"I'm so tired of this"

After 15 months i finally got to see the North West's best Orthopaedic Department today. Wrightington Hospital was everything the NHS should be - busy but made you feel like you were the only one there, under too much pressure but still ready go to the extra yard and fight your corner - I got a real sense that they really put the patient first in everything they did.

Each time I've been to a different department or hospital its been the same, they can't access scans or records, one system won't speak to another - so I'm sent away, and another 3 months are lost. This time I'd rung ahead, checked they'd got Xrays, MRI's & CT scans, when they said yes I felt we might be getting somewhere after a mostly lost year.
Mr C was ace, didn't read the notes, started from scratch, and totally understood the level I've been and want to be at again- this is the place the sports people go, he didn't make me feel penalised by being comparatively physically fit, he was happy with a high set bar.
After the examination we sat at his desk and with a downcast face he said he was really sorry but he couldn't progress me today as Lancaster had not sent my scans. I protested, "but they said...I checked...." With a world weary shrug that suddenly showed his age Mr C got up and said in the most heartfelt way "Im sorry, it shouldn't be this hard...Im so tired of this" I really thought that that was it, but he motioned me to stay and left the room, a nice lady brought me a drink and 15minutes later MrC came back with my scans, he'd had the head of the hospital ring Lancaster Royal's records office, feathers were most definitely ruffled.
My CT scan taken in October has never been looked at, i just have to let that go. In minute detail*, not visible to xray or mri, it shows that my slip 16months ago broke a tiny shard like piece off my fibular that is now lodged in my subtalar joint, and arthritic growth has locked it there between the tendons and nerves that make a foot work. An operation to remove it is so potentially difficult that MrC told me sorrowfully that there is only one surgeon in the UK who can perform such a task - and he's in Cornwall. Its a long shot that he'll even see me, but MrC said he'd call personally and argue my case - by the time I'd gotten home he'd done just that.

My injury isn't life threatening, but it threatens the life I love. The NHS, so so maligned and damaged by successive governments, is full of good people simply doing their very best to help. Sure some stuff has slipped by in a very nearly broken system, but frankly I expected to be dismissed or ignored, moved to yet another list, another statistic to prove a point. Instead a tired man got up and went the extra yard for me, put me front and centre. Whatever the end result, I'm immensely grateful for that.

*Mr C also had his secretary ring LRI and order a dvd of all my scans for me to collect, so that at least i know i can take it with me. Many of the images cant be opened on a home pc, but theres still 2000 that can. These two come closest to showing the damage, but i couldnt see the one Mr C showed me that made me wince.