Different Slants

After a pleasant sail across the English Channel from Calais, Mary and I arrived in Great Britain aboard our sailboat ‘Orca’ the 25th of August.  Our first impression, compared to the continent, was that it appeared just a bit run down.  However, the people were quite nice and immigrations was willing to let us stay for 6 months so, we decided to winter our boat here before going back across to France in the spring to begin a greater adventure.

White Cliffs of Dover

Although the weather was already cool, it was still early in the sailing season so we decide to explore the East Coast of England.  Because of the tides, currents, and sand banks, this is one of the more challenging parts of the world for cruising.  The tidal ranges here can exceed 20 feet and tidal currents 4 knots.  You can take a sailboat across a bank at high tide and play cricket there 5 hours later.

We hopped along up the coast to Ramsgate then to Gillingham on the Medway.  We sailed up the Thames to London and spent 5 days there exploring that great city.

London Financial District

My problem began on the way to Burnham-on-Crouch, a small town in Essex.  It takes two tides to get from London to Burnham.  We made great time going down the Thames with a fair wind on an ebbing spring tide.  We got all the way to Southend-on-Sea, where the Thames becomes the Thames Estuary before we began running out of tide and daylight.  We anchored near Southend Pier to have dinner and get some sleep before catching the next ebb at 4am.

When I got up and began preparing the boat for the next leg of the journey, I noticed a pain in my lower back when I moved certain ways.  It had occurred before and had always gone away after being ignored for a couple of days so, I just ignored it.  We had a lovely sail along the north edge of the estuary, around Foulness Sand, and into the River Crouch.  We caught the flood tide up the River Crouch and tied up in Burnham Yacht Harbour before lunch time.  The rest of the day, Thursday, was spent relaxing and exploring the town.

Burnham Yacht Harbour

Friday, my back had gotten a little worse but I carried on as usual.  This involved a lot of walking.  Mary and I often walk more than 10 miles on any given day.

Saturday there was a rally of the Westerly Owners Association.  It began with a race, continued with a pig roast hosted by the marina, a tapas dinner for the Westerly owners and the town’s annual “Illuminated Parade” in the evening.  My back was way too bad by now to consider racing.  Besides being sore, I was having spasms and shooting pains when I moved the wrong way.  Still, I sat through the lunch, walked into town for the tapas, and stood out in the cold to watch the parade.

Sunday was still worse.  I could still move but only very slowly.  I managed to go ashore to take a shower and that is where things started to go very wrong.  I took a bottle of shampoo to wash my hair.  There was no shelf in the shower stall so I set the bottle on the floor.  Now the problem was how to pick it up again.  I bent my knees and cautiously reached for the bottle.  I was then hit by a spasm that cramped every muscle in my back and my right leg.  There was nothing in the shower to grab hold of.  I just had to force myself to straighten up.  The pain was overwhelming.  Somehow, I managed to get out of the shower, dress and creep back to the boat.  I stayed there the rest of the day.

Mary bought some Ibuprofen but it did little good.  I continued having spasms in my back throughout the night.  By Monday morning I knew something serious had to be done.  I had seen a surgery (clinic) in town.  Mary made an appointment for me for later that day.  The problem was, how to get me there.

Paul, a worker at the boatyard was recruited to help Mary get me off the boat and up to the parking lot where a taxi could pick me up.  It took about 20 minutes for me to make the 200 yard trip with 2 people holding me up.  My entire right leg was cramping up during the nearly continuous back spasms.

When the taxi arrived, we realized I could not get in it.  The driver’s concern was that if I did get in, I wouldn’t be able to get out again.  It was clearly time to call an ambulance.

Ambulances in Britain are strategically positioned, using computer models, to be close to where they might be needed.  One arrived in 5 or 10 minutes.  After a brief conversation, the driver said “I have just the thing for you”.  He pulled out a cylinder of Nitrous Oxide, know to most people as laughing gas.  It didn’t make me want to laugh but, after breathing it for 5 minutes I was able to stand up and walk to the ambulance.  The surgery was less than a mile away and they took me there then helped me into the doctor’s office.

