Five months later...

Wow - where did the last five months go!

Time for a progress report and a minor rant aimed at Sanitas, my private health-care provider here in Madrid .

First the good news - almost no change at all - the diet part continues to work for me, and now I'm about 7kg lighter than where I was at the start of March - the summer jeans I was wearing seem a little tight in the various curvy bits I've still got left, although I realised today that they are a 32R, meaning I have finally dropped a 2" waistband size (girly shriek of joy).

Even though I'd cut out as much saturated fats as possible and all milk-based dairy (I still eat eggs), I'm not actually feeling like I am missing out on anything - I'm eating more seafood and using soy milk/yoghurt with my breakfast and almost never experience any cravings for Chocolates, Ice-creams, Pizza's, Pasta foods with bechamel or cheese...Lemon-Meringue pie (actually, I CAN have that, as long as the base has no butter or margarine in it).

Mitra, my wife has been experimenting with baking with olive oil and we've had variations on carrot cakes and lemon sponges and so on, which have all been great too.

So, no further symptoms in 5 months, feeling great, have at least as much energy as I did years ago (handy for chasing our toddler son Kian around and will be useful for when our baby daughter Ava becomes more active too).

Is this the bit where I say I am vigorously touching wood...I mean, I know how that might sound to the immature amongst us...

Moving on then.

Bad news?

Healthwise no, although I've been through a few Sanitas screw-ups recently.

Sanitas are the Spanish version of BUPA - the medical care received has been excellent but the administration side, less so.

1. When our daughter was born earlier this year, the DRs wanted to monitor her heart and chest as they thought they detected an issue with a heart murmur and possible liquid in her lungs.To have this done on Sanitas should have been fairly straightforward.I called Sanitas because permission for the monitoring has to be sought first.DENIEDWhy?Well, your daughter is not yet a member of Sanitas.Wait, what? She's just been born, she's in the hospital and the DRs want to give her a couple of extra scans.Sorry, can't be done.Right, how do I make her a member of Sanitas.You have to call your work contact (it's 7pm). Get them to agree and e-mail us. We'll process her application and in a week or so...
   Because I live in Spain and the UK contact to apply for Sanitas membership lives in the UK , I wasn't going to get anything done that day.Nor the next.
   My company had done everything they could, e-mailing and calling multiple times to their contact in Spain/Sanitas. Later we discover that the original Sanitas contact had left and our company hadn't been given new contact details.
   Ridiculous.Ok, eventually all sorted and 2-3 days after she was born, Ava had been checked out and everything was fine.
   
   
2. In the previous 2-3 years, we've gone for pregnancy checks at Sanitas 'enabled' gynaecologists, and gone for blood tests, vaccinations...and about 4 or 5 times, our Sanitas card has been declined, meaning we had to pay first and then tedious form filling later to claim a refund. These problems were again down to Sanitas' administration. Because they sent the bills to our company late (2 weeks or more), they weren't paid in time for Sanitas - who clearly expected the bills to be paid one week before the invoices had been sent.
   
   And now, more recently...
   
   
3. I wanted to have a second set of MRI scans done before I leave Spain so that I could understand if the MS has progressed or if there were any active or even new lesions so I would be fully informed before I went back to the UK and decided if a change in treatment approach was needed or not.I saw a Sanitas neurologist who wrote a prescription for me - not only for the standard MRI, but also an Angio resonancia - the idea behind this second type is to see if part of the symptoms could be down to a blocked vein (in order to investigate CSSVI).I took this prescription to the front desk - they basically print it and ensure that the correct procedures are booked.I phoned sanitas to check which clinics would provide these scans and that were accepted by the Sanitas group - and so an appointment was made at the Clinica Ruber.I left work early to be on time. When I checked in, they told me that the Clinica Ruber was not contracted to provide it to Sanitas.If true, then why didn't the Sanitas department I called, tell me this? Why recommend a clinic to go to that is not actually contracted to provide the service.
   
   Ha - wait, there's more.
   Two days later, I received an e-mail from Sanitas with a new appointment to see the Neurologist.Again, I leave work early - when I arrive at the Neurology department, I am told "No, you do not have an appointment today".
   Avoiding stress is apparently a GOOD THING when coping with MS.
   
   I make a new appointment - I arrive, speak to a different Neurologist and repeat all the previous details again. He completes a new prescription (this time on two separate forms).
   
   What I must do now:
   a). phone a new number,
   b). read out the prescription code and they will in turn, feed me back an authorisation code - this authorisation code is needed for me to then call a different clinic to make a new appointment.
   
   But of course, this being Sanitas, nothing is 'that' easy.
   
   I phone the first number and read out the prescription code and then read out the name of the two types of scan require. 'Sorry - but we cannot use those numbers - the prescription codes are for Digestive disorders only".
   
   Sure enough, reading the header of the forms shows 0034 Digestivo.
   
   Some sheer bloody mindedness later, results in the Sanitas person on the phone giving it the old "Sigh, I suppose so..." and so I got my new scan dates booked.

I am going there tonight (09 Aug) - let's see!


YES - SUCCESS!

Appointment went very smoothly - although the imaging machines were so loud, my right ear was still ringing the next day.

Must remember to take ear-plugs next time.