Reflections on the puddle of life

that's the National Health Service, to the uninitiated

It's been a pretty interesting week all things considered. On Friday I had the day off work as we needed to take my daughter to the hospital for a kidney scan. She recently suffered a urinary tract infection and as she is a child they follow this up with kidney tests as a matter of course. Now I know the reason for the UTI but still it was reassuring to know that she was going to be checked over to make sure there was nothing more sinister at work. We arrived for her appointment just before 9am, and she was seen very quickly and given a clean bill of health. It was pretty fascinating to see her kidneys on screen. Her left kidney has a kind of bulge at the top, which is normal tissue apparently, and we've had a few little jokes afterwards about her 'humpbacked' kidney which she's found pretty funny.

The sonographer who completed the scan was so professional and nice and brilliant with children. Despite our assurances my daughter was a little anxious, but the lady put her immediately at ease. She asked her about her breakfast and told her she was going to use the machine to look for the Shreddies in her tummy! She could watch the whole time, and everything was explained to her in a way she could understand. The hospital was clean, efficient and all the employees we dealt with were lovely. There's a lot to be said for that.

Kidneys are a particular problem in my family. All of the girls suffer badly with UTI's and I also have hypertension. As part of my normal testing programme I recently had some blood tests and it appears that my creatinine levels are raised. As this is an indicator of kidney function I've had a second set of tests and whilst these were better they're still in the high range. So I went to see my GP on Friday and we had a bit of a chat about what's going on. This is a new GP, we recently moved practices to someone closer, and he's really good. He discussed the medical results with me and showed me my test results and we talked about what it meant. Recently I've been working towards trying to come off my BP treatment by doing more exercise, losing weight (not that I'm overweight but I think probably the less pressure I can put on the system the better) and cutting out caffeine and reducing salt, all the things that raise your blood pressure. I managed to half my dose of treatment and my BP is holding, and the doctor is aware of that. So he's been pretty gentle with me. He's suggested that I leave things for a little while and we'll do some retesting. So in 3 weeks I'll go back for another blood test and then the week after he'll see me again and we'll see what the tests say. If my creatinine level is still high then it's likely I have chronic kidney disease and we'll then need to decide how I best manage the condition after that. I'm not worried about it. If I do have kidney disease there are ways to manage it, and I know I'm being monitored and looked after so the risks of further damage can be minimised.

It occurred to me, whilst I was taking this all in, that the NHS comes in for a lot of criticism, but we actually take it for granted. In dealing with this matter all I need to worry about is my condition, I don't need to think about whether I can afford to have treatment, or whether my tests are covered by an insurance plan or anything like that. If I want to be referred to a specialist or seek a second opinion all I have to do is ask. I can even choose the hospital I'm treated at. I don't have to compromise on treatment because of cost. Everything is taken care of and I think that really takes the pressure off. I know there can be pockets of problems, but I've always found medical professionals to be just that: professionals. If you take an interest in your health then they seem to be more than willing to explain everything in depth and be honest with you, and I've never come across a single health worker that didn't try really hard to do a good job. Maybe I've been lucky, but I think on the whole that we're a little bit spoiled with our free (okay not free, but I'm pretty sure I've had my money's worth) healthcare. It's not anywhere near as bad as people like to think.

So I just wanted to record my gratitude here. The NHS is pretty ace, and we're lucky to have it. And if you're an NHS worker and you pop in here any time, thanks. Despite appearances you are appreciated.