Becca Jane St Clair

I woke up at 4AM on Friday morning and Tim drove me to the train station where I boarded a train headed for Newark North Gate (followed by a train to London King’s Cross). Yes, I was going to join the crowds outside Westminster Abbey. I didn’t expect to get close enough to see much, but I was going for the experience and so I could say I was there.

I will write a post later describing my day, but for now, here’s a copy of my Twitter feed from yesterday:

You also can watch parts of the Royal Wedding on their official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalChannel including THREE HOURS of coverage via this link: http://youtu.be/schQZY3QjCw

I do have a vlog I took while in the crowd, it’s in the process of being uploaded now.

For other more official coverage, see:

BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11767495
Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/
And another person who was amidst the crowds: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/04/29/135834585/the-royal-wedding-a-crowds-eye-view

My photos are available on Facebook via this link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150235908637160.371117.522022159&l=9961b76489 but I will post highlights when I write my longer post!

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Photo at the top of this entry © The British Monarchy and may only be used for media purposes.
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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

A few weeks ago, baked eggs were all over the food blogs. One blog posted about them, then another, and another. Each blog making their baked eggs posher than the blog before. But baked eggs don’t need a fancy French name or fancy bread. Here’s my simple, easy baked eggs recipe.

For each person, you will need:
2 eggs
1 TBS milk
2 TBS cheese
Parsley
Oregano, Basil, or other herbs
Cooked bacon (optional)

A single-serving casserole dish or ramekins.

1 – Preheat the oven to 175C and lightly grease the ramekins with vegetable oil
2 – If using bacon, crumble a piece of bacon in the bottom of each dish.
3 – crack 2 eggs in each casserole. If using ramekins, you might only be able to do one
4 – Spoon over milk, sprinkle cheese & herbs
5 – bake 12-15 minutes or until yolks are set to your preference.

This was something different for Tim and I to have for breakfast, and we both loved it. The eggs wind up nice and creamy and it was a nice treat for us on a Saturday morning.

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Seems a bit silly to post this, as it’s not even really a recipe, but I’m really pleased with how it looks and how the photo came out, so I’m sharing it!

Weeks ago, I placed an order with Tesco, as I do every week. If the store doesn’t have what you ordered online, your shopper substitutes an item. If the new item costs more than the one you wanted, you only get charged for the one you ordered. If the new item is less than the original, you get charged the lower amount. Most of the times this means I wind up with a slightly posher brand of loo roll or a different brand of brown bread. But a few weeks ago? I don’t know what was on their mind! I placed an order for a box of Betty Crocker Bisquick – you know, pancake mix – but Tesco sent me a Betty Crocker Carrot Cake mix instead! The driver decided to give me the carrot cake mix and I would get a refund for it. Well, I don’t say no to free carrot cake!

It also gave me a chance to finally try out the bundt pan my mom gave me for Christmas from Lakeland. It’s a terrific pan. You can tell it was made from good quality metal, and as it’s from Lakeland, I can be assured it will last for many years.

I followed the directions on the box and greased the pan with some butter and flour so it wouldn’t stick. The cake came out moist and spongy – just like a cake should. As far as taste…well, there wasn’t much carrot in it. I made a carrot cake from scratch with grated carrots a few months ago, and my cake had far more of a carrot-y taste than this one. My friends I served it to compared it to a spice cake, that was how little it tasted like carrots (but it did get her kids to eat it!)

To jazz it up a bit, I made a cream cheese glaze, which is super simple:

1 pack of cream cheese, left out to get soft
200-300g icing sugar (powdered sugar)

And all you do is blend the two together with a mixer. Start with about 150g of sugar. If it’s not stiff enough or sweet enough, add more, but I wouldn’t add more than 300g, or you’ll wind up with a TON of glaze and be stuck trying to find things to use it with like I was!

Does this count as a recipe post? Sure, why not! I haven’t blogged in a week, so at least I’m getting something out there for you to read!

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

I have issues with delivery drivers.

