Day eighty eight

Having reported my diagnosis yesterday, I have done some more thinking. My results were on the NHS app for 12 days before I noticed them in, what I consider, the wrong place. I remembered that I went to the medical centre on the 15th January to ask if they had my results yet. They checked, and said no. But that's the day they appeared, so I must have missed them by seconds.

When the results did come in, why didn't the medical centre contact me to arrange an appointment with the GP?

What if I wasn't me and I didn't keep checking? Would I have never heard from them?

And my real consideration: what if it had been cancer? Is this how I would have found out?

I remember the days when the doctor called the patient into his (usually) office and told them to bring someone with them, if they were going to tell them they had cancer.

Now it's an app! This wasn't the case for me, but is that how other people hear the news!

I hope not!

Although, just for fun (the rant is over), my wife looked up the prognosis for Bibasal lung atelectasis and it seems that I could die within a week or 2 of developing it. So, I had the scan on the 27th December, but how long had my lungs been in this state? The results came out 19 days later (plenty of time for me to die). And it was a further 12 days before I saw them (more time to die {sounds like a James Bond film!}). And from when I found the results until my GP appointment, another 7 days.

I should put in a Spoiler Alert here - I didn't die.

I wonder how many people do though? How many people die in GP waiting rooms, or hospital waiting rooms, or while waiting for results?

I always say that the NHS is better than any system that any other country has, but I think we could be doing better.

A complete change of tone tomorrow, so do tune in.