One year on

Good Evening All,
Well, today is the first anniversary of being told I'm going to die.The news is that I'm still here. Its been a roller-coaster year.I've experienced the very best and the very worst of the NHS. Surgeons and Doctors with supreme skills and organisation abilities, Nurses ( both ward and Community ( District) ) who show great knowledge and empathy. Regrettably there were a couple who couldn't care a **** as long as they got paid.Most of the ward non-nursing staff were very friendly; cleaners and cooks were very upbeat.But the bureaucracy is almost unbelievable. The unnecessary paperwork, waste of drugs, rules with little or no sense- I would love to get stuck into the organisation. The principle is sound, the medical staff are, in the main, brilliant, some of the administrative procedures are excellent but there is a stark lack of common-sense and I've just become a victim again ( you may be surprised to hear that I have circumvented the latest rule change- I'll let you in on the secret when my treatment ends).
There has been a few changes since my last blog.
Last Friday, the padding within my mouth started to disintegrate ( it was a bit like hard chewing gum ). After a series of phone calls between Lynn and Birmingham Hospital, it was agreed that providing it didn't all fall out it would be OK - Guess what- it all disintegrated and fell out on Saturday.After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing.It was thought that it should have done its job and to leave it as it was.
Over the weekend I didn't feel too well, I continued to spit out gallons of thick,gungy bile but I had Olympic athletics tickets for Monday so I was going if it was the last thing I did . It became apparent over the evening that all was not well, but I enjoyed the day ( Simons organisation was,as usual,first rate) and saw some cracking events ( and Bolt ).We stayed at Simon and Becks overnight but next day it looked as though both my skin donor site and one of the wires through my jaw were infected, so we dropped in on the District Nurses ( by arrangement) on the way home.Swabs taken,wounds redressed and phone calls around resulted in an unscheduled trip back to Birmingham on Wednesday.That turned out to be a very good move. It was agreed that both sites were infected, so a dose of Penicillin was prescribed and as it was considered that the exterior stitches had done the job, so they were removed. That means I can talk again and can eat a much more varied diet.
Next Wednesdays scheduled visit has been cancelled ( well it would have been if the new junior Doctor on his first week had remembered to set it up - he'll learn ,I hope).We now go back on the 20th,when we will find out how successful  the op has been and what the next steps are to be. Whilst I'm still sore and slightly swollen , it looks pretty good inside. we will see.
Football season starts tomorrow ,which proves that life goes on.
Enjoy the next week or two
Best wishes
Chris