Pollyanna Penguin’s RA Blog

Flare! Out of a clear blue sky …

I’ve been doing well for ages – hence the quietness on the blog – nothing much to say – and suddenly BAM, out of the blue, I woke up yesterday morning with my usual left knee flare. Actually weather-wise it wasn’t such a clear blue sky – we’d had a few beautiful days and yesterday was a bit dull, but nothing dramatic.

I had been having more than the usual twinges in my hands and feet the last couple of weeks, but although it was a bit above the norm it was still only twinges and nothing to write home about. Then yesterday, pooof – VERY painful knee.

I had a very bad night’s sleep last night, partly because my sleep is definitely not normal in that I move a lot while asleep – and every time I moved I woke up going ‘OUCH!’ … or words that that effect, and partly because I was thinking oh, no, there’s nothing else for it, I will have to call the doctor in the morning.

Those of you who’ve read this blog a bit before will be aware that, while appreciate that it’s ‘free’, I’m not a big fan of the way the NHS is run, and our local surgery in particular, and I was literally dreading it. So how did it go? Well, I’m glad you asked. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.

I phoned at 8:30 when the phone lines open and got a message saying ‘You are fourth in the call queue – please hold …’ etc. I was expecting more like ‘You are number 47 in the call queue’ so that was the first of several pleasant surprises!

Then when I got through a receptionist answered I was ready to do battle to actually speak to a doctor – not for instance ‘It’s arthritis? I’ll get you a physio appointment’ etc. Yes, the receptionists triage. It’s quite mad, but there we are. Anyway, I said without thinking that I was having an RA flare and got ‘A what, sorry?’ But that was fair enough. When I said ‘A rheumatoid arthritis flare’ that was obviously something on her crib sheet. ‘I’ll see if anything’s available this morning.’ Bloody well better be, I thought, but held my peace!

‘Oh, I’ll have to get a doctor to ring you’ she said in some surprise. No doubt she heard ‘arthritis’ and initially went down the physio route I’ve bumped into before, but this time they’ve sorted themselves out and can spot the difference between osteo and rheumatoid arthritis. (Not that I’m suggesting a doctor shouldn’t see you for osteo, but they certainly SHOULD for rheumatoid!)

So I waited for the doc to call me back – and he did, within half an hour, and one of the senior partners who I rather like at that. I explained the issue and he said, ‘You’d better come in and we’ll see what we can do. Can you get in for 9:30?’ I said I could and he said ‘I’ll book you in with Dr Smith.*’ I nearly groaned aloud. ‘Is this the same Dr Smith who was a locum a few years ago? I know it’s a common name, but if it’s the same one … I won’t see him!’ (That was some twit who was exceedingly pompous, upset all the patients and nursing staff, ran hours late and told me I’d sprained something when I obviously hadn’t!) He sounded a bit puzzled and said ‘I doubt it – he’s a partner, and he’s very good. He’s not been with us that long.’ I said in that case that was fine then, and toddled in for 9:30.

The checking in system said there were three people in front of me and a 28 minute wait – my heart sank ’cause that reminded me of Dr Smith the first, and I thought oh no, perhaps it is him! It wasn’t …. and in fact the wait was only about 20 minutes which is fine. I always say I don’t mind waiting if it means the doctor is providing enough time for each patient and someone else needs that time … if it we me, I’d want a decent amount of time, thank you!

When I went in I felt instantly (mentally) better – it was VERY OBVIOUSLY a different guy. I won’t go into physical  characteristics but let’s just say Tweedledum versus a stick insect, and quite an age difference too – clearly a different guy. He was very pleasant indeed; he listened to what I had to stay, accepted that I knew my own condition pretty well, examined my knee carefully and asked sensible questions. Good heavens, I thought, have I slipped into a parallel universe?

Then he spoiled it all by saying, ‘I think we’ll try you on some stronger pain killers first.’ My heart sank – nooooooooooo, I remember last time that happened – I had opiods just when the big ‘No opiods’ thing was going on in the States – and they didn’t even TOUCH the pain! But I plucked up the courage (OK, there wasn’t much courage necessary as he was such a nice man), to say ‘I was really hoping for steroids because so far they have ALWAYS worked!’

He smiled and said ‘OK, if that’s what you want to try that’s fine. Come back in five days or so if it hasn’t worked and we’ll investigate further.’ Back into parallel universe territory again. And best of all <insert happy dance emoji here, although only a mental happy dance as my knee isn’t up to a physical one> he PRINTED OFF THE PRESCRIPTION.

‘Eh,’ I hear you cry. ‘So what? What’s that got to do with the price of fish, penguin?’ Well … they had what they (the doctors) thought was an all singing, all dancing IT system at one point. The patients, nurses, receptionists (poor things), pharmacy and nursing staff all saw it for what it was but the doctors took a while … they used to press a magic button on their computers and say, ‘There – it’s automatically gone over to the pharmacy. You can pick it up straight away!’ Only you never could! My longest wait was five hours from time of appointment to getting my steroids, and that was only because I effectively staged a sit-in at the surgery until someone printed off a scrip for me, just before they were due to close!

So anyway, I took my beautiful, green, shiny (OK, not actually shiny) printed slip over to the chemist and waited about five minutes, if that, and came home with my beautiful, white, fairly shiny steroids, of which I have taken the first dose.

I already feel better … but whether that’s the lifting of the stress of thinking ‘I have to phone the surgery’ or the steroids or the fact I had an hour resting with my leg up earlier, I’m not sure!

Here’s hoping it’s all better soon – and I hope, you, dear reader, are keeping well and flare free!

* Not his real name – did you guess? It was however a very common name.