Blood test, gloves and mask, doctor, one way system, waiting now
Today I had a Blood Test and perhaps more importantly I had a little trip out. I am due to have my Oncology Outpatients appointment on the 6th of May and instead of going to UCLH in London it was said that I should have it done locally to reduce the need to travel and therefore the risk of exposure to Corona Virus.
So I contacted my GP a few days ago who had a whole bunch of questions and in the end asked me to get the team at UCLH to email or write to them. So I emailed the UCLH team who were very good and were quickly in contact with the GP.
Don’t get me started on the ‘one’ or ‘joined up’ NHS thing, although I might write a post about it in the future 😉
Anyway, back on topic, I got a call from a doctor on Tuesday at the GP surgery who arranged a blood test for me for today. It would seem that the Herts and Essex Hospital where I would normally go for a blood test was taking in Corona Virus patients and so the blood test would be done at the GPs surgery instead.
So come this morning I was faced with a serious dilemma! What was I going to wear? After being confined to the house the dress code has been very casual and comfy and today I will have to wear socks!
Anyway I overcame this mental hurdle and got myself dressed, packed some rubber gloves and a face mask and I was off. The roads were very quiet as you can imagine and so I got to the surgery in no time at all.
After parking at the surgery I donned my face mask and gloves and went to the door of the surgery. The door was locked but I could see a doorbell had been fitted to control access. I rang the doorbell and the reception came and let me in after asking me a couple of questions. The waiting room was empty and I went straight into see the doctor who was masked and gloved up as was the nurse who was assisting her.
After a brief chat where I discovered that the doctor had had to revisit her basic training as a young doctor on how to take blood given the crisis and that generally GP’s do not take blood. Good thing I was not her first patient from whom she took blood, she was very good. Straight in first time with no pain, result!
Soon I had a plaster over my wound, I exited the surgery via the backdoor as they were running a one way system so that patience didn’t meet each other on arrival or leaving.
And then I was home again, I drove through the town which was very quiet and as such was a very pleasant drive.
Fingers crossed now for a positive set of results.
Prostate Cancer and Beyond 