Operation Christmas!! – Day 8

The Mineral Hospital, Bath

Be warned, there is very little Christmas spirit or cheer in this blip…

When I entered The Mineral Hospital this morning, and took this photo, I thought to myself how lucky was I to get to attend a hospital appointment in such a grand building. Little did I realise this was probably to be my last visit…

To cut a very long story short, since recently merging with Bath’s main hospital, the CFS/ME service have had their funding and staffing numbers slashed thanks to the budget deficit. This morning my specialist advised me that they were no longer able to offer me, or the many other outpatients, the support that they have been providing up until now, my one and only life line. I was devastated, but at the same time felt very sorry for my specialist. She was very clearly upset to be the bearer of such bad news, and frustrated at no longer being able to help her patients. I left the building an hour later, feeling utterly despondent and let down by the NHS… (There’s a lot more to this story but I don’t really want to go into it here…)

So hoping to revive the spirits with a little festive cheer, I headed to the shops, with a long list of shopping requests provided by various members of the family who can’t get out to do their Christmas shopping. But after visiting 17 shops and leaving only 6 of them with purchases, I’d had enough. I popped into the Abbey to sit and rest a while, but even that didn’t help so I headed home with a half empty shopping bag…

I’ve had enough of today, tomorrow has to be better… Off to drown my sorrows…