Well, approximately 8 months after seeing my GP, yesterday I finally had my appointment at Charing Cross. Apparently that sort of wait is about normal, don’t you just love the NHS…

Cut to the chase, it all went very well, at which I have to admit to being a little surprised; I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, you hear such differing opinions of the CX experience. For me it was fine, lots of questions, none too silly, no patronisation, and no smacks on the wrist for my self-medicating. The woman who interrogated me, Alison, obviously had the letter of referral from my local psychiatrist, so she knew about the hormones I was taking. She confirmed the dosages I was on and then carried on with her questioning, mainly about my past, how I felt about things and so on. When she seemed to have finished I had to ask about the hormone situation, as if to say, "Where’s my smack on the wrist then?" Still none was forthcoming so I said something along the lines of me preferring to have an official prescription and be suitably medically supervised. The guidance notes I was given state that hormones may be prescribed after the second visit, subject to certain criteria, so I wanted to know what they thought I should do in the meantime. She seemed to respond to the fact that I would prefer things to be in their hands (partly true at least) and told me that she would send the results of my blood tests to my GP and, if all was well, would authorise him to give me the prescriptions that they advised. Of course this will take time but from the sounds of things it ought to be sooner than my next visit, which will be (insert random number here) months away. Which to me sounds like as close as the NHS get to fast-tracking things. I doubt if I’ll agree with their dosages and so on; from what I’ve heard they have a rather narrow-minded approach of minimum dosages, same for everyone, no room for manoeuvrability, and certainly not the more holistic approach which seems to be taken for private patients at home and abroad. However, for the meantime I’m playing their game. I don’t wish to appear too sceptical of the NHS system, they really were very good with me at Charing Cross and I now have a better picture of how to go about things and am daring to believe that they may actually be able to help me, at least to a certain extent. I’m still thinking of ultimately having my SRS done privately, with a surgeon of MY choice.

Other good points to come out from yesterday are that they do provide voice therapy, and would refer me to someone locally so I don’t have to keep travelling down to London. The NHS will also fund a tracheal shave, if they consider it necessary, ie the adam’s apple has to be noticeable enough, in my case for once I hope it is. One big advantage of having the NHS perform the operation, as Alison pointed out to me, is that should there be any complications arising from surgery the NHS will follow it up free of charge; if I was to go private that would be debatable, depending on what the actual complication was. No referrals are given however until you have seen two consultant psychiatrists, so I have to ask about those two issues next time I visit. Referrals for SRS incidentally are only given after the 2-year "real life test" has been completed, and they won’t budge on that time-scale. Of course it then takes time to get them to write the referral, and more time for your Primary Care Trust to authorise funding and yet more time to actually get an appointment for surgery once it has all been approved. When you do get your appointment it will be course be several more months away. What a palaver. At least Alison was honest about it though.

All in all, a good experience, and surprisingly reassuring. Several issues were clarified and I now have a clearer picture of time-scales and how things will pan out in general. I'm not counting chickens though, and realise that there are plenty of potential obstacles which may be in my way.

After a quick blood sample was taken (two bottles, they test for all sorts) I was on my merry way and feeling pretty good about everything. So I was well in the mood for the evening’s entertainment; my mum had come down to London with me on the train and as a special treat had bought tickets for us to see "We will rock you" at the Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road. I dashed back to the hotel to change into something a bit more classy (than jeans, trainers and a sweater), and the Diamond girls headed off "up west", as I believe the locals call it.

For me this really was a special treat. I haven’t seen a show in London since, um, well since the musical what I wrote for my local youth theatre was performed at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, twenty something years ago, if that counts. I had to drop that in, sorry, it was pretty cool for a 16-year old to get the chance of performing their own show in a classy theatre in London, and even cooler in fact when we took the sequel, what I also wrote, to the States, doing shows in Detroit and Kalamazoo (yes, there really is a Kalamazoo). But I’m digressing, and blowing my own trumpet, sorry. Anyway suffice to say that I have some thespian/musical experience, so to see a top show in the West End was, well, quite exciting actually.

I wasn’t disappointed. The show was amazing, stunningly good. Awesome sound & lights & effects, fantastic performances, and all the songs were done so well I went away liking Queen more than I did when I went in. They’re a great band of course, all respect to them, good songs, great musicians, Brian May I think is quite unique in his style and has his own characteristic sound, but I never considered myself a Queen fan. In no way were the arrangements tacky; I wasn’t sure what would happen with all those Queen songs being performed by a chorus-line, but believe me, it rocked! Cool. It was a good story, lots of laughs (I never considered myself a Ben Elton fan either), the whole thing was bloody, bloody good. I’d go and see it again tomorrow. Except I’m back in Kendal of course. Tired, exhilarated, relieved and focussed on my journey ahead.

A seriously worthwhile trip. Brilliant.

xx

p.s.   Apologies to Morecambe and Wise for any infringement of copyright in this blog, it was entirely intentional.