I watched with increasing horror as more and more of my parents time got taken by dealing with healthcare appointments as they got older. I'm seeing it now with a couple that are both friends of mine and they've recently gone into "Health appointments as social life" territory as I put it. That being having health appointments instead of "having a life - doing what they want themselves".
I'm early 70's now and, if I let it, I could see the same sort of thing happening to me!!!! All the more so in some ways - because I live in a remote area and am reliant on public transport.
So - early New Years resolution is to find ways to keep that under control and stop it interfering with what I've actually decided to do myself.
Any tips and hints welcome at keeping Healthcare Time to a minimum.
I've had to spend hours yesterday going to a town about 2 hours away by bus for a foot appointment and I decided I couldn't stand wasting 2 hours coming back again on the bus and so thought "Blow it! I'll take a taxi - a direct journey is about 1 hour and that'll save one wasted hour".
Today I had another medical appointment. Teeth this time - another town (this time 30 minutes away and thankfully the bus is direct between the two towns). So I've decided to save future time by getting the dentist receptionist to fix future appointments in accordance with the bus times (so at least I don't have to waste time hanging around for the infrequent bus service).
Made another resolution - to effect of using the house diary (A4 page a day) that I've had to get since moving here (for the notoriously unreliable workmen) for allocating a page or two next year for "My body" and I'll write down a list as we go of "health appointments" and how long they take (including 1 hour for walking to and from them) and add a column for the extra time it takes in this area. Plus another column for how much of my money is going out on what I call "NHS bills" (horrified realisation it'll probably be around £2,000 for this year by the end of it - private dentist, private footcare, earwax removal, skin blemish removal and that doesn't include goods I buy myself for DIY health purposes).
I need to keep the amount of my time and my money that goes on all this to as little as possible and am on a mission not to have healthcare time & spending taking any more of my resources than I can help and make sure I've got time and money available for me personally - ie to "have a life".
Any further "keep the health side of things under control" ideas anyone has welcome. They may not all apply on the one hand - but they may give useful tips on the other hand.
eg I was only thinking "Now if I was someone that did knitting - then I could do that whilst travelling on these buses. Not a tip for me - as I'm not a creative person - but would be a 'save wasted time' tip for someone else maybe".
