Life insurance medical

I saw my GP yesterday for a medical for my life insurance. I thought it was just me and my poor medical history that required it but I was told that they do it all the time now.

Anyway interesting reading going through my medical notes for the last 20 years and before, and an invaluable exercise for my GP too, as I have only actually been seeing this one for 9 months.

Things I found out:

I have been complaining about my hands for over 10 years.

My then GP in 1997 queried RA but never did anything about it.

They had me down as depressed, but when the GP dug into it, it was just a comment after I had 2 bereavements in the same year, 11 years ago. The diagnosis was removed from my long list of current problems

Another GP had frequently put 'unexplained weight gain' and never followed it up.

That same GP had documented my aversion to Amytriptiline and my refusal to take it on the grounds of weight gain but never tied the two things up.

My heart problems started immediately after I had Parvo virus as did the RA but it was never 'joined up'. The GP put that right too yesterday and said in the report that I had had both things as direct result of the Parvo virus, it being a well documented progression in adults.

If all this had been sorted out at the time I probably wouldn't have remained with the ME diagnosis and other problems I had would have been investigated more.

The GP concluded the report by saying that as conventional treatments had failed to have much effect I was now seeing my Lyme specialist and getting much better on this regime, giving credibility to the 'probable Chronic Lyme' diagnosis.

Interesting isn't it? When someone actually bothers to review all your notes not just the current appointment stuff.

I thought that this government was all in favour of 'Joined-up Thinking', pity it doesn't extend to Ms Hewitt's departments. Or then again it's really no surprise is it?

Dr Wonderful

I saw my Lyme doctor yesterday. He is very pleased with my progress and more to the point so am I and so is WH. Daily I can feel the layers peeling away and I am becoming almost human again. Eleven weeks of the antibiotic therapy is beggining to give some lasting benefit. I'm trying for another 12 weeks by which time I should be part way there.

Two things conspire to scupper my progress, the first is inbuilt, I am reacting to the sun big-time. I have to keep out of it and, for a died in the wool sunworshipper and lover of the great outdoors, this is hard. I wear factor 50 all the time but even so, a short drive to our nearest shops (6 miles) gave me a substantial burn on my right hand. Dr Wonderful suggests that on my forthcoming trip to Greece I stop the meds a few days before-hand to get the drug out of my system and don't take it for the duration of the trip. If this works I will be really over the moon.

The second blur on the horizon is the very real possibilty that my GP practice will not now prescribe me any more antibiotics beacuse they are 'off licence' in this treatment. It won't stop me taking them, however, as I shall obtain a private presciption and get the drugs elsewhere. It does beg the question though, which I have posed here before, would the NHS prefer for me to remain ill rather than stump up the cost of the drugs which are making a real improvement to my health for the first time in 15 years?

Compare and Contrast

I know I know, no post for a week then two on the same day but I am celebrating.

Just compare this post written last November and my other post today. What is the difference?

I'll tell you what.

I have a diagnosis after 15 years. I am not a basket case, I have a bacterial infection. That infection is the causative agent of Lyme disease. Most importantly I am having treatment. After 11 weeks treatment I feel wonderful, I can function more than I have been able for about 10 years. Yes I know I have wasted 15 whole years of my entire life, a whopping 29% of it. But now I have hope, recovery and and best of all some normal life.

The disturbing thing is that none of this improvement is down to our wonderful NHS. I found the cause myself (after I recognised a picture of the Lyme rash as one which I had had). I was advised by the Eurolyme website and I found a private doctor who had the training and the skill and most importantly the interest to want to treat me. In 15 years all the NHS wanted to do was either ignore me, send me to a psychiatrist or give me unproved, dangerous, half-baked quack remedies. No-one wanted to treat me as a whole person with one illness.

Even now I have a treatment I will have to pay for it myself shortly via private prescriptions. My GP practice said that they will no longer be able to provide prescriptions for such a 'controversial' treatment as it is 'off-guideline' and unproven. OK , so they would rather I stay ill then? Even though my private doctor is in full contact with my NHS ones the NHS ones choose to disregard his expertise and go their own way. Even my NHS arthritis consultant has written to my GP (after being informed, out of courtesy, that my medications had changed and that I had a new diagnosis) and stated that I should stop this new treatment immediately. Why? because I am getting better?

I am now in total dispair at the state of the NHS. It seems the powers that be would rather follow regulations than provide what actually works and they also seem to want to keep people sick for long periods rather than in the first instance test them for their condition and secondly treat them when they do get the results.

I find I am in increasing agreement with John Crippen, the NHS Blogdoctor. I was never politically minded as a youngster, I was always too busy on other things. This life of mine has taught me otherwise, after all, I have had 15 years to think about it.

The whole situation in this country with regards to ME and Lyme disease is a shambles. It appears that there are dark forces at work keeping patients with these illnesses in thrall to the pyschiatrists. Far be it from me to speculate further here, but a quick of review of some of my sidelinks will give you food for thought enough to keep you reading for a twelve-month.

Just ponder this, how much money would have been saved if I had not been on benefits for 15 years and instead had a full range of tests and consulations followed by a course of treatment for up to 2 years. Now of course my condition is chronic, harder to treat, has given me other associated disorders and I might not recover completely.

Now multiply that figure by the estimated 240,000 ME suffers in this country, let alone those with undisclosed Lyme. You can draw your own conclusions.