Skip to main content
Tag

NHS

Polyps Pain

By HealthNo Comments

“You’ve got polyps.” – The Doctor said to me, after he peered up my nose with a bright light.

Polyps are growths within your nasal cavity that can:

  • Cause your nasal cavity to swell, resulting in the worst pain I have ever experienced. Pain in your nose, across your cheeks, forehead, jaw and teeth.
  • Cause swelling of your sinuses.
  • Make breathing through your nose extremely difficult.
  • Give you a runny nose or blocked nose.
  • Make snoring worse.
  • Reduce your ability to smell and taste.
  • Sadly, doesn’t get better on its own. But instead gets worse as the polyps grow.

Here is a photo of just one of my nasal polyps (apologies, it isn’t pretty):

The treatment is surgery to remove them. The problem being that the National Health Service (NHS) here in the UK is really stretched at the moment. And when I say really stretched, I mean it is stretched to breaking point. This means that the surgery I need, I would have to wait several months for. That’s several months of ever increasing pain as the polyps continue to grow.

Waiting several months clearly wasn’t an option. I was unsure if I could tolerate the pain for that length of time. I also had to consider the impact of being unable to work on my life. So I’ve had to go private.

The NHS is a wonderful organisation. It has saved my life and the lives of people that I love on more occasions than I care to recall. But it is essentially becoming an organisation that only delivers emergency and crisis driven care.

It’s very sad to see the state of the NHS today. Over the 11 years of a Conservative Government, they have made efficiency savings (cuts), had no plan and not invested in the NHS. The state of the NHS can only be blamed on those in power.

Write soon,

Antony

Share on Social Media:
Friday 15 December 2023

Pneumonia Recovery

By Health, ThinkingNo Comments

I tried. I really did. After being admitted in hospital for three days with pneumonia (a chest infection), urine infection and in diabetic ketoacidosis, I had a week off work to recover. I managed the week, then went back off sick.

I’m constantly beyond exhausted, needing to sleep all day and night on a bad day. My blood sugars are all over the place, which isn’t helping matters. I just don’t feel right. I’m being really honest – I don’t know exactly what’s wrong. I can’t pinpoint specific symptoms any more than I have explained.

I went to see my GP today and he said:

Just what made you think you could return to work after 1 week? – My GP

He had a point. I’m not twenty any more. At thirty-seven years old, I now have to accept that infections have a bigger impact on my body. Having diabetes also means my body takes longer to heal. The bigger the impact, the longer the recovery time. This has been my main lesson from my GP today.

I’ve never really have to taken more than a week off work to recover from infections in the past. So this is new territory for me. But I have to listen to my body. It’s crying out for recovery and time to heal. And it is always wise to listen to your doctor – especially if you’re lucky to have an amazing one like I do.

My GP has requested some more urgent bloods. Given me a sick note for two weeks and strict instructions to rest, recuperate and not to return to work before being reviewed by him again.

Despite knowing that I can’t help getting sick and that it isn’t something I have any control over, I do feel guilty for taking time off work. I feel like I’m letting everyone at work down. My manager, my colleagues and my patients. But I hope they understand.

I really have no choice. I’ve been very poorly and I’m not fit enough to get through a day without a nap (or several) due to exhaustion. The littlest things, like for example taking a shower wear me out.

My GP was very tactful, but he basically explained that if I don’t take weeks off from work to recover now, in the long term it might take me months to recover. My GP explained that I will have good and bad days during this period of recovery. He warned me about good days and the assumption I could make that one good day means I’m fully recovered.

So here I am. Sat here writing this post. Accepting that I need a period of recovery to allow my body time to heal. Not knowing how long it will take. Not being able to do much to help it apart from self-care: eating well, resting when required, keeping a good sleep routine, you know, the basics but essentials.

I would like to thank all the people in my life that have and continue to support me. Thank you. Without you, this would be so much more difficult.

Write soon,

Antony

Share on Social Media:
Thursday 8 June 2023

Back to Blogging

By Friends & Family, Health, LifeNo Comments
Back to Blogging

I can honestly write, that at the moment I’m going through the toughest time of my life. At the moment, all aspects of my life are difficult, challenging and frustrating. A lot of the difficulties and challenges are due to circumstances that I don’t have any control over. I can only control my response to situations as they arise.

A good example, was that for my birthday this year I found myself admitted to hospital with a chest infection, urine infection and diabetic ketoacidosis. The NHS staff were wonderful. I was really proud of their care, kindness and compassion.

Over the past year, somewhere along the way I’ve started exsisting, rather than living. I stopped doing all the things I enjoy and even most of my hobbies, such as blogging.

But now that I’ve recognised this, I’ve done something about it. So here I am back to blogging, one of my hobbies. Making plans for the future and getting my life back into some sort of order – at least in the areas that I can.

My support networks have been amazing throughout this difficult time. They have listened, empathised and understood. They have offered support, sometimes in the most unexpected of ways.

Write soon,

Antony

Share on Social Media:
Sunday 4 June 2023

A Typical Essential Worker’s Week?

By Life6 Comments

There are many types of essential workers out there. As a Nurse, I am one. The national Coronavirus updates by the Government and NHS England change day by day, as do our local updates. I want to give you a walk through of my week, to give you an idea of what it has been like.

Monday – A very mixed day. An early start and I hadn’t slept well. A colleague brought in a bacon bap, which would have been enough to make my day. But then we got a huge delivery of food from the local Nandos for us NHS staff for free. I was overwhelmed by the kindness of both my colleague and the Nandos staff.

It was a pleasant day weather wise, as it would be for the rest of the week. But on my drive home I was so disappointed to see so many people out when the Government had told people to stay at home.

Tuesday – I start my day by checking for Coronavirus updates on our NHS Tust’s intranet. This will become daily practice over the course of the week as I try to remain up to date at all times. I’m working from home today, as I’m on a rare non-clinical day. It feels weird not to drive into work, I guess this is what all the other home workers must be feeling.

Social distancing starts.

Wednesday – Today I complete an appraisal with my colleague. The best thing about managing staff is watching them grow and develop. The feedback I gave in the appraisal was extremely positive and I used a coaching approach to look at planning for the next quarter and year.

Although I don’t do appraisals every day, there was a feeling of everything being normal. This was despite the challenges of implementing plans around Cornonavirus around the hospital.

Thursday – The day was over before I knew it. I spent a lot of time getting up to date with tasks that I needed to get done. I also put together a rota for the next few weeks (obviously subject to change). Overall a productive day. I got home, put my lounge wear on and began to relax. Then I heard the noise of horses hooves outside.

Who the heck is riding a horse when they should be at home? I thought. I looked out of my window and was touched to see several neighbours clapping for the NHS and other essential workers. It left me feeling appreciated, privileged to do the job and honoured to work in our NHS.

Friday – Today I spent the day covering the office phone, bleeps and mobiles, ready to give telephone advice if needed. Good fortune appeared to smile down on me because nobody called or bleeped. This meant I managed to get some clinical auditing done.

I hope this post has been of interest. Write soon,

Antony

Share on Social Media:
Friday 27 March 2020
×