The line between reporting new medical discoveries to the wider world and unnecessarily raising expectations is a fine one. Those of us who work in the world of medicine / nursing understand that the process of developing new drugs is a long and laborious one, we also know that some diseases are far more emotive than others and therefore make good stories in the news papers and on TV news programmes. In the last week there have been two stories which strike such a note, the first was regarding a drug to treat Prostate cancer (but more excitingly for those reporting it, might one day be useful for breast cancer) and the other featured today is for Alzheimers.

Neither of these drugs are likely to be prescribable in the near future and indeed the prostate cancer drug has so far only been tested on 21 people, therefore has a long way to go. There is also the small matter in the UK of liscensing and then approval by NICE (no mean feat).

The over hype of all things medical (good and bad) is indicitive of the way in which we now receive news. Gone are the days when information was reported to us, now everything is explained, and opinions are offered (often in a contradictary way). No medical story however is complete without the use of one human example, even if that example might not be indicitive of the majority.

When I worked in rheumatology, some new drugs were on the market, they had been trialled, and some of our patients had received them as part of the trials. The NICE approval process was taking its time and health organisations were concerned that the costs would be prohibitive. Patients used the media (local and national) to get their voices heard, and letters to MPs were written. It is important that those people suffering from a long term condition or illness are privvu to information about what is available and what is being developed. But there has to be a better way of making sure that people gain this knowledge without having their hopes raised in this way!

I am sure that back in the distant past I made a concious decision that some kind of job where you sat all day in an office was not for me. During the summer I was 18, after a brief episode picking tomatoes which meant getting up at dawn and coming home with your fingers green I took a summer job as a clerk. The work was mundane, but then I was a junior, but it did give me sufficient money for a holiday in Malta before I began my nurse training that autumn.

Who would have imagined then that less than 30 years later (well ok that is quite a long time later) I find that I now work in an office environment; now how did that happen? Don’t get me wrong, my job is varied and interesting, what is more it doesn’t involve me spending 8 hours a day, 5 days a week sitting at a desk or even inside the office. But I do spend some of each week at least here. As a nurse on a ward, I had nothing but a locker to call my own and nor did I actually desire my own space. Later as a district nurse we shared various office spaces, but I wouldn’t have called them ‘mine’. Now though I have a desk, I have a PC and I have files (plus a very nice desk tidy and a rack thing that you can stack stuff). I don’t have place to put the files, other than on or under the desk, but I can live with that.

NHS office managers (and NHS senior managers in general) like nothing better than moving people around. It is like a hobby. In my 7 year office career I have moved to different towns, different buildings within the same town and now to different dests in the same office vicinity. It is this current move that is stressing me out now, well the move doesn’t stress but the people involved in it does. Most of my near neighbours have moved to different offices in the same building, and other colleagues (lets bring the commissioning team together is the philosophy) are about to move in. “Can I stay at this desk?” I ask the office manager lady. “Oh no says she, you are to move to the window seat”. So last Friday I turn up and find my computer in a new place, I think ok, this isn’t bad and spend the morning rationalising my files (this involved the recycling and shredding bin) and generally tidying up. Imagine my joy then when I am greeted by colleagues yesterday to be told that a mistake has been made. Another person had been told she could have the desk she coverted by the window and that I would move again later this week. No one can tell me yet if I am to return to the original desk or the one next to it, but you have to wonder what it matters who sits where? Plus the new window seat owner had better watch out, because if there are any other days like yesterday when it was 90f, without any breeze, this is one hot spot!

So there you have it, Julie works in an office, but can’t abide the politics!

On the first of this month, I said (no actually rather I claimed) that to make up for my lack of blog posts during June I would write something every day. Here we are 15 days later and this is the first time I have written anything. I can’t quite work out what is wrong with me. I don’t entirely have bloggers block, because most days I come up with ideas about the kinds of stuff to post here (as I always have) but by the time I get a spare half an hour to actually do so, I either decide that there isn’t enough to say or else I get waylaid doing something else.

One of the issues I have is that often my stories, thoughts and opinions are driven by annoyance at the health related issues that appear on TV and in the newspapers, rather than by something that has actually happened or affects me. This is all well and good, but if it doesn’t directly impact on me I have to try and find out more about the story to form an opinion which doesn’t look as if I am ranting at the negativity of what is reported rather than anything else.

In the almost 3 years I have been writing this blog, I have studied for a Masters Degree and have gone through a torrid health service reorganisation. I have moved office several times and job probably twice. It is not the NHS itself that is causing me problems right now, it is not my actual job that is of much worry (since I like the day to day business of maternity and children’s commissioning), my pay will apparently be resolved next week (but then I am not holding my breath for either it to be resolved in my favour or for it actually to happen next week). No it is my own PCT and the way in which it just is that gets me wound up right now. The trouble is, having seen what has happened to fellow bloggers who have got too personal with their actual employer and characters within work, I don’t think I can go there. I have applied for a new job, outside of this employer but still in the NHS so that (if I were to get the job) might give me more material.

I would like to make my blog content more general, to move away from just about work and health with the odd post about other things that happen to me in my life or that I have strong feelings about. Therefore, and I have spoken about this before, I think I am heading for a re name and a re focus. Till then, please bear with the erratic nature of my posts.

Is going back! Well no not really, but when you book time off, arrange that holiday or in my case a few days away, then you know that the days just before hand and those when you return to work are going to be busy and not a little stressful. This time the two days before involved my mum deciding to let her hypertension get the better of her and end up with double vision and numb fingers. An MRI scan showed a number of small infarcts. It could have been worse, much worse and what is more she could have been in Spain where she was due to go 5 days later. Thankfully, having visited and trusting my instinct that all would be well, we went off for our trip to Barcelona with my brother and sister in law. This involved leaving 17 year old teenage son to his own devices. Glad to say that also appears to have gone reasonably smoothly with no overt signs of damage and no neighbours queuing up to complain. What beer cans there were in the garden had been collected up and carefully tied up in two plastic bags; if they had remembered to put them in the recycling box then I might have been none the wiser. Ok so they shouldn’t have been drinking, but at least they were safely at home and not roaming the streets.

So back home after a wonderful time which involved some culture (though less sightseeing than I would have liked due to a) my brother declaring one day was enough b) the weather was lovely and there were beaches nearby and c) I was pretty weary and enjoyed the chance to relax a little. While away we celebrated our 24th anniversary (no I know I am not old enough but I was a child bride).

Back home we visited the sales, had lunch out with my parents (mum recently released from hospital, and looking better thankfully) and generally caught up on some walks, gardening and general chilling out.

So back to work. That blackberry is wonderful. I knew that I had 98 emails waiting but hadn’t been (very) tempted to look at them. There was a team meeting, a 92 page Darzi review of the NHS (yipee to that) and plenty of other stuff to read and to do. I am not yet enough out of holiday mode to review anything or to have an opinion on whether Darzi is wide of the mark with his suggestions. I am still in semi holiday mode. Tomorrow I have a day out to find out about maternal mental health, a new wonderful project to embark on. So there you have it, post 1 of 31 for July (you have to start off with optimism!

The picture above is of Gaudi’s unfinished Cathedral, an amazing site. I took my own pictures but haven’t up loaded them (laziness you know) mine have cranes and general evidence of building work so not sure if airbrushing has gone on here!