The difference between cancer life as a royal and as a "lesser mortal"

[sixtyandsomething]

not to derail other threads..

I have nothing against the Princess of Wales, I am sure she is a lovely person and I wish her well. however, let's not pretend she is facing the same struggles as the rest of us.

I bet you £10 she hasn't had to deal with any of these! (feel free to add your own)

-40+ calls to DWP, often being left on hold for 2 hours or more
-many months delay in benefits being processed, leaving you without any income at all
-DWP advising you to "find a food bank"
-struggle up the hill on crutches to get a bus to chemo
-appointments delayed and cancelled, blood tests lost and repeated, regular system "crashes" leaving medical staff with no access to your notes.
-never seeing the same medical professionals twice.
-consultant appointments cancelled when you have already travelled several hours to the hospital
-telephone appointments you have to sit and wait by the phone for, for the whole day
-worry on crammed full bus when you are CEV
-getting off bus because it is too full
-getting of bus because you are vomiting
-sitting on the pavement for 3-4 hours after chemo in the dark and rain, because you are CEV and don't want to get back on a crammed bus in the rush hour
-commuters swearing at you because you move too slowly
-commuter kicking you out of the way because you move to slowly, and doing it with an air of indignation, like they feel seriously injured by having to touch something so disgusting with their foot
-minimum 18 hour wait in A and E before being admitted with infection - once it was 28 hours
-further many hour wait in ER before being admitted to wards.
-spending night on chair in corridor, after being admitted to a ward
-being asked to vacate chair in corridor so doctor can perform ECG on patient who is currently standing up with nowhere to sit
-being warned by hospital staff to sleep in your glasses so they are not stolen
-having to buy a constant stream of new clothes, and having to go to charity shops - on steroids? go up two sizes, no chemo? go down 3- surgery? get front opening everything, in a range of sizes.
-not being able have a clean the house, wash up, open the window even, without calling a friend to come and help.
-council refusing to empty your bins because you are not capable of moving them to the right place at the right time
-giving away your pets because you can't take care of them, or afford them
-being told the waiting list to see a physiotherapist is around a year

I could go on

I am so grateful for the treatment I have had, and I hope the Princess of Wales does well and recovers, but the two situations are not the same, even slightly, even if the disease is.

Nope. Think again. Like everything else it depends on where you live. I’m lucky to be treated by a national centre of excellence but l have first hand experience of friends who haven’t been so lucky and significant delays have seriously affected their prognoses.

absolutely awful the way you have been treated - money cannot buy health but it can make it so much easier if you are ill - help in all aspects of ones life. before more funding for the nhs we need to look at the waste and mistakes that are made on the admin side. twice i have been sent appointments cancelling the appointment and then giving me the same appointment again. friends have turned up to see a cancer consultant and no scan results have been sent over this has happened twice. then consultant on holiday no one dealing with his cases - more delays and when it is cancer you want treatment sorted as soon as.

the nhs needs reform and social care but no one seems willing to do it., as for doctors and nurses going on strike - it should be written in their contracts no striking .

It's not just "lost" scans etc. My OH had all kinds of tests for his first cancer diagnosis, i.e. blood tests, MRI scans, skeletal x-rays and bone marrow sample. After he was diagnosed, he had to go to the hospital in the next town (same trust) for the second stage of his treatment and the consultant there insisted it ALL had to be done again, so that meant another four journeys to the hospital as, of course, they couldn't synchronise it all to be done on the same day!

As for expensive drugs, yes, but it applies to routine/monthly prescriptions too. One of my OH's drugs costs £1000 per tablet (that he takes weekly) another costs £300 per tablet (he takes daily) - prices as per NHS website. Thing is, though, that instead of taking them weekly/daily, his consultant has advised him to take them every other week/day, to reduce his side effects, so he only uses half of what is prescribed. Apparently it's "too difficult" for the consultant to prescribe half, and "too difficult" for him to issue the drugs every 8 weeks instead of every 4 weeks. So OH is building up quite a stock of very expensive drugs in our kitchen cupboard.

The waste and inefficiency is absolutely criminal. The staff just don't care!