Christmas and the NHS

Salbutomol 100mcg 2x daily if required

Beclamethazone 200mcg 1x daily,

Calcium and Vitamin d3 600mg & 400IU, (10mcg) x2 twice daily.

Alendronic Acid 70mg x1 once weekly.

Folic acid 5mg once daily.

Methotrexate 20mg injected once weekly, skip folic acid on this day.

Tacrolimus 0.1% ointment once daily applied externally to affected areas as required.

0.1% w/w Mometazone Furoate, apply once a day as required.

This is not an exhaustive list of medications prescribed for me currently by the NHS, and no, I am not inclined to keeping any secrets regarding my medical career.

I was diagnosed in early childhood with asthma,eczema and hayfever, which led to a miserable sickly childhood creating a backward immature young adult with a habit of malingering. But despite the fact that symptoms receded, and I got caught out on the malingering, the conditions, officially described as diseases never went away. They return in adulthood and are often linked to stress, making them hard to tell apart from malingering. The treatment for them was mostly steroids inhaled and rubbed on the skin which led to an early diagnosis of osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis along with vascular dementia has blighted my father’s old age, although he didn’t aggravate his bone disease with topical steroids. The NHS is busy keeping him alive whether or not he is able to enjoy life, and he has lost the capacity to say if his life is worth the pains and indignities of every day care and existence.

I do not fear my father’s fate as I expect by the time I reach his frailty the economy will be very different, and society will not choose to prolong my agony.

For now I enjoy my life as long as I have freedom to get out, but the lock down to protect Christmas is harsher on me than the one to protect the NHS, in the last lockdown I could sail my little boat, in this one, I can’t, without a real risk of being expelled from my yacht club. I never planned to sail in November, so I could again be unaffected, but I do intend to sail in February regardless of the rules then.

It is the precedent of government/societal dictat that I see as ruinous to my freedom, and this will impact enormously in my decision whether or not to choose life.