As I’ve mentioned before, our house is a farmhouse from the 1800s (oldest house in the village) that was divided into two in the 1930s. As a result, you can only see one house number from the road, and it’s the neighbours. Our road also isn’t recognized by SatNav or Google and is mislabelled, so you cannot get accurate directions to our house from either. A friend once drove around our village for a half hour because her SatNav kept taking her to the wrong street. And to complicate things further? The road we live on runs from our village into the next village, where it keeps the same name but the house numbers re-start. The people who were delivering our washing machine nearly took it to the next village over last year. I got a phone call from the delivery driver saying “I’m knocking on your door, but no one is answering”. To which I replied, “I’m at my door and there’s no one here!” So now I ALWAYS leave notes in the delivery instructions saying things like:

-House is attached to number x
-Behind green fence
-Go up the long driveway
-Look for garden railway
-Yellow farmhouse on bend
-Don’t use SatNav
-There are two 11s, one in Dunholme and one in Welton. We are the yellow house with the black door in Dunholme.

Etc, etc.

And usually, drivers don’t have any problems.

Except for DHL and ParcelForce.

ParcelForce is fond of taking my packages to my in-laws. They live around the corner from us, share the same last name, and even have the same house number. But it’s a different street and post code! My MIL is very good at refusing my packages and telling them how to find our house. And to be fair, ParcelForce rarely gets to see the detailed directions, since they generally act as a courier for Royal Mail, particularly overseas packages. So, I can kind of forgive ParcelForce for not being able to find our house.

But DHL? No excuses. The extra directions are PRINTED RIGHT ON THE LABEL!!

I put in an order for Boots online, something I do on a semi-regular basis, especially if I don’t feel like going into town or if I know what I want might not be available in store. I got an email two days ago that said my order was processed, and the expected delivery was today (Thursday). Since the email included a tracking number, yesterday morning (Wednesday) I decided to check the tracking to see where the package was. DHL’s tracking information said “delivered – left on porch” for the day before (Tuesday). But I didn’t have my package and we had been home all day. Not to mention our house doesn’t have a porch!

I rang DHL. They couldn’t do anything for me and said I needed to call Boots. Rang Boots and would you believe the person I spoke with had to put me on hold while he called DHL to find out the same information I asked DHL for 10 minutes previous? Crazy. Anyway, the person from Boots came back on the line to tell me that DHL “couldn’t contact their driver” and he would follow up with me later in the afternoon. The plan was for the driver to go pick up the package from wherever he had originally left it and bring it to me later in the day or the following day. At this point, I have no idea where my package is (no slip through my letter slot), Boots has no idea where the package is, and DHL has no idea where the package is.

I had a nurse appointment that took us away from home for a while, and after it Tim and I decided to run some errands and deliver a birthday present to my FIL. We returned home in the afternoon, to find a slip from DHL through our letterbox telling us that they had put a package in our shed. Sure enough, it was my Boots order.

I rang Boots back to let them know the package had arrived, and the person I spoke to checked to see if DHL had added any delivery notes to the order. Nope. We still didn’t know where the package had been.

Cut to about an hour later when we saw our neighbours in passing. They told us that last night they had found a package for me in their enclosed porch on the side of their house when they were going out for the evening, but as it was late, they didn’t want to knock on the door (good thing too, since I went to bed at 9:30!). They left the package where it was and figured they would catch us the following afternoon, but by the time they went to get it, the package was gone from their porch. They panicked, thinking someone had stolen the package and said they were afraid to tell me they had had a package.

Seriously? DHL put my package at number x, which is attached to our house, and didn’t bother leaving us a note through our letter slot? We clearly have a distinguishable border between our homes (a green fence) and the fence is clearly labelled with our house number, and we have a number next to the front door. AND DHL had even circled the delivery notes mentioning that our house was up the long driveway attached to number x. But not only that – but DHL hadn’t even bothered to knock on the neighbour’s door either time – when delivering OR when picking back up the package. If they had, my neighbour would have pointed them to our door straight away. And leaving it at their side door and not their front? Stupid. I could understand if the side door was more prominent than the front, but you have to practically go to the back of the house to access it! I didn’t even know they had a side door for MONTHS because it’s not obvious.

And the fact that everyone was home on Tuesday makes it even more of a mystery. Tim and my neighbour were both working out in the gardens, and myself and my neighbours gf were popping in and out of the house regularly. How on EARTH did DHL even manage to bring a package onto our joint properties without anyone noticing?!