So how much does an ambulance ride cost in the UK?  Nothing.  We offered to pay cash, we offered our insurance information, but no one was interested.

The doctor saw me right away (I did have an appointment).  The ambulance guys had to give me the Nitrous again so I could sit down.  After a very brief examination, the doctor said he knew what the problem was, wrote a prescription for three drugs and called May to help me out of the office.

I sat in the waiting room while Mary had the prescriptions filled just a few feet away.

How much does it cost to see a doctor and buy medication in the UK?  The doctor did not charge anything.  The three meds came to less than $20.

I took the meds in the waiting room and understood I now had another problem – how do I get home to the boat?  The ambulance had left.  They are a one-way service.  They pick people up, they do not take them back.  I would have never made it down the dock and onto the boat anyway.  Fortunately, there was a hotel across the street from the clinic called “The Railway Hotel”.  It took 15 minutes with Mary’s help for me to get there.  The closest room they had was on the second floor.  There was no elevator but the banisters were strong.

I got to the room, maneuvered on to the bed and tried to relax, hoping the pain killers would kick in soon.  Mary decided it looked like we would be there a while and she should go retrieve some clothes and toiletries from the boat.  About 15 minutes after she left, I tried to get up and go to the bathroom.  I made it to a half sitting position and was hit by a spasm so severe I screamed.  I may have even passed out.  The muscles in my right leg contracted so hard I suspect they or the ligaments they are attached to were torn.

The next day, Tuesday, was a slight improvement.  The spasms were less frequent and less severe.  The pain in my leg was worse.

By Wednesday, the spasms were gone.  However, my leg still hurt so much that I could not get out of bed or sleep.  Mary called the doctor I had seen to see if he could prescribe a stronger pain killer.  She was told I would have to come in to the clinic and be seen first.  This seemed irrational.  If I could walk to the clinic, I wouldn’t need a stronger pain killer.  I was desperate.  I asked Mary to call an ambulance and just take me to a hospital.

Mary called an emergency number and explained the situation.  The man on the other end asked to speak with me and she passed the phone.  He was very polite and ask a lot of medically relevant questions.  Finally he said, “There are two things I can do.  I can send an ambulance to take you to an emergency room where you will be ignored for a long time, or, I can send a doctor to you”.  Send a doctor?  That is all I wanted to start with.  It was arranged.

About two hours later, a man came to the hotel to see me.  He was polite and professional.  He looked at the medicines I was already taking and explained what they were and why I shouldn’t take one of them.  He prescribed two more that he said were better.  He told me what I should and shouldn’t do during my recover.  He asked where I was from and I told him California.  Then I asked where he was from and he said Nigeria. I asked him how much I owed him for the house call and he said “Nothing”.  Then we had the obligatory discussion of national health care policy.

Mary went across the street to a pharmacy to fill the prescriptions.  When she asked the cost she was originally told something that came to about $15.  Drugs are cheap in the UK.  Then the pharmacist spotted my birth date in the paperwork.  She turned to Mary and said, “Oh, the patient is over 60.  Medicines are free for seniors here”.  Mary explained we were not citizens or permanent residents but she insisted that there was no charge.

The new medications eased the pain within hours.  I began walking a few steps in the room.  The next day, Thursday, I was able to use the toilet and take a bath.

On Friday I was able to go downstairs for breakfast and later take a short walk outside.  On Saturday, we checked out of the Railway Hotel and returned to the boat.

The Railway Hotel in Burnham

By Tuesday I felt strong enough to continue our sailing trip up the coast.  We are now in Ipswich where we will winter the boat.

So having had some first hand contact with British national health care or “socialized medicine” as opponents in the US like to label it, what do I think?  I think its awesome!  Although I hear opponents in the US say the Brits all hate it, I hear the opposite from them.  The sad thing is, everyone here thinks that because of Obama, we now have the same system in America.  I wish.