h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Persactly!!!

Eh Up, news from the Yellows. Last conversation I had with them was 10th Feb. Today (4th March), I finally got a letter from them confirming the conversation. How's that for dynamic go getting, up thrusting and general derring-do?

There were lots and lots of apologies. Yes, they said, we did make a bit of a mess of things, didn't we. M'mm. no we're not terribly good at getting things done quickly, we can see that. You have every right to feel dissatisfied. Especially you must be really p****d off your business didn't get any advertising and as a result ..erm, well, you don't have a business now, do you? Never mind love, water under the bridge. These things happen. Oh, and by the way, here's another sheath of invoices just to complicate issues - we're good at that.

We're not admitting liabilty though.


So instead of a recompense of £100, they're offering me £250.

What do you, the panel think? It'll go a long way to paying off the overdraft, but alas, there'll be nothing left over for a party.

Shall I take the money and get the hell out? Or just be plain stubborn and ask for some more?

Mind you, at the rate they take to do things, any extra dosh I may get will be swallowed up in bank charges!

Do it, Do it, Do it!!!!

I've told em I'll take the money and lurch. I got another letter thru the post today telling me they were going to set off another DDM to pay for "my recent order"... the one I know nothing about.

And didn't ask for.

So I'm quitting whilst the goings good.

Shame about the party though.....

true but we could hold a wake????

I guess we could - if only I could keep my eyes open long enough with the excitement of waiting for said darned cheque.

I go get the glasses.. and a bottle of something excellent just to pass the time

Aha! Here's some I found earlier...




When I find something worth celebrating, we'll down it, eh?

Just spent a very very depressing day, getting a bit of assistence filling out a "Disability Living Allowance"form..... don't get me wrong, the lady at the charity what I visited couldn't have been more helpful or practical, I've no complaints there. But seeing in black and white - and in official "boxes" as it were, all the ailments/inconveniences I've lived with, taken for granted I have (and, I might add, dealt with with a fair bit of surprisingly good humour) all written neatly down, and notated horrifies me - it reads like an appaulingly unfunny Monty Python sketch. When it all becomes analysed and "timed" (ie, how long does it take you to get dressed? for example) the reality of the situation hits home rather hard. Obviously, it depends on what I choose to wear, but in this chilly weather,longjohns (oh yes, very glamerous, but alas, very necessary) or tights seem like a good idea. Re enacting the palava I go through to winch said items in place, I discover, takes considerably longer than I actually realised... and all joking aside, I find the whole thing an endorsement to the failiure of my body to do what I want it to do... it comes to something really sick when ones bloody vertibrae gang up on me like this, and I'm heartilly sick of it.

So, having read all this necessary information, I feel somehow invaded and vulnerable and worst of all, a damned fraud - I can still walk, but I have just become aware of how frequently I curtail my activities, when there's no-one about to "keep an eye" on me. I have suddenly realised just how small my world and scope of opportunities actually are.

And, to put it bluntly, I don't like what I see, very much.

Never mind the Shhh.... can we raise a mortgage on a bottle of something more sedative perhaps?

I'll go for the strychnine... whats your poisen?

the way things are going right now I'l join you!

Well, if we're going together, lets go out with a bang and not a whimper!

(No, I don't feel any more cheerful, but I'm damned if I'm going to let it get me down for too long. Misery is darned tedious.... especially with the even worse news I got today. Family Tax Credits how are you! Give with one hand and take the rest with the other more like)

And I've got to see Doctor Death tomorrow...

H'mm. Pass the bottle, willya?

Well it's now the tomorrow I was concerned about yesterday;3.35am to be totally precise, and guess what? Insomnia has joined me yetagain for the night. Bed at 10, finally nodded off just before midnight, up and doing since 2. Ridiculous. Last thought before dropping off? S**t I've got to go and see that miserable git tomorrow. First (coherant) thought waking up H'mmm I wonder if I can get out of seeing him. How can I possibly allow myself to get so round up over such an insignificant person? I'm not afraid of him. But I seriously doubt his professional capabilities and intentions. There is a conveyor belt of people in that waiting room and we're picked off like frozen peas - impersonally, and with probably less interest and care taken, too. Enter that waiting room and it seems you lose your identity and humanity... you are merely a number, and not a free man, to paraphrase Patrick MacGoohan.

