Wednesday 17 February 2010

Life's funny moments

I wasn't planning on blogging today but I have just had the most delightful conversation with a lady whom I shouldn't really name for confidentiality reasons, so for the sake of this blog we will call her Edith; Whilst trawling through answer machine messages on my business line I came across a message that clearly wasn't meant for me. Edith's carer had obviously dialled my number in error and thought she was leaving a message with a medical practitioner, apparently Edith's medication is not working and needs adjusting, Edith is also getting more confused and needs an assessment. Edith's carer finished the call with an urgent message for someone to call back. I felt obliged to call the number to explain the mistake in the hope that the carer would then call the correct number to get the issue sorted. That didn't happen....


What did happen is that I have just had the loveliest conversation with Edith who was more than happy to explain how badly her bowels were playing up again, Edith was a little confused and obviously thought that I was someone from her doctors surgery, I tried to intervene and explained that the carer had dialed the wrong number but Edith interrupted explaining that it was the right number and then she proceeded with some more very personal medical ailments. Edith seemed quite happy to talk to someone so for a little bit I just listened and then I tried explaining that I ran a dance school but that fell on deaf ears if you can excuse the pun. 

I want to ring back to let Edith's carer know that the right person has not received the important message but I don't want to ring back and confuse Edith anymore! Anyway, the point is that Edith seems like a delightful old lady and it was my pleasure to converse with her even though I wasn't actually the person she wanted to talk too!

The next few paragraphs concern my recent ultrasound but don't worry there isn't too much graphic detail! Basically I had two choices; I could wait 4-6 weeks for a standard ultrasound or I could wait just 2 weeks for an ultrasound plus students? The standard ultrasound takes approximately 15 minutes and the training one lasts for 30 minutes. Well in my reckoning the training option sounded more thorough and involved less wait so, of course, I booked the training session. My husband kindly offered to accompany me for the scan just in case they found any gremlins living inside me, his support waned slightly when he caught sight of me in the hospital issue dressing robe and gown accompanied with my favourite fluffy socks, support turned to laughter!

Once inside the room I was introduced to the trainee by Paul the consultant radiologist who was conducting the training opportunity. Paul explained that he was going to take various internal pictures whilst my husband offered to share some of his own pictures of me taken on his mobile phone.. Ahem! Paul laughed and then shared a story with us of when he visited a friend's house and found they had an entire wall of their house dedicated to sadomasochistic images of their love-making! So whilst my husband and Paul chatted away,  the trainee and I exchanged polite smiles.  I then chose to lie very still whilst the trio happily discussed my innards. Then my husband's humour rose again as he decided to pull his special "OMG - look what I can see on the scan " face, my heart rate quickly returned to normal as I realised he was joking.

Anyway the point is that the procedure had to be done and when I return for my next one I will definitely opt for the training option as not only is it more interesting from a patient perspective but you also know you are helping someone in their training - Win Win! You also get a lovely letter of thanks for attending the training session too which is rather more cheery than the standard hospital letters!

Anyway as it is not meant to be a blogging day I really should go and do some proper work!

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

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