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What was your fasting blood glucose? (full on chat)

Hug for the trials and tribulations of our summer!!!!! I think it's freezing and there is a lot of colds, you and covid about. Are you sure you don't need to see your doctor, if you can?
Winner for the kaleidoscope. Stunning colours.
 
I use workmen's safety glasses. In the bungalow I wear the clear ones that completely seal your eyes. But wearing these out of the house upsets people @dunelm even my friends when I say I vitally need them. One friend a few years ago went as far to suddenly reach out and pulled them off my head (they were attached to my head by elastic at the back as they are), and consequently knocked my cochlear processor and prescription glasses off my head and to the ground. This was despite me explaining why I needed them. I never met up with her again. I have had other people since, reach out to try and remove them, with no prior warning, and I knock their arms out of the way, after that other experience.

So now, out of the house I wear these particular ones
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DEX-FIT-Protection-Adjustable-Protective/dp/B0BYC7BFQW
They have a yellow tint.
So, now I explain, not the dry eyes which is what they are for (but ordinary people don't/can't accept that dry eyes are agony), but I now say the yellow tint at front & sides protects my eyes. I don't usually get asked now because this particular pair look almost 'normal' on top of my prescription glasses.

I have another pair of wraparound's which I bought from a blind society. They are socially acceptable to others...but I have been unable to find more of that one....

Thank you for the kaleidoscope compliment...
 
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Yes, yes, yes!
I have to agree to your full postings.
it is a day for support and celebrating our heroes, wether on the field or the charitable sector.

And nowt political from me today.
Let them implode!
 
Lamont D said:
Hug for the trials and tribulations of our summer!!!!! I think it's freezing and there is a lot of colds, you and covid about. Are you sure you don't need to see your doctor, if you can?
Winner for the kaleidoscope. Stunning colours.
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Thank you for the kaleidoscope compliment @Lamont D

My GP surgery has been doctorless since around 2019...
No doctor to see. We were told an arrangement had been made for us to go to a hospital around 20 miles away, go to A&E, explain the name of the surgery and they would automatically see us there. That was the arrangement that was made. My so called GP surgery is NHS run now (the previous doctors were sacked, I won't say why, I think legal stuff is still ongoing) and it is run on the tightest of shoestrings that you can imagine. The parking there at that hospital was worse than appalling, so I have never been to make use of this facility. Yes the local MP has been on about this...

I just take to my bed now if not well, and if I wake up - then hey I am still alive - celebrations!!!!

How do I get my meds you might ask... apply for the repeat prescription online, and the prescription gets sent to the pharmacy. This has been happening since 2019. There is nothing else I can do on the site I apply for my meds.
 
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Loving this tree by the wall @dunelm
Enjoy your lunch...
 
I'm not sure how to process the outrage I feel on your behalf or what use any of us here can be when there are "friends" like that out there. I'm also not sure how we came to the situation you describe with your lack of GP and the pharmacy. I'd like to keep today's posts positive so here's some advice from oncologists. For me the last guy helps me feel less guilty about having done this to myself - well, slightly because I am what I am. I strongly suspect his 40/60 rule applies to many other conditions.
 
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Having the day off, watching wear red day.
Gas is not off now but main pipe getting done tomorrow. So gas off tomorrow.
We have been supplied with hot plate and fan heater, from the firm doing the job outside for when gas is off tomorrow. As we are gas dependent for cooking, heating, washing.
Funny, gas firm supplying electric appliances!!!!

Mrs L is having a long lie in after spending time with a few grandkids, while the footie was on. Houseful here last night, both DiL's working, so my son's decided to watch the game here, much to our joy and happiness. Honest!

footie pitches being upgraded.
The guy spreading the 120 ton of sand, needed, is someone who used to work on my old footie pitches when I worked for my club. Have had a good chat. And of course a cuppa.
The youth club, not bothered to bring refreshments, but as the guy said, 'there is nice people then there is a..........s!

Gas and sand sandwich. Is our house!

Lovely day at the cricket, which is going well.
But the rain has stopped here, but miserable.
No heat, sorry @gennepher!
My garden needs sunshine!

Look after yourselves you lot.
My best wishes as always.
Take care.
 
I agree with @ianpspurs, you shouldn't be in this situation.
You should be getting an annual review, blood tests, pharmaceutical reviews, never mind the issues with your hearing and also the eye tests and such.

I would be demanding to be seen by a doctor.
I know, it's a pain to do it.
Its not good enough.

