Tag: NHS

Chemotherapy. Eurgh.

It’s for the best. I was worried about chemotherapy. In fact, I probably worried about it more than anything else. When most people think about cancer, they always think about chemo. We’ve all heard the stories, and might even know someone that’s had chemo. The effects on your quality of life, the way you might […]

Radiotherapy.

“you lay down, it takes about a minute and you won’t feel a thing” Just hold on, because that’s only really half true. I’m not sure how many radiotherapy machines they have at The Royal Marsden. It’s a lot though! Between the two sites, they will almost certainly operate the largest radiotherapy facility in the […]

Robotic surgery.

Meet the robot The procedure is called a robotic pelvic lymph node dissection, and it’s really impressive. At St George’s, they have a DaVinci robot and it’s one of 70 in NHS hospitals across the UK. When pelvic node dissections for cancer surgery are done the old fashioned way, it’s very dramatic. The surgeon cuts […]

Sepsis. Oh wow.

A cautionary tale. You really don’t want sepsis, or septicaemia, or a septic episode. I don’t say this lightly, it’s absolutely horrendous. Cancer surgery often means big wounds. Wherever they might be, that also gives a lot of opportunities for infection.  At one point, I had two huge wounds in my groin which were not […]

The NHS vs private healthcare

It’s not a church. Healthcare in the UK can be an emotive subject. After all, a significant proportion of the UK population seem to believe the NHS is some kind of religious institution. I am going to start with a big statement.  If I didn’t have access to private healthcare, I might be dead. Or, […]

Oh not this again…

24th November 2020, The Lister Hospital, Hertfordshire, England That was a rough night I woke violently at 2.30am.  My legs ache so much that I can’t find a comfortable way to sleep.  All of my skin feels red hot, and the feelings of searing heat and shivering cold coursing through my body are relentless.  At […]

Safety first..

25th November 2020. The Lister Hospital, Hertfordshire, England. Day 2 I had a really good nights sleep. My blood pressure is back to normal, pulse and temperature are fine. The bright patches of cellulitis have all but subsided now and I feel good. I even managed a quick plank. This definitely feels better than the […]

Uber luxe. NHS style.

26th November 2020, The Lister Hospital, Hertfordshire, England. I had another brilliant’s night sleep. It’s probably down to hearing the tragic news that Diego Maradona had died. *That’s tragic in the sense that it’s taken so long, and didn’t happen in 1985. I missed the morning facetime with the kids, I just slept straight through […]

7 minutes.

26th November 2020, St George’s Hospital, London, England. I’m a glutton for punishment. What a day today has been.  I checked out from The Lister at lunchtime with a month’s worth of drugs, and a clean bill of health. The ward sister worked some magic behind the scenes, and I didn’t get ripped off at […]

I’m clinically extremely vulnerable. *apparently

12th December 2020. Home, Hertfordshire. I’ve had the pleasure of contributing to a big article for the Daily Mail this week. Actually, it’s the Mail, Metro, i and the Evening Standard. But I’m not one to show off. Being the first country in the western world to approve the vaccine for COVID-19, the government are […]