Once more the Bung

Well I’m trying to find a euphemism for constipation, and it’s not easy.  It’s been 5 days now (hence the mention of All-Bran cake in the last post) .

The Christie advised me to ring the GP.  This being Sunday, they are not at home, so ring 111.

111 are very busy, with long delays, but I get through to a responder who takes very lengthy details down, explains there will be a delay of up to 2 hours before someone can call back, then reads me a script about how to eat healthy and  clean and care for my rear end.   (5 portions of veg for the former and use wet tissues for the latter).

So I thank her and put the phone down. It’s not 2 hours, it’s more like 10 minutes before it rings.   It’s a paramedic, wanting to check my details.  So I repeat them, and just for good measure take my blood pressure and temperature as well.  He confirms the 2 hour delay, and goes away (after giving the script about diet for my top end and caring for my bottom end).

Another 5 minutes and I get a nurse, who checks the details, and explains that I don’t need any treatment and should wait till Monday and see my GP.  I politely point out that The Christie advised me to ring them, especially as there may be a need to discuss pausing my chemo for a day or 2, which is something I really don’t want to do except in extremis.  She agrees and offers to put me in touch with a doctor.

Another 5 minutes and I got the doctor, she was excellent. She skipped most of the confirmation of details and the entire scripts. She advised me that it would be worth trying one more medication, Lactulose, which works with Movicol so that both reinforce the other. If that doesn’t work by tomorrow afternoon, then it would be best to contact the GP urgently, but this is worth a try.

Sounds good advice, we found a late night pharmacy, and I’m going to try it.  Better than sitting in Casualty for hours.  If it works then great.

Just one worry, why make so many followup phone calls to me, and so quickly. Were they trying to cover up the fact that they didn’t have enough doctors available?

I don’t know, but it got frankly ridiculous.