and always short of staff, but she does a brilliant job.
Glad it all turned out ok. I know the programme "Embarrassing Bodies" gets a lot of flak for the way they show dreadful things, but something which they constantly highlight is checking out one's bits and bobs (male and female), how to do it, what to look for.
Oh poor you...what a horrid week you must have had! SO pleased that all is well.X
So glad you are ok-breast cancer is a frightening thing. My best friend was diagnosed last year, but it was caught very early and her prognosis is bright.
I'm relieved to hear that it is not dire. I can't complain about the NHS either.
So happy for you that you are ok! I had a fright several years ago and it is not fun. I wish we had national coverage here in the USA - I am very fortunate as always had coverage through my employment and am covered as part of my pension plan. It is a very divisive subject here and I just don't understand why. Our poor president has been slammed for his efforts as everyone knows.
Take care of yourself,
Mary
Very relieved indeed for you
Jan x
This is very good news. So glad for you.
Oh what a relief. Thank goodness and the NHS.
good news for you.
KNOWING is such a relief. Even if it hadn't been such reassuring news, the suspense could kill a person. Sounds as if the "creaking, slow, inefficient, mega-costly health service" gets the job done!
Congratulations on getting The Good Answer!
Very glad to hear that your worst fears were not realized. I imagine your blood pressure was a tad high last week.
O. Rachel. How stressfull to wait for what must have seemed like so long for the good news. I know how relieved you must feel.
How good home must feel right now.
xox Shelley
So relieved to read that you are okay.
Oh, Rachel, I'm so glad. And I wish we had something comprehensive and affordable here in the US. It's inexcusable that we have so many people without health insurance. I buy my own, and it's very expensive. I'm lucky I can afford it.
Wonderful news . Congratulations !
And congratulations , too , on reacting so quickly and bravely . It must have been very nerve-wracking .
You must be so very relieved. I have only ever had wonderful treatment from the NHS. I've had a paramedic at my front door in minutes, and a private room with bathroom on two occasions when i've needed hospitalisation. They are overstretched though and need extra pairs of hands to take care of all the patients they have nowadays.
Glad you are ok.
No matter how light we make of such matters I know how terrifying they can be.
So another huge sigh of relief is heard in blogland.
xo Jane
So happy that your news was good.
Having had three such experiences, including having surgery for a lump that proved not to be malignant, but was something unexpected that led to a year's monitoring for an entirely different condition, I know how worrying any amount of waiting is.
x
The NHS is wonderful when there's an emergency and once you're in the system you're in for good.
Glad your scare was (relatively) short-lived.
So relieved for you.
We have had occasion to appreciate the NHS being there when we needed it, no questions asked. Creaky and flawed it may be but we are so lucky that it is part of our national life.
I have too many good friends to breast cancer - I cannot bear to think that there was the possibility that you were on that list too.
THANKFULNESS ABOUNDS!
Oh, phew... I know the feeling... last year they found something on my mammogram...but, it took several weeks to get an ultra sound...and finally.... they have decided it is a cyst. Just had a second ultra sound in January to follow up...and still okay... phew again.... it's scary though isn't it?
Phew, glad it's good news Rachel!
Dan
-x-
Glad it was nothing serious.
Live in the USA South, and though I'm financially sound...worry constantly about losing EVERYTHING to medical expenses.
Currently I'm on the government "pre-existing" insurance program due to the Obama Health Care Reform. You wouldn't believe the morons I have to deal with here who HATE the idea of a health care program like in your country.
You are SO lucky there, and we are so unfortunate here... Sad indeed.
So glad that your news was good. I know it was stressful waiting to hear the results.
I wish we had a national health care program. I've known people who could not afford insurance, so they neglected health problems until it was too late.
So pleased and relieved that you are O.K.
Been there with the 'finding something' so I know what it's like, & the relief when told it's nothing nasty.
I'm intrigued by the recent references to a 'companion' .....
I am with you and mountainear. The NHS delivers when it must! Glad it is ok.
Well done you for acting quickly; and getting reassuring news quickly too.
The NHS at its brilliant best. It's ours too - and we deserve it.
I know how relieved you must have felt but that fear is all too real before you are checked over. It's a strange feeling. Quite surreal. It happened to me about 6 years ago. Was taking a bath, felt a small lump under my arm, was a Sunday and had to wait overnight to see my GP. It was harmless. Such relief. But just over 2 years ago, on a Bank Holiday I has a tiny symptom. Most people wouldn't even notice it, I did. I tried to ignore it but I got such a cold chill down my spine, I knew something was wrong. I can't explain it, I just knew! I was put on a fast track at the hospital, and I had test after test and it was relentless, no one said what I might have, just that they find nine out of ten people's tests are negative. I knew something was wrong as no sooner had I come home from one test and/or overnight stay at hospital then I was called back again the next day. This went on for a couple of weeks. I was exhausted from it all. Friends kept saying, don't worry it will be nothing. It wasn't nothing. With no warning, I had to see the Specialist one afternoon and be told I had a tumour. It was cancerous. I had to have an urgent major operation within the next 3 days. First scans etc to see what the situation was(if it had spread etc). Scary but you just turn into a survival mode. It is a very, strange surreal feeling and you just get on with it. I was told that if I hadn't gone to the GP when I did, if I hadn't been put on a fast track when I was,then another 9 months down the line it would have been too late for me. I was diagnosed with a grade one, stage one tumour. I had my major operation, and then had to wait to see if the lymph glands they had removed at the same time as well were affected as this meant the cancer had spread. I was very fortunate, it hadn't. I'm ok now but i have to be checked for the next five years. Any symptoms have to be reported straight away. You know the emotional side only hit me 12 months after that. I was in shock for some time and didn't realise it. Even now I find it hard to talk about it but the reason for this long post is to say, any symptom no matter how trivial, go and get seen straight away. You're not wasting anyones time and if you are the one case out of ten that needs treatment, the earlier it is caught the better the prognosis. One word of caution is don't try and self diagnosis off the internet. It really doesn't help in any way.
Sorry for coming on as anonymous. I must set up a blog identity...I've posted before about the crystal and the orbs. I've really enjoyed reading your blog and it's given me a bit of a kick start to do something similar and move to somewhere better than where I am now:) I'd love to ask you lots of questions about how you chose where to move too etc. Will set up a blog identity a bit later on,,,,,Thanks for writing your blog. Helped me a lot.
Thank you all for your lovely supportive comments and for sharing your own feelings and experiences. Although this was a positive outcome for me, it brought with it memories of others who have not been so fortunate, and a reminder of why the hand of friendship is so important, extended from one woman to another, at such times.
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