#26

My Mum had a hip replacement a few days ago and is doing quite well, although it will still take her a long time to recover. It's on the NHS and it's only about 8 weeks since she first approached her GP about getting the operation... a time-span that came as quite a shock to her considering that last time she had to wait 9 months to have her other hip replaced... even more of a shock when they phoned her-up after about 4 weeks and offered her a cancellation. You see she was expecting to go to the doc's and mention she wanted the op and be able to put it at the back of her mind for many months. I suppose it is like, but on a much bigger scale of feeling, when you go to your dentist for a check-up -- you're only going for a check-up so if you happen to be afraid of injections or having your teeth drilled then you need fear not on that particular occasion -- he's just going to look... but then he says something like: "Hmm, yes you need a small filling there...my next patient has cancelled so I may as well do it now." Drill, drill. Of course not all waiting lists have reduced so dramatically, and the NHS does go through bad patches over the years but no matter how good or bad it is there is one thing I like about it regardless, it is something that seems a bit of a wet sentimental thing to think, but none the less it's something that figures quit large in my psyche... it's something that's hard to put into words but basically it's this: 'Britain, my country, cares about me', no matter how rich or poor, if I'm ill it will try and do something for me.......sometimes what it does might be woefully inadequate, sometimes it might be very effective, it just depends... but that's not the issue I'm on-about here... it's like: some children may have effective parents or guardians, some children have hopeless ones, but in either case if they loved you and, whether successful or not, tried to do good for you, then that is a huge plus in your psyche that you would not want to be with-out at any cost.