alexist

First of all, my mobile isn't working. I forgot to recharge it and it went down till the battery was dead. This happened once before and I had to resort to some trickery to get it to recharge. This time I haven't been able to. Grr.

Second, I went out to do some errands today. I got to the bus stop aaand... no Oyster card. Oyster fare is £1, cash fare is £2. Gah. Then I got to Whetstone, went into the post office, went to the stroller bag to get out the envelopes I needed to mail and one was missing.

I got home, I found the envelope (It had fallen on the floor in our front hall) but no sign yet of the Oyster card. There is a spare one floating about so it's not as bad as it could be (West Finchley ticket office is only open from 7:00 - 10:00 and is scheduled to close completely, so getting a new card would be a pain) but I'd just added £30 to it this weekend and I'm pretty sure I never remembered to register it online :-(

Also, Aliza's been a fussy madam today. Wouldn't sleep this morning, won't let me leave the room without going "waaah". She's just dozed off in her chair. Unfortunately it's about time for a clean nappy... *sighs*

Some NHS clinics are only doing IVF 1 or 2 days a week:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6940024.stm

Those of you on my f-list who have undergone fertility treatment will know how counterproductive that is--time is crucial. So they're paying for cycles of treatment that are less likely to result in pregnancy.

The Guardian had another example of the postocde lottery. A woman was having trouble conceiving. Despite NICE guidelines, her local PCT would only pay for treatment for women who were 36-39 years old. She was 33. (Again, a counterproductive policy as younger women get better results. One suspects that they were trying to force women to go private rather than wait.) She paid for 2 cycles of private treatment. Then she moved trusts and became eligible. They said they wouldn't treat her because she'd already had private IVF. As she said, it's means-testing by the back door. Patients who get the NHS first can pay for as many private cycles as they want, which makes it even sillier.

I don't know if the NHS should pay for infertility treatment, given the limitations on its resources, but honestly, if you're going to do it, it should be done correctly. Why spend the money on treatment that won't work?