But I have my package. And Boots is awesome and even rang me again in the evening to make sure it had actually arrived and assured me they would be taking things up with DHL. I have no idea if this means I’ll get any kind of compensation or not. The problem is, I want DHL to pay, not Boots. And if I ask Boots for a refund on the shipping, I’m sure it would have to come from them and not DHL. OH well. But the important thing is that I did get my package in the end.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

About a month ago, Tim had a trying day at work. He found out that the May training class he was supposed to be joining for his new job was full and he was bumped to June. He came home and was really upset, so I decided to cheer him up by making him a chocolate cake in a mug!

You will need:

4 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder (not hot chocolate)
2 tablespoons sugar (use Splenda for a sugar-free version)
1 egg, beaten (beat it before you put it in the mug)
3 tablespoons milk (skim for less calories, but any milk you have will do)
3 tablespoons butter/margerine/olive oil spread (or vegetable oil)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla ( I didn’t measure this, I just used the lid of the small bottle to measure the vanilla out)

1 large mug
microwave

It honestly couldn’t be easier. Put all the dry ingredients in the mug and mix together, then stir in the egg, milk, butter, and vanilla. That cute little whisk for hot chocolate I picked up at a jumble sale was perfect for mixing this. Obviously, if you don’t have one just use a small spoon. Make sure you mix it well, or you’ll get a corner full of flour. Microwave on HIGH for 3-5 minutes, depending on how high your microwave’s wattage is. Ours is a 750, so it took about 4 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when you can smell the chocolate and the top of the cake springs back when you gently press it. You can tip it out onto a plate or just eat it straight from the mug. It’s about the size of one and a half cupcakes or two fairy cakes.

My photo shows the cake partially eaten because I forgot to take a photo when it came out, but the cake had risen up above the top of the mug, which is why I recommend using a large mug! Also make sure your mug doesn’t have any metallic paint on it, or it will throw sparks.

To make it extra chocolatey, add a handful of chopped dairy milk or other form of chocolate (if you use bitter chocolate, you will want to add extra sugar)

Want some frosting for that mini cake? Mix together 4 tablespoons icing sugar (10x/powdered sugar) with 1/2 tablespoon water. Add more water if your icing is too stiff, more sugar if it’s too thin.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

My husband has just left for work, and the phone rings at 17:17. I picked it up, and there was silence on the other end. I stayed on, thinking it might be Tim calling from his mobile at a traffic light or something and I repeat hello a few more times. A female Indian voice (from India, not Indian as in Native American) gets on the line and says to me “Is this [insert our street address?]”. No hello, no asking if I was me or to speak with Tim…just is this [address]. I responded with “I’m not going to verify anything until you tell me where you are calling from”. I got rattled back some random organization name and then “we’re calling on behalf of a grant for this property”.

Me: no, I’m sorry, we don’t have any pending grants for our property (again, not giving name or address)
Woman: I am calling to tell you about them
Me: No, we’re not interested. (woman starts talking over me) Please take us off your calling list. (Woman still talking over me) Thank you.
Woman: [pause for breath]
Me: Please take us off your list. (woman starts talking over me again) Thank you.
Woman: [pause for breath]
Me: Excuse me, we are not interested. (I suppose at this point I should have just hung up, but generally, if the other person hears you say “please take us off your list” they respond back with “Yes I will do that. Sorry” and I was waiting for confirmation that she heard me)
Woman: How about your husband, I bet he is interested
Me: No one in this house is interested. Please remove us from your list.
Woman: No, I will not remove you. We will keep on calling you. I will give your number to everyone I know and then everyone will call you [woman slams phone down].

Cue MASSIVE panic attack.

I tried 1471*, and I get the response that the number wasn’t recorded or something like that. So I called BT. Spoke with a lovely man named Roger. Roger explained that he couldn’t trace the call because the message I received indicates that the phone call originated from overseas. I told him about the phone call, but there was nothing he could do, he said. I asked him if I should file a police report, and he said I could if I wanted to, but without the phone number there isn’t much that could be done.

I’m really quite shaken up right now over it. I mean, I get that it was just a telemarketer (though to get around the fact that we have our number registered, the operator will always tell you that it is a survey and they do not have to comply with the telemarketing list**), but you don’t threaten people like that!

