The Opening of the Floodgates

Just suddenly found myself to be a totally blubbering wreck. I've no idea where the floods of tears came from but, it certainly must have performed some type of tear duct flushing. I was quite happily surfing the net when, suddenly, the armpit discomfort forced me into pressing my upper arms tightly against my torso; it was also essential to put on a wrist support / splint to remove the numbingly aching pain in hand and forearm. Having, from necessity, shut down the PC, I went downstairs to join ma belle.

As my beloved will be seeing her friend this evening, she wondered what I'd like for lunch and profferred the suggestion that maybe I'd like to take advantage of the OAP concession at the local chippie. The fish and chips from this particular outlet are really delicious, a wonderful inexpensive treat, so the suggestion should have been greeted with unconditional enthusiasm! Unfortunately, with my haphazard assortment of gastric disorders, the last couple of times I've enjoyed this feast there have been subsequent repercussions. As this thought passed through my mind, the almost hysterical tearful effusion occurred.

At this point my total distrust of the GPs I've visited recently came to the fore; I've increasingly been made to feel that I'm a nuisance and a waste of their time (wittingly or unwittingly I don't know). Since concentrating on treatment of GORD, any mention I, or my beloved, make of my underlying ME-CFS symptoms / ailments, are swiftly brushed aside / ignored. On the last visit I was asked, in an accusatory manner, why I'd been seeing different doctors (from within the practice), ignoring the fact that on several occasions follow-up appointments booked with the same GP, either online or at the surgery, have subsequently been cancelled, via 'phone calls from the surgery, and alternatives have had to be arranged. I'm also dependent on the availability of ma belle chauffeuse, to get me to the surgery, so also have to work around this; the alternative would be a two bus journey each way and, since 2003 I have found this mode of transport extremely stressful.

When I went to the hospital's phlebotomy department yesterday, for sundry samples to be taken, I was reminded that a consultant endocrinologist had informed the practice that certain of these tests, to monitor my condition, should be carried out at least every six months; this has not happened for the past few years (probably since the previous senior partner, who was my primary reason for remaining with the practice, retired from the practice).

Perhaps the fact that I'm currently on antibiotics, in addition to sundry other medications, suggests that I'm at a particularly low ebb. The opening of the floodgates proved difficult to understand, nonetheless, as I haven't been feeling at all depressed (just ill)! Maybe I'm  a little more frail (and vulnerably de-energized) than usual having missed my most recent physio / acupuncture treatment; the physios services were required, to deal with some very urgent cases, by another district within the health authority, which no longer employs anyone in an equivalent position, quite likely a result of the ConDems ideological cuts. 

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P.S. a rather more upbeat postscript to this posting can be found on my 'Mal's Murmurings' blog, apropos the floodgates.

Cameron's Disappointment

Regardless of the persuasive powers of the Tory biased media, their darling Cameron has not acheived a sweeping majority. That is the good news. A large Tory majority would have proved totally disastrous to our hopes of recovery, a point of view held by many significant economists which much of the media attempted to ignore. As all the bile was heaped upon Brown, the fact that the UK debt is smaller, as a percentage of GDP, than that of Germany, Japan and the USA, was totally overlooked by mainstream media. I am pleased that Labour's performance in the polls has not been anything like as disastrous as the Tory media hoped; perhaps some intelligent voters recognized that Brown had dealt effectively with the crisis faced by the banks (as a result of the global economic crisis). It's hard to believe that just a few short months ago a Tory landslide seemed inevitable.

As a lifelong committed socialist, and Labour activist throughout the sixties and seventies, I had never had much truck with Blairite New Labour but, for all their fairly large scale adoption of Thatcherite economics, new Labour did have a compassionate heart - at least at a domestic level. I have also admired Gordon Brown's commitment to international development against global poverty but, totally disagreed with Blair's Tory supported illegal war with Iraq.

Seemingly since the beginning of time, prior to 1997, our constituency had been totally neglected by its (Tory) MP  but, since then, we have been extremely well represented and served by Phil Willis (LibDem). Phil stood down at this election and, tragically, the seat has been lost to the Tories. The election of the UK's first Green party MP is a cause for rejoicing, albeit at the cost of another seat for Labour.

Even with the whole hearted support of the wealth accumulators, stock market gamblers, and their media mouthpieces, the Tories have failed to obtain an overall majority; far more votes have been cast against them than for them. Perhaps this really is the time for some kind of electoral reform to more equitably represent the will of the people.