It's not just us!

[sandi]

I thought we had it bad with the NHS but today I met a lovely couple over coffee, it being so busy that sharing a table was necessary.

The wife was hobbling a bit on sticks when she walked but was she complaining, no. They had just walked around a local festival too and were having a well earned rest. We got talking about health - as you do - and she was so happy as she had had a knee replaced earlier this year and was out of a wheelchair after twenty years! Twenty years, I said, why did you have to wait so long - I know waiting lists are bad, but...?

Well, it transpires that none of the doctors or consultants she had previously seen could be sure what was wrong so would do nothing. One would say spine, the next hip, the next neck - remember it was actually her knees!

Thankfully she found the right one in the end but it just goes to show that even when the problem is a more visible one you can still suffer undiagnosed for years. I wished her and her adoring and proud husband well as they wondered off to walk around the shops before walking home myself grateful that even if I get fatigued I've not been in a wheelchair unnecessarily for twenty years.

[Moggie]

Thats a nice story - sad, and a disgrace, that she spent 20 years in a wheel chair due to our wonderful NHS but great that she is now up and moving again. Does make you wonder if money can play a big factor in GP's/Consultants doing nothing as if it wasn't for her getting yet another opinion then she would still be in the wheel chair wouldn't she.

Moggie x