Goodbye from NHS

The NHS has really tried to help me with my RSI. They had checked out my nerves, checked if some of the infrastructure of my arm is not getting in the way, X-rayed my spine to see if there was anything wrong with where the big nerves come out of it; pretty much everything they could think of. (I had already announced the goodbye before, but that had been premature!) Except one thing. They wanted to know if there was perhaps something wrong with the blood flow through my arms. So the last bastion of hope would be: the vascular department. And one day I had an appointment.

I didn't have much hope. Surely if there was a vascular problem come out that would have other symptoms? But I had little to lose. So I went.

I didn't start well. A young man came in with a lanyard; I could see he was not the person I had the appointment with. He asked me some questions that made it clear he didn't know what my issue was. He also seemed to not have heard of RSI. He said he would start by taking my pulse. And he really struggled doing that! My pulse is really not difficult to get. And he must've been a doctor with vascular expertise.

He then did the simplest of tests. While still keeping an eye on my pulse, he raised my arm above my head and asked me to look away from that arm. And then on the other side. And he concluded all was well. Was that it?

When I raised the point that he seem to be making a final decision even though he wasn't a person I had the appointment with, he walked away to have a word with that doctor. He came back to say that he agreed, but that they might want to take some X-rays to be sure. I then told him that the hospital had already taken X-rays. Don't these people check the dossier of their patients before seeing them? He walked away to have a look at the X-rays, and came back and said all was well. They could do nothing for me. So that was it. A bit of an anticlimax! And as I said; I hadn't expected much of this, but this seemed to be a particularly half-hearted attempt at doing something for someone. Oh well. I'll have to sort this myself! With the help of a lot of time…