I'm very glad you don't have bad cancer because I really enjoy your articles which I've only recently discovered. You'll probably be all right which means I can selfishly continue enjoying your work.

My husband had something wrong with him in 2000 which the NHS pursued at a glacial speed. He kept getting different infections, including a kidney infection which led to a fascinating hallucination at my father's funeral. He couldn't get fit, though he was (finally) going to a gym. At last, after months of messing around he got pneumonia, was admitted (much against his will) and x-rayed (no MRI scans).

He had something the size and shape of a cauliflower in his lung.

After that the NHS got cracking and managed to get their act together. He had an operation, radiotherapy, chemo, the works, but he died in 2002 at the age of 44. At least it didn't cost us anything.

Now that was 23 years ago and the NHS has got a lot worse since. What I see in your description of Kaiser's treatment and my twenty-year-old memories is that modern medicine is good at the acute - you're bleeding, you've got a broken leg etc. It can normally sort those things out. The chronic stuff is variable but modern medicine is extremely expensive and complex. Over this side of the pond, the NHS just doesn't want to spend the money so they'll procrastinate and mess around until you get better by yourself, they diagnose you or you die. In the USA of course, they want you to die slowly so they can leach all your money.

Moral of the story: don't get sick. If you insist on getting sick, be extremely proactive - as you were, thank goodness.