And, having done a bit of research into this consultant, it appears that I'm not the only one to find him unpleasant, uncaring and worst of all unapproachable. And whats worse, he does the rounds of +all+ of the available hospitals I could attend, so there is little liklihood of being able to a) change consultants and b) attempt a second opinion.

So later on today I get the results of whether or not I actually do have Sjorgrens syndrome. He hasn't told me what it is and what it actually indicates - I did that myself - the Net is a wonderful tool -and I somehow doubt he will offer any advise or course of action that I haven't already explored.

Lovely.

Its all very well trying to be positive, but at this time in the morning its not the easiest of things to do. And since its been snowing, and therefore bone cold and damp, all my other bendy bits have joined the back in making their presence felt.

Ah but my life (currently) is but a load of worm gears.

I'd like to think its not going to get any worse, though. I'll know in about 12 hours.

In the meantime, the painkillers and sleeping tablets have finally kicked in a bit. Lets see if I can get some more kip before the alarm signals the official start to another bright and wonderful Wednesday, shall we?

Can I have a too? It was a rotten day

I wonder if you can get s on prescription? Or do you have to go private for them?

Big s







didn't the telletubbies used to say that???

Long after my time, dear

Cheers, I needed that I was just a little bit down there.
H'mm. For the sake of clarity, lets get up to date, I suppose. It was FREEZING on Wednesday; blue hands weren't the least of it. I missed the bus I was supposed to take to Canterbury to see Dr Death (couldn't run to catch the damned thing) and the upshot was that I was a little bit late for my appointment. This didn't mattermuch because the clinic was running 75minutes late anyway, so I still had just enough time to thaw out before I was summoned.

The consultation lasted all of 4 minutes. Firstly, I do not have Sjogrens syndrome - which is a precursor of Rhumatoid Arthritus or Lupus, to name but two of the posible ailments.

"Er... then why have my eyes dried out so much that I can no longer wear contact lensess - and its been ascertained I'm not menopausal yet - and my throat feels constantly dry?" I asked, feeling this was a reasenable question.

Pomp pomp (You can actually see him revving up to give The Lecture. He has the appearance of a bullfrog on laxatives) "Well Ms (Thing) I can assure you your eyes and throat are NOT dry, you only feel that they are"

"They not only feel dry, but my optician actually remarked that he had never seen such dry eyes in a woman of my particular age"

"Yes, thats as may be. H'mh'm. You'll be glad to know that there is no discernable evidence that you have any form of rhumatism whatsoever- you obviously have a bad back and I think the pain may benefit from a visit to the Pain Clinic"

(I might add that there are over 100 different types of rheumatism, arthritus and many more types of auto immune disease stemming from these problems than you can shake a stick at... and gosh, one blood test specifically for one type of ailment can tell him everything he needs to know. Isn't medical science clever?)

"Yes, I have already been referred to the Pain Clinic for epidurals, but I haven't been called yet. In the meantime, perhaps you could give me an idea as to why most of my bendable joints are so swollen and painful?"

"Well, its all down to circulation; the blood obviously isn't being pumped back properly - because of the lymphatic system, which returns the blood to the first place it came from, and it causes something we call odema"

"I understand that odema is a technical term for the swelling of joints, yes. But how is it caused, and what can be done to allieviate it?"

"Well, it comes from the same problem area as varicose veins"

I gave up then. Firstly, the man obviously cannot differenciate between the circulatory system and the lymphatic system (- both do work in harmony, but totally independent of each other - and when I got my diploma in A & P it was clearly stated that the lympatic system does not govern the circulation. Odema does NOT cause varicose veins, but you can get varicose veins when the legs become odemic because the circulatory system is not functioning efficiently)
and secondly, it was obvious that he had no interest whatsoever in even attempting to find out the problem. Its not a clear cut and dried jobby, and its far easier to land the Pain Clinic - which is the place of Last Resort - than make an effort.

