Sunday, 29 October: As my cough deepens, Florence Naomingale heads to DC, and I hunker down in bed with tea and herbal remedies and lots of online sports –See Blog from 10/30. Friday, 3 November: After a week of tea and herbal remedies and no relief, I ask a friend for a referral to a local GP. Turns out there is a small office about 10 minute walk from our home. They open at 8:30. I’m there at 8:25. Once they open, I am given the next appointment for 10am, after filling out a short information sheet. I’ve got my passport and “Resident Permit Card” with me, proud of the fact that I paid $560 to be able to access the NHS system while in the UK for one year. They could have cared less about my card. I was given the appointment because it was available and I was in need. I go for a coffee and come back at 10. I’m called into see the doctor at 10:15. She takes my temperature, listens to my chest, hears congestion, but nothing shocking, and concludes: “It’s most likely viral. Keep doing what you’re doing. Liquids and rest.” She also gives me a prescription for an inhaler which I get filled next door. Total cost: $9 for the inhaler. Wednesday, 8 November: Florence comes back from DC, having successfully nursed Maya back to reasonable health, and is now there to help her other patient. Multiple batches of chicken soup follow. Friday, 10 November: The congestion has shifted into the bronchioles, with lots of wheezing, gurgling and rattling. We decide to walk to the Brighton NHS Walk-In Clinic next to the train station. It opens at 8:00am. We are there at 7:55, third in line. We go in, fill-out a short form, and within 30 minutes I am being seen by a nurse practitioner. He takes my temperature, listens to my chest, and concludes: “It sounds like you could now have a bacterial chest infection.” He prescribes an antibiotic which I get filled. He says I should start feeling some relief in 48-72 hours. Total cost: $11. Sunday, 12 November: Over the past 48 hours, the cough had gotten progressively worse. More wheezing and more gurgling. I woke up in the middle of the night wondering if I should go to hospital. In the morning, I call the NHS non-emergency out-patient number: “1-1-1.” The person who answers asks me a series of questions to make sure I’m not bleeding profusely, in cardiac arrest, or some other potentially fatal condition. He couldn’t have been nicer, more compassionate or more patient with me. Then, he tells me that I will get a call back within the hour from a nurse or doctor. In 45-minutes, I receive a call, apologizing for the long wait time, telling me that I haven’t been forgotten, and asking how I was feeling and if my condition had changed in the past 45 minutes. I thanked them for their concern and call. After another 30 minutes, I was called by a nurse practitioner named Grace. She was awesome. Totally calmed me down, listened to my detailed description of my struggles with breathing and wheezing and gurgling, and encouraged me to wait another 24 hours, and that the antibiotic would start having an effect. And, that if it became any harder to breathe, I should call back and they would send a GP to my house! Total cost: $0. [NOTE: I did feel improvement the next morning, and the improvement continued through Wednesday.] Thursday, 16 November: I was scheduled to take a 7am train to Sheffield for two days of seminars that I was giving on service learning at the U of Sheffield. This had been arranged by Sanjay Lanka, a professor there who had previously taught with us at CSUMB. I woke up, and the gurgling had come back, with a vengeance. Was debating whether to go or not, and decided, “what the hell, go for it.” Got on the train to London, and thought, “wrong move.” Sent Sanjay a text saying I was en route, but could we see a doctor in Sheffield? Once in Sheffield, we went straight to the NHS Walk-In clinic. It was pretty busy, and I was able to finish almost 3 Sudoku puzzles in the waiting room. Finally, I was called into see the nurse practitioner. She listened to my detailed description of my congestion, wheezing and gurgling, took my temperature, listened to my chest, and said “WOW! That’s loud.” While the previous antibiotic had addressed the congestion in my chest, it hadn’t touched the gunk in my bronchioles. So, she prescribed a new, broader spectrum antibiotic, which I got filled next door, and quickly took the first two pills as prescribed. We got to the U of Sheffield at 2:25pm, and our first meeting was at 2:30pm. Two hours of service learning talk with the School of Management faculty went great. Total cost: $12. Today, Sunday, 18 November: So, while I’m still congested, I think its moving in the right direction. I started to feel almost instant relief from the new antibiotic. Hopefully it is the right one, and by the time the course is over, the wheezing will be gone as well. It feels good to be coming out from the mucus-laden darkness and into the light of breath again. Still, walking up our hill in Hanover to our home on the top of Windmill street is a struggle. Gives me new appreciation for the power of clean lungs. But more than anything, I have such an appreciation for a functional national health service. The definition says that the NHS provides healthcare to “all UK citizens.” Well, I ain’t no UK citizen. In fact, anyone who walks in the door to a GP gets treated, for free! And, everyone I’ve met and talked with at my GP, at the Brighton Walk-In Clinic, the Sheffield Walk-In Clinic, and on the “1-1-1” line has been exceptionally warm, caring and human. And this is a system that people feel has been decimated by budget cuts. Yes, “SAVE OUR NHS!” And once I return home, the campaign will be, “CREATE OUR NHS!” How simple: a system which provides healthcare for all in the USofA based on their need for healthcare rather than their ability to pay for it. It SHOULD BE funded by taxes.
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About MeI am a Professor of Service Learning and Director of the Service Learning Institute at California State University, Monterey Bay. I am interested in how universities can be more involved in social change, particularly in supporting underserved communities to address complex social and economic challenges. Archives
December 2017
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