GCSEs 2018 (14): the aftermath

[mmzz]

Following on from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3275972-GCSEs-2018-13-Untwisting-our-knickers-lucky-for-some

I love the hair too. Whoever did that is very talented!

Lovely photos! Hair really looks great!
Looking forward to a day at Wimbledon today. First watching DS and his friends play in the concert band and then hopefully catch some tennis on the outside courts.
I think The Reckoning will be very apt for the next thread.

Hi folks - just checking in especially to see how sostenuto is doing.

Its been a difficult couple of weeks as we lurch towards the end of term.

Dh is still waiting for his scan results/consultant appointment. Apparently the first available appointment is September but hes been getting lots of symptoms we are worried about. His GP can't really advise anything other than painkillers that don't interfere with his other meds. He was convinced he was going to have another the the other day.

Dd has had a difficult time. She phoned me in tears as weeks of cancelled dance classes due to GCSE's, having put on weight and the re-occurence of a niggling injury from last year has meant that when they went into full time rehearsals for the dance show the week before last she found she couldn't safely perform the very complicated choreography and she went over on her ankle so she requested to be completely taken out of the Year 11 ballet piece. So she's not in very much of the end of year dance show now. Added to that a few of the other girls started accusing her of faking the injury.

The show opens today and we bring her home for the summer on Saturday after the matinee performance.

Ds in year 9 has had his end of year report. He is on track to get a Grade 8 in maths and a Grade 2 in English (and a Grade 4 in Science)!!

MMZ - anyone who knows me is bound to recognise me from this thread!

Added to that a few of the other girls started accusing her of faking the injury.

aren't they just lovely?!!

AlexanderHamilton reading between the lines, your DH is in pain? I am really sorry to hear that.

The only comfort I can offer is that if the NHS is prepared to wait until September, then they must not think he's high risk. On the other hand, if the GP knows something that the hospital doesn't, then maybe he should be writing to them explaining the current situation and asking for your DH to be reprioritised?

Grade 2 in english isn't so great . There's plenty of time to turn it around though.

Now that i know about Mr Bruff, I'm planning on having DS2 watch his videos in the evenings alongside whatever the teacher is doing in class. DS1 found that they made things a lot clearer than some of the teacher-led discussions in school.

He’s getting lots of headaches, dizziness & every so often his heart rate dips to below 50 (42 was the lowest).

He was supposed to be upgraded after the 2nd TIA but there are no stroke clinic appts til September

That does sound worrying. Maybe the August holidays are getting in the way. Have you got private health insurance?

No we haven’t. (Dd has through school for physio).

He hasn’t been given any advice etc at all really other than being given the statins & blood thinners in A & E & being sent for the ct & mri scans. (CT scan was done before the second tia). His eyesight has worsened, his arm doesn’t feel the same as before & he often loses his train of thought.

That doesn't sound right. I think you need some good advice about navigating the NHS. its not good enough to be told that the clinic is full and then be left to worry (and stress?) as you watch things deteriorate for weeks. That could make your DH's health worse all by itself.

Why don't you name change and post on one of the busier boards and maybe someone will tell you what you can do (if anything) to get things moving more quickly?

A quick bit of googling and there seems to be something called an "URGENT 2 WEEK REFERRAL" that your GP can ask for, which means your DH would see a specialist within 14 days.

Hang the clinics being full, they just have to make space or see your DH outside of a clinic.

Hi Alexander sorry you’ve had a tough couple of weeks. Would it be worth paying privately for a consultation even if you then have to wait for any follow up/treatment - it would at least either put your mind at rest or tell you whether you need to make a fuss and a one off consultation may not be that expensive.

And I think a lot of people struggle with English early on as they don’t know how to write the answers - but if they’ve got some intelligence which he must have with an 8 in maths they can learn how to do this. DS was still on a three at the mock but his sister worked with him all over Easter on how to answer exam questions and were hopefull he was up to 4/5 by the exam

Hi all. Sorry to here about alexanders dh. I feel that you must ring up hospital and put your concerns to the person who deals with appointments as well as go to doctors with dh and tell not ask but tell, the doctor you want an appointment straight away as you fear your dh is having a series of mini strokes. You must insist in a polite but firm way. If no joy then you get yourselves to A and E and you sit there till you get to see someone. Lay it on well. Nowadays you have to push for what you want. When my dgd had melanoma and we had 14 appointments cancelled by hospital I sat down in A and E with her, a placard and a friend posing as a journalist. I had an appointment within a couple if hours and only just in time as it was full blown. If I had not gone to such extremes she may have died. So needs be needs must! Thoughts and prayers to you and dh.

Alexander - that sounds tough. If you know the exact consultant ring the secretary regularly. Tell them his ongoing symptoms, how unwell he feels, how worried you are.... Just be polite and worried. Just keep on keeping on. You may get a cancellation or squeezed into beginning or end of a clinic.

Alexander -that’s a spread of predicted grades!

Also worth checking out if you can see the consultant privately just once. It means you will actually see the consultant rather than a junior and you can sidestep the first wait.
It may put your mind at rest.

If you go private for the first consultation then you only need the name of the consultant who runs the clinic that you want a place on. A lot of (all?) the other specialists you could see will report to him / her.

So, s/he can order the booking staff to find your DH a place in the clinic, if he needs it.

At least that's what I've experienced when I needed a referral to a specialist and was lucky enough to have private insurance at first. All you need to do is call the administrator who told you there are no spaces until September and ask the lead consultant's name. Then ring the hospital and ask for that consultant's secretary and ask her about availability (and cost) for a private consultation.

It is not queue jumping (if that's what you are thinking). Its getting your DH correctly triaged. He won't get an earlier place in the queue if he doesn't need it.

It's a shame that sometimes you need persistence and sometimes a bit of money just to get what you need from a supposedly free at the point of delivery service, but that's how it is,

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