So I smiled sweetly and thanked him for his time and trundled out into the bitter cold again to get the bus home.

So. On the plus side, I don't have to go and see him ever again - technically I have been discharged. Which means I can chisel away and go for a second opinion. The last blood test I had to ascertain the condition came back "borderline RA" That was 18mths ago, and believe you me, things have gotten a lot worse and much more painful since then, so how come all of a sudden there is no evidence of any rhuematism whatsoever? Maybe they've moved the borders without telling me. I wonder.

One last point. IF - as Dr. Death believed, there is a gliche in the circulatory system, why the devil didn't he refer me to the appropriate department? The Pain Clinic deals solely in Pain control
As far as I know, it doesn't specialise in circulation/pulmonary stuff.

I somehow doubt that a series of epidurals are going to magically cause the odemic joints to shrink to size. I fail to see how they could.

I think Dr. Death was waffling a little bit... don't you?

Dunno

My eyes went blurry after the fourteenth paragraph!!

You mean you missed the bit about the bullfrog on laxatives?

Shame on you!!

Right Ev my dear....

I been absent from here too long, and I am going to invest in another overdraft to get a new PC of sorts so I can actually get back on line properly at home!! I am at work now and can stay on for more than the obligatory few seconds it takes to read/send a mail.

You sound like you have really been through it the last few weeks. from what you say, old himself seems a right a**e who doesnt listen. However is he an a**e himself, or is he a product of an undefunded NHS that does not have the time/money/staff to invest in patient care as it should. But lack on time and money does not amount to an excuse nto to care. I am lucky I guess and have not been called upon to use the wonderful NHS too often, only the odd visit to A7E as a result of work "stuff". And they have generally been great to me.
Mind you my old dad spent over 6 months in Brighton hospital renal unit slowly dieing in front of his family, but the doctors and nurses were powerless to stop it medically, but also didnt have the time to make his last weeks on this planet as comfortable as they could have been....
I'll stop rabbiting on my soap box or I'll turn everyone else off to sleep mode!

I think you are probably right to accept the yellow pages money in your position, but it would have been fun to hold out for more! have they paid up yet?? If they take as long to pay up as they did to admit liability this far you can start to charge them interest...

Oh and some better news from our building front... We actually have electricity in teh conservatory now!!! YEEEEE HAAAAAA!!! Only leaves me to plumb in the washing machine to the utility room and we're done!! Eight months after starting admitedly, but finished just the same! Well apart from the cosmetic stuff like tiling the wall of the utility and actually paying for it all over the next millenium, via the lovely building society! never mind, here's some and if anyone fancies to join me in a toast!

God that was a post and a half! sorry!! I'd best go check the rest of the H2G2 and see what has been happening, im a bit fed up of the real world!



Spike

Good to hear some good news for a change to the new conservatory. Why, once you've plumbed in the washing machine you'll never be short of something to watch of an evening!

As for Dr (Thing) he's just , as you say, an a**e - old, jaded, and long due for retirement and/or a good seeing to. Either may make a human of him, but in his current position, no hope of it. From the research I've done on him, I have yet to to hear anything positive about him - except for one GP, who, I discovered is in the same Lodge as him; I needn't say more, really.

As for real life... hey, I'm getting mine back. Kevins 1 AND 2 both have girlfriends (kevin 2 is particually smitten) and I seem to have got my home back to myself, which is rather jolly nice. The onslaught of teenage lads that continually visit has trickled down to a managable one or two, since the Romeos are constantly parking themselves over at their respective lady's houses. There is, I've discovered, a bonus to not being Alpha Female any longer; its the silence of a peaceful household on my terms.

Bliss!