Rural life and more things medically organised.

So, you remember that I mentioned The Old Man's Old Man being taken ill? Rushed into hospital and all that stuff? Well he's home now and rang the other evening with an update. He is pretty elderly (late 80s) but nevertheless annoyed that The Old Man Himself has not investigated the wonders of texting on the mobile phone by way of communication ....

As I was saying, the Old Man's Old Man is elderly, the knees don't work etc, and the doctors considered he would need some help when he gets home. They also decided that he has osteoporosis of the spine and needed to wear a "corset" to stabilise his back. So this is Somerset we're talking about now, and the Old Man's Father had elected to go to a hospital he knew and liked for his emergency treatment, rather than the obvious one. (Remember, we live in an era of "Choice".) They took good care of him and finally diagnosed his likely health problem. Thankyou. And whilst he was there and he had regained the use of his brain - he asked if they would check out his digital hearing aid which had not been checked since he got it. Oh yes, we'll take a look at that. But then the answer comes back. No, we can't. This is the same model we issue but it was issued to you by Another Health Care Trust... so we cannot look at it, sorry.

So, presumably still deaf, the Old Man's Father is popped into his corset and sent home. The "Social Service help" mentioned by the hospital? Oh sorry, you're in another Healthcare Trust's patch. We can't organise that. We might know someone who can. So the first progress we know of in this matter, is a phone call to us from the Social Services in his bit of Somerset asking for his phone number - seems they didn't have it.

Anyway, when he himself rang the other night, I told him how recovered he sounded and I asked how he was. He said his back was giving him pain and in frustration he had now taken the corset off. He remarked that no-one could tell him how to put it on anyway.

I say: "What?"
He say: " Well one chap took a look and said he thought I had it on back-to-front."
I say: "What?"
He say: " But my doctor thought I was wearing it upside down."
I say: "What?"
Then I say: "Did no-one tell you how to put it on?"
He say: "No. When it arrived, no-one had seen one before. So nobody knew how to put it on."
I say: "What?"

Oh and that social help? Well, when he spoke to them and they said that they could provide someone to get him out of bed in the morning and wash and stuff. He said he would give them a set of keys. They said: "Oh no sir, we can't have that. You have to have a keybox fixed outside your front door and you put your key in that. Then we have a key that opens the box." (Don't get me wrong - I can see where they are coming from here..)
"OK," says he - "Will you get the box fitted then?"
They say, "Yes sir, that will be £70 please."
At this point I can't remember whose idea it was (The Old Man or the Old Man's Old Man) of suggesting that the keys be lowered from the bedroom window on a piece of string. But they weren't going to have that either.

Last I heard he's managing on a system of friends and neighbours, including the offer of fitting a keybox for him.

I say: "What?"