Doing as your told

Bureaucrat systems – don’t you just love ‘em. Got another PSA test done over the weekend, just to see where we are with all this given its three months since the last one (don’t the wheels just grind sooooo slow).

But now I can’t get the result over the phone, the receptionist has to do what she is told and book me another appointment, and I have to come in to see someone – arrgggghhh.

A doctor has clearly had a look at the result and thinks I should be seen in person (even though I am a big boy now, and know that I’m not very well :-Z. But neither he nor dB are around this week – so I have to wait another week to get one small, little number. And how bad can it be? Is it really going to change my treatment plans. Double aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhh.

Anyway, clearly feeling better this afternoon – a good rant always help. Otherwise, if I had posted this morning there would have been more doom ‘n gloom (too many late nights/lack of sleep/grim news on Nf’s cousin and the ozzie bush fires, … who knows).

Time for being ill

Nobody ever has time to be ill – there was a woman on the radio just the other day saying to her surgeon that she didn’t have time to have breast cancer. I know how she feels.

Unfortunately, from a work perspective I have to make the time for this disease and all the time spent being prodded and poked – without even making allowance for the time and mental effort spent talking, thinking (or heaven forbid worrying) about it.

With a major condition like prostate cancer, you can’t think in terms of half a day off doesn’t count and you can make it up later. Personal time is already being squeezed by other “stuff” related to cancer (researching, talking to family, reassuring friends) and its getting harder and harder to take up the slack.

The flexibility of modern work practice and the advent of technology means I know face the quandry of who’s time am I being sick in? We all know the phenomena of people getting to holiday – Xmas being a great example – your body relaxing, and you being sick in what should be your personal time to do stuff. And all this after having fought off all the bugs and nasty’s during work time.

So today (saturday) I have just spent the best part of an hour collating some stats on hospital visits and expected treatment time – which is approximately 20 days – a working month. This process itself has taken me an hour – and given an hourly work allocation model, I guess I could view this as an hour of work, but what task/budget do I allocate it to? And what about the time Mp and I have just spent discussing it – is that personal time or work time?

So while an hourly work allocation model and flexible hours in theory means freedom, in practice whether you are a IT consultant or University lecture it can also be a curse. But bringing back 9-5 office hours? Or working in a call centre where they monitor your toilet breaks? Maybe the flexible working overhead is still a price worth paying.

There goes the buzzer – again – and I should stop. Elapsed time is at least an hour – real life interrupting again – but how much more than five minutes did I spend writing this and how will I account for it?