Appointment date!

I was not really intending to write any more posts for a while, but I had a demand from my "public" to keep writing (thank you R!) and a few things have happened over the last couple of days.

The appointment letter from University College Hospital in London arrived. They got my surname wrong, I am plural, not singular.........in the spelling of my name at any rate, but sent it by first class post. First outpatients appointment on the 10th of December (for my reader from the USA, that's 12.10). Checked out the Professor who runs the team that I will be seeing on the internet: he is at the leading edge of treating prostate cancer, best team I could possibly see, in this country at least. Phew!

If anyone is interested in public service websites, I would recommend a look at www.uclh.nhs.uk It has to be the best I have seen so far. Let's hope that it is not a case of "all fur coat and no knickers".

Now I have certainty about how bad the cancer is and the way forward, I took the plunge and told my parents. This may seem a bit odd, but I had not told them, or my sister, what was going on. Very simple rationale: until I knew what the future holds (at least on the prostate front), no point in worrying them. This is probably a dilemma that a lot of people with a diagnosis of cancer face; there is no easy answer, it just has to be thought through.

Result? Long 'phone call, concern but not panic, and positive support. Means a lot to me.

Parents told my sister who called this afternoon. My father had told her about this blog and she read it all..............in one go!! Must admit that I asked her whether she had a life! Cool and supportive though; if you are reading this: thanks. Additional benefit: the page views for the blog were through the roof today.

Meanwhile, you may recall that I wrote about the idea of helping other people negotiate public services and that (did I tell you?) someone I happen to know was having a real problem with getting the system to work for her. Well, today we started on influencing things. It is an area I have no real expertise in, so our first strategem is to get the local newspaper engaged. The paper has been "following" me on Twitter and it is potentially a good story for them, so hopefully they will take it up. We shall see. Sam's dilemma may well become the focus of this blog for the next few weeks; for those of you who do not like the ritual humilation of politicians, it might not be to your taste.

A bit stuck for a song, but this one is pretty good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mln0RciE2o0





Enough rambling for one night......