And, it’s 17:44. The phone just rang. I jumped out of my skin and was honestly afraid to answer it (it was a friend of mine).

*Edit* 18:14 – Spoke with Tim. He doesn’t think I need to worry about it and thinks that if anyone calls us I should just slam the phone down. When I pointed out to him that they had our phone number and address – he pointed out that anyone with a local phone book could get the same. I’m feeling much better now and we’ve decided that if someone from India wants to waste their money calling the UK to get their jollies off — let ’em. If the call had been more local, then I’d have grounds to file a police report and things, but as it’s coming from India, I don’t think we’re in any danger of people showing up on our doorstep.

*If you have a BT Landline in the UK, 1471 will repeat back to you the last number that called. I think it’s similar to *69 in the US (or is it *66? I never used it, so I don’t know!)
**I know this is true in the US, as I used to work at a company that did satisfaction surveys fur nursing facilities and we were allowed to call family members who were listed on the Do Not Call list because we were conducting a survey. I have no idea if this is true in the UK, but it’s what both Tim and I have been told when people like this call us.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

[adapted from a recipe in Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food]

While I’ve been typing this, I swear I posted this before….but I can’t find it on my blog!

You will need:

75g pasta per person
1 package bacon lardons or one pack of bacon
1 bunch fresh mint
50g frozen peas per person
300g cream fraiche (US: Sour Cream)
50g parmesean cheese (or other grated cheese)
50g bread crumbs

Wok or large frying pan

-cook pasta according to directions on pack.
-add a little oil to the wok and fry the bacon lardons. If using regular bacon, cut the bacon into smaller pieces first.
-reduce temperature and add frozen peas, cooking for about 5 minutes
-chop the fresh mint and add to wok
-add container of cream fraiche and stir. If you need more liquid, add some milk. turn up the heat and cook until bubbling
-drain pasta and add to wok, stirring pasta to coat
-sprinkle cheese and bread crumbs over top and stir until pasta, mint, and peas are coated.

This would make enough to serve 4 people as a main dish, more as a side. The beauty of this recipe is that you can add more bacon if you want, different vegetables, different kinds of pasta, and even different cheeses. I’ve made this with penne, sausage, and cheddar cheese (it didn’t taste as good with sausage!).

This meal takes about 20 minutes to prepare, too, especially if you start the pasta before you start cooking the bacon, so it’s easy to throw together at the end of a busy day. It also tastes good cold, and makes for a really good pasta salad for picnics. To convert this to a cold salad, don’t add the parmesean or breadcrumbs until after the pasta has cooled.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

In addition to listing myself with Network Blogs, I’ve now got a page on Facebook for my blog. If you’re a facebook user, could you please go “like” my page here? You don’t have to add me as a friend (though if you want to, feel free), but I’d appreciate the “likes” on Facebook 🙂

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

The general consensus about Jamie Oliver seems to be either you are firmly in the “love Jamie” camp, or you detest him. Very rarely have I met people who are in the middle – that is, people who like most of what Jamie does, but not everything.

I probably fit some place in the middle, but close to the “love him” side.

I first “met” Jamie when I was visiting Tim in 2008. I arrived in mid-October, and was looking for something to watch on TV. I stumbled on “Jamie’s Ministry of Food” and enjoyed the episode because the food looked easy to cook. I wasn’t a completely new cook, but I hadn’t cooked a whole lot on my own – even when I had apartments and things, most of my cooking was really simple. I had never cooked anything like a whole chicken on my own before. I liked how Ministry of Food eased people into cooking.

I started watching Jamie whenever his shows were on as repeats and online on 4OD. Tim bought me the Ministry of Food cookbook for Christmas 2009, and I dove right in. I learned how to make a perfect poached egg without a fancy pan and how to create two British Roast Dinner staples – roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. One of our favourite 20-minute meals has become a pasta dish of Jamie’s with mint, peas, and bacon (I can’t believe I never blogged that recipe!).

I tend to read my cookbooks from cover to cover when I get them, but I don’t read word-for-word. I look at the pictures and titles of recipes, and then if something looks good, I’ll read the recipe. If I think it’s something I’d like to make, I stick one of those Avery tabs on it for later. I used to do one new recipe each week, but as we’ve gotten busier, I haven’t had time (or energy), but hopefully, I’ll rectify that soon.

