All the stuff I need for holiday

You would not believe the amount of medical supplies I need to take with me for the holiday. I have just spent the last 2 hours, yes that’s right, 2 hours, getting it all together and packed ready for next week.

Here is all the stuff laid out on my bed…

…and that’s not everything!

I still have some meds to collect from the pharmacy and Hubby has already put 2 packs of Tena pads in the car. When we went away a few years ago he put them in the car right at the end and when we pulled up at a service station I got out the car only to find he’d squashed them up against the window in the boot for all the world to see! 🙈 He’s promised not to do that this year! There is also a box of 12 saline bags that I’m taking with me in case it gets hot or I start to get unwell and need extra fluids. And obviously my feed, pump and rucksack can’t be packed until the very last minute because I will be using them everyday.

Calea, the company that deliver my feed and all the ancillaries will deliver most of my feed down to the holiday house in Cornwall because there’s no way we could fit 16 bags of feed in the car. They have to be packed in polystyrene boxes with ice packs to keep them cool and I think that would pretty much fill the boot. There would be no room for anything else! But I will take a couple of bags down with me just to make sure I have some with me incase there are any problems with the delivery. I would rather be prepared than have to be admitted to hospital in Cornwall because I have no feed!

Aswell as getting all my TPN stuff together I’ve gotten the medication that I will need when I’m away. I had a bit of a nightmare getting my repeat prescriptions sorted out but they’re done now. I had requested enough medication to take on holiday with me, obviously, but when I picked it up there wasn’t enough. Actually Mum and Dad I picked it up for me so I better give them the credit for that! I had been given enough of some of my tablets but not my painkillers. I assumed it was because they are morphine tablets which are classed as a controlled drug. Controlled drugs have special rules applied to the way they are prescribed, storage in a hospital/pharmacy and require photo ID when you pick them up.

Because you can’t request prescriptions o er the telephone at my GP surgery I wrote a letter to the GP explaining how many tablets I would take on a good day, how many I would take on a bad day and therefore an average amount that I thought I would need to take away with me. I asked that if they were unable to physically dispense that many tablets in one go could they give me postdated prescriptions I could take with me and use at pharmacies in Cornwall. I got a phonecall from the GP surgery yesterday and when I saw it flash up on my phone my heart sank. I thought ‘here we go I’m going to have to beg for enough medication to keep me ticking over’ but instead was told that it was all sorted and I could go and pick up the meds from the pharmacy! Not often things are easy for me where medical stuff is concerned.

Remember I had the whole TENA pad debacle earlier in the week? I got a phone call from the continence nurse and guess what? I have to go in for an appointment with her for her to complete a new patient assessment. Even though I’m not a new patient, require exactly the same pads as before and none of my personal details have changed apparently she can’t simply reinstate me as a patient. And the earliest she can see me is the second week of September!! The bloody red tape and bureaucracy within the NHS is ridiculous. The amount of time and money that must be wasted because of it. Luckily Hubby found a few packs of pads he had ‘tidied away’ when I was in hospital. Hubby’s version of tidying up is to shove things into the most random of places or create piles of stuff for me to sort out at a later date! He tries though and God loves a tryer!

So here’s most of my medical stuff packed ready to go in the car…

…next job is to tackle my clothes but that’s a job for another day because right now I need a lie down. I was aiming to have a shower and wash my hair today but that might have to wait until tomorrow unless I get a tush of energy later on tonight.

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More than just a bag lady

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