Beginning of the beginning

This week has been filled with visits to the new hospital... I'm already a haemophilia patient at this new place, so it wasn't a totally novel experience for me. I met with the new surgeons, although that didn't turn out to be as successful as I'd thought it would be. My file was specifically put in the consultant's pile, as per request of the other doctors I'd seen, and the haematologists. However, another pushy patient insisted on getting her file switched with mine, so lo and behold, I did *not* get to meet the consultant himself. I saw the registrar instead (Thursday), had my MRI on Friday, and still getting over the to-ing and fro-ing today.

The new hospital is at least 90 minutes from my home, which makes each visit a day trip. I was disappointed, to say the least, that a bossy, self-righteous woman got me pushed out of the queue, despite the doctors' requests that I saw the consultant himself. I suppose the clinic was busy, and nobody there knew me in person, so I had to swallow it and accept the wasted day trip.

Friday's MRI was a challenge in itself... Not least because it meant waking up at 6.30am to arrive at the hospital for 8.50am, but it took three people to put a cannula in the only patent vein I seem to have left! I don't know whether it's just me, but the ONE part of myself I can't stand people poking at is my elbow crease, like *right* in the crease - probably because of previous bad experience and skin graft harvest, but still!

They did manage to cannulate me in the end, and inject the contrast. I hate MRIs, because for starters I'm terrible at keeping still without getting those irritating itches, and second of all, the noise is so intermittent that when you think it's all over, it starts again and you look like you've just had an electric shock. Yesterday's scan took about an hour, and made me dizzy from top to bottom at the end... Getting up from the table, I was stumbling and hoping nobody would see, when the radiographer asked if I was alright. What's worse is that he then commented about how being in the scanner does make you very disorientated in a slightly awkward way, which of course made me feel like such a pathetic fool!!!

In any case, I'm back there at the beginning of May, and at the haemophilia clinic in June. Finals are coming around too fast, and I'm still lazing around; much to my regret, I'll soon realise!