Clarification

[smokingboot]

5 sessions of radiotherapy on the breast, 15 each on the lymphs under the arm and by the neck.

Apparently not. What they in fact intend to do is give me 15 treatments covering all of the above, a longer treatment at a higher dosage. When I asked about it, the response I get was that 'there has been a misunderstanding.' I know what I heard, my husband was there in case I was too freaked out to get it right and he heard the same thing. If the treatment has changed or if the above was a recommendation from the surgeon for the radiologists to act on or ignore as they chose, OK. But no such thing was suggested.

'Dr Y will have run through this with you,' they said. No she didn't. I had a CT scan, paperwork to sign and a list of side effects which she went through. Some are potentially distressing, some downright dangerous so I understand why she focused on these, but she did not detail dosages/length of treatment, so I assumed I was getting what the surgeon discussed with me. I found myself getting angry at being told otherwise by a colleague of hers who seemed baffled at facing anyone other than a stoic heifer of a patient, obedient and unquestioning.

I contacted my surgeon's secretary to get clarification. She's not in til this morning.

Meanwhile, the Local Development Plan has come for our perusal. This outlines the Council's planning/development aims for the next ten years.

Last year, we spent loads of time and energy on creating the Local Place Plan, which is the tool by which the community can tell the Council what it wants. The government says that the Local Development Plan must show that it has referred back to the people's wishes as detailed in the Local Place Plan.

The trouble is that what the Council and possibly even the Government seems to want runs counter to what the folk actually want. The folk want infrastructural services. They want pothole free roads, police on the streets, spaces at schools, and enough doctors and dentists. The Council wants money and the quickest way to get money is to sell land to private developers. More houses mean more people, which means less access to those same schools and dentists and doctors. That's before we even start considering how people feel about the destruction of green spaces etc.

So now is our time for feedback. This thing has just turned up and the deadline is at the end of February. They wanted communities to create these Local Place Plans, but give said communities minimal time to review and consult again on how/if such plans have been assimilated. The whispering devil in my head says it's because they don't want to hear, that this stuff is all a sop to seem rather than be democratic, and they no more really consider listening to citizens than they consider flying to the moon. But maybe this is just because I am in a foul temper today. Everything seems too much.