The difference a year can make.

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tyred

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
At Father's Day last year, my Dad had just got home after about a month in hospital including a week in intensive care. He's always been chesty all his life but a bad chest infection over the winter which didn't respond to anything the GP gave him and kept getting worse over time led to intensive care and a very bleak predicted outcome but he pulled through despite the odds.

I still remember visiting after work as usual ( I work five minutes walk from the hospital) to find he had taken a serious turn for the worse and they wanted to move him to intensive care but he kept refusing to go and when he saw me he insisted I went and got my car to take him home to die. I was unable to get hold of my Mum on her mobile (and I also phoned everywhere I thought she might have been) so I effectively over-ruled my Dad and had him took to care. They told me he was actually delirious with lack of oxygen anyway. When I saw him wired up to every conceivable machine and breathing apparatus and heavily sedated I did wonder if I had made the right decision to effectively prolong his misery.

One year on, he is plagued with hip pain and on the waiting list for hip replacement but otherwise alive and well - "Fight the good fight fight with all thy might" The fact that he saw it all through without a single word of complaint has left me very little tolerance for people who moan about silly things.

As an aside, for all the people out there who have nothing better to do than to phone radio phone-ins or write stupid comments on newspaper websites moaning about how useless the health service is, I have to say the care and treatment my dad received from everyone - the doctors, nurses, consultants, etc and even the dinner ladies was nothing short of incredible. There is room for improvement (mostly at management level) but the people who actually treat and look after patients show incredible care and dedication and deserve to be paid twice whatever they get paid.
 

Accy cyclist

Legendary Member
about how useless the health service is,

Can I ask,does your dad live in Ireland or Britain? I'm just wondering which health service you mean.
 
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screenman

Legendary Member
We won't hear a bad word said against the British NHS. Sometimes you have to push for what you need but when you do, the results are excellent. We've no time for people who sit doing nothing and moaning that the NHS is useless.

Or like many I know so not take the doctors advice and turn up weeks later with the same backache.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
I'm 63 and following my collar bone break and repair I had to have a capsular release op to free the frozen shoulder that came bundled with the clavicle break. The consultant told me it would hurt more than broken ribs (it didn't) but that recovery was in my hands as I needed to stretch and exercise the joint to ensure full mobility as the joint healed after the op. So I did, and when I saw the consultant a month later he was very pleased, saying he had been expecting to have to give me a steroid injection but could see it wasn't needed and was discharging me. The physio was also surprised and pleased so I've a strong feeling that due to my age both had just assumed I was going to sit around doing nothing and allowing the joint to re-freeze. The consultant even said: "you don't look like the sort of chap who sits around doing nothing".

As I wrote above, the NHS is excellent as long as you don't sit around waiting for things to happen, you have to make an effort to get what you need from it.
 
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alicat

Legendary Member
Location
Staffs
The fact that he saw it all through without a single word of complaint has left me very little tolerance for people who moan about silly things.

Perhaps they're just moaning about the things they think it is acceptable to talk about and there is deeper emotional suffering they don't think they can open up about.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
I'm 63 and following my collar bone break and repair I had to have a capsular release op to free the frozen shoulder that came bundled with the clavicle break. The consultant told me it would hurt more than broken ribs (it didn't) but that recovery was in my hands as I needed to stretch and exercise the joint to ensure full mobility as the joint healed after the op. So I did, and when I saw the consultant a month later he was very pleased, saying he had been expecting to have to give me a steroid injection but could see it wasn't needed and was discharging me. The physio was also surprised and pleased so I've a strong feeling that due to my age both had just assumed I was going to sit around doing nothing and allowing the joint to re-freeze. The consultant even said: "you don't look like the sort of chap who sits around doing nothing".

As I wrote above, the NHS is excellent as long as you don't sit around waiting for things to happen, you have to make an effort to get what you need from it.
Didn't you go private though?

My dad has just come out of hospital after a week in due to pneumonia. No complaints from him other than the food being poor, not such an issue as no appetite (he's lost 3kg in that week)
 
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Slick

Guru
At Father's Day last year, my Dad had just got home after about a month in hospital including a week in intensive care. He's always been chesty all his life but a bad chest infection over the winter which didn't respond to anything the GP gave him and kept getting worse over time led to intensive care and a very bleak predicted outcome but he pulled through despite the odds.

I still remember visiting after work as usual ( I work five minutes walk from the hospital) to find he had taken a serious turn for the worse and they wanted to move him to intensive care but he kept refusing to go and when he saw me he insisted I went and got my car to take him home to die. I was unable to get hold of my Mum on her mobile (and I also phoned everywhere I thought she might have been) so I effectively over-ruled my Dad and had him took to care. They told me he was actually delirious with lack of oxygen anyway. When I saw him wired up to every conceivable machine and breathing apparatus and heavily sedated I did wonder if I had made the right decision to effectively prolong his misery.

One year on, he is plagued with hip pain and on the waiting list for hip replacement but otherwise alive and well - "Fight the good fight fight with all thy might" The fact that he saw it all through without a single word of complaint has left me very little tolerance for people who moan about silly things.

As an aside, for all the people out there who have nothing better to do than to phone radio phone-ins or write stupid comments on newspaper websites moaning about how useless the health service is, I have to say the care and treatment my dad received from everyone - the doctors, nurses, consultants, etc and even the dinner ladies was nothing short of incredible. There is room for improvement (mostly at management level) but the people who actually treat and look after patients show incredible care and dedication and deserve to be paid twice whatever they get paid.
Anyone who has looked after a parent or older relative will bear witness to a tolerance level that just doesn't exist outside that generation. It's a great quality to have and I have huge respect for it, but it can mean they get overlooked for treatment they deserve in favour of the much younger shouty mob. It's just something I think you should be aware of. Take care.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
My MIL was litterally on death's door in February. Similar chest issues with heart failure etc. Well, a little intervention, and getting her meds under control (including insulin injections for type 2), she's doing rather well now, although in a Nursing Home as she 'can't/won't' try and walk, so is bed bound/chair bound. That said, she is now very well looked after. It's just a shame the other residents in her 'wing' have mostly lost their 'mental ability'. She's there i mind, but a knackered body.

The NHS do a fantastic job.
 
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steven1988

Veteran
Location
Sheffield
The absolutely brilliant NHS got me another 6 months with my mum, during her oral cancer treatment, and made sure my mother in law got a few years to make some wonderful memories with her grandkids before Lung Cancer took her.

Every member of staff from the lady that brings the tea round to the consultant responsible for grafting muscle as a replacement tongue, deserve a million times their salary.
 
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