Fed up, my body is letting me down, ribs, hip, leg, back, guts, brain, all at once. Just going to try to rest up, recuperate, then assess after the bank holiday, as short of an emergency, I won't be able to do anything till next week if I decide the next triage step is appropriate. I just hate the fact people I know tell me they book GP appointments online and it's a breeze. My GP still has the 8am appointment bingo system in place and I hate it, they won't even book routine appointments in advance any more, I used to ring up, they'd say we've nothing until 6 weeks from now, and I'd book and wait, now you can't even do that, you have to fight for the 2-3 appointments that might be available at 8am across a cohort of 2000 patients who are all hammering the one phone line trying to get through at the same time. Totally pathetic - I basically need a Jira board and all my years of project management experience to get an appointment with a medical professional. AND likely cancel work commitments due to the lack of any flexibility. That's why I generally don't bother with doctors unless it's going add value. Never mind the last time I needed medical help, and they kept prescribing just enough antibiotics to make the infection die down but then bounce back, and I became a case study of in vivo antibiotic resistance as the weaker bugs got wiped out leaving the stronger ones to multiply. Did my research and said I likely need a longer course of antibiotics. Doctor (different one again), refused, saying that's not in the guidelines, here's another weeks' supply of a different antibiotic for the 5th time. I said that won't work, the data is saying this needs a longer course. No. You are an idiot, I am the doctor, do what I say and stop doing whatever you are doing to keep reinfecting yourself. So I took their antibiotics, bumped it up with my own illicit supply (I'm resourceful like that), stayed on a strong cocktail for two weeks and after that my urinalysis strips stayed free of nitrites and leukocytes and the infection was nuked for good. After the classic 9 month wait to see a urologist about this (long after I was cured) I went to the appointment just for confirmation, they confirmed that I had so many recurrences because the infection was not sufficiently treated by the GPs who sent me for kidney scans, STI tests despite not being sexually active (I got the sense one of them thought I was lying), all kinds of things when all I needed was some common sense prescribing. That experience was awful, add that to having a tumour misdiagnosed as a cyst that "would go away on its own if you stop worrying about it", and then eventually major surgery where they informed me of the potential life changing complications an hour before I was due under the knife and made me sign a paper in a vulnerable state - so much for informed consent) among many other anecdotes and you might start to understand my complex web of distrust with the medical profession.


!!