33. Piggy In The Middle

• It’s August now and I’m getting nowhere.

• Orthopaedics has thrown me back to MSK, who when I rang today, think this is a new referral so I had to tell the story yet again.

• In fact, I’m now laying it on nice and thick to everyone that thanks to their mistake I’m playing Piggy in the Middle and getting more and more depressed and still getting no nearer getting an appointment with anyone.

• Why is it so hard for them to understand that after my operation last September when all the bad symptoms of Cubital Tunnel Syndrome seemed to have disappeared, they have all returned only worse as my whole hand is now affected. Also, my right hand has all the symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and with my Pseudo-Gout means I’m extremely miserable at the moment.

• Not only am I legless I’m also armless!

• At last, a small success today (15/08/23) I rang the hospital to see if there was any progress on an appointment. After explaining, yet again, that the problems with my right arm have nothing to do with my left arm.

• I nearly had to go back to square one as apparently if more than 6 months passes after you’ve been signed off you are to be treated like a patient with a new problem.

• I can’t believe how hard it is to convince people that I have separate problems with both my arms. Is there no one else that has experienced this?

• Anyway, after lots of explaining she said she’d talk to the secretary and ring me back which she did and I’ve got an appointment on Thursday (2 days from now). It’s a miracle!

• We went to the appointment, actually we were in and out before my appointment time so we didn’t even have to pay anything for the car park.

• After a lot of explaining I believe I managed to get the doctor to understand what a miserable situation I am living in at the moment., Having 2 useless, painful and uncomfortable arms/hands.

• I explained that all the symptoms of Cubital Tunnel Syndrome in my left arm/hand had returned only worse than they were before the operation particularly the burning sensation and with the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and pseudogout in my right arm/hand I’m in the unenviable position of not being able to do anything except swallow more & more pain killers.

• So, he is sending me off for some new nerve conductivity tests to see whether they have changed since the ones I had about 18 months ago.

• I suppose this is a step forward but who knows how long I’ll have to wait for that appointment!