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Minimising time/effort dealing with health

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keepingquiet Tue 22-Oct-24 14:31:00

I have bee discharged from my local hospital after recent surgery so thankfully have no reasons to go I hope, for a while.

I have caught taxis there but more recently would take two buses. I played games on my phone on the longer journeys, although I know it's anti-social.

My NHS dentist is just up the road so no problem there and haven't been for more than a year.

I do pay for my hands and feet doing, but will now have to do them myself as they are fully booked for a few weeks and I can't wait any longer.

I haven't had my ears syringed for more than two years, but again would pay for these doing if needs be.

I don't care about blemishes, nor do I spend time or money on gadgets.

My advice is this- just cut down a little. You don't mention any health issues you may have so some of these are cosmetic.

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Nannarose Tue 22-Oct-24 14:30:35

Yes, I find it too. I do crochet, and I like to read and do puzzles. I chat to people too, and sometimes I combine an appointment with a trip to somewhere - tomorrow a physio appointment means calling in to a speciality food shop that I otherwise would think 'not worth the trip'.
I'm sure a lot of you remember Rabbi Lionel Blue, who when he became ill and had a lot of appointments, would make 'tablet' and hand it round in outpatients (I can just imagine the nurses' faces!)

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M0nica Tue 22-Oct-24 14:12:42

Can you read on a bus? I can't, but some people can.

In my case where all visits to health facilities are by car, I try to do something else has well. A trip to the surgery can be combined with the weekly shopping, in the same way i organise my hair appointments for convenient times.

On longer journeys, an hour plus, to the local hospital I have the radio on and listen to the radio - R3 or R4, R4 in particular has very good factual programmes. Once I caught a programme describing in detail how the foreign owners of Thames Water (our water supplier) shafted the company and loaded it with billions of debt, while they bled it of even greater £billions of dividends, delivered me to the hospital with high blood pressure readings. At other times I have listened to lighter programmes and arrived at hospital entertained,amused and wiser or heard new composers on R3 and conversations with great musicians.

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CariadAgain Tue 22-Oct-24 13:39:43

I watched with increasing horror as more and more of my parents time got taken by dealing with healthcare appointments as they got older. I'm seeing it now with a couple that are both friends of mine and they've recently gone into "Health appointments as social life" territory as I put it. That being having health appointments instead of "having a life - doing what they want themselves".

I'm early 70's now and, if I let it, I could see the same sort of thing happening to me!!!! All the more so in some ways - because I live in a remote area and am reliant on public transport.

So - early New Years resolution is to find ways to keep that under control and stop it interfering with what I've actually decided to do myself.

Any tips and hints welcome at keeping Healthcare Time to a minimum.

I've had to spend hours yesterday going to a town about 2 hours away by bus for a foot appointment and I decided I couldn't stand wasting 2 hours coming back again on the bus and so thought "Blow it! I'll take a taxi - a direct journey is about 1 hour and that'll save one wasted hour".

Today I had another medical appointment. Teeth this time - another town (this time 30 minutes away and thankfully the bus is direct between the two towns). So I've decided to save future time by getting the dentist receptionist to fix future appointments in accordance with the bus times (so at least I don't have to waste time hanging around for the infrequent bus service).

Made another resolution - to effect of using the house diary (A4 page a day) that I've had to get since moving here (for the notoriously unreliable workmen) for allocating a page or two next year for "My body" and I'll write down a list as we go of "health appointments" and how long they take (including 1 hour for walking to and from them) and add a column for the extra time it takes in this area. Plus another column for how much of my money is going out on what I call "NHS bills" (horrified realisation it'll probably be around £2,000 for this year by the end of it - private dentist, private footcare, earwax removal, skin blemish removal and that doesn't include goods I buy myself for DIY health purposes).

I need to keep the amount of my time and my money that goes on all this to as little as possible and am on a mission not to have healthcare time & spending taking any more of my resources than I can help and make sure I've got time and money available for me personally - ie to "have a life".

Any further "keep the health side of things under control" ideas anyone has welcome. They may not all apply on the one hand - but they may give useful tips on the other hand.

eg I was only thinking "Now if I was someone that did knitting - then I could do that whilst travelling on these buses. Not a tip for me - as I'm not a creative person - but would be a 'save wasted time' tip for someone else maybe".

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