Couple of updates

Update number one: I saw the consultant yesterday. I was a bit nervous about this appointment. I'm not sure why, but I just felt nervous. All I could think was,"What if it's bad?" Anyway, I get to the appointment and she tells me that the scans look about the same as they did last time, and if the people at the multi-disciplinary team meeting agree, I won't have to see the consultant again for another year! I think the MDT team meeting thing is just a formality as the consultant seems pretty positive. She said,"That will be nice to not see us for a while, won't it?" and I said,"Yes!" I mean no offence doctor, but yes, it will be lovely to not have to see you for a while! Admittedly I was a little bit disappointed at first. I know I've said this before, but I'm always a little bit disappointed when they say something other than,"You're all clear!" Once I thought about it more, I realised that for now, it'll do. It'll be nice not to think about the next appointment for a while. The consultant also pointed out that I have been making progress, it's just slow progress. She told me to think back to two years ago, and when I do that I see that she is right. In fact, two years ago I was still in hospital having had surgery. When I got out of hospital, I needed help with washing and bathing. I even needed help putting a jacket on! I'm still not 100%, but I'm managing to do some things myself. Update number two: So, back in October I was supposed to see a gynaecologist about the endometriosis thing (which, to be honest, has kind of been put on the back burner) I think I talked about this, but I'll say it anyway. When I got to the appointment, I handed in my letter and sat down to wait. After a while, a nurse came out to tell everyone that there would be a 40-minute delay on appointments. A few moments later another nurse comes out and tells us that there's still a 40-minute wait, but because of the amount of patients it would add up to a two-hour delay! She then said that people could reschedule if they wanted to, so I opted to do that (that nurse was very grateful!) That situation put me off rescheduling, and anything to do with endometriosis got put on the back burner. However, one night back in January I got really intense abdominal cramps. I went to the hospital, and the nurse I saw her there made me an out-of-hours appointment. It was at 5.45 in the morning, and by 5 in the morning the cramps had subsided and I cancelled the appointment. So I never found out the cause of the cramps, but I suspected it was caused by this endometriosis and so I went back to my regular GP to get referred to a gynaecology unit again, as well as get stronger painkillers. (By the way, can you tell I'm trying really hard not to refer it as,"MY endometriosis"? I'm trying not to take ownership of it) So, a week or two ago I received a choose and book referral letter, and the GP had written two possible hospitals on it. One was Yorkshire Clinic, and the other was the good old BRI. I'd heard good things about the Yorkshire Clinic, and the GP had written on my letter that the waiting list for that place was much shorter. When I spoke to a couple of friends about it, they recommended that particular place, so I decided to go for it. I mean, I wasn't exactly sure where the place is, but I decided to just book it and worry about the logistics later! I mean, Google would help me with finding the place, right? So, for those not familiar, the NHS has a choose and book scheme which is...Well, it's fairly self-explanatory, isn't it? You go on the website, put some details in (reference number, year of birth, and the password they give you) then you can choose a hospital and book an appointment. However, trying to do it on my phone was a bit frustrating and I realised that doing it on a computer was a better idea. Just as I was about to do this, somebody from the BRI rang! She'd been looking through some files, and I guess she noticed that even though I had been logged into the system that day in October, it wasn't clear if I'd seen a doctor or not. I explained what had happened, she apologised for it, and said I could just leave it with her to sort it out! I know they weren't my first choice, but if someone from the BRI calls and offers to reschedule it, I'm not going to argue! Especially as that might lead to getting an appointment faster than if I would if I'd gone for the choose and book method. Also, it's probably easier to go there, because I know where it is. Also, I think the endocrinologist would like to be able to liaise with the gynaecologist, so going to the BRI would make things easier. We all know what happens when two hospitals should be communicating with each other--they don't! So they are the two positive things that happened in the past couple of days! If I didn't have a raging mouth ulcer right now, I'd eat some cake!