Friday 8 August 2014

Welcome to BUPA

Well I am delighted. After eight months of stress, phone calls, emails and broken promises, I'm finally kicking Healthcare at Home into touch.

I had a call from the pharmacist at the Royal Brompton yesterday to say I had been swapped over to BUPA and my first delivery would be on the 20th of this month. I can expect a call next week for my stock levels. The only slight bugbear is that the CADD pumps I have now belong to H@H and so those will have to be swapped to pumps belonging to BUPA instead. Now I've been taught how to set the pumps up so that's not a problem. I'm just worried as to how long it will take H@H to collect the blasted things. When they did my annual service I had my old pumps hanging around for months. Still that's a small thing for peace of mind.

I've been asked if all Brompton patients will be switched over. Certainly the email I got for Carl indicated that would be the case. However it did say those who had most problems would be swapped first. So I'm assuming that if you haven't had problems, or haven't told the Brompton about it you will be pretty far down the queue. My advice would be to ask.

I've heard good things from patients already on BUPA, one said that in seven years they had only made one mistake. A pretty good record. You see I'm not expecting perfection. Technology, human error, the weather, supplies etc all cause the occasional hiccup. What I objected to was being left for days without my medication or the means to take my medication. I've lost track of how many times I've had to rush out to my local chemist to buy needles, syringes etc. In the end the chemist was so sympathetic they gave them to me free. One mistake in seven years I can live with, whether I will need them that long is another matter.

Smirnoff scares me to death when he does this
So how do I feel today? Well much more rested and less stressed that's for sure. I'm popping out later to get some fresh air, as I've been stuck inside for two days, and hopefully that will give me an idea of how I'm really doing. SATs remain high and despite a painful chest I'm not producing anything and my airways remain clear and crackle free. I have decided not to risk another trip to the warfarin clinic, as I really can't risk catching something else. I have phoned them and explained why I won't be going and to say they are less than sympathetic would be an understatement. However I'm standing firm, after all it's not the snooty receptionist waiting for a transplant it's me and I just cannot risk infection. Why they don't get that I don't know. I will go next week though as I will be fully recovered by then.

The big moment is here. Andrew will be taking me out in the 156 this morning. I want to go and get some fruit as I've munched my way through everything in the house. So I've agreed to let him drive me. It will be a benefit to both of us. I get out and he gets some practice. We are going to do the three things that scared me to death as a new driver. Parallel parking, parking in a bay and picking up petrol. I was never shown how to put petrol in a car when I was learning so when I tried to fill up for the first time didn't know how the pumps worked. Of course that won't be a problem for Andrew but lining up at the pump and getting the petrol cap off might be. I'll let you know how it went in tomorrows blog.


Right time for lunch and it's ginger beef stir fry today. I feel I need a bit of a veg hit so this is ideal being packed with peppers, mushrooms, carrots and beansprouts. More tomorrow.


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