Tuesday, 18 September 2012

A week's worth of news

It's been a busy week - naturally!

On Wednesday last, we had our Glowing Session at RPA.  Of course.  After this we did have an appointment with the local "doctor".  We needed a new prescription as well as 3 referrals, and so we had to go and see her since she is listed as Alex's doctor.  The last time Alex had seen her was just over a month ago.  She was still prescribing Panadeine Forte like there was no other prescription known to medically trained people, but after Alex insisting, she had managed to say he could have an appointment with the Rheumatologist.  It was at this ECG that Alex was admitted to RPA. 

Soooo much has happened in just a month.

Anyway, we're at the "doctor's" and I wondered how much she had read of the copious hospital letters sent on to her.  So we wait until our turn, and head into the room.  She seated us, sat down and just looked totally shocked.  She said first off that she wasn't sure what to say and that she was so sorry.  I thought that it was good she had the decency to apologise.  Alex said that he'd lucked out twice - a comment that went over her head at the time.  Alex was more generous towards her than I felt.

So we managed to get the script and two of the referrals.  Then I said we needed a referral to the Cardiac Professor at RPA and we also needed his phone number.  I gave her his name.  She just looked absolutely stunned and wanted to know why we needed a cardiac referral when Alex had cancer?  I said that Alex has had a cough all year and this was caused by a heart condition; he needs open heart surgery and we need the phone number so we can call him to make a further  appointment.  Alex said this was why he lucked out twice.  The look on her face was absolutely priceless - 'shocked' wouldn't begin to cover it.

Once she recovered she wrote the referral and then said she didn't have his phone number anywhere but offered to 'google it' for us.  It was at this stage that Alex was hoping I wouldn't explode, given I'd had that very realistic dream a couple of weeks ago that I'd walked into the surgery and asked the receptionist to buy her a laptop and to teach her how to use Google.  If she'd done this months ago ....

She wrote a number on the envelope, we gathered everything and left.  The next morning Alex rang the phone number she'd googled for us and it turned out to be a fax number.  ???  I made a few calls and ended up speaking to the Professor's PA who was a lovely lady and we've got all that sorted now.

On the Thursday morning, we had a meeting out at Castle Hill.  Jenny works in Castle Hill, but that day she and Steve were home on Grandparents Duty so she said to come over after our meeting.

Alex and Steve caught up outside with Jake - I'm sure they could write a TV series about 2 men and a baby!


Jenny had baked a fresh batch of scones and this was the most delicious lunch you could ever want - after all, how often do you have freshly baked scones, jam & cream for lunch AND this was in keeping with Alex's food guidelines remember?

 
We all enjoyed the time there.  Jake lucked out on the scones but he had a two course lunch and their dog was very well behaved - no begging!  Thank you Jenny for cooking these especially for us.  We had to leave too quickly because we had to be back for our daily Glowing Session at RPA.
 
 
Barbara - Alex's sister from Adelaide - arrived in Sydney on Thursday night and so she came along with us to Friday's Glowing Session.  That evening at 6pm the Hages (& me!) descended on The Red Snail restaurant in Bourke Street for an incredibly enjoyable dining experience. 
 
Alex enjoyed a quiet day on Saturday and then on Sunday he rode my bike over to the Euro Fest at Frenchs Forest.  Sunday was a gloriously sunny day, and Alex had a great time immersing himself in Kroketten, herrings, chips & mayonnaise and even came home with a "bottle of biscuits" (Original Speculoos - crunchy).  The really surprising thing is that I am writing this on Tuesday afternoon and the jar isn't empty ...


No comments:

Post a Comment