Doing the Hospital Run Around

I have spent all this morning doing the ringing different departments of Hope Hospital dance. As you know I went for an appointment after my knee operation and was given a follow up appointment for the New Year to discuss having a new knee (which was promptly cancelled the same week). I had been informed that a new appointment would follow but having waited 3 weeks I decided to phone to check. Of course there was no phone number on the cancellation letter and every department I rang insisted that I had got through to the wrong department and gave me another number, One even advised me to ring my GP!!When I realised that I was starting to call the same number twice I realised that I was getting the run around and so phoned my specialist's secretary. Eventually after persuading her not to pass me back over to the departments she had passed me to (she was the first person I rang) I managed finally to get her to book me a new appointment. Apparently because my appointment had been cancelled and not re-booked I had disappeared from their prompts. It is exactly the same thing that happened to me 3 years ago when they "lost" me from their system and I had to get the MP involved before they admitted that I had been a patient, had been scanned 3 times and was still on the waiting list for spinal surgery.I wonder just how many people they "lose" in this way? Something is drastically wrong with their system. No wonder their waiting lists are within the government guidelines they have probably "lost" half of the patients!


They do say when you get older, especially over 60 then you turn invisible. People overlook you, ignore you and run roughshod over your feelings. Up until recently I didn't think this had happened to me but guess what - meet the invisible woman. It is a close race on how I now view myself it's between invisible woman and doormat at the moment I will let you know which one I decide that I am.

I forced myself into a bit of knitting last night and have just got to sew the seams on one of the knitted baby cardigans. Today, between hanging on the phone to the hospital, I have been browsing through my thousands of old (some new) patterns that I have stored in 4 containers in my pantry. I love doing this as I can remember every one of the patterns, which wool, which colour and who I made them for. I thought that you might like looking at some of my collection of picture sweater patterns that were so popular years ago. The Mary Maxim pattern with the antique car I made for my father when I was about 16 and he wore it until it fell to pieces. I made it in beige Patons Big Ben wool with red, black and gold for the car. I still have one of the Disney sweaters that I made for my son. It is in lemon Sirdar Country Style and I still wear to do the cleaning in the winter time. I think it is Goofy although I do mix up the two dogs. I made Pluto, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse as well for my son but the sweaters have long gone, outgrown and passed on to other children whose mothers didn't knit.

The trouble with pattern browsing is that I find hundreds of "must make again" patterns so my mental queue gets ever longer. I think that is why I miss my "borrowed and never returned" baby patterns so much for all the memories that I have lost now I can no longer browse them. It is almost like losing photos to me as my mind takes me back to how I felt when I was knitting them, what colours I used and who I made them for etc so a whole chunk of my past is now missing. The lovely old patterns that I lovingly made for my baby are gone forever and I bet whoever "borrowed" them has not valued them and has thrown them all away a long time ago.