I *told* you I was ill

[juliet]

I have bronchitis, apparently. But I also now have nice antibiotics to get rid of it. Took about 3 minutes once I actually got into the GP's room.

GP, wielding stethoscope: "Breathe out for me, please"
Me: [pathetic attempt at out-breath]
GP: "No, properly, a full breath" [demonstrates]
Me: [attempts to breathe in fully in order to breathe out fully, dissolves into coughing fit]
GP: "Ah. Bronchitis." [puts stethoscope away, writes prescription]

Near fuckup with appointment after I failed, when initially booking appt this morning, to explain that I wasn't registered. Returned at appt time to confusion from receptionists. For a brief moment I thought they weren't going to let me be seen at all, but after much apologising, looking confused, etc from me (the fact that I was genuinely close to collapsing in tears all over the place at the thought that I wasn't going to be able to get any nice antibiotics may have helped), it was all sorted out. Hurrah. Have also got halfway through their tortuous registration process, which is a bonus.

Anyway. [cough]

Comments

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Please please please follow the antibiotics course precisely - don't just stop when you feel better.

Goodluck!

Alex

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

julietk is a sensible kitten, and will undoubtedly do this.

Juliet, rattie, if you want some kitten-nursing just give a yell. And if you want some brain-dead knitting I have a pressie for you - lovely Colinette cotton for to make into a scarf!

[juliet]

Indeed I will. I am renowned for being sensible, after all!

Thank you for the nursing offer! And I shall have to come round & collect the yarn :-) But I need to finish the jumper first - I finished the 2nd sleeve off yesterday, & did the first two rows of the hood, so I am v excited. Only 13" of straight sst to go & then the making-up.
[bounce]

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

What are you doing tomorrow? I think we should sit around and knit and gossip and drink tea!

[karen2205]

*hugs*

Registering with a doctor in London is bad enough when you're well....hope the antibiotics kick in quickly and you're feeling better soon:-)

[lproven.livejournal.com]

God bedring, as they say in København.

And yay Spike! You are not forgotten!

[ottah.livejournal.com]

Get well soonest...if you were closer, I would offer to extend my nursing duties to more than one human patient atm. *aseptic hugs*

[wintrmute.livejournal.com]

By the way, were you the one who knew a special number for the NHS that one can ring, and they tell you who the nearest doctor with free space on their register is?

[juliet]

Er - no, sorry. Have you tried the NHSDirect website to locate one in your area? Or they've got a central NHS contact number there that could probably connect you to the right folk.

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Is anyone in the house registered? Because if one person is they should take the others whether they're full or not.

gubamint helltcare

[the23.livejournal.com]

well now that's socialised medicine for you young lady....i remember having to catch the train from stourbridge to oxford and back twice just for vaccinations (some of which were for diseases i had already had!) because us immigration gave me a list of diseases i needed to be inoculated against, and then the helpful souls in stourbridge wouldn't vaccinate me without first getting my medical records which were in oxford, a process which would have taken about a month apparently (wot no fax machines?).

now if they would only suspend public healthcare here, i might actually be able to afford health insurance. i kid you not. it's a fucked up world, but what can you do?

Re: gubamint helltcare

[juliet]

GPs will only see people not registered with them for emergencies, basically, when there's an arrangement for seeing people as temporary residents. (in fact, in my case they waived that bit cos I was about to register properly anyway & it saved them some paperwork) Vaccinations, obviously, won't count as emergencies. I was briefly worried that they'd say "well, you're not *actually dead* yet, are you?" & define me as a non-emergency, but thankfully no.

The US medical system generally is fucked up, sofaras I can tell.

Re: gubamint helltcare

[the23.livejournal.com]

indeed, but the horrible irony is that everyone perceives that this is because it is "private" when the government here spends as much per capita as the british government does, and even then insists on forcing "private" hospitals to provide healthcare for it (for the medicare and medicaid programs) and then pays them at under the market rate, pushing up non-government insurance premiums. then it also fucked the tax system to encourage companies to offer health insurance to their workers which means lots of companies are paying over the odds for insurance that their employees don't need, but that is better (financially) for the companies than paying the workers and allowing them to choose the level of h'care most suited to their individual needs.

anway the net result is that it is fucked (as it is in britain) and there is a whole load of waste and bureaucracy and all that, but it costs more here, the doctors and nurses get paid much more and your chances of dying if you get cancer or heart disease are way, way lower. to an extent you get what you pay for (and america, being a much wealthier country, chooses to pay more), but it would be nice to have the ability to choose what you pay for.

Re: gubamint helltcare

[the23.livejournal.com]

i understand the registration business, but it is really something they could sort out in ten minutes. all it should take is a phone call and a fax, but they told me it would take at least a month.

Re: gubamint helltcare

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

These are problems with the implementation, and not the concept of public healthcare.

Re: gubamint helltcare

[the23.livejournal.com]

ditto for most socialist schemes. central planning sounds good for about the first two minutes you contemplate it, but the market is a much more efficient mechanism.