Accepting and adapting

It’s too easy to complain, but moaning actually gets you nowhere and simply compounds your anxiety. My GP recently referred me to our local hospital for minor surgery. ‘Don’t worry’, he said, ‘it will be at least a year before you have the operation.’ But knowing it was coming, made me more aware of the problem and so I started to think creatively.

A little research took me to an NHS scheme whereby you can be treated overseas, and because NHS waiting lists are uncomfortably long, they will, if they approve both the treatment and the hospital, pay half the cost.

So early next year I’ll be having a winter holiday in an enchanting Lithuanian city, visiting museums, galleries and I’m sure coffee shops. Day two will see me under anaesthetic, followed by five nights in a hotel so that my recovery can be monitored.

Thinking about this, everybody wins. The NHS reduces its waiting list, the Lithuanian hospital generates additional income, and I benefit from affordable private treatment.

We have to stop complaining, accept that things are as they are, and adapt to find win:win solutions to life’s problems.