Contribution & Community Support

last one uh one two three four uh question i think it's five one two three four five six is um interesting one this one what could uh what do you think the healthshed community could do to help you this time of year or generally speaking and think of it generally as communities what they offer nothing that they don't do it already I don't think there's nothing I have a great desire for people to do for me or to help me with anything in particular I'm as I say I live on my own I'm very self-sufficient I have support from the two boys when I need it and I support them when I need them I think my health apart from this thing which I'm waiting for the results for is under control yes I could probably do with losing a little bit of weight but so could most people I presume and I could probably do a little bit more exercise I I could eat a little bit more healthily. But that's what I think is for most people. You know, I can cook for myself, I can look after myself, I clean, I can wash, I can walk upstairs, I can walk around. So, you know, availability, I suppose, from healthcare professionals, as and when I need them, would be the thing that I would want. But I don't need it, if you see what I mean, As long as I can, you know, as long as I feel as I'm making progress to finding out what the problem is, then I'm quite relaxed. You know, I mean, I think if it was, you know, if it was something serious and the only thing I can refer to is my triple A when I went for screening, I was over 5.5. So the next day I was at outpatients at the LGI starting on the trail. So if something as serious as that happened again, I'd like to think that I could get that sorted out. When I started off with this bowel thing, I went to the GP and I had my colonoscopy five days later. So I feel that if it's urgent and important, the health service will help me through it quicker. what I mean if that makes any sense. It does. Let me flip this on on you if you don't mind. So you're pretty switched on, put together sort of guy. You know when to ask for help. You know what you can self-care for. What could you offer the community? And it's a loaded question because I think you can offer a lot because lots of people don't feel as empowered as you. what could you offer the community? Well I would be happy to discuss issues with them if they were willing to share and just sort of you know yeah I mean I suppose the word I can only think of if they've got objections to bringing a doctor going to a pharmacist doing this try and explore why and use my experience to help help them through it I suppose you know I'm a firm believer if this if you think there's something wrong with you and it and you think it's getting worse get it looked at or try and get it looked at sooner rather than later because the earlier you can get a proper diagnosis then hopefully the better you the treatment will be earlier the treatment will be the better the treatment will be and hopefully you know it'll go away in time so that's what I think I could add to people I have spoken to a couple of patients at the LGI who were frightened about their AAA and just using their experience and whatever and we did have the screening program did before COVID have a sort of open evening where people were people who were patients going through the situation were asked to come along and they were given a a talk by a consultant, a nurse, a vascular nurse and people who'd been through it, i.e. people like me, to give a little talk about what it meant and then be available to, as somebody who'd gone through the whole process, to ask questions if people were a bit shy in asking them in an open forum. And I found that quite rewarding and helped a lot of people. was one guy in particular who was very worried he'd never be able to play golf again. And his wife was with him and whatever. Oh, it's his big passion. It's his big passion. I had a chat with them for about five, 10 minutes. And I did see him the following the year after the second one. And he said, Oh yeah, you were right. I was, you know, I was in discomfort for three, couple of months, two or three months, but I'm about playing golf again and whatever, You know, you get the questions about, can I drive? Can I go on holiday? What about my travel insurance? Things like that. And then you get the odd one who asks you about their sexual performance afterwards. But nobody mentioned that when I had mine, but it didn't make any difference. So yeah, you get different things. So I'm willing to relate my experiences to help people if they want to, if they want to listen, or if they ask. And I'll ask them if there's anything, you know, particularly they're worried about. So I will, not probe, but tease, try and tease some things out to, because, you know, it's like being at school, where you don't understand fractions. You don't want to put your hand up and say, I don't understand this because you're gonna look stupid. So people won't do, some people won't ask questions in an audience participation thing. They'd much prefer to be one-to-one because they don't think, they don't want to look silly by asking an obvious question. And most people I find are worried about the obvious questions or the obvious things, but they don't want to ask. So I suppose that's, I suppose, waffling on how I would help people who I was asked to approach or who approached me. It's really helpful. That's the end. Hopefully it wasn't too much of an ordeal. Now I'm thinking on my feet isn't now.