When rheumatology want you they can get you.

dreamdaisy

We are currently away from home, somewhere fairly remote and only occasionally granted a mobile phone signal when guess who rang? :roll:
Yup, the same department who hasn't seen me since May (when they urgently summoned me to sort out my humira script which they then failed to send) and when I see my rheumatologist in January 2015 we can celebrate fifteen months without clapping eyes on each other. I will ensure we do. 8)

They want bloods. for my meth script. They'll get 'em in due course and then they can fail to send it.

It used to be so much better: mine is a teaching hospital and for years I saw my consultant twice a year, a rheumatology nurse twice a year, bloods book was completed when I collected my meth from the hospital (where they brewed it in their cauldrons) but now, in the names of efficiency and saving they 'care' only when they feel the need to justify my expense to their budget. I didn't appreciate the good times when I had them, and by good times I mean the regular contact with rheumatology. DD

stickywicket

I think we have two things wrapped into one here. The appointments are fewer and further in between which, I guess, must give the impression that they don't care as much as they used to and that leaves you on your own to a much greater extent. That must be unsettling. It must also be distinctly annoying when that occurs at the same time as a change, for the worse, to the meds service.

However, bloods are a regular and necessary evil of the DMARD and biologics life. (I write this with some feeling having just had my 4th lot extracted in 2 weeks :roll: I'm thinking of asking for a resident phlebo ) We rightly tell newbies not to be afraid of these powerful meds as they will be well-monitored while on them.

It seems to me that you and I are currently in similar boats. I rather wish my docs weren't so efficient that they take my haemoglobin levels quite so seriously and you, too, wish yours weren't so efficient that they insist on ensuring all is well before allowing access to more meds. It's deeply annoying, frustrating, time-consuming and, alas, necessary. Let us bite our respective bullets and hope that all will be well for both of us