I borrowed Jamie’s America from the library alongside Cook with Jamie, and I have both those on my wishlist now. I found a great (though time consuming) recipe for barbecue ribs in Jamie’s America (which again, I apparently never posted).

I was very disappointed with Jamie Does. I enjoyed the series, but not so much the cookbook. As a matter of fact, since I got it when it came out (on a pre-order from Waterstones), I think I cracked it once until a few weeks ago when I finally sat down and looked at it again. A lot of the recipes I probably will never try, but both the Italy and Sweden section took a hammering with tabs, and I even marked off a few recipes from his more exotic locations.

Jamie’s latest book and series is 30 Minute Meals. He has been getting a lot of press for this book/series, both good and bad. I love watching Jamie cook and I could happily sit and watch 5 or 6 of these episodes in a row. He teaches a lot of tricks, and he isn’t afraid to purchase a few pre-packaged goods in the name of saving time. The bad press comes from his meals taking people longer than 30 minutes to cook. One article complained about the list in the front of the cookbook listing all the items you “need” to create the recipes in the book and accused Jamie of being flippant about spending £300 on the items.

The thing you have to remember, is that if you don’t have all the proper tools Jamie recommends, it will take longer. Watch the show. Jamie uses a food processor in nearly every meal – the slicer attachment to easily slice handfuls of mushrooms, a mixing attachment to whip up a sauce, a paddle attachment for batters. I don’t own a food processor (though it’s on my wish list to buy used), so when I create a 30-minute meal, I automatically know it will take me longer than 30 minutes if the recipe tells you to use a food processor.

To me, £300 is a decent amount of money to spend on outfitting your kitchen. I don’t think I will ever spend £300 all in one go (unless it’s on a major appliance), but I’m sure if you add up all the little things I’ve purchased for my kitchen, the total would be shocking. Especially if you add in the value of items I’ve received as gifts, like the bread machine or George Foreman grill we got for a wedding gift. I also don’t always buy new, and I ask for things on gift-giving occasions. I received both a Le crucet ceramic casserole and a dutch oven for Christmas this year. The ceramic casserole was purchased at TK Maxx of all places (US: TJ Maxx) for £20 (retails at £60), and the dutch oven was purchased months before Christmas at a stock clearance sale at a local cookery shop. I recently picked up a set of four ramekins at a charity shop in Newark for £2 (when typically you have to pay £10+ just for two). I check charity shops, jumble sales, table top sales, car boot sales (US: flea markets), and freecycle regularly for items I want. I seriously regret not picking up a food processor at one of our recent village jumble sales. They were selling them for less than £5, and I haven’t seen any at the jumble sales since!

Before you even start your 30-minute meal, Jamie expects you to have all your tools out, all the ingredients together, have your oven pre-heated, your pots and pans pre-heated, and a freshly boiled kettle of water ready to go. Depending on your kitchen, getting things together and pre-heating can take 20 minutes. IMHO, this does not mean the 30-minute meal has now taken 50 minutes though, as those things are prep work, not recipe work.

You also might run into other problems. For example, if I have my oven on, I can only use one burner of the two-burner hob. Some of Jamie’s meals require you to have a (standard) 4-burner hob with all four going plus the oven on. I know this meal will take me longer than a half hour simply for that reason. Because of the way the burners are set, I can’t do anything that involves putting a roasting tray over two burners. This isn’t a fault of Jamie’s, but rather a fault of my own kitchen.

I also don’t think people are reading the recipe’s before they start a meal. I’ve read several complaints that the recipes are “confusing”. This is probably because it doesn’t lay out each component of the meal in one straight recipe, it lays everything out according to the timeline. Each 30-minute meal creates a main, a side, and a pudding (US: dessert). Your first task might be to start to cook your meat, but the second task might be to start working on making a base for a tart – it all depends on where each task fits in within the timeline of 30 minutes. I can see where some of this might get confusing for people, but again, I point to reading the recipe first. Each recipe is separated into sections, so you know which part of the meal you are working on at any given time, and if you want to isolate part of the meal (like I tend to do), you can pull out those specific instructions easily.

