davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (Default)

Phone appointment with my GP (actually I didn't recognise the voice, could have been a locum) re last week's high blood pressure reading.

She wants me to record my blood pressure once a day for a week, and they'll also do bloods and an EEG.

Too early to tell if last week's high blood pressure readings were atypical, but the pulse rate definitely was. When they did my blood pressure my pulse rate was 90, but taking it at home my normal resting rate seems to be mid-60s.

I did manage to mention the two things I think may be contributing to it, but didn't really manage to get as much  focus on them as I'd like. I'll have to arrange appointments about those when I get back.

Luckily she rang between thunderstorms....
 

To do-ish

Jan. 27th, 2015 04:32 am
davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (Default)
So I've got a GP appointment at 5pm, theoretically at their request, where I need to
1) Make sure they're up to speed on the December pancreatitis hospitalisation
2) See what we're doing about the calcium levels monitoring the gastro-team at the hospital wanted done a month ago, but which I haven't been around for
3) See what they want to do about the Vit D deficiency they said they wanted to see me about before I ended up hospitalised
4) Remember to chase them about the wheelchair assessment referral.
5) Remember to pick up my repeat prescription while I'm there.
ETA: 6) Possibly mention last Friday's Impingement Syndrome diagnosis and physio referal
That's a lot to squeeze in!

And on Friday morning I have an appointment with the gastro-team, where hopefully I find out when they'll be doing the gallbladder thing.

And of course they're likely to want the calcium results, so sometime, probably Wednesday,  I'm going to have to fit in a blood test, and I just hope it's not a starving one as that's where this all started back in December!

Fuming

Sep. 29th, 2014 05:23 pm
davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (Default)
I just tracked down the indecipherable phone message that was waiting when I got home to my GP's surgery. Apparently Wheelchair Services have refused to give me an assessment as 'you ticked the box for using it three days a week or less'. What I actually said to the GP was 'I don't know how much I'll use it, if it makes enough of a difference to let me get back to work it could be every day, but I just don't know.' She was the one who decided to tick the three days a week or less box. This is why tick-box exercises don't work for disability (as Atos repeatedly demonstrate).

Due to the family situation meaning I need to head back North as soon as possible I had to say I couldn't sort it out by asking for another appointment with the GP to rehash it, but I need to go back to the GPs to pick up a repeat prescription, so I'll probably drop off a letter asking her to resubmit the form with 7 days a week checked, and possibly include a covering note explaining exactly why I need specialist seating advice, and ask her to include it.

Grrr! *headdesk*

davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (Crutches)
  Or rather convincing my GP I need a wheelchair assessment from Wheelchair Services as a first step towards getting a wheelchair that actually meets my need as someone with HMS and fairly severe seating issues.

I have an appointment on Tuesday, which almost certainly means I'll get the older, somewhat lazy doctor with fixed ideas rather than the younger one with more modern, flexible attitudes (who mostly does Mondays and Fridays). The advantage is that she's known me for 25 years, the disadvantage is that she's known me through 25 years of misdiagnoses and I'm fairly certain she doesn't know what my actual diagnosis is. I'm not even certain my diagnosis is in my medical records as that came out of the Pain Clinic rather than rheumatology or ortho,  I'll have to dig out the pain clinic letters and see what they said.

So, problem: convince an old-fashioned, lazy doctor on the verge of retirement that a wheelchair is a good thing.

Points to be made:
I'm doing this whatever happens, but I'd prefer to do it with the support of the specialists
I'm prepared to fund a suitable wheelchair myself (ouch!), because the chance of getting the appropriate set-up via Wheelchair Services is likely nil.
I'm already walking better because of the pain clinic, this has nothing to do with 'giving up walking'
Walking better is just showing all the things I've given up doing and still can't do, such as going in to London
I tried out a chair for 5 days at Worldcon, 5*14 hour days, no negative effects, normally a single seven hour day, or less, on my feet is likely to put me in bed for the next day or more.
Trying out Kaberett's chair convinced me that I need a properly fitted solution on a rigid (or fold to rigid) chair, not just a cheap folding manual. It was possibly the most comfortable I've been in 25 years.
Getting a chair may be a necessary precursor to getting back to work. 
My arms are increasingly an issue. I now have parasthesia in my left arm almost 50% of the time, my right shoulder has started to sublux regularly, using crutches may mean I'm walking, but stresses my arms and shoulders. A wheelchair gives options, creates the ability to alternate between crutches and chair and just basically creates a back-up plan.

Am I missing anything obvious? All suggestions gratefully received.

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davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (Default)
David Gillon

March 2025

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