"Two sides to our health service......"

The weekend before Christmas 2017 I was having a body massage when my beauty therapist noticed a mole on my back . I’d had it for maybe six months and kept meaning to go to my GP but had left it. She was concerned that I see a dr and later that day I phoned my surgery. I was given an appointment the next morning. That dr who wasn’t my own GP immediately referred me to amersham hospital. By the time I got home from my GP’s surgery the hospital had phoned with an appointment for the next day ... the Friday before Christmas. That Dr referred me for a biopsy. Within a week after Christmas I had that procedure.  The staff member was amazing and the sample was sent off. A few weeks later the results were positive. Malignant melanoma. I was allocated a Macmillan nurse and told I needed a further procedure under plastics team.

Yesterday I had that procedure at Stoke Mandeville hospital.  Given that it was international women’s day all the team with me were female and the procedure was carried out again amazingly well. Everyone has been superbly professional. Appointments have been on time . Nurses and drs have been outstanding.... at one point the doctor himself stopped on his way to another patient to reassure myself about one of the procedures. Apart from the reception staff at amersham hospital who managed to swear in front of waiting patients when a photocopying machine proved troublesome the whole experience has been superb. 

At the same time I have been waiting since August 2017 for a prolapse operation. That op has been a nightmare to instigate. No one has been helpful. I’m still waiting and though I realise it is not life threatening it does have an effect on my lifestyle and the things that I can do and as a woman it’s hardly my fault that through childbirth I am now left with this as a legacy . Men don’t have to put up with this. It’s frustrating and depressing. 

I can’t thank the nhs enough for my ‘ cancer’ experience I’m hoping the last procedure will be negative but please please can I have the prolapse treated too sometime soon.