Sorry, if I overstepped, but I have battled with this sort of service with my surgery.
Have had so many different doctors, a couple of really good ones, but some, dear me!
New ownership at least three times this century, now part of a larger group of practices.
Waiting, waiting, waiting.
You have to be proactive with them and their staff.
 
ianpspurs said:
To all you militant anti-vaxxer, mix and be dammed libertarians out there do you never feel just a touch of doubt/guilt?

View attachment 68715
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We were not offered a whooping cough vaccine for Neil or Alistair when they were small and in 1974, aged 7 and 5, they both caught it. That was just after we came to the Island and our new doctor told us it couldn't be whooping cough because "nobody gets it these days". It was though and they both developed a really distressing "Whoop". The GP offered no treatment so it was just a case of nursing them at home as well as I could. They survived it, but with Neil's incipient Crohn's disease, I sometimes wonder how.

I seem to be going down with something else now. It started with one of the many mouth ulcers I have and has now travelled back to the back of my tongue, ear and into my throat. Took some paracetamol and that has eased it a bit, but I think I'd better get in touch with the GP before the weekend or I might end up like Alistair with his infected glands and eustacian tube.
 
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Oh Ann I'm so sad to hear any of that. Do please roust up that GP asap because it doesn't sound as though paracetamol will fix that.
 
ianpspurs said:
Oh Ann I'm so sad to hear any of that. Do please roust up that GP asap because it doesn't sound as though paracetamol will fix that.
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I just tried - have to try tomorrow morning to see if I can get an appointment tomorrow. E-consult has also been switched off until tomorrow due to too many people using it. I'll try both in the morning and see what happens.
 
I have been fighting this surgery for years on many different issues, communication issues, incorrect records issues (I ended up having to under the freedom of information act getting my records all the way back to the year dot, it cost me, it was incomplete, and I had to challenge even them). I even got a patient's advocate from Cartrefle. He worked with me for a lot of years. Since the mid 2000's. This was taking literally all my free time fighting this.
Why not change surgery, you say. I tried, but there is so much a shortage of doctors, or I was out of their area, or their premises were not disabled friendly for me to access them.

I had J, my partner until 2009 (when he died), but I still carried on, even though it was now very difficult since I did not have my person who did all the telephone calling for me. I relied more on my group of friends then (I taught them art, computers, how to use digital tabets & phones, how to research ancestry, and muchmore). But prior to Covid, my valued Patients Advocate retired. Cartrefle changed to being something different and similar/same to the English way of Patient's Advocate, and all the people with experience at Cartrefle were gone. And the new people had not one ounce of the skill set that my now retired patient's advocate had.

Similarly the place where I had taught for 10 years had closed down because of COVID and lockdowns. And all the people I taught, who were mostly older than me, sold up and went back to wherever their children lived. I lost my support network as well as my students.

I have been relying on a couple of internet friends to make phone calls for me. Either people the other end refuse, saying that it is not secure enough, and those phone calls I do make where they allow the internet friend to listen and speak on my behalf, we have to use WhatsApp for me and internet friend to communicate very quickly, so the person the other end doesn't realise we are not in the same room, but a few hundred miles apart. This takes a lot of planning, a lot of my time, and a lot of time from my friend. She has been brilliant. But this level of ask from me to my friend is time consuming for her, and I am careful how many times I ask...

The other thing I do, because I cannot use the telephone, is that I have to drive to the location, or to the GP surgery in this case, find a parking space, I cannot walk far, my GP surgery is a bit of a distance from where I can park, and then I have to navigate inside the building. And I am exhausted after that.

I have used my MP the last 5 years over this. I have used the Citizens Advice Bureau a tremendous amount in the past. The practice manager who was there at the GP surgery has now gone.

Last year seeing as I had no blood tests during Covid and lockdowns, I went into the surgery at the beginning of the year (2023). I was initially told to get out and telephone the surgery. The receptionist was very rude, she came round and I thought she was going to throw me out.


I just stood still, and explained again that I was deaf and couldn't use the phone and I had no one to phone for me. She still waved her arms at me yelling at me. No idea what she said. I pointed to my sunflower lanyard which says I have an unseen disability. And I pointed to the cochlear information which says I have a coclear implant. He hand grabbed at the thing on the lanyard, she didn't believe me, and said it doesn't have your name on it so it must be fake.
I stood my ground and refused to move etc. Finally she went behind the reception desk, looked on the computers and after more argy bargy, she gave me an appointment with a nurse the following Monday. No doctors, she had said.