I do have to admit, when I first had a read through of the book, my initial thoughts were that this book was just as bad as Jamie Does and I was beginning to worry that I was falling out with Jamie. But then I started to watch the series on Channel 4, and I decided I wanted to try making some of the meals, or at least parts of the meals. Out came the plastic tabs, and I think I now have at least 20 tabs in 30-minute meals, though I do admit most aren’t for the full meal. On the show, Jamie made roast beef with potatoes and Yorkshire pudding (link to YouTube). I know, it sounds incredible, but he really did do it in the 30 minutes. Now, I’m not a beef person, but Tim and I both love Yorkshire puddings. What I never liked about making them from the original recipe was the part where you had to let the mix stand for 30 minutes, pre-heat the tin, and then pre-heat the oil in the tin. It took ages to make them, and sometimes I’d have 20 minutes left for my roast before I would remember I had wanted to make them. We had many a meal that was Yorkshire-less, or even served with Aunt Bessie’s pre-made yorkies we purchased at the Spar shop, but not any more. I just use Jamie’s recipe, where he even simplified measuring by telling you to use a regular coffee mug for the measurements. Through trial-and-error, I learned that I need to use a largeish mug to be able to fill my tin, since mine is obviously larger than the one Jamie uses, but it now only takes 20 minutes total between mixing and baking, meaning that if I’ve forgotten them, it’s fairly easy to add them in!

Okay….so I guess after this post you can firmly plant me in the “love Jamie” category. Heck, I even purchased some of his branded spice grinders from Fiddes Payne (for cheaper than the shops wanted, though). But I won’t purchase his expensive line of cookery, because I think there are plenty of good quality items at far less prices, even if I do like the looks of some of the items he has branded!

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users can comment directly on Facebook.]

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

It’s not yet been a week since my surgery, but the nurse I see at the GP practice is amazed at how well it’s healing up. There’s barely any packing in it at all today, and she thinks that by the end of the week I’ll be able to just change the dressing on my own.

There is no sign of any infection either.

From the amount of packing pulled out last Thursday, and the results of my ultrasound, I know the infection ran really deep, so it’s quite a relief to have it all out. The fact that I’m healing super fast just goes to show how much better it was to finally cut out the infection instead of keep on shoving various antibiotics down my throat. I don’t blame the GP at all – I know surgery is always the last option, but when I had been dealing with this problem since December 2009….seems to me like surgery should have been obvious to the GP. But anyway. It’s happened and it’s gone, so that’s all that matters.

Since December 2009, when I first saw a doctor about this problem, here’s the breakdown of meds:

10 weeks of various antibiotics, each one getting stronger than the previous one
20 weeks on a combination antibiotic/steroid cream (used it every other week though, so I suppose only 10 weeks)
9 Months + on Zineryt (5 months to get rid of initial infections, currently using it to keep infections at bay)

I have an open office document about to spill onto it’s fifth page documenting everything related to the armpit infections, including every single visit to the nurse or GP. Since December 2009 I have had 16 GP appointments because of this problem and 30 nurse appointments (and counting). 4 visits to the After Hours GP, and one visit to A&E. It took the visit to A&E to get the problem sorted out once and for all (at least, we hope!).

If I get another infection in the other armpit, I think I’m going to just ask them for surgery right away. A week or two of recovering from surgery is so much better than constantly being on antibiotics and creams and having ugly colourful goo coming out of my armpits — I ruined MANY shirts in the past year and a half thanks to this mess!

Also, for those of you in the UK – don’t forget about prescription pre-payment. I just filled out the forms and paid for three months for £29 and with everything I had to pick up today I nearly broke even. (there’s also a yearly option for £104) It’s a good option if you have to pay for prescriptions and know you will be put on several at once.

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First, I should explain – The NHS is not free. We do not pay for GP visits, specialist visits, or hospital stays out of pocket, but we do pay for prescriptions (at least in England), eye exams, dental exams, and a few other things. Even with few out of pocket expenses, it still does not make healthcare in the UK free.

