Tax demand for ?3600. Must check to see if its right, last year they asked for ?4000 and I ended up with a ?10K rebate !

Later edit, its wrong again, I will have to phone them !!!

Later edit, phoned them they now owe me ?850 . Its not an Aaaaaaaaaaaagh anymore

I need the "great big sigh" thread, rather than argh-scream thread.

Firstly, my eyes are playing up. My focus is messing about and slipping away somewhat at times. When I'm driving my eyes will suddenly decide to focus on the windscreen rather than the distance, and if I look down at my speedo I have to kind of 'pull' my eyes in to focus. Probably worth a visit to my optician, who I'vee been with for 20+ years who is very familiar with my eyes.

Secondly, a tooth is playing up. I've just seen the dentist, about two weeks before it started, and he cleared me as fine. I strongly suspect this isn't a dental issue at all, I think it is most likely that I am clenching my jaw, especially overnight. The tooth pain comes and goes, and sometimes it comes with some pain in my head (only not inside my skull, like a headache, but on the surface of my head, like...well, like an achy muscle really!) I could go back to the dentist but he's not my person of choice, not least because of the cost involved

I would be surprised if both are connected to anxiety. Actually, I need to make a doctor appointment for my routine six-monthly check. Which would be fine, except that my GP is currently not working (until at least May, I believe, with the possibility of 'never again'). So I have to pick a new one at the practice. I'm sure they are all fine, but it turns out my back-up-GP has left so now I don't know any of them, just going to take a punt on any of them.

This is of course adding to my anxiety, because I imagine a new GP may be less sanguine about my ludicrously long-term medication and may feel the need to Do Something with me. Which is fine, if it all works, but it will be hard work and less-than-fun and really exhausting, but it may ultimately have a good outcome. And some days I do think I'm fed up with this, so it would be nice to sort it out 'once and for all', only we've been there once and for all twice before.

:sigh: so really it's just that it's going round in circles and is self-perpetuating and self-magnifying and so I should just get on with it and book an appointment with the GP, and talk to them about eyes, teeth and everything else.

I sort of know how it feels to just be going round in circles. Once you book the first appointment though you might find that a load of anxiety is lifted.

I just need to have a little 'argh!' in the corner, don't want to write about it on here, but if anyone wants to bring me a cup of tea and a shoulder to cry on I'd be really grateful!

Another shoulder here Floss, i think B-C's tea was big enough for a while....

I just received a rude email accusing me of something I didn't do... it shouldn't be a huge deal in the scale of things, but I wasn't expecting it at all and given how I was feeling already it seems like more than I can deal with

Time to go home as my 8 hour shift is over but the paperwork for the helpdesk ticket I am dealing with is not yet complete and I hate leaving stuff half done.

Aww hun, things like that can knock you for 6

!!!

AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH....

Yes, then I won't be worrying about making the appointment, I'll just be worrying about the appointment (Rolling eyes at stupid self, not you Floss!)

Uni. is annoying me.

Hope its managable. I don't know if it helps, but everyone gets to a point in their degree where they just want to pack it all in. Take care of yourself!

(hugs) Heslop - PM me if you want, I'm having degree related issues at the moment too. It'll be worth it in the end. xo

Thank You




Thank you floss also

We should start a university woes club

Gah! So I logged in to make a doctor appointment last night, but there were none available (only nurse appointments left). Well, the appointments are released each morning at 8am for the pre-bookables, so I've got in to work and I log in, it takes me to the 'you are being re-directed to the new version' page and never ever gets me to the page I want. I hope it is doing it to everybody else so they don't all get booked up (OK, I can try again tomorrow, but you know what I mean...if it comes to it I'll have to give in and phone them [I'd prefer to visit in person as it's a nice walk from home to the reception desk, but you can no longer book in person! ])

Using the internet to book doctors???? Surely not,

Surprised you can't book in person - a lot of old people are surely not logging on to book a doctors appointment. There would be outrage round here if that was the case!

