Ignorance was Bliss....

Before I begin I'd just like to advise that I am aware that long stories should have separate paragraphs, but unfortunately Blogspot won't allow them! And on with what is really important... My last post was my introduction of this new journey I'll be taking. An explanation of what I'll be doing and an invitation to join me! I said that I would be telling you about the experience that led me to this and that is what this post is about... On Friday I went to my GP, after having made an appointment the week before. I wanted to talk to my GP about 'pain management'. See, I've had Arthritis for 26 years, and I've heard the term 'pain management' thrown about around the hospital, but I'd never had it myself and no one (doctors, specialists, physios etc) has ever offered it to me or told me anything about it. I used to get one or two flare ups a year where I'd be in pain, be a bit swollen for about a month and then the homeopathy and other complementary therapies I took, meant that I would come out at the end of that month, pretty much the same as everyone else my age. I never took conventional medications as the side effects cause other health problems and they never agreed with me. My parents agreed while I was still young that they would try and treat me as naturally as possible so that even if I never grew out of the RA (rheumatoid arthritis), at least I wouldn't have other health problems caused by the medications. Just a very few of the many side effects that the chosen RA meds give are: weight loss or gain, immune problems, hair loss, organ damage (especially kidneys and liver), bone damage leading to osteoporosis or osteopenia, hormone problems, growth problems and numerous deficiencies. And if you're like me - which most girls living in the city are - looks will play a big part in your life and the meds also cause moon shaped face, bad skin, deformities and as I said earlier, hair loss and weight problems. Anyway, when I was old enough to realise that what my parents had done for me had literally saved my life, I was so apprecitive to have never taken these meds. Now, at 28 years old, the flare ups have become more frequent. My body as a whole is still healthy, everything works as it should at my age, but the pain and swelling is there most of the time. It doesn't mean I'm going to start taking the meds and ruin everything I've worked so hard for the last 26 years, but I've been looking for other ways to help me cope and get through each day. I can't moan too much about the NHS because they are still funding the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine where I get most of my treatment (homeopathy, cranio-sacral therapy, podiatry), but I still have to pay for other treatments I feel work such as acupuncture, chiropractic, massages and other complementary therapies that I won't begin to try and explain! I don't mind paying for them as I know the NHS is stretched, but I did feel I should be offered what I seem to notice everyone around me is being offered... So I asked my doctor if he could refer me to a mind-focused - not drugs-focused - pain management specialist, telling him that I often hear the girls at physio talking about RA support groups within the hospital, thinking that he would just say OK and refer me.... WRONG! This GP told me in black and white - and see if you can believe this - that because I never take the suggested medications which is the governments chosen pathway for RA sufferers, I am not entitled to the same care as the people who do 'follow the pathway' so they allow me to fall through the cracks in the system. Again, see if you can believe this lunacy, but here is what it comes down to: the government buy all the medications for the NHS from certain pharmaceutical companies. In order to get as much money as possible, the pharmaceutical companies tell the government that they need to give the NHS targets on how many of these meds they must prescribe. Now let's stop for a minute and firstly digest the enormity of this... any institution who sets 'targets' must be thinking about one thing and one thing only - money. Because if they were thinking about the patients well-being (heaven forbid), they would prescribe the patient the medication that was right for them, not the one they need to sell most of. Or not prescribe them anything and come up with a different treatment plan should conventional medicine not be right for them. But let's be honest, they are not thinking about what is best for the patient, they are running like a car show room instead of a hospital and thinking about what is best to make money. So the non-medical money making machine of a business man who runs the hospital is the one telling doctors how to treat their patients! And back in my GP's office, he is just as frustrated about this as I am as he became a Dr to help people. What we both realised however is that the people right at the top are controlling everything; how doctors treat patients, how many of us will get better, who will die and so forth. I was told that when Labour were in power they put no limit on the amount of money that went into the NHS and Conservative have made major cuts. To be be honest, I haven't noticed a difference. It's still as bad as it was then, no better and no worse. And if it got worse our NHS hospitals might as well be make-shift clinics in third world countries... These people running our hospitals should not be simply businessmen. Unless they have had to go through the system themselves, unless they or someone in their family has had a chronic, long term or terminal illness, and unless they have had to fight every step of the way, in an ongoing constant and daily battle to get the right healthcare, they shouldn't be in this job. Is there anyone out there who has any influence over how this absurdity can be tackled? Or am I fighting a losing battle?..... And so it continues....