The weekend didn’t go entirely as planned. I’d forgotten that we had the baseball tickets, so that was one day less to do stuff. And, as readers of his LJ will know, Kevin has been unwell. Dealing with that took up a fair amount of time yesterday.
Despite the concerns of commenters, I was never particularly worried about his having had a stroke. The symptoms didn’t really match. I’m also very relived that there are no headaches involved. But it is still worrying, and he’s not really safe to drive. As I’m not very safe to drive even when I’m fully fit, this is likely to restrict our activities for a while.
One thing that did interest me is that, despite all of the talk that goes on about how awful the US health system is, a whole bunch of Kevin’s American friends were urging him to go and see a doctor. It is great to know that people care that much, but it was very strange to me because I’m pretty sure that if I had turned up to see a doctor in the UK with the same symptoms he had I’d have been torn off a strip for wasting NHS time and money. One of the drawbacks of having your health care paid for by the government out of a limited budget, as opposed to paid for by the patients as and when they need it, is that there is an expectation (especially if you have been brought up by Welsh Methodists) that you have a duty to only use the health system when you really need it. If people are wondering why I wasn’t rushing Kevin off to hospital at the first sign of trouble, that’s probably a large part of it.
NHS atitudes have changed a lot about this kind of thing. When e was showing worrying symptoms a few years back they were kindness itself, even though they never found anything other than “stress”.
Good point. From what Farah said though, perhaps there’s a growing realization that seemingly minor symptoms can be a sign of something worse that will cost more money if left alone nowadays? I don’t know, just a thought.
I suspect that, much like with TSA operatives, things can vary very much depending on which part of the country you are in, and even which doctor you see at a given practice.