The NHS is funding through taxation, which is paid by most residents automatically through their employer via paycheck deductions (similar to SS contributions in the US). You need to be an “ordinary resident”* of the UK in order to access the NHS for “free”. Visitors are limited to not being charged for a visit to A&E (but you will get charged if you have to be admitted), treatment for communicable diseases, and family planning.

I was recently in hospital for three days (two nights) following a visit to A&E. Technically, I was admitted and discharged while I was sitting in A&E since I was finally sent home to sleep and come back. The following day, I reported to the EAU (Emergency Assessment Unit), which is a branch of A&E. I do not know if the five hours we spent in the EAU would count as an A&E visit or as part of my hospital admittance. I also had the following:

-IV drip of paracetamol (3)
-ultrasound
-blood tests, urine tests, MRSA test
-saline drip (3)
-“meal in a bag” drip (2)
-anaesthesia
-oxygen
-anti-nausea medicine
-paracetamol (16 doses of 2 pills)
-dihydrocodine (1 dose)
-“meals” – cups of tea, sandwiches, biscuits. (no hot meals)
-sponge bag kit (shampoo, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb)
-surgery/abscess drainage (with dressing after)

To my knowledge, I saw 7 doctors, 3 junior doctors, 2 ward sisters, 1 nurse constantly (i was assigned to her), and about 12 other nurses sporadically, including the ones at my surgery.

And the only thing we had to pay out of pocket for was £10 for two days of use of the telly/phone/internet.

It’s absolutely shocking that once I started to google around for the “average cost of US hospital stay” I found astonishing figures….

-$85 for an IV
-$5 per pill of pain relief (Tylenol in the US, but is the equivalent to paracetamol)
-$150 just for the use of a bed
-$45 for a “wash bag”

And one site suggests that I might have been charged $16,000 for my three-day stay, based on their figures they posted for the average cost of a five-day stay. Of course, I would assume that if I was in the US, I would have had insurance to cover some of that, but I also know US insurance companies are shady and won’t agree to pay for certain things and will just make up the rules as they go along, so I can’t even begin to estimate what out of that $16k we might have had to pay.

Would I have had the surgery if we were living in the US and I didn’t have insurance? Probably not. I can still remember my ER bill from when I broke my foot in Michigan (and had no insurance). I was only in the ER for about 30 minutes because it was empty and had 2 x-rays done and I received a bill for $1000. I have relatives who with insurance received bills for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know some people who would have just taken a pin or knife to the abscess and attempted to drain it themselves because of a lack of insurance…or even if they had insurance because insurance doesn’t cover everything.

I’d have to look at one of Tim’s paystubs to find out how much we contribute in taxes, and then I’d have to try to figure out how much of that goes to the NHS, so I won’t bother. But people who hate the idea of socialized medicine and think the US shouldn’t do it need to take a step back and look at the solid facts – a socialized healthcare system means that anyone who needs care will receive it when they need it. Yes, I was stuck waiting in a hospital for three days for my surgery because emergencies came in that took priority, but if this had been a life-threatening emergency, I’d have been at the top of the queue.

Websites I looked at while writing this post:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Service_%28England%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_assessment_unit
http://www.wehct.nhs.uk/index/your_care/wards/emau.htm
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/Entitlementsandcharges/OverseasVisitors/Browsable/DH_074374
http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,5782,0.htm
http://www.georgiainjurylawyerblog.com/2010/03/outrageous_hospital_charges_ex.html
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2004-04-13-rising-hospital-costs_x.htm

*“Ordinarily resident” is a common law concept interpreted by the House of Lords in 1982 as someone who is living lawfully in the United Kingdom voluntarily and for settled purposes as part of the regular order of their life for the time being, with an identifiable purpose for their residence here which has a sufficient degree of continuity to be properly described as settled. (http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/Entitlementsandcharges/OverseasVisitors/Browsable/DH_074374)

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

[X-posted to blog, facebook, and lj. Again, apologies if you see this multiple times]

There were a few things I left out in my last post (Can you blame me? Typing at 4AM! LOL)

I wanted to add –

-Moving me to the ward where I’d be with “women my own age” was a bit of a joke. I was the youngest there. The woman across from me was the same age as my mom, the woman in the bed next to me the same age as my aunt, and the fourth woman was in her mid-80s. Monday we did little talking, but on Tuesday when 2 of the ladies were discharged, Sue (the one my mom’s age) and I became chatty so it was still a good move to move me, as the ward I had been on previously was full of all mid-80s women in various stages. The first ward also was very large and this one only had 4 beds in the room, so it was fairly quiet.

