More Hospital visits

[LavendarLady]

Went to our local hospital again this afternoon, this time for a mammogram. It must be my week for hospital and doctor visits what with flu jab Monday, Dental Surgeon Tuesday, Mammogram today (or not of which more later), doctor tomorrow to discuss physio for my shoulder - I think Friday is clear at present! (Dog training in the afternoon).

Anyway back to the mammogram. 17 years ago I had breast cancer and have had regular ones ever since on the other side. (I am missing the left).All clear so far. I drove up to the Hospital (it is 5 miles from us), and left a good hour early because of the parking situation and I need a disabled slot.

No disabled slots close to the hospital and idiots had even parked behind the cars in the disabled slots so how they expected them to get out is beyond me.

Drove round and round the car park (at the expense of my petrol), no disabled slots on the main car park either. In fact no slots of any description at all and I was not going to pay £2.60 for the privilege of bumping my car over a kerb onto a very muddy grass verge, not that there was any space anyway.

Came home after 30 minutes of petrol wastage, rang the Breast Screening Service and cancelled the appt explaining why. They have now booked me into the Unit parked at Tesco's on their car park for next Tuesday at 4 p.m. But at least I should be able to park somewhere even though I will have to now travel 11 miles! I cannot manage the steps normally but they do have hand rails so will be hauling myself up bit by bit.

They only do the screening at the hospital in the afternoon! I did say that to get a parking place, I would need an appt at 9.a.m and there is still no guarantee you could park. All to get my right boob squashed flat and a picture taken to make sure nothing nasty is brewing.

I really do get awfully fed up with the non existent parking (unless you set off at midnight), the cost of parking and if you park in the wrong place you get fined and/or clamped. I did tell the hospital a time before that if they fined or clamped me I would take them all the way to the European Court! However, the parking is run by a private firm (bunch of cowboys I should think) although the Hospital gets a rake off of over a million a year. Can't be bad and an easy way of earning money.

Now going to get some lunch. At least the dog was pleased to see me!

LavendarLady x

[LavendarLady]

PS the picture is of my late father. Meant to put one of the dog on but got this one by mistake! LL x

[Hidden in reply to LavendarLady]

I like the picture of your Father

Hope you don't mind me asking, was the fact you had cancer discussed much when you were put onto Enbrel? Just wondered as I thought it may be a complication and my pea size brain won't let me explain what I mean!, oh I really hope your not offended! xx

[LavendarLady in reply to Hidden]

Hi Wilby, Yes I had to let my consultant know my medical history before I went onto any of the anti tnfs. I was on Humira first and then on Enbrel as the Humira did not work as well as he expected. It is in my notes that I had cancer 17 years ago as he needed to know that.

Not the least bit offended. I'll bore anyone to death about it if they ask! LavendarLady x

[Hidden]

Grrr indeed!

My local hospitals had their car parking taken over by private contractors 3 or 4 years ago. I have only once managed to get on a disabled parking bay - people arrive at 7.3O am to ensure one! - and at £1.2O per hour it can get expensive when I have multiple appointments in the same week each taking more than one hour. I could park outside the hospital on a double yellow line with my Blue Badge but that means a 15-20 minute walk that I'm not reliably able to do

You always get a warm welcome from those ever friendly pupsters:-} My dogs react with delight even when I come out of the bathroom!

Cece x

[julieporter]

Same at our local hospital its one of the new PFI hospitals and the car parking is a joke .i went yesterday and there was a 40 min wait to get from the entrance to the car parks with the resulting chaos in the out patients clinics as everyone was late.The minimum charge is £3.40 for up to 2 hours -what a rip off.I have learnt my lesson from past visits and get a bus outside work direct to the hospital entrance using the bus lane to bypass the queues

Good luck with your mammogram -its good to hear you had a good recovery , my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer last November and has now finished her treatment and its nice to hear good news about outcomes

Take care

Julie

[sylvi]

Morning,hope your mammogram goes well. I can't get to the hospital unless a,hubby takes me b,i get a taxi. If i went by bus it would take 2 buses and with me in my scooter its just toooooo much trouble. Car parking is not much better in nuneaton i'm afraid to say. The cost is not much better either. Hubby drops me off at the entrance and then goes and parks the car. We don't have any pets but we have next doors cat who i look after when they are away. If my friends are having work done he walks out in discust and comes in here and parks himself on one of my chairs for the rest of the day. He knows when they are away and when they come home. Its uncanny. Love the pic of your dad. Sylvia. xx

[Hidden]

My hosp is private contractor parking it starts at £1.60 an hour!.

I use my staff parking permit which I pay for monthly!.. because I have a disabled staff permit. I am exempt from the top daily fee on top of the monthly parking permit!

Hope the mammogram goes well. with my disabled permit I am able to park in disabled spaces. have to be there early to get one!( I now have a blue badge also)

[LavendarLady in reply to Hidden]

Hi Alison, glad to hear you have now got your blue badge. It is so useful but as you say, you can't always get a disabled slot as they get filled up very quickly. LL x

[LavendarLady]

HiEveryone. Yes sometimes Himself takes me up, drops me at the entrance and then goes off to find somewhere to park. I remember on one occasion when I went for a hip x-ray, he went to the local pub a mile down the road, parked there, had a pint and waited for me to ring him to say I was ready for collection (feel like a parcel sometimes). We used to have to do the same with my father, drop him off, get him into chair where he used to wait until I had parked the car, and then do the whole thing in reverse.

When they built the Hospital in the 1980s, no one had the sense to see that a multi storey car park was the answer and to buy the field across the road for a park and ride! We are now paying the price (quite literally) for that short sighted attitude. The staff car park is also in the main car park so it is quite a scramble to find somewhere to park at all.

We don't pay for the disabled parking slots at the hospital but everything else is charged, starting at £2.60 and going up from there every hour. Talk about a tax on illness. If you are there with someone who is very ill, as I was with my late father - I was there most of the day - the cost is astronomical. When I said to the Staff Nurse I would have to dash out to put more money on the car, she told me not to bother and if I had any problems, to refer the parking attendant to the ward. It was more important I stayed with my dad who was not expected to last the day. LavendarLady x