Today I’m going to have a PET scan (Positron Emission Tomography) where they will inject me with a radioactive tracer and stick me in a big machine which can detect live cancer cells. If there aren’t any, I may be able to avoid any more chemo treatment.

At the very least I will know if the 4.6 centimetre lump remaining is cancer or just a ‘scar’ left over.

They don’t have this machine at any of the hospitals I have been treated at so far, so I have to go to St Thomas Hospital which is by Westminster Bridge on the River Thames.

Since I have been trying to walk unaided recently I have dropped in their disability points system and they won’t send patient transport to collect me. They suggested I get a taxi each way which would cost more than a week’s Incapacity Benefit.

It starts to get ridiculous when you feel you can’t afford to accept free medical treatment ! So I’m going to brave my first tube journey in 7 months.

I am hoping (a) there are no long walks because my leg goes numb and I tend to fall over, (b) there are no broken escalators as I can only move slowly up steps taking them one at a time and (c) I can get a seat as I’m not used to standing up for very long, especially on moving transport.

I rescheduled my appointment to this afternoon so I could avoid rush hour and hopefully get a seat (they wanted me to be there at 9am!).

So of course I shouldn’t have been surprised when I got a phone call at 9.30 am to tell me Patient Transport was waiting outside my house to take me to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel where as far as I know I don’t have any scheduled appointments today or any other day.

You can’t ask them to take you to St Thomas because it’s a different NHS Foundation Trust and each have their own transport system. And of course there would be other patients on board the ‘sunshine bus’ (as my friend calls it) waiting to go to the Royal London or Barts.

Are you feeling my frustration yet?

It’s been a bad week already because I had 3 letters arrive this weekend from my local council authority who say that because I have changed my address (I haven’t changed my address in nearly 7 years), I must give them back over £500 in housing benefit and another £500 plus in council tax rebate (you don’t actually receive money for council tax, they just reduce the bill).

Are you feeling victimised yet?

I have decided to take on 10 days freelance work that my employer has generously arranged so I can do it from home. This is despite still probably having cancer and still going for hospital appointments (I can’t even avoid them for 10 days straight) and still having two lots of surgery pending.

You can’t afford to wait until you are well again to go back to work in this country. When things like this happen in what is the 4th (?) richest economy, communist Cuba doesn’t seem so harsh to me when it is reported to have one of the best medical care systems. If they had snow I might try to defect!