Hospital

(Written: 20 August and not edited for updates)

The last few weeks have been very full on and quite stressful. Unrelated to any of the other goings on I have just been to hospital for my uretic stent change. It's relatively routine. In 2017 after complications with my cancer my right kidney blocked. Unfortunately it wasn't straightforward and the exit to my kidney had to have surgery and an internal stent inserted. Apparently it's relatively routine. Unfortunately it has to be replaced every 3 or 4 months. So for the last 8 years I have been travelling down to Ayr Hospital for the surgery. It has been a long journey but I've always combined it with a stay with my pal, Anna, in Glasgow. The hospital is absolutely fantastic and a model of what every hospital should be like. As a consequence many of the staff on the ward I have attended for years have been there the whole time. 

For various reasons I have had an unfortunate history of pre-sepsis and, on a few occasions, full blown sepsis. Occasionally after my procedure and usually after it had been delayed. As a result they never allow me to be discharged until they are sure that I'm okay. The medics seem to have found a solution, though, and I've not had any problems for a few years. 

Last November it was decided that, given my age etc, it would be better if I was transferred to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness which is my 'local' hospital. for major things. Our local Stornoway Hospital is excellent but lacks some specialities. Raigmore is a hospital built in it's current form in 1970 with the tower block being opened in 1985. It is now far too small and appears to be understaffed and, probably, underfunded. 

As it caters for the whole of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland patients who are on longer-term treatment are not looked after on wards within the hospital. There are accommodation blocks a few hundred yards away which provide bedrooms (without ensuite facilities) and nothing else. In winter and the rain it's a long trek over the car parks to the main hospital entrance and what passes for a cafeteria which closes at 6.30 pm. It's even longer when you are feeling absolute crap in the middle of treatment. 

Anyway I had my stent changed and walked back to the accommodation block and at crack of dawn next morning went to the airport and was home well before lunch. 

I'm still recovering from the shock.