As many people with serious illnesses or long term conditions know, they can all too easily turn into a full time occupation. This is particularly so in the immediate aftermath of a cancer (or indeed any other) diagnosis and then at key points during treatment. You feel that you might as well be living at the hospital and in spite of how grateful you feel that things are moving fast to give you a good outcome, it is all too easy to resent the intrusion into what had been your everyday life.
In my case, this is now somewhat mitigated by my hospital’s excellent computer system that allows anyone working with me to see my appointments at a glance, and indeed track me through the hospital. The recent upshot of this was that after having made an appointment to see me, my breast care nurse then saw that I was due to be at the hospital for a half day procedure with several lengthy waits between appointments. So she called me and arranged that we would meet while I was in the waiting periods. The combination of good staff and supportive tech can make a tremendous difference to patient care and it is good to feel that my time is viewed as valuable.
I’m hoping to sign up to MyChart, which works with the system to enable you to see test results, appointments, etc.
Of course, it doesn't always fit together so well (the set up admin for MyChart is a bit of an issue), so it still feels like a second full time job at the moment…
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