What's In A Word?

We have been around to see our friends today, Steak and Chips (again, obviously not their real names), who have a seven week old daughter (Gravy-you know the drill by now...lol...). They are both very supportive of us on our journey and are always willing to chat to us about every point we pass. However, Boney has an incredibly hard time dealing with the fact that they fell relatively easily and finds it very difficult to open up and speak freely around them. Today she feels, "Will I ever have our own little bundle of joy to love and hold?"

In the car on our way home, we got to chatting with each other about how the NHS word their approach to all of this matter. You'd have thought that these people would have maybe consulted a Thesaurus or similar, looking for gentler words for how they inform patients with the intention of their upcoming tests and procedures (we hate that one word alone). As I'm sure you all aware, when you see that brown envelope on your door mat, with NHS on the corner, you dread opening as you know that the way it's going to be worded is something akin to being abducted by a UFO and having strange alien experiments performed upon your person.

We discussed this at length (well a two hour drive will do that to you) and came up with an alternative dictionary for the NHS to use:
Process = Journey
IVF, AID, etc = Assisted Conception (AC)
HSG = Just Like A Smear Test
Trans-vaginal Scan = Ultra Sound

We felt there was no need for the NHS to word letters that are obviously daunting and sent to couples going through a stressful time with their journey, who may well feel intimidated and inadequate at this particular time. If you received a letter better worded and more compassionate in it's content, I know that I would feel less stressed before attending the appointment before the time actually came. This isn't a rant against medical professionals, as they are always caring and supportive when you're with them, throughout the whole of your time with them, as they always clearly explain the tests that are being made at the time and put your mind as much at rest as they can. It's just the administrators who send the letters, who don't put any consideration into the amount of stress that certain words can produce within certain people.

If the NHS took into consideration then maybe, some people might not look at this type of journey as being so stigmatised.

On a different direction, we do sort of wish that we directly knew another couple who have been along this Journey that we are now travelling ourselves. However, we don't know where the next steps will take us and we don't know how far along we need to go. Is it going to be one of those journeys that is only one stop or are we going all the way? Tonight, at this time, we don't really know. Only time will tell.

Take care out there and thanks for reading...