Racism rears it’s ugly head

I continue my saga for those who like to keep up. I arrived at Kings at 8.30am this morning. I saw this sign about unplanned replacements that made me giggle. “Resistance is futile” lol.  While I was in haematology outpatients, affectionately referred to as HOP, I had potassium, magnesium and blood. Ain’t I lucky to have such a rich and varied diet?
It’s now gone 9pm and I’m in the day room of Davidson. I’ve been told the room should be ready by 10pm. They have painted and deep cleaned it today. It’s a shared room which isn’t ideal. I hope I get a nice cell mate. Hopefully tomorrow they can move me to DMU. It’s been such a long day and I’m longing to get into bed.

When me and my long suffering partner arrived this morning we spoke to another couple. They live in Kent. I said I also lived in Kent part time and had worked in Maidstone. They then both told me they didn’t like Maidstone these days and you couldn’t even hear English being spoken in the street. I was incensed at this inappropriate racism. I said that wasn’t my experience at all and then I shut up for fear of getting into a row that would get me no where. I watched this couple receive excellent care from the Asian Doctor, the African Nurse and the Caribbean HCA. I wanted to say to each of the professionals “they don’t think you should be here” of course I kept quiet but it was very tempting to show them up. Brexit has a lot to answer for.

One of the things I’ve noticed these last couple of admissions is that it’s easy for patients to slip through the net regarding meals on the day of admission. If my partner wasn’t around I wouldn’t necessary eat on a day like today. I don’t eat sandwiches and you are not on the ward at meal time. They really should have a procedure in place because some patient would not be assertive. Something I can hopefully suggest that will help and make a difference.

The main reason I’ve been brought back in is because I need this procedure done under general. My consultant doesn’t want to wait for the longer time it would take if I was an outpatient.  It seems daft to me that I could be at home and managing my illness there as I always do but have to be here taking up a bed in order to get the test done more quickly. Madness!

Any way let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later. I shall continue to play with the MDS letters. Today’s Momentous Daily Stories is inspired by the amazing array of tests and tubes and injections and procedures that those of us with MDS have to endure. The images are of me with sepsis in the first and the other shows the Hickman Line threaded through the vein to sit near the top of your heart.

Keep up the good work everyone of #makebloodcancervisible #bloodcancerawrenessmonth #lifewithcancer Keep sharing the knowledge and maybe inspire people to sign up to the registries and transfusion services.Racism