The following Monday it was foul weather, it I went. Managed to struggle to the reception desk. No, they said, you do not have an appointment with us. So, I showed her the appointment card with that days date on. I would like to see the practice manager I said. The receptionist came back saying you can see so and so.

It turned out the guy I saw was an NHS worker but he was there that day for computer admin duties. What can I do for you, he said. I had no idea where to start telling him. So I said a diabetic review would do for a start, then the yearly blood tests etc.

I cannot start the yearly blood tests he said, BUT I can start off the diabetic review, which involved him sorting out the blood test form. Have a word with whoever you see over the yearly blood tests.

Could things get any worse...they did.

It is a lot of effort for me to make my way to the doctor's surgery for no reason, and be told no I don't have an appointment when I have the piece of card with it written on.

This saga went on for a few months until June 2023 when I was finally seen to by a nurse. She wanted to change my meds, but I said no. She didn't know me, she hadn't even read my records and got facts wrong (and the meds wrong that I was taking) as she was talking to me. So, I was meant to come back the following week for her to try and persuade me. She made the appointment, wrote it down on a card. I went back the following week on the specified date. No nurses here I was told by the receptionist. I do have an appointment for today I said. No nurses, no appointments the receptionist said. Is there anyone I can see I said. No she said. A doctor? No, said the receptionist.
Where are the nurses I asked. They are on their summer holidays said the receptionist. All of them I asked? They do have children you know said the receptionist, and it is the summer holidays replied the receptionist.

I was watching the receptionist next to her talk on the phone, and getting irate - I have already told you we have no nurse appointments that 2nd receptionist said down the phone. Then a moment later the receptionist woman was shouting down the phone. I cannot give you an appointment because we have no nurses, and with no nurses, there are no appointments.....

I left. I returned most weeks to try again. But each time I was told no nurses, so no appointments. They are still on their summer holidays I asked each time). Finally end of October, still no practise nurses and so no appointments. Still on their Summer Holidays, I asked the receptionist yet again (it was the same woman each time).... she looked at me and I left as quickly as a snail can depart when they need to get out smartly.

Reported this to MP went to CAB, and I have gone further, but I am not the only one in this boat.


You are talking to a person who has been proactive all her life, because she has had to be because of her deafness...

I cannot give you any more precise details on this doctor (because it was a legal issue) thing I was fighting with for years with a specific doctor over a specific issue...

But I am tired now. I need my life to myself.

Having said that, I will see how I feel next week (most likely). And go in and ask for a diabetic and yearly blood test review...
 
N
you can keep all of the sun and heat @Lamont D
 
Thank you @ianpspurs for your words...
 
I hope the GP can see you @Annb
Ah, not good that there is no way to get through, just read your next message.

This is utterly rediculous, the inaccessibility of doctors these days...


I had whooping cough as a small child. Doctor's advice then was to stick me in my pram on Southampton Pier and leave me there for the day for around 3 weeks...no other treatment...
 
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The saying.....
There is always someone worse off than you!
comes to mind.

Do you have a new MP? I'm not sure but if it is a Labour MP, there must be a MPs surgery.
Do you know your councillor?

I have a medical necklace a metal one with Reactive Hypoglycaemia on it.
I also carry an information card in my wallet and phone pouch. And also in my phone health app.

Ever since I started advising on this forum, I have, as part of it, said, to go to appointments with as much information as possible regardless of what it is.
When you encounter the so called GP's that don't know about the conditions that we have, or understand.
Information can be helping your corner.

I did once get warned about my attitude written into my health history, and it was not surprising, with the hypos I was continually having. And the then receptionists were less than helpful. I had to go through the surgery manager, first by post, then through email. To get it taken off.
Then when diagnosed, I got an apology from the main GP.
Having to explain a rare condition to every healthcare idiot and their staff, who actually think your inventing things to get attention.
It is frustrating!

I now deal with receptionists, because I asked the manager to put my wife and myself on the at risk warning on our health history. Along with the government one, which we got at the start of covid.

Use your disability to get what you want, I know that sounds harsh. But it shouldn't be the way you describe.

I sympathise and empathise, I wish I could do more than just support on here. But I have been on the phone most days for Mrs L. We had the council here yesterday, phoned this morning, have to phone again tomorrow.

Be a bloody nuisance, Be a pain in the ...... Neck.
You wouldn't allow us on here to ignore or upset you!!!!

It's hard I know, it's difficult to get the help you deserve.
But never give up.

I do wish you well.

I was gonna say that is what you get living in the dark and dangerous North Wales.
But, I wont!
 
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