You can only phone up for on-the-day appointments - your name goes on a list and they phone you back to see if you really need one.
For pre-bookables you can phone up or go online.
In theory the receptionists will only answer phones to make appointments but I suspect in practice that if you walked through the door they would in effect do the online booking for you, but only for pre-bookables. You absolutely can not turn up at reception for an on the day appointment.

Damn, just managed to log in and there are doctor appointments there for next Tuesday - hurrah, I thought, about to book one, before I realised I'm working in west London on Tuesdays...try again tomorrow and see if I can find a Wednesday appointment!

Silly isn't it? The department I work in regularly has people turn up without appointments and they always say the same thing: 'I can't hear on the phone so I can't ring up for an appointment. You'll see me, won't you - it'll only take 5 minutes? I've just had to pay 15 pounds for a taxi so don't send me off with an appointment card 'cos I'm a pensioner you know!'

I wonder how receptionists field those because it can't just be us! And as P*P says, not that many elderly are hooked up to the internet.

I'm dreading old age because increasingly you have to be fit and on the ball to navigate the healthcare system, and as for hospital transport, !

Just makes me more and more grateful for my GP practice. You see the same doc each time unless there is a need to see someone else. There are appointments bookable by phone, Internet and in person up to a fortnight in advance. The reception staff are lovely and helpful and there is a full complement of nursing staff who run things like the asthma clinics incredibly well.

I've all but given up on our local GP practice. Shame really - our own doc is lovely, but you never get to see him, and even with a replacement you don't see the same one twice. Booking is a nightmare, whether by phone or by internet.

I had to cancel my singing lesson due to the situation with OH's job security and a sore throat...and then 2 of my students with exams cancelled their lessons with me to have lessons with my teacher instead and he managed to suggest the exact days and time I teach them(he's here for this week). Missing my violin too. Not a good week

That's terrible, Dawn.

Why is your teacher getting involved with you pupils though? I'm quite confused on that one!

I teach the theory, aural and sightreading. They've opted for an extra singing lesson rather than doing the accompanying stuff, despite only having 2 lessons on aural and sightreading after their theory exams. What's more annoying is that he has only arranged the lessons this morning....so they both confirmed that they were coming to me yesterday after I asked the question and then cancelled this morning.

Actually it is suprising how many seniors do use the net. A lot use it to keep in contact with children and grand children and for shopping - that is particularly true of the area in which I live as it is rural and not everyone can get out and about easily. Mind you, there is a problem for those who live in certain parts of the Pyren?es - I have a pupil who has no telephone line to his house and so no internet coverage except by satellite which I understand is expensive and as they have only recently moved there they haven't organised it. Even their mobile phone will not work from their house.

I'm lucky. I can phone for an appointment with my GP who does appointments in the afternoons. Otherwise I can simply go and queue in the mornings. There is no evening surgery. The receptionist is very helpful. It's a group practice of 4 doctors and you can ask to see another if your own isn''t available, thoughI usually wait if I can. If a doctor is away for any length of time there is usually a locum though it appears that doctors have increasing difficulty in finding one. Doctors here are not employed by the state. They are what is called liberal professionals.

There are no nurses in our group practice - in fact I don't know of any practice where nurses and doctors work on the same premises and in conjunction. I think that's a pity.

No piano today as have hurt my wrist - probably from lifting really heavy pushchair on and off buses!

It never ends. Leg on the mend, allergy symproms gone, backache gone ...

... so now I have a frozen shoulder, and a knee that hurts when I pedal

And sore thumbs form working on Chopin and Liszt etudes

Roll on 2012 ...

Well one has resceduled for Friday and one has brought their lesson next week forward to before the exams. I feel a bit better now

That's good. It may be within some kind of loose agreement, especially if your teacher isn't 'on the spot', but it still seems a bit rough for him / her to take your pupils away!

