To recap what's been going on. I had gone from being fine last Saturday night, to waking up on Sunday morning very ill and terrified that the infection could start spreading through my body. I had rung 111 to ask for advice. I wasn't far through my symptoms when the lady said that an ambulance had been despatched. It arrived very quickly. The paramedics said I was fine apart from the dental abscess which needed immediately dealing with. They hatched a plan to beat the NHS system. Drive 2 hours to hospital where in queue for MaxFac appointment. Do not mention the word dental. Say need emergency prescription of antibiotics. You will get to see Doctor. Expect long wait.
The plan worked. After 6 hours an emergency call to MaxFac was made. Eventually home at 11pm, set off again 7am Monday to drive back to the minor surgery unit.
(I think my blog over the next few days will be mentioning my husband and people we know, so I start using initials. I'll be M for me, he's H for husband, everyone else will have random initials.)
I should also mention that we all have our own ways of coping best in stressful situations. During my cancer journey in 2013 it was discovered that H gets scared by medical words, and I like things explained in simple terms. l don't want to know details unless I really have to.
Looking back now I feel extremely sorry for the team in MaxFac this Monday. They immediately do the gum incision op and while I'm resting afterwards they start making up a file for me. I'd been in the queue for an initial appointment but as I hadn't got that far they know little about me. They can't locate my hospital file from 2013, so all they have about me are my GP records and my dentist's paperwork. So they start asking me questions about my cancer history assuming any patient would be able to give them a fair idea of what had been going on.
Probably most would but not me. In response to what sort of cancer it was I'd simply replied T2. Did I know what sort of radiotherapy it was? Yes, the 7 week one. What about the chemo? In bag through cannula in hand, perhaps the chemo drug might have begun with C?
I could read the expression on their faces. My old MDT would have expected those answers, but they'd known that I kept every single piece of paperwork stored away safe, and wrote important things in a notebook. The relief was clear when they found out I had box files at home and yes they did contain the little red chemo book etc etc. I even knew why they couldn't find the file and would be able to tell them what hospital my records got transferred to and the file number.
Off to bed now. Story continues tomorrow.
