Since I have to travel a good 2 1/2 - 3 hours to the regional hospital in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, North East England for my urology and nephrology appointments, the two departments try to work it so they are close to each other. The only problem being that my urologist has his clinic on a Wednesday, and the nephrologist on a Thursday (he is a professor at Newcastle University usually), so my appointments are usually one day after the other. It is best that way as it is normally cheaper to get a hotel overnight than pay the fuel costs to travel back and forward.
Anyhoo, my urologist, Mr Thomas, is happy with how I am doing and will see me again in 6 months. In the meantime, I will be getting a scan to see what things are doing in 3 months so that he can arrange surgery to remove any stones that are causing any problems towards the end of the year.
As I was sitting in nephrology waiting to go in to see Dr Sayer, I saw a line of what looked like student Doctors walk through and vanish into a room. When Dr Sayer called for me, he asked if it was OK if they sat in with us as since I had a rare disease, it would be good experience for them.
Now I have no problem with students sitting in or doing treatment as I feel I am giving back a little of what the doctors and nurses over the tears have given me.
Dr Sayer explained briefly to them what was wrong and asked me to tell them how many operations I have had for cystinuria over the years (46 in case you wondered) and then I shocked them by telling them how I try to drink at least 5-6 litres of water daily - adding that after speaking via facebook to other cystinurics, it is definitely the best preventative measure we can take.
They were obviously quite new as they didn't really know what to ask when they were given free reign to ask me questions. But they asked a couple that is usual stock for a doctor to ask, so they did OK. But it was just funny to see the shock on their face when I told them how much water I drink.
Right - onto the hotel we stayed in on Wednesday night.
Usually, when I have my appointments, my wife Gemma and myself stay at the Premier Inn, as the rooms are all the same quality and we know we always get a good service from them.
BUT, this time we didn't stay with them after being told about an offer with another hotel, so we went for it. It was only £1 more to stay there, and even though it was slightly further away, it was more than worth it!
The hotel? Doubletree by Hilton!!! £1 more, that's it.
On arrival, we were supposed to be greeted with a warm double choc chip cookie, but they were still in the oven. No problem, it's only a cookie.
We got to our room and after sorting our case, I put the kettle on. After making them, I went to unplug it and the socket decided to stay attached to the plug and it came out the wall! So I called reception and informed them. While on the phone, I asked if the cookies were ready as they would go perfectly with our cuppas. They said they were and sent them up with the maintenance guy. When he got to the room, he handed over the cookies and looked at the socket. Only he realised he had the wrong screwdriver and said he would be back shortly. BUT, luckily I happened to have the correct one in my bag (it's a handy size to carry). So it got sorted.
A little later, Gemma went to use the walk in shower. A couple of minutes after, I heard a scream. I ran in to find a shocked Gemma standing under the ceiling shower head. She was using the removable head and the water controls had 1 and 2 on it. She thought she was switching the power onto a more powerful setting, but never realised there was another head above her.
I walked off giggling.
I decided to make use of the business suite in the hotel as I had forgotten to print off some forms for the cystinuria registry. Only the computers wouldn't open PDF files. So off to reception to ask if they had a solution. The receptionist kindly let me use the office computer as they knew that had a PDF reader. And also offered me another cookie! I had to (very reluctantly) say no as I am trying to trim down. So documents in hand, I asked if they could do a second key-card for the room as you need to place the card in a reader inside the room to switch the power on (a very clever yet simple solution to save electricity). The only way to do this was to cancel the current in-use card and program 2 new ones. Not a problem as long as we remembered not to use the original one. Plus it meant I wouldn't need to bother Gemma in case she was still in the shower.
A while later we went downstairs for our dinner reservation to the hotel's Italian restaurant.
We were met by a friendly member of staff called Paul who let us pick wherever we wanted to sit. Awesome.
For our starters, I asked for a prosciutto, fig and mozzarella rocket salad, Gemma
Onto our main course. I ordered meatballs with a spicy tomato sauce and penne pasta, and Gemma had the king prawn chili and courgette pasta. It was pretty special.
We decided to skip dessert as we were feeling quite stuffed by this point. Until a waitress told me that the cheesecake of the day was rhubarb and custard.
WHAT? REALLY? My three favourite things all rolled into one! How could I say no.
While waiting, Paul told us that the previous evening, the cheesecake was chocolate and Malibu flavour! This sounded awesome too.
My dessert arrived and we though it odd that it would come with a chocolate sauce and coconut shavings! Then we both tasted it and found it was the chocolate and Malibu flavour. There had been a slice from the previous evening and they had sent me that instead. Gemma told Paul that the wrong flavour had been sent but it was not a problem as it was superb. We just didn't want others to be getting the wrong flavour and to kick off about it.
Next thing I knew, I was being given a slice of the rhubarb and custard cheesecake! Courtesy of the chef. And also could we tell them which was better as they were having a competition to see who made the best one!
There was no way I could make a decision on which was better, they were both awesome.
So the meal ended with me having 1 and a half starters, a main course and 2 generously sized slices of cheesecake on top of the bottle of wince between us and I also had a pint of Amstel. Diet was well out of the window now and we were both stuffed!
I know it sounds as if they messed things up constantly, but the staff and service were second to none.
I only hope they have the same special deal on their website for the next time I have double appointments at the hospital!
We will be back.
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