It did, particularly with less than 2 hours notice!

As a student I'd have said no, the singing lesson time didn't suit as I already had a lesson booked with another teacher. If there was no option I'd have contacted you to see if you were able to offer an alternative time as the singing teacher was only available for a limited time.

today in general is my argh.

Aaaaaaagh . Sales Meeting 10-12.30. Quick lunch brought in. Board (Bored?) Meeting 1.30.

Wont be on line much till this evening.

Such a shame when real life gets in the way! Have a good day! (For what it's worth I have a meeting at 10.45 and am then working from 12-6...)

After 25 years, I've finally ordered a new PIN number for my bank card. It arrived today and I managed to rip the paper before I read the number...

Should I wait another 25 years?

W

Sorry - BIG RANT
As some of you know I hurt my back about a month ago and things haven't really improved. I started work as a doctor in the summer and as you can imagine, my hours are quite long, so when I saw occ health about my back, they took me off my on-call duties for a month. I'm waiting for physio (6-8 week wait, even as an urgent and I'm staff) and my consultant on my ward tried to fast-track an MRI scan via the musculoskeletal assessment clinic. I got a call offering me a cancellation today, so I eagerly took it, only to be called 2 hrs later cancelling it as they wanted my old notes from another hospital first and said that I may have to wait till the end of December for another appointment
I then got a call from occ health saying "a doctor" has had concerns that I've not been doing on-calls and that it can only continue like this for another 2 weeks, and so I must discuss it at 10.30am tomorrow with their occ health doctor.
I'm so frustrated. I'm trying to get better and do all the right things, yet I'm being made to feel that I'm the trouble maker. I just feel that as a member of staff, if they're that worried about me working on-calls, surely they could speed up my appointments, but apparently it's not allowed any more

Maybe this is your chance to give the system the kick up the rear end it needs. You have done everything required of you and have followed advice; in theory you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Would this go down as 'an incident' (Datix)?

Hope you don't have to wait too much longer for an appointment.

Well it seems unfair that NHS employees should get preferential treatment over the general public, so I'm not surprised it's no longer allowed.

However it's also unfair that you were advised to have a temporary break from on-call duties and that that is now being questioned by an anonymous doctor. They can't have it both ways.

And quite a justified rant too. Be better soon, Appassionata...

This is what comes of being hasty and impetuous!

This seems a strange point of view to me. Surely it makes sense to get doctors and nurses etc treated as soon as possible so that they can get back to helping other people get better? Doctors off sick translates to longer waits for treatment for everyone else.

W

Eurgh.

I will SWING for some members of Year 1 at school...utterly, utterly exhausting...

That's a fair point, but I think ethically it's more complex than that.

Not so much a scream, more a

I possibly had the strangest encounter with a potential student (or their family) for a while this morning:

Knock on the door, outside business hours I shall add. I was still clutching to my coffee, and still very much in my PJs.

I opened the door reluctantly (I wish now I didn't), and was greeted by someone who had arranged their first lesson for next week. They just wanted to see where it was (which is fine, but do you have to chap the door then?).
Very awkward, because I certainly looked far from glamorous (not to mention I have hardly slept for the past 3 nights because I was feeling really unwell). They then added in a haste they won't be able to make it next week, which I somehow feel they decided there and then. I was too surprised to mumble anything apart from "That's fine", and they uttered a "I'll be in touch" whilst leaving.

I don't know if they expected I let them in, if they were just checking up on me and then decided they probably don't want their offspring taught by someone who is a normal human being with bags under their eyes, or if they cancelled because they were genuinely embarrassed for chapping my door at this time and realised that was a bit odd.

I somehow think I won't be seeing them again

That's really odd, Dugazon. I think you are well rid of them if they think that's a normal way to behave!

That's a bit disconcerting!

Only a small argh, but my printer has run out of ink... Programmes for tomorrow will be an A4 sheet with just a list on them...