-As I said, the food I was given was awful. The biggest problem was, the NHS serves the hot meal at Lunch time, and since each day I was on “Nil by mouth” for Lunch, I had to skip it. The person serving the food always put aside whatever was cold from the meal for me to have when I was allowed to eat, but somehow the night nurse couldn’t find it so I was given those crap sandwiches. I can’t properly judge on the quality of the food, since I didn’t really eat NHS meals.

-The nursing staff….lovely. The daytime ward sister and Vicky were both amazing, as was the other nurse we had on Tuesday (Trina or something like that?). The night time ward sister also was amazing, but there was one night nurse who wasn’t very friendly OR encouraging. On Tuesday night when we were crossing our fingers that I’d still go, her only words to me were “you might not. There could be an emergency”, when all the other nurses were crossing their fingers along with me and telling me “I’m sure you’ll go”. I mean, way to be supportive of your patients! Not to mention, she kicked Tim out the one night before I knew if I was having surgery or not….something I found out later she wasn’t allowed to do as he is my spouse! Random visitors have to stick to visiting hours, but spouses are given all-access. Very annoying. But I loved Vicky. She really pulled out all the stops on me and really was hounding the surgery department to get me in or for them to make a decision. I plan on sending a letter of thanks to her and the hospital as soon as I can hold a pen again!

-Being able to be mobile, even while attached to an IV was great. I never once had to ask for a bedpan/commode, as I was able to always walk to the loo. On Wednesday, I was even allowed to take a shower to wash my hair (before being re-hooked to the IV). We dubbed my pole “Fred”. I haven’t been in a US hospital in years, but the last time I was in one (1998), the nurse forced me to use a bedpan even though I could walk.

-Wearing my own clothing was even better. The last time I was in a hospital in the US for a surgery (1998), I had to immediately change out of my clothing and put on a hospital gown. Here, I only had to wear the gown for the duration of my surgery. I was allowed to wear pajamas (or whatever I wanted, really) the entire time I was waiting, and about an hour after the surgery I was told I could change back out of the gown to be more comfortable. Nice. I also was able to keep my knickers (US: panties) on the entire time, including under my gown. When I was in hospital in the US, I was told I had to remove everything under the gown.

-I really can’t compare services received in the US vs. the UK. I never spent a night in a US hospital other than when I was born, and was a day patient 3 times (4 if you count the spinal tap). The only thing I CAN say is that I don’t think we’d have been able to afford a three-day stay in hospital if we lived in the US.

-As far as US Emergency Room vs UK Accidents & Emergencies go, I think the care was about the same. In the US, you’d have to wait if someone “worse” than you showed up just like you do in the UK. I was seen by triage about 45 minutes after arriving, and was called back to see a doctor about an hour after that. The long wait was only for a bed. In the US, I think the wait between triage and seeing a doctor might have been longer, but again, it always depends on the reason you are there. If you walk in and you are bleeding with something sticking out of you, I expect you’d get immediate care in both the UK and the US.

As far as an update on me goes –

I have a constant pain. The painkillers make it bearable, but it’s still always a dull pain. I found out yesterday from the nurse that I need to see a nurse every single day to have the dressing changed because they need to pack the incision. This really messes with our plans as it includes having the visiting nurses come see me over the weekend to change it on both days, and the visiting nurses cannot guarantee what time of day they will be able to come. During the week, I can easily get to my appointments if Tim has to work, as the practice is only a mile down the road. It’s walkable, or if I don’t want to walk, the bus costs 50p and goes from 3 houses down from me with a stop right opposite the practice.

Yesterday, I had extreme nausea after my nurse appointment. I will make mention of it to the nurse today, as I’m not sure if it was from the pain of being poked, finally coming down from the anaesthetic, or something else. I also might ask for a stronger pain reliever, but I DO NOT want morphine, which is what they almost gave me at the hospital. Thanks, but I don’t fancy being loopy for the next three weeks.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users can comment directly on Facebook.]

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.