The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

nursemaggie

Doveling I used to use hospital transport but they kept coming earlier and earlier. Surely you saw my post saying they came at 7 am for a 3.30 pm appointment. It takes 2 to 3 hours by public transport, 4 changes, but it is better than that. I don't get up as early as 7 am unless I have to. I need a lot of sleep.

The 7 am was a volunteer driver. You can only have them if you are receiving treatment. My treatment did stop for a few months then the cancer came back. There are no volunteer drivers for if you do not have your own transport. With a 3.30 pm appointment you do not get away from the clinic until after 5 pm. My oncologist is always behind.

I end up in a taxi. I am not very keen on most of the drivers they are very bad. I have waited 4 hours or more for transport home. I find it just as tiring.

fuddle

I think doveling thought that you were accessing hospital transport via the NHS scheme nm. That's what I thought anyway. It didn't come across that you were using the volunteers from the community scheme. Just a little misunderstanding nm that's all.

We're all helpless and are grappling at ideas to try and help you.

monnagran

Ivyleaf, we have a thaw too. It started yesterday and by the afternoon I actually detected a bit of warmth in the sun.
Regarding scones, the trick is not to take them too seriously. Once I have thrown it all together I don't bother with rolling the dough out, I just pat it down to an approximate thickness. They don't spread much.

Pollyanna, I didn't imagine that anyone here would have heard of Nigel Beeton. I met him through Parish Pump when I was doing the Church magazine. I love Brian Bilston as well. I have 'the last bus home' and think it's brilliant.

Hester, you have simple living down to a T. I suppose there's not much choice really. I have this image of hundreds of desperate SM shoppers with their overflowing trolleys, all ready for the siege and Hester proudly stepping out, holding aloft her carton of long life milk.

I'm sitting here trying to summon up the will to do something. Anything. My mojo has left the stage.

THOUGHT FOR SUNDAY

Tears are prayers too. They travel to God when we can't speak.

MMF007

fuddle is right. The folks on this thread always try and offer helpful suggestions because they want things to improve for their fellow posters. Of course we don't always know what other options people have already explored though. I was very grateful for all the helpful, insightful and sympathetic posts around the time my dad was critically ill and thereafter.
Keep up the great work everyone!

Do we need another virtual trip to warmer climates? One where there is more comfortable transport? Oooh, how about a Venetian gondola with a cute gondolier to croon to us??

nursemaggie

No fuddle it is the NHS hospital transport but they have volunteers as well as ambulances. There is no community volunteers. You can have hospital transport if you are having treatment. As I stopped having treatment for a few months I had to give up using the transport.

I did not go back to it because I prefer to have a little control as to when I start and finish. I get up and go in my own time. The women that comes at 7 am lives a few streets away. She does a 7 am run and a 1pm run. They told her my appointment was for 12 oclock. The clinic I go to starts at 1.30pm.

Cocketts

monnagran wrote: »

Pollyanna, I didn't imagine that anyone here would have heard of Nigel Beeton. I met him through Parish Pump when I was doing the Church magazine. I love Brian Bilston as well. I have 'the last bus home' and think it's brilliant.

Thanks for that Monna - I've just googled Brian Bilston and read 'Refugees'. What a clever, clever man...
Lilli x

Cocketts

MMF007 wrote: »

fuddle is right. The folks on this thread always try and offer helpful suggestions because they want things to improve for their fellow posters. Of course we don't always know what other options people have already explored though. I was very grateful for all the helpful, insightful and sympathetic posts around the time my dad was critically ill and thereafter.
Keep up the great work everyone!

Do we need another virtual trip to warmer climates? One where there is more comfortable transport? Oooh, how about a Venetian gondola with a cute gondolier to croon to us??

I'll bring the ice-creams :rotfl: :T :j

nursemaggie

MMF007 I am grateful for the help I have received. It's just that volunteer drivers you pay the expenses for just don't exist. Probably because of the distances. Of course most people if they don't have a car they know someone.

There are only a few of us with my type of cancer because it is rare. It has taken until now to get the receptionists to understand I come every six weeks not every day for six weeks for chemo. They are just started giving me the first appointment because I am the only one who does not get brought by car by a relative. One of the big problems of that waiting room is it has six clinics a day plus everyone who is having chemo. Most of the chemo patients come with two or three people with them so it is very crowed. They ask me to go out until my clinic starts. I would not have liked to do that on either Tuesday or Thursday.

With transport they come when they can and they may turn up at 4pm for a 1pm appointment. I am up and down to the window all the time for fear I will miss them. I have missed them because they tap very lightly on the door and it does not come through the door. If I am being a nuisance I am sorry.

fuddle

NM not at all. You have a lot to deal with and you deal with it on top of offering us support every day too.x

maryb

My DD is in Venice this weekend. It's a bit warmer but wet and/or foggy.

Might want to rethink the destination:D