<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/NHS-cartoon.jpg"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-2149" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/NHS-cartoon-200x133.jpg" alt="NHS-cartoon" width="200" height="133" /></a>So on Monday Jane had a day of chemotherapy which went by as normal, the only hiccup being we thought it was for 11am but in fact it was 12pm so we turned up an hour too soon. As usual they were short staffed so Jane didn't get out until 4pm - it could be worse.

Yesterday Jane had another CT scan (a quarterly event) and she was worried because they need to inject iodine and the last time they failed to do it because they couldn't get a line in however this time it went very smoothly. In the afternoon she was back again for an echocardiogram to check that her heart wasn't being affected by the chemo. We won't know the outcome until next week but it will be whatever it is and there's no point worrying about it.

There's a campaign on at the moment (<a title="Hello My Name Is" href="http://hellomynameis.org.uk/" target="_blank">hello my name is</a>) to get health care staff to introduce themselves and it is striking how different departments behave in Lincoln County Hospital. The CT scan staff did not introduce themselves, gave no explanation of why Jane had to do things like drink cups of water or how long the process was going to be or what it would entail. Abrupt didn't come into it. In marked contrast was the echocardiogram staff who asked for Jane spot on the appointment time, gave their name and explained what was going to happen. As I sat waiting for Jane to emerge from another ordeal I witnessed nurses introducing themselves time and time again. It was excellent but why such differences in the same hospital?